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| 10/18/2003 |
| Kill Bill: Blood, Carnage and Beauty |
by Wes Bennett
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Quentin Tarantino had all but been written off. His last directing effort, “Jackie Brown,” was mediocre at best. Everyone thought that he would never achieve anything close to the glories of “Pulp Fiction.”
Tarantino says he has spent the time writing screenplays. He claims to have worked on a script for close to 3 years and scrapped it because he didn’t like the ending. Finally he moved onto “Kill Bill,” the bloody valentine to all genres of "grind-house" movies (the exploitation flicks that used to play in run-down urban theaters, in the '70s).
“Volume 1” is the first half of what unintentionally became a three hour film. The movie went over budget by 15 million and took close to 9 months to film. This is evidence that while Tarantino may not be a disciplined filmmaker, he is also a man who doesn’t allow rules and expectations to get in the way of his creativity.
While it barely has a script, it has a strong story. We never learn anything about the main character Bride (Uma Thurman), except that she's an assassin who's been left for dead at the scene of an El Paso mass murder and she’s got a list of death that you don’t want to be on.
It's nonstop gory violence, presented with an adolescent flair and sick-humor callousness. And as anyone who has ever talked to Tarantino knows, he's not satirizing anything here: he unashamedly loves cartoonish gore. In “Kill Bill” we get plenty. Heads, arms and legs are cut off, and the blood gushes as from a shower. The centerpiece sequence is a ridiculously over the top fight in which The Bride uses an extraordinary samurai sword to swiftly kills and dismembers scores, maybe hundreds, of people with a female rock band playing in the background. It may be ridiculous, but it’s also beautiful.
The fighting is hard, quick and brutal. Thurman definitely got in shape for the part. She holds everything together with a fierce performance delivered without a trace of irony. Her lanky body is built for high kicks, and she shows a feminine grace in her swordplay that I would not have expected. Her face reflects such grit, vengefulness and pain that Tarantino doesn't feel the need to fill in too many blanks.
One has to be aware that they movie they are watching was only one half of a film. Cutting the film in half and releasing it in two parts was decided upon only after the film was completed. This is good because much like a 4 hour AC/DC performance, it would have been too much to sit through without feeling throttled. (In all fairness no one is mentioning that fact that the first two installments of the “Lord Of the Ring” trilogy has not exactly had great endings).
I refuse to be more critical of the film because I see this as cinematic creativity unbridled. It’s what I used to look for in art films before (as of late) they all became boring and pointless). He is breaking the rules for maximum entertainment and its like a breath of fresh air. This is so different from any mainstream film I have ever seen.
Despite what some critics may say, the lack of plot doesn’t bother me at all, because I’m still blown away from my first viewing. One of my favorite films, “Waking Life” had no plot at all, but it was completely engrossing. If a film can do that and create a kind of escape than it suceeds above all. Although I’ve not yet had time to sort out everything I saw, I do know that I will be going back for repeat viewings.
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| "We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it." |
- Jack Nicholson
A Few Good Men
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Distributed Beers
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| 5 |
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot |
| 4 |
Guinness Draught |
| 3 |
Newcastle Brown Ale |
| 2 |
Bass Pale Ale |
| 1 |
Samuel Adams Boston Lager |
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