YES! I was so tired of getting into arguments with people as to why I thought Tarintino was overrated. I don't have to worry about that any more as Kill Bill is a masterpiece.
Before we go any futher, let's make it clear that this is one movie in two parts. Volume 2 is not a sequel, it's the second half. It's an epic, brillantly directed and written, featuring amazing performances from Uma Thurman and David Carridine, great photography and editing-in fact, aside from an unessary couple of scenes near the end, it's just about perfect.
My problem with Tarintino's previous work was that it seemed like exceptionally well written but lackluster retreads of the trash movies the director loved. Although I, live everyone else admired the non-linear structure and dialouge, I thought that Reservior Dogs, Pulp Fiction, "The Man From the South" from Four Rooms and Jackie Brown did not have much to say. To me, recycled trash is still trash. They were made worse by somevery ugly, overexposed cinematography and lackluster direction. In Kill Bill, Tarintino has taken a quantum leap forward- this movie is directed, not just written. Tarintino uses every formulist device imaginable-black and white, animation, changes in aspect ratio, characters directly adressing the camera- and makes an enyclopedia of film technique. The editing is also suberb-every fight scene is complelty understandable. Further more, there is a huge leap forward in content- he takes the trash influences he loves and turns them into high art. We really believe The Bride in her quest for revenge. The movie has something to say about morality, revenge and honor, sort of like a great opera. It's also very funny and a lot of fun.
Holding all the elements together is a brillant performance by Uma Thurman as The Bride. She has to play so many different moods and feelings and hits everyone exactly on the head. How anyone could have thought that Hilary Swank deserved an Oscar for Million Dollar Baby when Thurman wasn't even nominated defies description. Matching her is David Carradine as Bill. He is a truly scary villan but a three diminsional character as well. There are so many great character performances in the movie that it would take forever to list them all, but Michael Madsen, Sonny Childs and an almost unrecgonizable Darryl Hannah particuarly stand out.
I could go on and on. Basically, I just wanted to say that I really, really loved this movie. It is one of the greatest epics every commited to screen. If I had to show someone who had never seen a movie one film to show what the cinema is capable of, I would choose Kill Bill.
Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)