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Volume CXXXIII, Number 6 |
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Uma kicks ass
MIKE NUGENT
STAFF WRITER
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, director Quentin Tarantino said, "Kill Bill is an audience movie. It's meant to blow the audience away. I meant it to be like a concert, to get the whole house rocking."
While it is not the masterpiece that Pulp Fiction was, Tarantino's songs, sound, and amazing visuals add up to the maximum stylistic effect. It's hard not to get caught up in the cinematic pleasure of Bill, which is just the way Tarantino wants it.
Kill Bill tells the story of The Bride (although another name is given, it is bleeped out for unknown reasons), played by Uma Thurman. Nearly killed at her wedding by the members of the diVAS (Viper Assassination Squad), which she once worked for, she wakes from a coma four years later, appropriately when a mosquito is sucking her blood. From then on she only has one thing on her mind-revenge on those who wronged her. She makes a hit list consisting of the five people she must kill, Bill of the title being the last one.
The story is not told in chronological order, which gives the film more of an emotional arc and a bigger payoff for the viewer. As a result, it must have been an extremely difficult task to edit and condense Kill Bill into a coherent film, especially after the decision was made to split it into two volumes.
The fight scenes, especially the House of Blue Leaves group fight, are incredible. It is obvious that a huge amount of effort went into choreographing the scenes and training the actors to perfectly carry out the action. The stuntman from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was used, and the same stylistic effects that make Tiger so famous are at work again here. Tarantino also made the decision to shoot two of the most violent scenes in the film in black and white. This reduces the gore and focuses more of the attention on the scenes themselves.
The true star of Kill Bill, however, is most definitely Uma Thurman. Tarantino has publicly called her his muse, and it's not hard to see why. As in Pulp Fiction, she delivers a fiery performance that's heartbreaking, funny, and always engaging. In the first few minutes of the film, we discover that The Bride was pregnant when the attempt on her life was made. When we see her wake up from her coma, she snatches her shirt up and sees that her belly is normal size. When she cries the tears only a mother can feel for her lost child, your heart breaks along with hers. Without Uma, Kill Bill would have been a decent martial arts movie, but with her it becomes a three-dimensional saga. The violence is not mindless killing, but rather a wronged woman's rightful revenge.
The soundtrack to Bill, as with all of Tarantino's films, is phenomenal. The movie opens with Nancy Sinatra's soft-spoken yet affecting rendition of "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and takes off from there. It never contains hackneyed choices but rather songs that add to the dimension of the film.
Much of Vol. 1 is a preview of things to come, and there's plenty to look forward to. Daryl Hannah (playing Elle Driver) has been out of the spotlight for a while, and she crafts a return and a character out of her five minutes in Vol. 1. However she, Budd (Michael Madsen), and Bill himself remain mostly mysteries. Bill is never actually seen in this volume. The decision to split up the films was a risky one; if Vol.1 did poorly Vol. 2 would be doomed to the same fate.
But it appears to be paying off. As with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the wait in between films increases excitement for the climax which would not be possible when watching it in one installment. On February 20, 2004, I will be first in line to see Uma kill Bill, and you should be there too.
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