...a gymnastic ballet of violence and a veritable orgy in blood.
"Kill whoever stands in thy way, even if that be Lord God, or Buddha himself." That's a slogan of the Vipers and of every martial artist in every martial-arts film ever made. I recall something like that line in the 1982 action movie "Duel to the Death," which must have been one of the single biggest influences on the American filmmaker, with everything in it from kung fu to sword fights to severed limbs to exploding body parts. In "Kill Bill" Tarantino also captures the feeling of an earlier era with sometimes cheery, sometimes downbeat, sometimes romantic seventies and eighties background music to accompany the bloodshed, occasionally turning to a Bernard Herrmann, "Psycho" oriented theme.
People like Jackie Chan, John Woo, and the late Bruce Lee would, I'm sure, love all the leaping, prancing, dancing, and flying around in "Kill Bill," a gymnastic ballet of violence and a veritable orgy in blood. Needless to say, as in all kung-fu action films, or Bond films for that matter, nobody just shoots the protagonist. Instead, the Bride must slash her way through her enemies by sword and fist, at one point facing an army of them who keep coming at her by the score, one at a time. Yes, it's fun for the moment, I admit, but I did not find it entirely satisfying in the long run.
Initially, "Kill Bill" was to be one motion picture, but Tarantino was prevailed upon to turn it into two parts when it appeared the project would be unduly long for a single sitting. In my opinion, it would have benefitted from being a single film. Given that after the first hour of this first volume, I was already getting tired of the joke, I'm convinced there is far too little material here for a pair of movies. Already we can see many scenes that appear padded and go on too long. In Volume 2, I foresee more of the same, bloodshed-for-bloodshed's sake, but I'm willing to hold judgment on the issue. Therefore, my 7/10 film rating for Vol. 1 is conditional on its being a part of a bigger entity, the second and final installment of which may or may not hold up its end of the bargain. We'll see.
Video:
The movie is presented in an anamorphic widescreen ratio measuring approximately 2.16:1 across a normal television. The video is not spectacular, but it is satisfying and free of most digital artifacts. Some moiré effects are evident from the start, but they are not annoying. The fairy-tale pastels of the opening shots are well reproduced, although overall definition is fairly ordinary for a good DVD. Most of the colors in the film are radiant and realistic, emulating the older Hong Kong films the director admires, yet there is a small degree of veiling, too. And, yes, red shows up well, in all its shades.
Audio:
The audio is available in either Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 Surround. In DD 5.1 its predominant traits are its rough glare and its mellow smoothness, depending on what is being underscored at any given moment. Tarantino often plays with the sound to copy the bright, blaring effect of the old musical soundtracks of the movies he's imitating, but just as often he keeps the music soft and resonant. The audio also has a gratifyingly deep and mellow bass, a decent dynamic range, and a moderately strong transient impact. There are a few good bumps, thumps, and crashes, naturally, and a clever mosquito buzz, as well as the sounds of sword clashes, bullets flying, and blood showering all through the listening area. These are not "Master and Commander" state-of-the-art sonics, but they do their job to keep the listener awake and aware.
Extras:
There aren't a lot of extras on the disc. The main item is a twenty-minute featurette, "The Making of Kill Bill, Volume One," with comments from the director, producer, and stars. At one point Ms. Thurman says, "This film is about justice and redemption." I would beg to differ. To me it was about slashing and slaying for the sake of viewer excitement, and dressing it up in fancy words doesn't change that. Then, there are two musical performances by the 5, 6, 7, 8's, a young, female Japanese rock group that performs in the movie playing and singing old surfer songs; a collection of Quentin Tarantino trailers, including a teaser for "Kill Bill: Vol. 2"; and nineteen scene selections. The spoken language options are English and French; and the subtitles are Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and traditional Chinese, with English captions for the hearing impaired.
I would not discount the possibility of Miramax/Buena Vista issuing a two-disc or three-disc special edition with more bells and whistles when the second installment is released on DVD. Again, we'll have to wait and see.
Parting Thoughts:
If Tarantino can do this much with blood and guts and virtually no plot, think what he could do if he set his mind to something more serious. But until that happens, like the war movie he's been working on for so long, we'll have to take what we can get, like this first volume of "Kill Bill." Well, whether you like the present movie or not, the man's still got "Reservoir Dogs," a cult hit, "Pulp Fiction," an acknowledged classic, and "Jackie Brown," a competent adventure, plus a ton of script writing to his credit, and nobody can take that away from him. "Kill Bill" is rated R for intense, graphic violence and some pretty harsh words.
