Clare's Rating: Brings the term "shotgun wedding" to a whole new level.
Clare's Review: Summing up the plot to Kill Bill Volume 1 is simple. There's this pregnant woman, whose name we never learn - she's simply referred to as "The Bride" - who runs off to a little church in El Paso, Texas to get married. This guy named Bill and a bunch of his hired guns (ex-associates, it turns out, of The Bride) go to the church and kill everyone in it. The Bride is beaten and then shot point blank in the head, but although they leave her for dead, she does not die. Instead, after being comatosed for a number of years, she wakes up one day to find a metal plate in her head and an unending supply of vengeance in her heart.

"I can't be objective about this and I can't really be reasonable about it either. I loved Kill Bill. I saw it twice in two days."

I've tried multiple times now to sum up my feelings about Kill Bill in a nice, easy to understand opening paragraph that both describes the movie and also gives a good idea of its strengths and weaknesses. I generally tend to try to write reviews that allow the reader to decide based on the information at hand whether or not a movie would be up their ally. My problem with Kill Bill Volume1 is twofold.

1) Kill Bill has become impossible for me to describe comprehensively because honestly, it's unlike any movie I've ever seen. Which is interesting because its originality comes from the fact that it is, at its core, a big, bright, violent, homage to every movie director/writer Quentin Tarantino's fevered brain has ever obsessed endlessly over. It's what would happen if Tarantino somehow took all those Kung Fu movies, all those Samurai films, all those Blaxploitation flicks and all those Spaghetti Westerns he memorized scene for scene as a kid, smashed them all together in one big block and ran them through what I'll call the Tarantino Play Dough Fun Factory of moviemaking. The end result is utterly and completely a Quentin Tarantino movie, but it is also a heart on his sleeve declaration of love to everything he ravenously adores about films and filmmaking.

2) I can't be objective about this and I can't really be reasonable about it either. I loved Kill Bill. I saw it twice in two days. The second time only made me want to see it again a third. So there's no way for me to off-handedly give you a list of things you might like or might not like about Kill Bill and let you decide for yourself if it's something you could get into. I've found instead that while trying to write this review I've gotten pulled into thinking up a seemingly endless list of things about the movie that I thought were perfect, or extraordinary, or clever or well-executed (no pun intended) or brilliantly conceived or just plain cool. So I don't know if you'll like this movie. All I know is that I love it enough for the two of us put together.

Kill Bill is violent. It's graphic in its violence. And it stays graphic in its violence from the very start of the film to the very end. Sure, there are pauses here and there for sushi and motorcycle rides, but most often, the movie is littered with ravaged, bloody, beaten to a pulp dead bodies. In the sections of the film that are too violent to show in an R rated movie were they done some other way, Tarantino gets around them by using animation, black and white film (lessening the impact by making red blood black) or by back-lighting certain scenes to obscure the details of the action. I imagine that some people will find this violence to be highly offensive, distasteful and wrong. I am not one of those people.

And I'll tell you why. It's not because I think evisceration and decapitation are wicked cool. It's because I gathered early on in my first viewing of Kill Bill that I was watching a masterfully-crafted live action graphic novel (again, no pun intended). When an entire section of the film is presented in anime, it seems a natural and obvious choice for telling that section of the story. (And let me go on record as saying that the animated sequence is, for sure, one of my absolute favorite parts of the film.) The characters in Kill Bill aren't real people. They're representations of real people. The movie isn't about gritty realism like Reservoir Dogs was and it's not about a bunch of intertwined stories about the same subject like Pulp Fiction was. It's about evoking an emotional response, about making something that's breathtaking to look at and about paying proper respect to the movies before it that Quentin Tarantino wouldn't exist without. I've heard people complain that this film is all style and no substance. I would counter that by saying they're missing the point. The style IS the substance of Kill Bill. It is within all the myriad forms of story-telling, embbeded in all the endless little set, prop and costume details and among the countless deliberate shifts in cinematography and score that Kill Bill is built.

So with that in mind, I have included a small handful of things to look for in Kill Bill under the extras section. However, this handful should in no way be considered a comprehensive list. Kill Bill is a treasure trove of detail. Every inch of it is specific and chosen and crafted to look and sound exactly the way it does. There is nothing sloppy about any of it. Cataloguing all of that in precise detail would only take away from the fun of actually digging through Kill Bill and finding them out for yourself.

"I call him... SWORDY!"

Didja Notice?

• How all the main characters are defined at some point by their feet or shoes.
• The Bride's reference to Pulp Fiction in the kitchen
• Legendary martial artist/actor/cultural icon Sonny Chiba, star of more than 100 action films, gets to take a break in Kill Bill.
• All the Star Trek references
• Vernita Green's literally named breakfast cereal
• They have Red Apple cigarettes in Japan

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

There are a few interesting crew titles listed and it's worth it to find out about all the songs used in the soundtrack. Director Robert Rodriguez is given special thanks along with a bunch of other people. The idea of "The Bride" is credited to Q+U in the credits referring to the fact that Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman came up with the basic idea for the story while shooting Pulp Fiction together.

