Kill Bill

Kill Bill is the fourth film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, and stars Uma Thurman. It was written and filmed as a single movie, but was edited and released as two films, due in part to the very long running time of the original single-film version. Volume 1 was released on October 10, 2003 and Volume 2 was released on April 16, 2004. Volume 1 grossed $70 million in its American release while Volume 2 grossed $66 million.

Reviews were mostly positive, with some reviewers regarding it as a cinematic masterpiece. Others, however, felt that Tarantino's homage to Asian cinema was overly indulgent, or that it was a new low in cinematic morality. In particular, the film's unusual and pop culture-heavy dialogue was subject to heavy criticism. Meanwhile, some conservative critics decried its extremely graphic and exaggerated depictions of violence.

Cast

Overall plot

Uma Thurman plays Beatrix Kiddo, "The Bride", seeking bloody revenge against Bill (played by David Carradine) and her former associates the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad for their ruthless slaying of the wedding party after they gate-crashed her wedding rehearsal. With the rest of the wedding party slain, Bill administers the coup de grâce, a bullet in the head, cutting off her attempts to tell him she is pregnant with his baby. Waking from a coma four years later, The Bride is determined to kill all those involved, including Bill, her former mentor, boss and lover, but does not realize her daughter is still alive and in his care. The film was shot over the course of eight months, with scenes filmed on location in North America, Japan, and China.

Kill Bill is divided into ten chapters, five chapters per volume. As is common in Tarantino films, they are not arranged in chronological order.

Volume 1

Plot

Beatrix Kiddo, also known as The Bride, codename "Black Mamba" is a former member of "The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad." (It is not clear if the Squad are disbanded or still active: with one in a coma, another working as a low-income bouncer, another apparently a housewife and mother, and another running her own yakuza operation, it is possible that the group had disbanded at some time after the Massacre at Two Pines). Bill, her former boss and lover, tracks her down and finds her about to marry, and arranges for the Vipers to gate-crash the chapel and slay those within. The groom and the rest of the wedding party are murdered while she herself is shot in the head by Bill, and left for dead. Bill later sends Elle Driver (aka "California Mountain Snake", played by Daryl Hannah) to finish off the comatose Bride in the hospital, but recalls her as she is about to administer poison, deciding at the last second that killing her while she lies helpless would be dishonorable. He adds that if she wakes up, then they will kill her all over again. Elle is furious at the change, as she clearly hates Beatrix, but acquiesces.

In the opening of the film, The Bride is driving a car identified by its body-work as the "Pussy Wagon". She rings on a door in a suburban street, and attacks the woman (Vernita Green, aka "Copperhead", played by Vivica A. Fox) who answers. Vernita, a retired member of the same assassination squad now apparently turned mother and housewife, is shocked but rapidly recovers, their vicious fight to the death interrupted by her young child Nikki returning from elementary school. The child is sent to her room as both adults pretend nothing is going on, then over coffee discuss that the past betrayal of The Bride by Vernita cannot be undone, and they agree to meet up for a fight to the death. Suddenly Vernita fires a concealed gun at The Bride, but misses, and The Bride responds by throwing a knife which kills her. The child, who has come in at the noise and witnessed the killing, is told by The Bride "It was not my intention to do this in front of you. For that I'm sorry. But you can take my word for it, your mother had it coming. When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting."

We flash back 6 months. The Bride is still in a coma after four years. She awakens suddenly and almost immediately realises she has lost her baby. She hears footsteps approaching so she pretends to be unconscious. It transpires that Buck, the hospital orderly, has been selling her body for sex while she was in a coma. She overcomes her physical weakness to kill her would-be rapist, then Buck, and finally takes the keys to Buck's "Pussy Wagon" (the car mentioned previously) and escapes, launching her quest to eliminate her former associates. This is far from easy - her legs are extremely weak and will barely move, much less support her body.