Observation without comment: As of this writing, "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" had earned a domestic box-office gross of $69,902,009. During that same time, Steve Martin's "Cheaper By the Dozen" earned $137,527,680. OK, I do have to comment: What the...!!
People like Jackie Chan, John Woo, and the late Bruce Lee would, I'm sure, love all the leaping, prancing, dancing, and flying around in "Kill Bill," a gymnastic ballet of violence and a veritable orgy in blood. Needless to say, as in all kung-fu action films, or Bond films for that matter, nobody just shoots the protagonist. Instead, the Bride must slash her way through her enemies by sword and fist, at one point facing an army of them who keep coming at her by the score, one at a time. Yes, it's fun for the moment, I admit, but I did not find it entirely satisfying in the long run.
Initially, "Kill Bill" was to be one motion picture, but Tarantino was prevailed upon to turn it into two parts when it appeared the project would be unduly long for a single sitting. In my opinion, it would have benefitted from being a single film. Given that after the first hour of this first volume, I was already getting tired of the joke, I'm convinced there is far too little material here for a pair of movies. Already we can see many scenes that appear padded and go on too long. In Volume 2, I foresee more of the same, bloodshed-for-bloodshed's sake, but I'm willing to hold judgment on the issue. Therefore, my 7/10 film rating for Vol. 1 is conditional on its being a part of a bigger entity, the second and final installment of which may or may not hold up its end of the bargain. We'll see.
Video:
The movie is presented in an anamorphic widescreen ratio measuring approximately 2.16:1 across a normal television. The video is not spectacular, but it is satisfying and free of most digital artifacts. Some moiré effects are evident from the start, but they are not annoying. The fairy-tale pastels of the opening shots are well reproduced, although overall definition is fairly ordinary for a good DVD. Most of the colors in the film are radiant and realistic, emulating the older Hong Kong films the director admires, yet there is a small degree of veiling, too. And, yes, red shows up well, in all its shades.
Audio:
The audio is available in either Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 Surround. In DD 5.1 its predominant traits are its rough glare and its mellow smoothness, depending on what is being underscored at any given moment. Tarantino often plays with the sound to copy the bright, blaring effect of the old musical soundtracks of the movies he's imitating, but just as often he keeps the music soft and resonant. The audio also has a gratifyingly deep and mellow bass, a decent dynamic range, and a moderately strong transient impact. There are a few good bumps, thumps, and crashes, naturally, and a clever mosquito buzz, as well as the sounds of sword clashes, bullets flying, and blood showering all through the listening area. These are not "Master and Commander" state-of-the-art sonics, but they do their job to keep the listener awake and aware.
Extras:
There aren't a lot of extras on the disc. The main item is a twenty-minute featurette, "The Making of Kill Bill, Volume One," with comments from the director, producer, and stars. At one point Ms. Thurman says, "This film is about justice and redemption." I would beg to differ. To me it was about slashing and slaying for the sake of viewer excitement, and dressing it up in fancy words doesn't change that. Then, there are two musical performances by the 5, 6, 7, 8's, a young, female Japanese rock group that performs in the movie playing and singing old surfer songs; a collection of Quentin Tarantino trailers, including a teaser for "Kill Bill: Vol. 2"; and nineteen scene selections. The spoken language options are English and French; and the subtitles are Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and traditional Chinese, with English captions for the hearing impaired.
I would not discount the possibility of Miramax/Buena Vista issuing a two-disc or three-disc special edition with more bells and whistles when the second installment is released on DVD. Again, we'll have to wait and see.
Parting Thoughts:
If Tarantino can do this much with blood and guts and virtually no plot, think what he could do if he set his mind to something more serious. But until that happens, like the war movie he's been working on for so long, we'll have to take what we can get, like this first volume of "Kill Bill." Well, whether you like the present movie or not, the man's still got "Reservoir Dogs," a cult hit, "Pulp Fiction," an acknowledged classic, and "Jackie Brown," a competent adventure, plus a ton of script writing to his credit, and nobody can take that away from him. "Kill Bill" is rated R for intense, graphic violence and some pretty harsh words.
Observation without comment: As of this writing, "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" had earned a domestic box-office gross of $69,902,009. During that same time, Steve Martin's "Cheaper By the Dozen" earned $137,527,680. OK, I do have to comment: What the...!!
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[release]11435[/release]