A Cautionary Tale About Going To The Movies By Mutant Clare

Sit back and absorb the following tale of movie viewing woe. At one of the many screenings of Kill Bill that I have thus far attended, I was unfortunate enough to be seated one row behind a group of three fellows out on an afternoon heterosexual man date. They were clearly there together but kept the requisite one seat spacer between them so as not to leave any of the other patrons in the theater with any remote impression that they were there "together" if you know what I mean. All of this was fine and good (and strangely entertaining).

She's a lady... oooOOOOooo... Pretty lady... Talkin' about...

However, as the movie began, random very heterosexual man (RVHM) # 1 decided he needed to make a comment about the film to RVHM #2 and #3. But because they were not actually seated next to one another he opted for the patented movie theater jackass move of yelling over the movie so that everyone in the theater could be privy to whatever genius commentary he had come up with. (An example of said genius commentary included the insightful cry of "AWWWW SH**********T!!!" followed immediately by "NO F***ING WAY DAWWWWG!!!!"). Eventually I grew weary of his annoying jibber jabber and unleashed an all mighty shush of unparalleled proportion. To my great surprise he turned around and said "Oh, okay. Sorry" and stopped talking to his friends. Unfortunately, when that option was taken away from him, he decided that when something struck him as funny he would instead stand half way up out of his seat, grab his guts and lunge forward in fits of hysterical giggles.

Keep in mind that while there are a few funny moments in the film, it's not what I'd call a comedy necessarily. Knowing that, now realize that most often, RVHM #1 was laughing this way at things like people getting their arms chopped off and writhing around on the floor in fits of helpless, agonized screaming or things like people being stabbed and watching their intestines splatter to the floor. Clearly these things are over the top and excessively graphic. But I'm not sure I'd describe them as "funny" per se. Maybe somewhat amusing in their outlandishness. Perhaps it would appropriately induce nervous laughter or a subdued chortle. Certainly it made no sense that we would be so overtaken with hilarity as to be physically incapable of keeping himself seated.

In short, this random heterosexual man gave me the very specific heebie-jeebies. Today's lesson (it's the same as any other day's lesson really). When you go to a public place to take in entertainment of any variety, just because the lights are off doesn't mean you should act like whatever kind of unhinged freak of nature you are at home. If you are incapable of navigating normal function in a social setting, STAY AT HOME AND LEAVE THOSE OF US WITH SOME SMALL SENSE OF NORMAL SOCIAL DECORUM TO ENJOY THE SHOW YOU NITWIT!

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

Uma Thurman's yellow track-suit is a direct homage to the one worn by 'Bruce Lee' in Game of Death.

In order to achieve the specific look of Chinese "wuxia" (martial arts) film of the 1970s, Tarantino gave director of photography, Robert Richardson, an extensive list of genre films as a crash-course in the visual style they used. The list included films by genre-pioneers Cheh Chang and the Shaw Brothers. Tarantino also forbade the use of digital effects and "professional" gags and squibs. As such, he insisted that bloody spurts be done in the fashion made popular by Chang Cheh: Chinese condoms full of fake blood that would splatter on impact.

Over 450 gallons of fake blood was used on Kill Bill.

Official and Not-So-Official Websites

• Kill Bill Official Site
• The Quentin Tarantino Archives

Merry Christmas from QT

Groovy Quotes

Nikia Green: Mommy, what happened to you and the TV Room?
Vernita Green (covered in blood): Oh, that good for nothin' dog of yours got his little ass in the living room and acted a damn fool, that's what happened.

The Bride: It was not my intention to do this in front of you. For that I'm sorry. But you can take my word for it. Your mother had it coming. When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting.

O-Ren Ishii: I'm going to say this in English so you know how serious I am. As your leader, I encourage you to -- from time to time and always in a respectful manner, and with the complete knowledge that my decision is final -- to question my logic. If you're unconvinced a particular plan of action I've decided is the wisest, tell me so. But allow me to convince you. And I will promise you, right here and now, no subject will be taboo...except the subject that was just under discussion. The price you pay for bringing up either my Chinese or my American heritage as a negative is, I collect your f***ing head.

The Bride: For those of you lucky enough to leave with your lives, go! But leave your limbs! They belong to me!

Hattori Hanzo: I tell you with no ego that this is my finest blade. If you should encounter God, God will be cut.

Copperhead: You have every right to want to get even.
The Bride: Get Even? Even-Steven? I would have to kill you, go upstairs, kill little Nikki, then wait for Doctor Bell to come home, and kill him. That'd be about square.

O-Ren Ishii: Silly Caucasian girl likes to play with Samurai swords.

Soundtrack Review

Maybe you thought the soundtrack to Reservoir Dogs was pretty good. Perhaps you found the soundtrack to Pulp Fiction inspired and fun. Well they've got nothing on Kill Bill. Not only does it have lots of excellent song choices; they're used in the film so well it nearly brought tears to my eyes.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Pulp Fiction
• Switchblade Sisters
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

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