Once she regains her full strength, she travels to Okinawa, Japan where she asks master swordsmith Hattori Hanzō (played by Sonny Chiba) to come out of retirement to make one final katana (samurai sword) with which to accomplish her revenge. Hattori Hanzō was Bill's teacher, and despite having sworn an oath many years before, to never create "something that kills people" again, he feels an obligation to help her for having trained him and agrees to make one final weapon for her, the best sword he ever made. He says, ritually presenting it to her, "If, on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut."

Flying from Okinawa directly to Tokyo, Japan, The Bride locates O-Ren Ishii (aka "Cottonmouth", played by Lucy Liu), a half-Chinese-American, half-Japanese woman raised on an American military base, orphaned by the yakuza, and now "the boss of all bosses," ruler of the Tokyo underworld. In a nightclub named the "House of Blue Leaves," The Bride kills or maims all but one of O-Ren's bodyguards, known as the Crazy 88. She then pursues O-Ren outside to a snow-covered zen garden. Although injured in the exchange, The Bride finally ends the duel with a swing that slices off the top of O-Ren's head, exposing her brain (later censored in some versions). O-Ren dies, her last words being, "That really was a Hattori Hanzō sword..." The Bride then tortures the half-Japanese, half-French Sofie Fatale (played by Julie Dreyfus), one of Bill's lovers and O-Ren's lawyer, second lieutenant, and best friend, leaving her mutilated but alive, to tell Bill that she is coming for him.

Making a death list on the plane, The Bride then returns to the United States, to Pasadena, California which is where the film started, with the killing of Vernita Green.

Details

• The Japanese release of Volume 1 begins with a dedication to Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku.

• The film also features an anime sequence explaining O-Ren's tragic backstory. It is directed by Kazuto Nakazawa, who also directed the Linkin Park video for "Breaking The Habit", with the animation studio Production I.G, producers of Ghost in the Shell among other works.

• The Bride's boarding pass (click for a larger view). During this first half of Kill Bill, The Bride's real name is bleeped out when characters say it. However, The Bride's real name is present on her boarding pass for her flights to Okinawa and Tokyo. Her name is also mentioned by Bill before he shoots her in the head, and "Kiddo" turns out to be her actual last name rather than a simple mark of affection to a former lover and partner.

• While the American cut of the movie shows the violent battle at the House of Blue Leaves in black and white, the Japanese cut shows it in color. The "Color Cut" of this film segment is highly sought after by fanatical US Kill Bill fans, but is still currently unavailable outside Japan (other than through legally-questionable internet sharing).

• The Crazy 88: in China the number "88" is an auspicious number, much like 7 in the west. In Japan, it is most often associated with the 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage; While some critics have tried to argue that there are not actually eighty-eight members of the group, this has been contradicted by an interview given by Quentin Tarantino to Eiga HIHO magazine, "because O-Ren is half-Chinese and half-Japanese, so is her army. So there's 44 Chinese people and 44 Japanese people! But that's part of the mythology I would only go into if I wrote a book." This is significant in that 4 in Japanese (shi) is a homophone for death, and is considered a very unlucky number. However, 44 and 44 make 88, a lucky number. In Volume Two Bill muses that the Crazy 88 simply "thought it [the name] sounded cool."

• David Carradine has confirmed at several conventions and special screenings that the killer of O-Ren's father in the anime sequence is Bill. This decision was made at a late stage and as a result, the scene had to be reanimated.

Volume 2

Plot

Note: It is revealed in Volume 2 that The Bride's real name is Beatrix Kiddo. Though this does not occur until past the halfway point, Beatrix is the name used throughout this section to avoid confusion. It is also revealed that Budd is Bill's brother.

Kill Bill: Volume 2 continues the story of Beatrix (The Bride) and her quest for vengeance. After the same brief introduction sequence that started Vol.1, the flashback to the shooting at the wedding chapel, she begins the film by speaking directly to the camera as she is driving, reviewing the events of Kill Bill: Volume 1 and stating that she has one more death on her list, and is on her way; when she gets there she will "Kill Bill."

