I didn’t expect to enjoy this
movie much but it was surprisingly entertaining. Despite the lack of both plot
and characters and the absence of good dialogue the visual style, pacing and
athleticism kept me watching. Usually endless fighting sends me to sleep but
the vein of utter ridiculousness here piqued my interest – just what were they
going to do next? The absurd fountains
of blood that somehow sprayed forth from bodies took me back to the Monty
Python ‘Salad Days’ sketch where the gore effects of Peckinpah were satirised. Then the fake blood only dribbled and squirted
out feebly by comparison. (If you haven’t seen the sketch think of the arm
severing of the Black Knight in Monty
Python and the Holy Grail.) Technical note: this crazy looking effect is said
to have been created originally by using fire extinguishers what maniac thought that up?
There are many points and
questions of unreality throughout. For example I have to ask why, O-Ren,
criminal mastermind of Tokyo, do you fight your nemesis in an impossibly
hobbling, if immaculate and glamorous, kimono?
And what about the likelihood
that only the lower half of the Bride’s body has been affected by her long stay
in bed and her arms etc work just fine.
And the fact that she is in the dead guy’s car practising her walking
all that time when his body is lying about in the hospital ready to be
discovered. I don’t think Tarantino cared at all, as so many subsequent film
makers do not care for any semblance of reality. As long as the audience is
engaged by the imagery, who cares?
Part of this movie is an animated
sequence, disposable in story terms, depicting the back story of O-Ren. In a
way this almost seems more realistic than the live action scenes. To add to the mix there are some black and
white scenes that for me detracted from the visual experience.
I’ve been slow to write this
review because I felt I needed to do some research to try to explain the
strange salad before me. I know now where Tarantino was getting his ideas. I
even watched a bit of Death Rides a Horse on Youtube.
What Tarantino does is a mix of parody
and homage and lacks original creativity in so many ways while being brilliant
in one or two ways. But I liked the fact that Kill Bill has so much front. I
like that Tarantino tried something so different from Pulp Fiction though he limits himself in the only other Tarantino
movie I have seen, Django Unchained, to a further homage to the spaghetti
western and a simple (if different) revenge story. Seems he decided writing a
good script was too much trouble and people only really wanted to see not hear.
I’m just going to drop in that I
think the lost-baby-sparking-female-revenge idea has been reused in a small way
by the Preacher TV show which I don’t think could exist without Tarantino and
spaghetti westerns.
Naturally I will be watching Kill
Bill part 2 – it didn’t seem to be downloadable from Netflix last time I looked although they had it up a short while ago.
|
Zoe Bell who actually does all the cool fighting stuff. She's been in her own movie but it looks absolute shite. She does a good mean face and looks very scary to me even when she isn't trying Don't cross her |
| Lucy Liu plays O-Ren who just isn't practical, but looks immaculate as she dies |
| Uma Thurman poses about a lot and does some B movie acting as required. Job done. |
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