Kill Bill: Volume 1 & 2 (2003 & 2004)
Having sat through volumes 1 and 2 of Kill Bill back-to-back has changed the way I see them. The right way - the only way - they should be viewed is one after another. Separating them only makes sense if you can't sit through the whole bloody ordeal and since you'll be catching them at home today, that "Pause" button will be your friend.
Uma Thurman plays The Bride a.k.a. Black Mamba. She was a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad until she decided to quit and settle down. Her former allies, led by her boss, Bill (David Carradine), massacred her wedding party and left her for dead. When she wakes from her coma, "The Bride" promises revenge for the child she lost.
Combined, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 runs over 4 hours, but it doesn’t feel long. There is so much variety in the action, the dialogue is so snappy and the characters so memorable characters that you're always hoping for a little more. A love letter to spaghetti western, blaxploitation, Chinese wuxia, Japanese yakuza & samurai films, kung fu flicks, and rape-revenge movies, you can feel Tarantino's excitement. The mashup shouldn't work, but it does. One scene is realistic, down to earth. The next has blood gushing out like geysers. Then, some animation gets sprinkled in before we jump into a black-and-white flashback. Every new chapter reinvents the film's visual identity.
Kill Bill has its cake and eats it too because of the running time. All those minutes allow for both engrossing character moments and one ballet of violence after another. You get to know and understand every opponent the Bride faces and their gimmicks too. You might even come to like the people on her list - despite their vile quirks - because so many have great scenes dedicated just to themselves.
To pick a favorite among everything is tough. If I were to choose, I’d pick Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo, a sadistic 17-year-old who fights with a kusarigama and has the best and most imaginative fight in the whole movie. When it comes to the dialogue, the washed-up former assassin Budd a.k.a. Sidewinder (Michael Madsen) getting chewed out by his boss takes the cake. Anytime I hear “Calendar time for Buddy” I get chills of excitement. There is no shortage of “favorite" moments or characters. They range from comical, dramatic, frightening, and everything in between. A speech by Bill about Superman, (which he gets completely wrong) is entertaining because it’s so well written.
In addition to standing on its own as a kick-ass martial arts flick, "Kill Bill" is a way to introduce others to the genres it borrows from. You’ll be watching Bloodsport and your friends will think to themselves “Hey wait a minute, didn’t Quentin Tarantino refer to this movie in that other movie you just showed me?” It's a jumping point from which you can discover a genre of movies you might've never otherwise been interested in.
The first "half" is all about the fights. There's just enough story to make you care about who’s who. The second half is all about character development. While its conflicts aren't as big of flashy, they’re more intense because the opponents are tougher, the stakes are higher and you're always inching closer to that single, final confrontation. It makes the time you spent sitting feel like it's racing by. Kill Bill is a lovingly made, surprisingly deep, and well-acted film with great dialogue, memorable scenes, iconic characters and plenty of unforgettable moments. On paper, it seems like a lot to sit through but once you're in, you'll be eager to revisit this picture. (Theatrical version on the big screen, February 3, 2015)