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Stars: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu,
Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Sonny Chiba, Julie
Dreyfus, Chak Kuriyama, Gordon Liu, and Michael Parks
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Feature length: 111 minutes
Extras: Making Of Featurette,
Bonus Music Performances By “The 5, 6, 7, 8’S”, Trailers
Languages: English DTS Digital 5.1
Theatrical Surround Sound, English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, and French
Language Surround Sound
Subtitles: English Captions and
Closed Captions and Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging: Keep Case
Chapter Stops: 19
Sound: DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical
Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year of Theatrical Release: 2003/DVD
Release: 2004
Theatrical Distributor: Miramax
Films
Home Video Distributor: Miramax
Home Entertainment
MPAA Rating: R
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
After the mega success of “Pulp
Fiction,” I think Writer and Director Quentin Tarantino suffered from a lot of
overexposure. In addition to producing several films, three of his screenplays
were already adapted into feature films shortly before and after “Pulp
Fiction” hit and he seemed to be everywhere on both the big and small screens
too. Then after “Jackie Brown” was released he suffered a sort of backlash
from the fan base he built up from “Pulp Fiction” three years earlier. I
think there were many who were expecting another “Pulp Fiction” and were
disappointed by his third feature. I also think this was nearly inevitable. The
expectations were simply too high, but I also think given some time to pass
“Jackie Brown” has garnered a larger audience and plays much better now than
it did in 1997. I think the wisest thing Tarantino ever did was to take a break
because regardless of what he was doing with his time, in 2003 people were ready
and curious to see what his next film would be.
After I watched “Kill Bill:
Volume 1” I thought to myself this is probably closer to what people were
expecting to follow “Pulp Fiction” back in the 1990s, but I also think if he
made “Kill Bill” then somehow and in someway it would not have gone over
well in part because of the cartoon like violence and in part to the possibility
that people would have labeled him as a genre filmmaker that only makes a
certain type of film and despite following his love for 70s exploitation cinema,
I would guess and hope Tarantino would eventually want to branch out more. So in
my humble opinion the time was right to release “Kill Bill: Volume 1” in the
fall of 2003. I think I’ll always prefer “Reservoir Dogs” over the other
films he has made so far, but I really enjoyed “Kill Bill: Volume 1” a lot
more than I expected to. To put it simply, “Kill Bill: Volume 1” is fun. The
film opens on action and never slows down too much to take itself too seriously.
To paraphrase what Tarantino
states in the EPK like featurette included on the DVD “The Making Of Kill
Bill: Volume 1” (22:05), he took what he liked about all his favorite 70s
films and presented them as how he would like to see them in a manner not unlike
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg finding inspiration in late 30s and 1940s
serials to create “Raiders Of The Lost Ark.” While both films could not
possibly be more different, on a basic level, I think Tarantino is right. I also
liked the way he added little extras for his fans to expand the universe in
which his stories take place like having Michael Parks and James Parks reprise
their roles as Earl and Ed McGraw as seen in “From Dusk Till Dawn” and
“From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money” respectively. For fans this gives
“Kill Bill: Volume 1” a sense of time in terms of when the story takes
place.
Four and a half years after she
was left in a coma following a massacre on her wedding day that left all she
loved dead, The Bride (Thurman) returns seeking revenge upon all who wronged her
working her way up to the main guy, Bill (Carradine). The choreography of the
fighting is terrific and if there is any one thing I wish were different, it is
that the last big battle between The Bride and the Crazy 88s were presented in
color as they were shot since one can recognize the black and white scenes from
the original full color teaser trailer. My guess is that the scenes were changed
to black and white perhaps to make the chopping of limbs and spurting of blood
seem even more removed from reality so as not to disgust an audience while also
maintaining an R rating from the MPAA. Please note that this was a guess on my
part and for all I know the black and white tinting of the fight sequence may
have been intentional from the very beginning.
I read somewhere on the Internet
last year that sometime after “Kill Bill: Volume 2” makes it’s DVD debut,
a deluxe edition of the film as a whole will be released as a multi disc set,
which seems to be pattern studios follow with select features these days. So
Miramax Home Entertainment’s “Kill Bill: Volume 1” is strictly a bare
bones release with some additional performances by “The 5, 6, 7, 8’S”
(5:51) and trailers for “Reservoir Dogs” (1:36), “Pulp Fiction” (2:40),
“Jackie Brown” (2:18), as well as the teaser trailer for “Kill Bill:
Volume 1” (1:50), the “Kill Bill: Volume 1 Bootleg Trailer” (2:33), and a
teaser trailer for “Kill Bill: Volume 2” (: 58). Within the insert inside
the keep case are liner notes by Andy Klein of “Citybeat.”
The film is presented with a
wonderful anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio and a choice between an
aggressive English DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Soundtrack and an English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack. A French Language Surround Soundtrack and
English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired as well as
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish Language Subtitles are also encoded as
options. The DVD menus feature animated transitions to standard interactive
still frames and all are easy to navigate. “Kill Bill: Volume 1” will debut
on DVD-Video on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 at retailers on and offline from Miramax
Home Entertainment while “Kill Bill: Volume 2” will debut on the big screen
on Friday, April 16, 2004.
© Copyright 2004 By Mark A.
Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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