We return to the wedding chapel, and see for the first time what happened there before the attack. The segment is shot in black-and-white, with a relaxed pace. Taking a break from her wedding rehearsal, Beatrix is surprised to see Bill, her former boss and lover, on the front porch of the chapel, playing his flute. He has tracked her down despite her attempt to leave him and her life as an assassin behind. They talk as past lovers, Bill assures her he will "try to be nice", and even offers to attend the wedding, letting Beatrix introduce him to the bridegroom as her "father". Reassured, with irony in the soundtrack and slight tears of happiness in her eyes, Beatrix dons her veil and is lost to us, as the camera tracks back and we see the remainder of her former assassin colleagues at Bill's command approaching the small Texas chapel and begin to fire…

Moving to the present, Bill hears of O-Ren Ishii's and Vernita Green's deaths, he knows Beatrix is going down the list. He visits Budd (aka "Sidewinder", played by Michael Madsen), later revealed to be his brother -- they have not spoken for a long time and last time was on bad terms -- and warns him, telling him to be careful: she is coming. Budd, now retired from assassination and a small town nightclub bouncer (and a drinker according to Elle), seems unconcerned. He philosophically comments she knows where he is, saying "That woman deserves her revenge…and we deserve to die."

But when she sneaks up to kill Budd after work at his isolated trailer, he is in fact ready and ambushes her with a shotgun, firing non-lethal rock salt into her chest immediately after the door is opened. Subduing her with an injection, he phones Elle Driver, commenting that having captured Beatrix, he has the "greatest sword ever made" and will sell it to her for one million dollars. She agrees, with one condition: Beatrix "must suffer to her last breath."

Budd puts Beatrix in a wooden coffin and buries her alive, after subduing her by threatening to burn her eyes with mace if she does not acquiesce, but offering to bury her with a flashlight if she does.

Flashback to many years before, Bill is taking Beatrix to Pai Mei's temple. Pai Mei was revered as one of the greatest martial arts instructors (a classic example of the Elderly Martial Arts Master stock character). Bill convinces him to accept Beatrix for training, though it appears he fought his former master as part of the "discussion." At first scathing about her flaws, he comes to respect her and teaches her apparently all he knows. The training is extremely rigorous, with many hardships.

Back in the coffin, Beatrix uses one of his lessons, breaking a thick wooden board at short range, to eventually overcome her panic and drive a fist through the coffin lid before clawing her way to the surface. She hikes back to Budd's isolated desert trailer in time to see Elle pulling up in her Trans Am and Budd standing in the doorway.

Elle, along with Budd, believes her to be dead, and is meeting Budd to buy Beatrix's Hanzō sword. However, she double crosses him, planting a lethal black mamba in the suitcase with the money, and when he begins to check the payment, the angered snake strikes him three times. Elle lectures Budd as he dies, telling him her main regret is that "maybe the greatest warrior I have ever met, met her end at the hands of a bushwhackin', scrub, alcky [alcoholic] piece of shit like you", then bends to collect the money prior to leaving. Bill calls her cell phone, and she feigns sympathy and tells him that his brother Budd was killed by a black mamba left in his camper by Beatrix, but that Beatrix herself is now dead and buried too. She also says that if Bill goes to a certain cemetery, he will be standing at "the final resting place of Beatrix Kiddo." This is the first time in the series that Beatrix's name is spoken without the audio being bleeped. The phone call is over, and Elle picks up the Hanzō sword and money to leave the trailer. As she opens the door, Beatrix attacks her, kicking her back inside. In the ensuing fight between the two women, Elle has Beatrix's sword. The fight is made fairer when Beatrix finds Budd's own Hanzō sword in amongst the junk, inscribed "To my brother Budd, the only man I have ever loved - Bill", which he had claimed to Bill he had pawned some years ago.

