Kill Bill Volume 1

Synopsis: The Bride, a sword-fighting assassin, goes on the warpath against her former colleagues and boss after they slaughter her wedding party and leave her and her unborn child for dead. [Quentin Tarantino, 2003, USA, Rating R, Running time 106 minutes]

Volume One of Kill Bill is an extravagant, indulgent assault on the senses. It’s a slice-and-dice homage to more films than you can poke a stick at. Tarantino fans can rejoice at the stylistic and editing strengths that echo elements of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown. Sadly, the machine gun dialogue of these earlier films does not take the foreground, but perhaps the martial arts purists will find this a good thing.

The main preoccupation here is the violence of vengeance in many gritty and parodied representations, ranging from live action to mind churning manga, using everything from saturated colours to over-exposed black and whites. To Tarantino, the ability to communicate violence in all sorts of increasingly visceral ways is one of the main entertainments and strengths of cinema. The Greeks may have coined this ‘catharsis’. Tarantino calls it fun.

Kill Bill dallies with fairly brief moments of ominous violent horror reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs, but the main bread and butter is absurdly stylised violence far beyond Pulp Fiction’s craziest moments. There are countless decapitations of heads and limbs followed by water sprinkler geysers of thin red liquid in all directions; generally with an increasingly bruised, cut, and bleeding heroine (Uma Thurman) dishing it out in the middle with a very sharp sword. Through this is entwined some hint of the codes and values of the fu-film genre, but they don’t get much exposition.

The film is so saturated that it’s a relief when the huge central battle of the film switches to over-exposed black and white. Essentially, it’s a love of the super-stylin’ set piece and wild screen violence that has turned a planned 90-minute kick-to-the-gut into a more meandering series of punches spread over two volumes. This film generally eschews the long-shots and wire work of The Matrix or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for rapid close-shot edited piece, where often the set rather than the fight has the key billing.

Those who loved the strong and usually-complex central stories and dialogue of Tarantino’s earlier films may find Kill Bill lacking. Perhaps dialogue was former co-writer Roger Avary’s strength for what dialogue there is here can occasionally seem stilted or unnatural. But perhaps this is intentional, given the film’s nods to the stiffly-subtitled martial arts films that Tarantino reveres. Even the usual distinctive choice of music is light on lyrics. Kill Bill also cuts back and forth through the timeframe of the story, but the lack of any complex story means this technique has little to add to the interpretation of the film as it unfolds. Possibly Volume Two will offer the other characters some more exposition.

Tarantino’s style has a definite substance of its own, which has fuelled many a doctoral thesis. But Kill Bill’s style alone won’t win him a scriptwriting Oscar to twin his earlier one, or another little swag of Oscar nominations for the actors. But Uma Thurman could get another Oscar nomination for her moments of pure exhilarating brilliance as the key protagonist out for revenge. The other actors generally play their parts with skill and often distinction (for example, Darryl Hannah’s impressive few minutes on screen, or martial arts veteran Gordon Liu) but they are essentially bit players in Uma’s grand scheme. Only she has the emotional motivation and screen time to make a real impression.

Tarantino has aimed to make one of the greatest action movies ever seen. Until Volume Two is released, it’s hard to judge. Coming to the end of Volume One is like someone ripping a pulp fiction novel out of your hands just after the mid-point climax. But even if Tarantino fails in his aim, Kill Bill is certainly something new from something old, and striking if not hugely memorable or significant. Bring on Volume Two.

3.5 flims.