Movie Review: Kill Bill Vol. 1

Kill Bill Vol. 1

Quentin Tarantino was once the toast of Hollywood. But word of mouth soon began that he'd been ruined by his success, or that he had writer's block. What actually happened was that, after the stellar Pulp Fiction, he made one medicore movie (Jackie Brown), and then delayed another six years before the much-anticipated Kill Bill (almost a year of the delay was caused by Uma Thurman's second pregnancy). With the pressure on, Tarantino only had two ways to go: with Kill Bill, he could be "back" or he could be "over". This afternoon, I saw the first installment of Kill Bill, and the evidence is overwhelming. Tarantino is back.

From the opening frames, we know that "the Bride" (Uma Thurman) is the victim of a massacre that takes place at her wedding. Although everyone else in attendance dies at the hands of a killer group of assassins put together by the mysterious "Bill" (David Carradine), the Bride survives and makes it her mission to kill all those who tried so hard to kill her. A former member of the assassin team herself - all of whom are code named after deadly snakes - the Bride makes a list of those she intends to kill, and then sets about doing it. Among others on her list are the beautiful half Japanese O-Ren (Lucy Liu); the drop-dead gorgeous Elle (Darryl Hannah); and the lovely and deadly Vernita (Vivica A. Fox). Single-mindedly traveling from Pasadena to Okinawa, and with flashbacks from Texas to Tokyo, the Bride is bent on payback. But why was it that the Bride was tagged for assassination in the first place? And why is Bill still so insistent that she die?

Kill Bill is no ordinary movie. It is, of course, Tarantino's homage to those often silly samurai movies of yesteryear. It's also loaded with samples of Tarentino's personal and very quirky style of direction. The fact that Tarantino had more than a little to do with the story and the script is evident as well. The story is told in a series of vignettes that jump from the past to the present and back again. A whole sub-storyline is worked entirely in Japanese animé; a huge fight scene begins in technicolor gore, then snaps to graphic black and white. Sometimes there are subtitles. Sometimes there's narration. And always there's some foible, large or small, that shows Tarantino's deft touch (check out the camera angles, for example, when the Bride pays a visit to "Copperhead"). The fight scenes, by the way, are spectacular.

Kill Bill was virtually always intended as a star vehicle for Uma Thurman. Thankfully, producers waited out her pregnancy so that she could play the Bride. In my mind, Thurman has long been terrific but underrated (remember her unbelievable turn in Pulp Fiction?). In Kill Bill, she shows again her considerable abilities, and having seen her in the role it's inconceivable that anyone else could have been as remotely as effective. Darryl Hannah is surprisingly good. Who knew she could play malevolence with such glee? Vivica A. Fox and Lucy Liu are also just fine. David Carradine, though high on the billing, is hardly seen in Kill Bill Vol. 1, but I'm given to understand his role in Vol. 2 will be more significant. (As an aside, Tarantino insisted on casting Carradine in the role despite the fact the actor has done little in recent years. But with his prescience in casting Travolta in Pulp Fiction, he got his way with Carradine.)

Kill Bill was supposed to be a single movie. But as it began to encompass more and more film footage that Tarantino was disinclined to cut, it got to be too long for a single sitting offering. It was then that Miramax, a studio notorious for taking risks (including allowing Tarantino to cast the has-been John Travolta in what turned out to be an Oscar™-nominated comeback for the actor), suggested one of the biggest risks ever conceived: Don't cut a thing. Release the movie in two parts instead. Tarantino took the studio's suggestion to heart, and carved his movie into Volumes 1 and 2 (the second installment is due to be delivered in February, 2004). I loved Volume 1, but I'm giving the movie three stars because, well, it's incomplete. If Volume 2 lives up to the promise of 1, I'll upgrade it immediately to a full four stars.

UPDATE: Today, I saw Kill Bill Vol. 2. I promised when I reviewed Vol. 1 that, if the second movie lived up to the first, I'd upgrade its rating from three to four stars. It did; and I did.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Kill Bill is rated R. There is some strong language, but more importantly there's a lot of very graphic violence. Although much of the violence is so stylized that it's almost cartoonish, Kill Bill is never-the-less extremely bloody and most unsuitable for kids under the age of 16. As for the rest of you, well, if you liked the brilliant but also violent Pulp Fiction, you'll love Kill Bill.