Kill Bill turns 20. Bonus Cinematic Throwback

Twice, Quentin Tarantino completely blew my god damn mind with one of his movies. The first was Pulp Fiction, which hit in 1994 and so instantly re-wired my brain as far as what movies could be that it felt like all movies existed in either a pre or post-Pulp world. 

9 years later he did it again. Kill Bill. The early 2000s had its great movies, sure, but that 90s boom of massive, game-changing creativity had definitely faded out a lot. And then here comes Tarantino to again just blow the roof off of what a movie can be.

Kill Bill was such a massive undertaking that sometime during production it was split into 2 volumes. There was just too much here to fit it into a regular runtime, although for years we have been teased with the idea of a release that's the entire 2 volumes put together.

This was Tarantino's 1st film in 6 years, since Jackie Brown, and like that film was a tribute to a beloved B movie genre. This time it was the Samurai movie, and again, it's not even a genre I am into. But Tarantino's always been a master at making you love what he loves.

This was his 1st and still really only action movie. It's like he decided to show that he could just step in and create the great action set pieces of all time. But he hooks it to a great story too.

Uma Thurman's unnamed (for now) Bride is gunned down on her wedding day by her old assassin cohorts (led by David Carradine's Bill). She winds up in a coma, and 4 years later awakes and quickly goes on a revenge quest. 

As usual, Tarantino mixes up the timelines, throwing us into the first of Thurman's showdowns, a bloody brutal suburban fight with Vivica Fox, in the last thing she has ever done of value. Then things backtrack to Thurman in the hospital, where things get even darker (the closeup of the lube jar remains one of the nastiest things ever).

We flashback again to an origin story for the Lucy Liu character, all presented in anime, a virtuoso sequence.

The whole last third of the film is centered on the showdown with Liu, but first Thurman must have the proper weapon, so she tracks down the legendary Hattori Honzo, wonderfully played by martial arts legend Sonny Chiba.

Than it's finally off to Tokyo for the big fight. Tarantino teases out the finale so well. The anticipation is so exciting before the action even starts. And then the action DOES start and it is insane. This part took 2 months to shoot and I believe it. The fight choreography is perrlessly brilliant. And the mix of music and comedy is perfection. 

We also get the awesome one on one fight with GoGo, played by Chiaki Kuriyama as every schoolgirl fantasy object gone insane. And then the fight with Liu is great too.

Yes the film ends on a bit of a clunky cliffhanger, but what're ya gonna do?

Kill Bill is just iconically cool stuff packing the frame from start to finish. The performances are all memorable (it is criminal that Thurman didn't get at least an Oscar nom). The action is some of the best of all time. The music is fabulous (some of it became ubiquitous in other things). And the Tarantino dialogue is still as snappy and clever as ever.

This is a masterpiece of a film, which volume 2 had no chance to live up to, and it firmly stands as my 2nd favorite Tarantino film ever, and it was way up there on my list of favorite films of the 2000s.