I would pay $6.00 to watch this movie
The good news is, “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” is my second favorite Quentin Tarantino movie so far. The bad news is, it is a relatively distant second place. The strange thing is, I absolutely adored much of this movie, but there were so many grating, irritating things about it that I just can’t call it a great film.
Let’s start with the good stuff. The cinematography is astounding. I mean to say, what Tarantino lacks in other areas he more than makes up for with the sheer visual creativity he exhibits in his films. This has been true for his entire career, but his compositional genius really shines in “Kill Bill: Vol. 1”. An example is the first cut of the film, where we go from a gritty, ultra-violent scene of the main character bloody and beaten to a crisp, Technicolor suburban neighborhood visually reminiscent of an oil tanker made of Skittles. This really drew me in, and Tarantino managed to maintain this surreal brilliance throughout the remainder of the movie, going from this delicious candy-coated world to the fluorescent hell of a coma word, and from there to the stylishly sleek Yakuza world in which we spend the latter half of the movie. Overall, this was the most amazing aspect of the movie, and it truly does take one’s breath away.
Before I delve into the nasty part, let’s cover the breakdown. The acting is good, the editing is well done, the writing and dialogue are OK for the most part and the visuals are gorgeous. The cartoon sequence was inspired, and really amazingly well done. The characters in this movie are caricatures drawn, essentially, from all the cheesy Blaxploitation and B martial arts films of the 1970s and 1980s, and they’re silly and fun to watch.
However, the real sticker of this movie is the score and the soundtrack. The problem isn’t the quality of the music, it is the volume and the bad placement of the songs. About halfway through the film, the music becomes just plain obnoxiously loud and distracting. It’s almost as if Tarantino’s goal with this movie is to overload all the senses of his audience and beat them into submission. Well, it doesn’t work. It just made me want to kill Quentin, as it were.
Another beef I have with the soundtrack is the fact that RZA did it, apparently. Now, I don’t know how much creative control he was given but, in comparison to his other work, this was pathetic. To draw a metaphor, the songs in “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” are to RZA’s other work as The Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian” is to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”.
One last bone I have to pick with this movie is the character of Hattori Hanzo. Those of us who know a little history of Japan got very excited when we heard that Sonny Chiba was to play a character named “Hattori Hanzo”. For those of you who didn’t know, Hattori Hanzo was an almost legendary ninja who fought for the Tokugawa clan in the 16th century. However, it appears that Tarantino used only Hanzo’s name, as Sonny Chiba’s character was a weaponsmith cum sushi chef. Not only was I disappointed to see Chiba in such a bit role, but a role with such a great name! This was a shame.
The main thing I left “Kill Bill: Vol 1” with was a desire to see “Kill Bill: Vol. 2”. I would really suggest this movie for anybody who wants a bit of light entertainment and can tolerate lots of spraying gore and a bit of sensory overload. However, I must chastise Quentin Tarantino, as this could have been a really great film, but it falls just short.