Elle and Beatrix have a brief conversation while standing apart. We learn that years before, Pai Mei had snatched out Elle's eye for insulting him. Elle maliciously tells Beatrix that she got her revenge when she poisoned Pai Mei's food, killing him (Pai Mei and possibly Bill were Beatrix's masters in the martial arts). Elle and Beatrix clash briefly but furiously with the legendary Hanzō swords. Swords locked, Beatrix's hand suddenly darts out and snatches out Elle's remaining eye, blinding her. Walking past the black mamba on the floor, Beatrix takes her own sword and abandons the trailer and Elle, who is smashing things and screaming, unable to locate her enemy. Elle is left blinded and ranting, shut in Budd's isolated desert trailer with the black mamba. Her pending death is implied but not stated.

(At first, it may seem disappointing that Budd was not directly killed by Beatrix. However, considering Beatrix's codename is "Black Mamba," it could be said that she killed him after a fashion, and if she had not come after him in the first place, he would still be alive. Likewise, narrative logic might suggest that Elle fell to the same black mamba that killed Budd. Therefore, it appears as if Tarantino is applying irony to the deaths of numbers three and four of Beatrix's death list.)

The story shifts to Mexico and to Esteban, a pimp who raised Bill and was a friend of his mother. Beatrix visits, introduces herself, and asks him in a very respectful manner, where Bill is. He tells her without hesitation, saying that he does this because Bill would want him to.

Beatrix drives to Bill's home, prepared to kill him. However, she finds that Bill is expecting her, with a surprise: B.B., their four-year-old daughter, whom Beatrix had thought was murdered during the wedding chapel attack, is alive and well, apparently delivered while Beatrix was comatose (the audience had been left with this revelation during Bill's conversation with Sofie Fatale at the very end of Volume 1). Met with a family scene rather than aggression, Beatrix is overcome with emotion upon finding her daughter and her mission is temporarily put on hold while her attention shifts entirely to B.B., spending hours alone with her and watching a movie with her until B.B. falls asleep.

The child fallen asleep, Beatrix returns to the living room and has a strange conversation with Bill, during which they agree they have "unfinished business". Bill, acting the gentleman-killer, says he still has questions but doubts she can be honest about the answers, and therefore abruptly shoots her with a dart containing truth serum. She tells him why she tried to retire: how she realized upon becoming pregnant that she must put her daughter's future above Bill, and leave behind the assassin's life. Bill deprecates her attempts to find a 'normal' life, and compares Beatrix with Clark Kent (Superman), saying that she was trying to hide her true, destined identity. He comments in explanation for his actions, "When I told you the story of when I thought you were dead, didn't you get how badly I felt?… There are consequences to breaking the heart of a murdering bastard… You experienced some of them…" (A killer herself, Beatrix probably understood this logic inside all along, and does not contest the answer)

The poignant but established tension between their mutual intent to kill each other, and the tenderness and remains of their old romance, sets the emotional stage for the final scene, in which they talk, and realise that they are going to fight until one dies. Following a brief undeclared scuffle with swords, Beatrix disables Bill using the fatal "Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique", taught to her without Bill's knowledge by Pai Mei. The technique can be described as five blows to pressure points on the body, most notably the chest. As the victim walks away, he lasts only until his fifth step, whereupon his heart explodes inside his chest. Bill accepts his fate, knowing he has lost. Bill walks unsteadily away, collapses, and dies in silence. Beatrix stands a while, wiping the odd tear from her cheek, and returns to the house to collect her daughter and start their new life.

Releases

DVD release

In the United States Kill Bill: Volume 1 was released as a DVD on April 13, 2004 while Volume 2 was released August 10, 2004.

Before the release of Volume 1, Rick Sands, chief operating officer at Miramax, commented on future multiple releases of the Kill Bill DVDs: "This is the beauty of having two volumes—Vol. 1 goes out, Vol. 2 goes out, then Vol. 1 Special Edition, Vol. 2 Special Edition, the two-pack, then the Tarantino collection as a boxed set out for Christmas. It's called multiple bites at the apple. And you multiply this internationally."

These comments were heavily criticized by the online DVD community, and may have influenced DVD sales, which were lower than expected. As of January 2006, only the basic DVDs have been released, with almost no special features. No further DVD releases have been announced.

