Kill Bill Volume One
May. 22nd, 2004 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grrgoylI've buckled to the pressure. I've given in, ignored all my instincts and passionate anti-Tarentino feelings, and rented Kill Bill, Volume One.
I'm no prude when it comes to violence, let's make that clear. I flinched but never once turned away in Passion of the Christ. I enjoy some action films, the Terminator movies, Die Hard, etc. Among my favorite movies of all time are Fight Club, The Crow, and Saving Private Ryan. So I guess a big qualifier stands out...I don't mind violence if it has a purpose or if it is completely unrealistic. This is my major complaint with Tarentino: his violence (and there is always gobs and gobs of it) is ultra-realistic (forget for the sake of this entry From Dusk Till Dawn please) and seldom there other than for shock value. Reservoir Dogs turned my stomach more than Passion of the Christ ever could. Pulp Fiction was marginally better, but still nauseating. From Dusk Till Dawn was just a gratuitous bloodbath and an excuse to use lots and lots of guns (but we were going to forget about that, remember?)
So this was the major reason I resisted Kill Bill. That, and I don't feel any special affinity for Hong Kong fight movies (despite adoring Xena: Warrior Princess, whose fighting style was heavily influenced by them). But Tery has had her shot at the video store the past couple of weeks and come home with nothing that appealed to me: Girl with the Pearl Earring (major yawn), Osama (subtitled and depressing as hell), and Elephant (*yawn* for the first hour, although I grant you the last 20 minutes was disturbing and powerful). She hit much closer with The Life of David Gale and Love Actually, though. I was so tired of the arthouse movies that I threatened to come home with Peter Pan and both Harry Potters, movies she probably wouldn't even watch with me. But we compromised and settled on Bill.
I thought my fears were realized when even the menu was spattered with blood, but I have to say it was much, much better than I expected. The visuals were stunning. The music was exciting and kept my toes tapping through the whole movie. I loved the mixed media, split screen shots and even an entire segment done in anime. And Tarentino very considerately filmed the biggest, bloodiest battle in black and white, mercifully leaving some of the graphic nature to our imaginations. I hadn't heard a lot of spoilers about the film, but I specifically remember![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zoisite84 expressing a complete lack of desire to see someone's Achilles tendon cut, so dreaded this the most. When the scene came, it was short, quick, and completely un-Tarentino-like in its absence of gore. It didn't hurt that the "victim" certainly had it coming. This is the kind of violence I DO like -- vengeance, self-righteous vigilantism, dispensing justice because the thirst for it will never be quenched through conventional channels. This is why The Crow resonates so deeply with me; I never grow tired of watching Eric gleefully take his revenge on his unsuspecting (but fully deserving) enemies' asses. Black and white, right and wrong...if only the real world were so clear-cut.
The fight choreography was very well done, if a little too rapid-fire and blurry. Like I said, the music was well-chosen, if a little maddening, because Tarentino steals from everyone. Who would have thought skinny, ethereal Uma could be such a great female action hero? I really really like watching women who can kick major ass. My favorite part of the whole movie by far was Lucy Liu's speech after decapitating the Boss, culminating in her screaming, "Now if any of you sons of bitches...got anything else to say....NOW'S THE FUCKING TIME!!!" Chills, baby. Chills. The very minute the movie ended I wanted to see Volume Two. My only complaint with the DVD is its appalling lack of extras, just a "Making of" and videos from the band 5,6,7,8 (which I would rather have a Samurai blade plunged through my throat than watch, based on their performance in the film). No Tarentino commentary? Come ON. You just know there is a big old deluxe 4-disc special edition set with Vols 1 and 2 waiting in the wings, and I for one will not be taken in this time by the greedy movie studio's old bait-and-switch routine.
And might I add, "Here Comes the Bride" is one of the best taglines EVER for a film? (but only a film where the Bride is a master swordswoman hellbent on revenge.)
-=Lainey=-
I'm no prude when it comes to violence, let's make that clear. I flinched but never once turned away in Passion of the Christ. I enjoy some action films, the Terminator movies, Die Hard, etc. Among my favorite movies of all time are Fight Club, The Crow, and Saving Private Ryan. So I guess a big qualifier stands out...I don't mind violence if it has a purpose or if it is completely unrealistic. This is my major complaint with Tarentino: his violence (and there is always gobs and gobs of it) is ultra-realistic (forget for the sake of this entry From Dusk Till Dawn please) and seldom there other than for shock value. Reservoir Dogs turned my stomach more than Passion of the Christ ever could. Pulp Fiction was marginally better, but still nauseating. From Dusk Till Dawn was just a gratuitous bloodbath and an excuse to use lots and lots of guns (but we were going to forget about that, remember?)
So this was the major reason I resisted Kill Bill. That, and I don't feel any special affinity for Hong Kong fight movies (despite adoring Xena: Warrior Princess, whose fighting style was heavily influenced by them). But Tery has had her shot at the video store the past couple of weeks and come home with nothing that appealed to me: Girl with the Pearl Earring (major yawn), Osama (subtitled and depressing as hell), and Elephant (*yawn* for the first hour, although I grant you the last 20 minutes was disturbing and powerful). She hit much closer with The Life of David Gale and Love Actually, though. I was so tired of the arthouse movies that I threatened to come home with Peter Pan and both Harry Potters, movies she probably wouldn't even watch with me. But we compromised and settled on Bill.
I thought my fears were realized when even the menu was spattered with blood, but I have to say it was much, much better than I expected. The visuals were stunning. The music was exciting and kept my toes tapping through the whole movie. I loved the mixed media, split screen shots and even an entire segment done in anime. And Tarentino very considerately filmed the biggest, bloodiest battle in black and white, mercifully leaving some of the graphic nature to our imaginations. I hadn't heard a lot of spoilers about the film, but I specifically remember
zoisite84 expressing a complete lack of desire to see someone's Achilles tendon cut, so dreaded this the most. When the scene came, it was short, quick, and completely un-Tarentino-like in its absence of gore. It didn't hurt that the "victim" certainly had it coming. This is the kind of violence I DO like -- vengeance, self-righteous vigilantism, dispensing justice because the thirst for it will never be quenched through conventional channels. This is why The Crow resonates so deeply with me; I never grow tired of watching Eric gleefully take his revenge on his unsuspecting (but fully deserving) enemies' asses. Black and white, right and wrong...if only the real world were so clear-cut. The fight choreography was very well done, if a little too rapid-fire and blurry. Like I said, the music was well-chosen, if a little maddening, because Tarentino steals from everyone. Who would have thought skinny, ethereal Uma could be such a great female action hero? I really really like watching women who can kick major ass. My favorite part of the whole movie by far was Lucy Liu's speech after decapitating the Boss, culminating in her screaming, "Now if any of you sons of bitches...got anything else to say....NOW'S THE FUCKING TIME!!!" Chills, baby. Chills. The very minute the movie ended I wanted to see Volume Two. My only complaint with the DVD is its appalling lack of extras, just a "Making of" and videos from the band 5,6,7,8 (which I would rather have a Samurai blade plunged through my throat than watch, based on their performance in the film). No Tarentino commentary? Come ON. You just know there is a big old deluxe 4-disc special edition set with Vols 1 and 2 waiting in the wings, and I for one will not be taken in this time by the greedy movie studio's old bait-and-switch routine.
And might I add, "Here Comes the Bride" is one of the best taglines EVER for a film? (but only a film where the Bride is a master swordswoman hellbent on revenge.)
-=Lainey=-
