Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Released 2003
Stars Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, David Carradine, Sonny Chiba
Directed by Quentin Tarantino

"Kill Bill: Volume 1" shows Quentin Tarantino so effortlessly and brilliantly in command of his technique that he reminds me of a virtuoso violinist racing through "Flight of the Bumble Bee" -- or maybe an accordion prodigy setting a speed record for "Lady of Spain." I mean that as a sincere compliment. The movie is not about anything at all except the skill and humor of its making. It's kind of brilliant.

His story is a distillation of the universe of martial arts movies, elevated to a trancelike mastery of the material. Tarantino is in the Zone. His story engine is revenge. In the opening scene, Bill kills all of the other members of a bridal party, and leaves The Bride (Uma Thurman) for dead. She survives for years in a coma and is awakened by a mosquito's buzz. She reverses the paralysis in her legs by "focusing." Then she vows vengeance on the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, and as "Volume 1" concludes, she is about half-finished. She has wiped out Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) and O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), and in "Volume 2" will presumably kill Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), Budd (Michael Madsen) and of course Bill (David Carradine). If you think I have given away plot details, you think there can be doubt about whether the heroine survives the first half of a two-part action movie, and should seek help.

Summary from Roger Ebert

I think if I combined all the violence I've ever seen in movies and multiplied it by ten, it wouldn't be as violent as "Kill Bill: Volume 1." How in the world did this movie get an R rating? No child should be near this film, but there were three in the audience when I saw it. It's seriously disturbing at times, and it's not at all what I expected. I was expecting something like a Bruce Lee kung-fu flick, but this is apparently an homage to much bloodier, darker Taiwanese chop suey flicks which I'm definitely not going to seek out.

It's a very difficult movie to comment on, because we've only seen the first half. Some parts of which are incredible while others are horrifying. Two segments are so awful they're either animated or filmed in black and white. It was obvious that one fight sequence was in black and white because color would have been overwhelming. By making it black and white, the gallons of squirting blood was washed out and much easier to accept. I'm not sure how Tarantino could have filmed the animated sequence because it's so horrifically violent and disturbing. It's much easier to watch an animated 11 year-old girl kill the murderer of her parents while he sexually assaults her than it would be to watch a young actress go through those scenes. Even with the animation and b&w, the scenes are demanding and don't give us viewers much respite.

One thing that's refreshing about the violence, however, is it doesn't involve guns. There are only two gunshots in the whole bloody mess. Any idiot can shoot a gun, but it takes a lot of skill to use medieval weapons. It's also more fun to watch, but there isn't much fun in this movie. The first fight with Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) is the most fun as it contains some witty dialogue and surprises, but then it ends with a kindergartner watching her mother die. That's one of the cheeriest scenes.

I know I'm on the outside looking in this time, because I didn't get any of the references. I didn't know the perfectly selected song"Bang Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down" was a Sonny & Cher song. I don't even know who performed this version, but it sounded like Nancy Sinatra. That song, Daryl Hannah's whistling, Sonny Chiba and Uma's yellow motorcycle suit were all lost on me, so I'm guessing cheerless bloodfests must be the style of these kung-fu revenge flicks. If so, I can't imagine why anyone likes them so much. The fighting in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was exhilarating, but the fighting here is cringe-inducing. It's all a matter of style, but style is something Tarantino understands better than pretty much anyone else. This picture oozes style, and that makes it work. In addition to the black and white and anime sequences, he gives us a beautiful sequence that's done in shadow against a blue screen. Then it opens into a Japanese garden in the snow. Tarantino effortlessly combines all of these different pieces into a film that had me in awe of him as a filmmaker but horrified by what I saw. Although I want to see part 2, I don't want to see part 1 again for quite a while. --Bill Alward, October 18, 2003

PS, There was a father who brought his 10 year-old son, and they didn't leave until after the coma/attempted rape scene. I hope he marched his son directly into a Disney film, because I fear for that poor child's psyche. This movie made me feel dirtier than any movie I've ever seen, and I can't imagine how a child would deal with it. The MPAA dropped the ball again. This should have been NC-17.