Rumors of a deluxe edition DVD entitled Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair claim that there will be some slightly extended scenes, with the possible addition of the unfilmed scene "Yuki's Revenge", in which Gogo Yubari's death is avenged by her younger sister, Yuki. This scene takes place right after The Bride kills Vernita Green. Yuki was using an ice-cream truck to track The Bride (the truck's music can be heard faintly when The Bride arrives at Vernita's house), and this battle resulted in The Bride's stolen pick-up truck, the Pussy Wagon, being destroyed, which relates to The Bride later telling Bill's surrogate father "My Pussy Wagon died on me."

In March 2005, Tarantino explained Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair to FilmFocus, "It's the Japanese version, that's why I call it that, you know, it should probably come out in the next few months. It's going to be NC-17 in America. We couldn't do that when Disney owned the place but now Disney's the fuck outta there we can do anything we want! It's gonna be off the hook!"

In a December 2005 interview, Tarantino addressed the lack of a special edition DVD for Kill Bill by stating "I've been holding off because I've been working on it for so long that I just wanted a year off from Kill Bill and then I'll do the big supplementary DVD package."^[1].

Though the United States doesn't have a DVD BOXED SET of Kill Bill, other countries carry four disc boxed sets of both of these movies combined. Japan, for example, has boxed sets of Vol.1 and Vol.2, Uncut, with not only tons of special features, but also, the Vol.1 boxed set has a t-shirt, a model of a Hattori Hanzō Sword, and a collectors Booklet. However, the Japanese Deluxe Editions are very limited and maybe a little difficult to find. There's also a French DVD set which has four discs and includes both volumes of the film.

Plans for a theatrical re-release

Tarantino has also aired plans of a late 2006 re-release of Kill Bill in theaters, as one complete film with an intermission in the middle. The full Kill Bill would only screen in select theatres.^[2]

"Looks like it might be a while for those of us waiting for the big Kill Bill special edition DVD because QT is going to re-release the film in 1 piece in late 2006 first. Once thats done, then he'll get to the process of putting the special edition DVD together. He says, "I want to cut the whole movie together like one big epic with an intermission in the middle like a 60s film. It'll be coming out in theatres.

"I've been holding off because I've been working on it for so long that I just wanted a year off from Kill Bill and then I'll do the big supplementary DVD package." So for about another year, you'll just have to put up with the separate Volume 1 and Volume 2 DVDs"

Planned sequel

Tarantino told Entertainment Weekly in April 2004 that he is planning a sequel:

Nikki is the daughter of character Vernita Green, whom The Bride kills at the beginning of Volume 1. Should a sequel show Nikki grow up to kill Beatrix, the same film or another sequel could have Beatrix and Bill's daughter B.B. taking Nikki on to complete the story.

Soundtracks

Soundtrack albums have been released for each volume. The Volume 1 soundtrack was organised (and to a certain extent, produced and orchestrated) by the RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan. The Volume 2 soundtrack was orchestrated by fellow filmmaker and personal friend Robert Rodriguez. Volume 1 reached #45 on the Billboard 200 album chart and #1 on the soundtracks chart in August 2003. Volume 2 reached #58 on the Billboard 200 and #2 on the Billboard soundtracks chart in the US. It has also reached the ARIA Top 50 album charts in Australia.

Influences

General

Kill Bill relies heavily on film influences that Tarantino wished to pay tribute to. These include the spaghetti western, Blaxploitation and Kung Fu movies of the 1960s and 1970s, Chinese "Wuxia" and Japanese martial arts films, revenge-themed movies such as Lady Snowblood, Francois Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black and films like The Seven Samurai. There are also several references to other films either written and/or directed by Tarantino. Some elements of the story and the character Elle Driver in particular are inspired by the Swedish movie Thriller - en grym film.

