My thoughts on Kill Bill are this: it should have been one movie. One very long movie, but one movie nonetheless and that Volume 1 makes Volume 2 pale in comparison.
I don’t know if Tarantino can ever top that House of Blue Leaves scene. It has so much good in it and so much going on that everything after it looks not as good as it is. (Poor Volume 2, although I will say that the Bill monologue at the end is some fantastic stuff.)
I’ve only taken screencaps from Volume 1 (you don’t want to see how the caps from Volume 2 turned out; it was bad, bad, bad) but Tarantino took an age-old theme of vengeance upon those who have wronged a person. He twisted it into something original with heavy doses of nostalgia and the usual tips of the hat to his favorite flicks.
Kill Bill is really Tarantino’s love letter of sorts to kung fu and samurai cinema with a dash of spaghetti westerns thrown in.
I would say that Kill Bill is actually my favorite of all Tarantino flicks, something I know that borders on heresy in some quarters, but it’s the perfect blend of homage and originality. The Bride might be up there with Ellen Ripley in terms of my favorite female action characters ever.
It’s a colorful and stylized two volume set that runs at a smooth pace. Oddly enough, it is the House of Blue Leaves scene that ends Volume 1 that, as I said before, does Volume 2 some heavy injustice. The Bride’s final interaction and showdown with Bill, muted and as somewhat anticlimactic as it is, is pitch perfect.
The usual Tarantino fare is there, from the close ups to the crazy foot fetishism, but he upped his game with Kill Bill. Everything is bigger, brighter and bloodier. The soundtrack, a medium in which Tarantino had demonstrated remarkable adeptness at picking out catchy forgotten gems to paste into his movies, was even better than his previous three film efforts. If you saw Volume 1, you can at least pick out the strains of Twisted Nerve (the song Elle Driver whistles in the hospital) and place it in reference to the movie.
Unlike, perhaps, Inglourious Basterds, Kill Bill offers no apologies or questions for the long trail of severed limbs and hacked up bodies left in the Bride’s wake; it’s a mission justified for which the reward is offered up in the last scene of Volume 2.
There is nothing to question about it; it is the story of one woman who sets out to punish those who wronged her in an uber-violent fashion. And when she’s done … she’s done. But along the way, Tarantino makes everything interesting and captivating even at its most brutal.
Given everything that’s effectively smashed into the movie, all the pop culture references, nods to various styles of cinema, musical cues and plain Tarantino oddities, it’s funny that Kill Bill works as well as it does, but it works very well.
1416 and Counting 
Caitlin: Interesting. I think you’re the first person I’ve come across who prefers Vol 1 to Vol 2. I presume that means you dig the swordplay, which you get at in your review.
In any case, it is one long movie, I agree with you there. But as a result, I didn’t find much power in Vol 1 until after Vol 2.
I actually dig them both in equal measure, but that’s because I’ve always considered them as one film. (QT did shoot it with that intention afterall).
That said, the split is interesting since it makes them feel like two seperate entities: one kung fu movie, one spaghetti western. Sure QT ripped a lot of the ideas off from other movies, but everyone in Hollywood is copying someone else, so why start throwing stones?
Of course, my most pressing question where KILL BILL is concerned is this…when are we gonna get that both-volumes-in-one-set DVD???
I think you’re the first person I’ve come across who prefers Vol 1 to Vol 2
Oh, man. I could go through eighty nine reasons why I prefer Volume 1 to Volume 2, but I think it all comes back to the House of Blue Leaves scene. I could write a whole post on that, I’m fairly sure. That has so much worked into, what, ten minutes?, that it’s unbelieveable. It’s hard to top that with another movie still left.
I presume that means you dig the swordplay, which you get at in your review.
Well, yes, but I think second to that is the big to-do with Bill at the end, where he’s making sandwiches for BB and monologuing about Superman. I don’t think Volume 2 is terrible or anything; I actually quite enjoy it.
But I think he threw so much into that one scene (it is the gold standard for KNB Effects as far as amount of blood pumped on set, from what I understand) that Volume 2 feels like an almost strange drop-off. Does that make sense?
But as a result, I didn’t find much power in Vol 1 until after Vol 2.
… Really? That is the first time I’ve heard that.
Sure QT ripped a lot of the ideas off from other movies, but everyone in Hollywood is copying someone else, so why start throwing stones?
Well, yeah. And by now QT ripping off other movies is stock standard for him, so I’m surprised when other people get all wound up about it.
the split is interesting since it makes them feel like two seperate entities: one kung fu movie, one spaghetti western.
Exactly! It’s so weird feeling in a way I have difficulty describing. It’s like the whole thing suddenly shifts in tone.
Of course, my most pressing question where KILL BILL is concerned is this…when are we gonna get that both-volumes-in-one-set DVD???
Yeah, we’re still owed The Whole Bloody Affair and the entire Grindhouse on one DVD, but nothing’s come of that yet. I think QT just gave an interview where he admitted that they’ve just been lazy about doing it. Frustrating but true.
Yeah, I don’t own either Kill Bill film because I’m still waiting for The Whole Bloody Affair (the same reason I don’t own the Grindhouse flicks).
I don’t know that I prefer Volume I to II, though I’ve seen Volume I more times. Its pacing is fantastic. Each chapter of Volume I is unique in look and action. And I’d definitely put it among his best work, too, if not call it his best.