One of the most famous movies from the ’90s had to be “Pulp Fiction.” It had everything from a great story packed with brilliant dialogue to wonderfully-acted colorful characters and a new style of violence where killing people was actually funny.
After Tarantino released “Pulp Fiction” in 1994, everyone knew that there was a new brilliant talent on the scene that some believed rivaled Martin Scorseses’ earlier days. But now Tarantino is back with one of the most hyped films of the year, “Kill Bill: Volume One.”
As the film begins we see the star, Uma Thurman, pregnant at her wedding. She is lying on the floor in her wedding dress with her face covered in blood. Barely able to keep her eyes open she notices that everyone around her in the chapel, including her former husband (the one she was going to marry), is dead. Then Thurman sees a man approach her with a gun in his hand. To her misfortune, that man is Bill.
We do not know who Bill is yet, or why he wants Thurman’s character, who Tarantino does not reveal the name of, to die; but when we least expect it Bill launches a bullet into her head. For some reason, it was not her time do die yet, as Thurman clings onto life in a coma.
Four years go by and Thurman finally awakes from a coma, dazed and confused. The last thing she remembers is seeing Bill pointing a gun at her at point blank range. After she becomes aware of her surroundings and what had happened, Thurman realizes what she has to do. She has to kill Bill. But before she goes after Bill, Thurman has to first kill his top four assassins, all responsible for playing a part in the murder of her fiancÇ and unborn child.
This film was directed as an ode to martial arts films of the ’70s and graphic Japanese anime, which means there is going to be a lot of violence. There are a lot of screaming bad guys and cheesy lines spread equally throughout the film. The acting is cheesy on purpose; every character says their clichÇ line like “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids” and then they do battle.
There is another thing one should know about this film, it was not made to be heavily focused on story, instead it is only focused on one theme, revenge.
How can a thirst for revenge drive a person to kill anyone who gets in his or her way? In this case, until every bad guy is killed.
The fight scenes are also some of the best-choreographed fight scenes in movie history. Tarantino takes the sword battles back to the days of the Kurosawa samurai movies such as “Seven Samurai.”
Instead of having car chases like other action films, “Kill Bill” focuses on primal , man-to-man and knife-to-knife combat.
By far, this is the most violent film I have ever seen in my life; imagine any type of violence you can and “Kill Bill” dishes it out to its fullest extent. Over 350 gallons of fake blood were used in this film so you can guess the color you’ll be seeing most in the film is red.
Some may actually find this the most unappealing reason to see this film, but Tarantino made it brutally violent on purpose. He wanted to expose the world of violent Japanese anime to our country. Some people will like it, some will hate it.
The ending also has a surprising cliffhanger which opens the door to the sequel that comes out early next year.
Overall Score:
***1/2
(Out of four.)