Sunday, September 23, 2018

Kill Bill Vol.1

Movie Name: Kill Bill Vol. 1
Year of Release: 2003
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Julie Dreyfus, Chiaki Kuriyama, Chia-Hui Liu, Michael Parks, Michael Bowen, Sonny Chiba, Kenji Oba
Genre: Action, Crime
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 8
Watch it on Amazon

Synopsis and Review:
After his Elmore Leonard adaptation, "Jackie Brown", director Quentin Tarantino returned with one of his splashiest and most successful features, "Kill Bill", written in collaboration with his muse, Uma Thurman. The film follows the story of the Bride, a young woman who used to work as a hired assassin, and who decided to leave that lifestyle behind, upon knowing she was pregnant. Her boss and lover, the feared Bill, never knew of why she left, and tracks her down on the eve of her wedding day. What follows is a bloodbath, which results in the Bride being in a coma for years. When she wakes up she goes on a revenge spree, starting with Vernita Green, quickly followed by the dangerous O-Ren Ishii. 
"Kill Bill Vol.1" is a film that marries a lot of what has influenced Quentin Tarantino's tastes in films throughout out the years. There's a marriage of the B-Movie aesthetic and violence, with French gangster films, Martial Arts, and of course, his immediately identifiable verbiage and colorful supporting characters. "Kill Bill" (both volumes, since they are indeed one single film), is a melting pot of all that Quentin Tarantino seemingly pursues in his career, with a multitude of characters, all of which seemingly have interesting backstories worth pursuing in films of their own. That's always been one of his strongest aspects - the ability to give characters (and consequently actors), richly realized traits and backdrops, where they can draw upon to bring them to life. "Kill Bill Vol.1" is also cartoonish violent, impeccably choreographed, and easily one of the most aesthetically fascinating films of his career. It features a fantastic cast, but Uma Thurman easily makes the action her own, giving her central character a mix of vulnerability, strength and humor, unlike anything she had done before (or has done since). The cinematography from Robert Richardson is stunning (as usual), and the editing of the late Sally Menke is spot on. A fun, emotional and over the top film from one of the most unique voices in cinema. Worth watching.

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