Favorite Filmmakers: Quentin Tarantino/1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die- Kill Bill Volume 1

#1058- Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003)

Starring: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino


Plot Summary: A woman known as the Bride had her wedding day ruined by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and their leader Bill. With everyone around her dead, the Bride tries to tell Bill that she's carrying his baby, but he shoots her in the head. Four years later, the Bride wakes up in a hospital after surviving the attack. Discovering that she has been in a coma and has lost her baby, the Bride vows revenge on Bill and the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She travels to Okinawa and tracks down a legendary swordsmith named Hattori Hanzo. After the Bride tells him that her target is Bill, a former student of Hanzo, Hanzo agrees to come out of retirement and forge his finest sword for her. With her new sword in hand, the Bride begins her mission to hunt down the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad one by one, leading up to her ultimate goal: kill Bill. 

Well, this feels interesting. It's been about 4 months since I stepped away from my usual 1001 Movies series. Yet, here I am going back to it since I have come across another movie from Quentin Tarantino that qualifies for the list, Kill Bill Volume 1. Originally meant to be a 4 hour epic, Kill Bill was Tarantino's fourth film that was ultimately split up into two parts. As you will see next time, Kill Bill Volume 2 did NOT make the list, and that's because Volume 1 really set the bar high for this film, and Volume 2 did not deliver a suitable payoff for a lot of moviegoers. However, there is still tons of stuff to appreciate in both movies, from the characters, to the genres that Tarantino pays homage to, to a lot of nuance styles that Tarantino throws into his narrative. I'm here to talk about why I feel Kill Bill could have been one of Tarantino's all-time best films, instead of being split into two films that have a split opinion among movie buffs. That in mind, this will feel like a 2 part review of one big movie (much like how I did with The Lord of the Rings). So let's get right to it and start this look at one of Tarantino's most ambitious projects with Kill Bill Volume 1.

Uma Thurman stars as the Bride, also known as Beatrix Kiddo. It's easy to say that Thurman had a blast playing Kiddo, since she and Tarantino were creating the concept of Kill Bill when they were working on Pulp Fiction. A lot of Kiddo's appeal is in the mystery of her story. Even her name isn't mentioned until Volume 2 (any time you hear it in Volume 1, it's actually bleeped out), so you really don't know anything about her except that she wants revenge on the people that tried to kill her on her wedding day. Talk about the ultimate bridezilla. All kidding aside, Kiddo also serves as a narrator for the audience, and with that, she peels away the layers of this story in order to create something that makes sense for the audience. The more she tells, the more you know about all these characters that she plans to kill. And then when you see her in action, she becomes one of the coolest heroines film has ever seen. She's right up there with Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor as one of the strongest and most competent women characters in movie history and could believably beat up anyone and anything in her path because she has the determination to carry out her revenge. 

Surprisingly, Bill is not the main antagonist we follow in Kill Bill Volume 1. Instead, Kiddo's biggest challenge in the film is O-Ren Ishii, played by Lucy Liu. O-Ren is a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, and number 2 on Kiddo's revenge list. One of the film's biggest highlights is O-Ren's backstory, brought to life by a beautiful and tragic animated sequence. The scene, animated in the style of Japanese anime, was a breath of fresh air from Tarantino and I really wish he would make a full-length animated film (which of course would NOT be for children). While O-Ren is a worthy opponent for Kiddo, her biggest strength is the power she has over others. The film's most iconic scene involves Kiddo going through O-Ren's Yakuza army the Crazy 88 and personal bodyguard Gogo Yubari. After seeing O-Ren's backstory and her sword fight with Kiddo, it's obvious that she didn't need the army or Gogo, but the fact that she is able to have them fight for her is very intimidating and a great mind game for a villain to have over a hero.

While O-Ren is number one on Kiddo's list, the first member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad we are introduced to is Vernita Green, played by Vivica A. Fox. Now, when Vernita and Kiddo go at it, it's the first action sequence the film gives us. Naturally, that should set the tone for the rest of the film. So, when you see a now domesticated Vernita fighting Kiddo one minute and trying to play nice in front of her daughter the next, it seems like something right up Tarantino's alley. It combines a greatly choreographed fight sequence and throws it in an environment that creates a natural sense of humor. While Vernita is probably the member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad that we get to know the least, Fox does make the most of the time she has and gives the viewer a very memorable impression of her character.

A lot of fans are quick to spot Tarantino's influences and homages to the kung-fu and samurai genres in Kill Bill Volume 1. Heck, they even got Sonny Chiba to cameo as famed swordsmith Hattori Hanzo. I can only assume Tarantino is a fan since Clarence Worley attends a Sonny Chiba triple feature in True Romance, so it must have been a thrill to have him play a role in one of his films. The layout and story are definitely derived from the previously mentioned genres, but Tarantino definitely adds his own spin on them that can appeal to the modern moviegoer. From the inclusion of the anime scene, to the amounts of gratuitous and comedic blood use, the film definitely seems like something out of today's era of cinema. Another genre that sneaks its way into the tone of the film is the spaghetti western. From some of the set pieces, to the some of the music choices, you can definitely spot some hints of a western being interpreted into the Kill Bill narrative. And why shouldn't it? It could be argued that the American version of a kung fu movie would be a western, so it would only make sense for Tarantino to want to create a beautiful marriage between these two genres that he obviously loves.

All Kill Bill needed was an intermission placed somewhere between the 4 hours, and I truly believe people would not have complained about its length. Instead, we have the 2 films that in many ways needed to stand on their own because of the split. Kill Bill Volume 1 really got the narrative kicked off on a high note, and thanks to all the films positives, it really got expectations high for Volume 2 to deliver a solid ending. We'll get to that next time, but I'll go ahead and finish my thoughts on Volume 1 by saying that it is because of this film that Kill Bill had the potential to be a modern epic film. It was that good of a film that it could have set the pace for the first half and had so many viewers hooked, that it could have people settle in for the slow burn of the second half (Volume 2) leading into the film's ultimate climax. Couldn't you imagine that? It would have been tremendous. Instead, I have to judge these movies separately, and all the positives of Kill Bill Volume 1 leave it very easy to stand out as the superior installment in this franchise.


Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

One of the biggest positives that Kill Bill Volume 1 has going for it is its style. Tarantino's out of sequence specialty, combined with a few new tools that Tarantino added into his repertoire, mixed with some tough and memorable characters, and topped with some great choreographed fighting sequences. Put all that together and you have a delicious piece of cinema that moviegoers could still consider one of Tarantino's best and a film that every movie buff should own in their collection.

Comment below to share your thoughts on the movie or to discuss a topic that I left out of my review

Kill Bill Volume 1 and movie images are copyrighted by Miramax Films