Specific allusions to other works

Tarantino also features direct nods to many of his influences in his movies. Here are some examples of this in Kill Bill:

• During the scene where the sheriff is driving to the chapel, the view from the car with the pilot glasses on the dashboard is taken from the 1974 film Gone in 60 Seconds by H.B. Halicki.
• "Revenge is a dish best served cold.- Old Klingon Proverb" – This proverb as it is referenced is from Star Trek VI, as well as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It is also used in the Spaghetti Western Death Rides a Horse (1968) (Kill Bill used music from Death Rides a Horse). Lee Van Cleef's character paraphrases the quote saying, "Somebody once wrote that revenge is a dish that has to be eaten cold. Hot as you are, you're liable to end up with indigestion." However the origin of the proverb is difficult to determine, possibly Sicilian, Spanish or Pashtun. The earliest known use of the proverb in print is from the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. It is written as "La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froid"
• Near the end of the opening credits, a silhouette evokes Citizen Kane.
• The siren-like musical sequence denoting The Bride's encounters with her nemesis is from the theme of police drama Ironside (TV series), starring Raymond Burr as a detective who is confined to a wheelchair after a sniper attack. The "Ironside" theme music was written by Quincy Jones.
• The siren-like music is actually an homage to "The Five Fingers of Death," one of the first Kung Fu movies released in the United States (1973) The hero is attacked and left crippled, his hands smashed. Through sheer will and intense training the hero retrains himself and his hands as lethal weapons. When any battle turns deadly his hands turn red and the siren-like music is played.
• The scene of The Bride standing in the middle of fifty-plus people and still winning the fight is similar to the chambara scenes of countless old Japanese samurai movies.
• The Bride's yellow tracksuit is from Bruce Lee's Game of Death.
• The masks worn by the members of the Crazy 88 are the same style that Bruce Lee's character Kato wore in the TV series The Green Hornet. The accompanying music during the en-masse swordfight is also a nod to the series, which used Al Hirt's jazzy trumpet rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" as its theme.
• These two homages to Bruce Lee's work combine in the Crazy 88 fight to pit Bruce Lee's first screen incarnation (Kato) against his last (Game of Death). Bruce Lee's was not succesful in the US, he was snubbed for the lead role in the Kung Fu TV series for David Carradine (Bill). This was due to the anti-Asian Hollywood at the time as Kato usually had to wear his black mask and did not get many lines or close ups with his mask off. Tarintino, an obvious Bruce Lee fan paying homage to the success of asian cinema with Kill Bill, has the vindicated "Game of Death" incarnation of Lee, deafeating the discriminated "Black Mask" version of Lee.
• Music from Ennio Morricone's score for A Fistful of Dollars plays in a scene in Volume 2 in which Budd shoots the Bride with rock salt.
• When the Bride appears with Budd's sword in the fight with Elle Driver, another Ennio Morricone track is heard, one that is featured in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Details

• Samuel L. Jackson has a cameo appearance in the movie as Rufus, an organist in the El Paso Chapel. Jackson's character was also rumored to be Jules from Pulp Fiction, because of that character's desire to "walk the earth."

• Budd falsely claims to have pawned his Hattori Hanzō sword in El Paso, Texas. In Pulp Fiction, Butch Coolidge finds a samurai sword in a Los Angeles pawn shop.

• The prop used as Beatrix's Hattori Hanzō sword in Kill Bill was later reused as Miho's nameless sword in the screen adaptation of Sin City.

• During Bill's interrogation of Beatrix, he says that she is a "natural born killer," a reference to the movie Natural Born Killers, for which Tarantino wrote the initial screenplay.

• The flute which Bill is seen playing both outside the chapel and prior to Beatrix's training is the same flute carried by another of David Carradine's characters, Caine, of Kung Fu fame.

• When facing the shotgun-wielding assassin Karen, Beatrix calls herself "the deadliest woman in the world." In Pulp Fiction, Mia Wallace describes her character in the failed television pilot "Fox Force Five" as "the deadliest woman in the world with a knife."

• When Beatrix is buried alive in "Chapter Seven: The lonely grave of Paula Schultz", the razor she pulls from her boot to escape is a reference to Michael Madsen's character in "Reservoir Dogs", Mr. Blonde, who used an identical razor to cut off a police officer's ear.

References

• ^  1 ContactMusic.com "Tarantino Brings Kill Bills Together"