Year: 2003-2004
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Written by: Quentin Tarantino, Q & U (character The Bride)
The Bride, an ex-member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad wakes up after two years of coma. She was shot by the leader of the Assassination Squad and her ex-lover Bill, after she tried to run away while pregnant with his child. She sets out to get revenge on each member of the squad, and eventually kill Bill.
I am going to treat both volumes of Kill Bill as one film, since they both are "the 4th film by Quentin Tarantino". Watching and reviewing them separately would just make them seem like different stories, and I'd end up comparing them, which would make no sense. The only problem is it's hard to put this review on IMDb considering I'd have to review them separately, and how can I take anything out of this and make it about either volume? Well, maybe I can skip IMDb this time.
The first time I watched Kill Bill I was 16. I saw volume one with friends. I had to leave the room for a while, so I missed a very big part of the fighting. Then I didn't think it mattered, now I feel differently about it. I still have trouble with most action movies, since the action scenes are very fast, slightly groggy, and extremely confusing to follow. Usually I just space out until it's over. Especially during some superhero movies. Especially during 3D superhero movies, because then the action is definitely a mess. Matthew Vaughn is one director whose action scenes are nice to watch. They are clear and fun. Quentin Tarantino does his fight scenes just as well, if not better.
In volume 1 there's the fight between the Bride and basically everyone working for O-Ren Ishii. No matter how many of them there is, it is surprisingly easy to follow who she is fighting and when and how. The only thing that you can't keep a track on how many die, but of course you see it later, when most of them lie dead. So a fight scene with so many people works well. How about a fight scene between two people? They are astonishing. The duel between the Bride and O-Ren Ishii is one of the most beautiful fight scenes I've ever seen. It comes close to fight scenes in a Chinese film Hero. The fight between Bride and Ishii may not be that thrilling. Maybe you don't clench your fists in excitement, but it is absolutely beautiful and tragic. And then there's the fight between the Bride and Elle Driver in volume 2. Now that is completley different from the duel in volume 1, but it is also easy to follow. It also shows the different fighting styles. The characters are fight differently, not just echoing each other, which would get boring after a while.
And Kill Bill has definitely made its impact on our pop culture. When someone watches Kill Bill for the first time, they'll experience that "Oh so that's where that's from" -feeling several times. And even if people haven't seen Kill Bill, they recognise the name, and can picture Uma Thurman in their heads.
One of the strengths of Kill Bill is that it has a lot of very interesting characters. Everyone is someone apart from just target for the Bride's revenge. Even if we don't get to know all of them for a while - like Vernita Green - we learn something more about them. And some of them get their whole history revealed, like O-Ren Ishii, who is one of the greatest and most intriguing characters in this movie. She too was motivated by revenge when she was nine years old. And Kill Bill especially has amazing female characters. All of them are able to kick ass, yet they are all different. Usually it's rare for action movies to have even more than woman who is fighting, let alone ones that aren't just made to be a wet dream for the audience. And usually if an action movie has female characters leading the film, it's always treated as a female action flick. It's treated like it's intended only for women, and that men should go find some macho bullshit. But think about Kill Bill. The main character is mostly called "The Bride", she was pregnant, she was scared for her baby and quit her job so the baby would be safe. That's not something a male audience would want from the main character, yet no one is saying that Kill Bill is only intended for women.
Kill Bill is, in its way, epic. Of course the story is simple. It's a revenge themed story, and those always go pretty much the same way. It's not about what the story is, it's how you make it. And Tarantino has written Kill Bill extremely well, and the non-linear narrative makes it even better. It's not just the Bride getting revenge on everyone, we also see people's back stories, we see how she was shot, even if that whole massacre wasn't shown to it's every little detail. We see The Bride training. We see so many things and they make the story what it is. It's an epic saga, and will probably be discussed about after many years from now. Sure, people have been discussing now either, but most of the public conversation I've seen seems to be about the violence in the movie.
So let's discuss the violence for a bit. Everyone knows Tarantino does violent movies - which is why it's kind of weird when people see his films and complain about how violent they were. You don't see a horror film and complain that it was too scary. That's the point of it. But I tried to watch this one interview. I say 'tried to' because it was annoying to watch. The interviewer barely let Q.T. finish a sentence, now what kind of interview is that? (It's this interview, by the way, in case you want to watch that before reading any further in this paragraph.) Now Tarantino says that innocent people die along the way and that's what revenge is. I agree with that. Of course there are petty revenges, but who would make a movie about that? Most brutal, violent revenges are something that the viewers love. What would Kill Bill be, if there wasn't revenge there? Would the Bride just wake up and be like "oh shit, that happened, well I'll just carry on with my life"? That wouldn't be a story. Revenge as a theme and as a motive is what makes Kill Bill what it is. It is the core of the whole film and it makes it brutal and emotionally raw. Now about innocent people dying... That is debatable. I don't know if any of those who died were innocent. Were they the target of the revenge? Maybe not. Not all of them needed to die, but they certainly were innocent. (If I'm missing something, let me know.)
Kill Bill is definitely brutal both emotionally and literally. It's basically what revenge is, that's how I see revenge - at least revenge on this scale. It's unforgiving and ruthless, and it definitely takes its toll on you.. It takes its toll on the Bride. At 16 I was quite suspicious about the ending. It seemed like 'ehh, okay', Now I'm older and I'd like to think I understand it better. I'm glad it ends like that, it's not just bam, violence, bam, blood, bam, bam, bam, revenge. If it would end just like "I've had my vengeance, that's that", it would feel like we didn't see enough. It doesn't feel like that in any action film, but Kill Bill isn't any action film. The ending is cathartic, you feel lighter after the end is like that. Now as a kid that may feel like a boring ending. When you grow older you're thankful for it. Maybe you like violent films, I know I do, but still the ending somehow washes away everything that was on your heart because of the violence, even if you didn't realise that. It's amazing. And it's hard to talk about the ending without spoiling everything, I hope I was vague enough.
Maybe the dialogue isn't as great as in Pulp Fiction, but why compare them? Maybe they are both from Tarantino, but that's it. They are so very different in a lot of ways. And of course dialogue isn't everything there is to great writing. Kill Bill is written extremely well.
Kill Bill is an amazing film, and I want people to talk about it years from now. I want people to remember it, and I'm pretty sure they will. Kill Bill is the best action film I've seen. It is astonishing.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
10 / 10
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