Kill Bill: Vol. 1 Movie Review

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

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Written by: Quentin Tarantino, Q (Quentin Tarantino) & U (Uma Thurman) (the character The Bride)
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
After awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.

Verdict
I appreciate what Tarantino accomplishes with this concept. He takes the very low budget action movie genre that is by definition inferior and elevates it to something that feels legitimate. It's no easy task, but this is style over substance to such a high degree you forget this is in essence Tarantino showing off. When you're this good, it's not indulgent. Still, I don't care for the excessive nature of the genre, the sound effects, the buckets of blood & gore, and general slapstick style.
It depends.

Review
This was conceived as a single film, but instead of cutting the length down it was split into two movies. I never liked that it was split as it feels like a cash grab, but with the length of each part the split makes sense. Unfortunately, you can't watch Vol. 1 without then watching Vol. 2.

Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Lucy Liu play the Deadly Vipers.

Tarantino wanted to make an action movie as a homage to low budget grindhouse films. From the start this is certainly that. With very stylized action, quick cuts, and lots of sound effects, the movie is very indulgent. It's try hard which the cheap '70s action movies were, but this doesn't come across as cheap or a budget movie. It's difficult to do that and make it feel quality. Low budget movies do things like this and it comes off cheesy, but somehow this movie makes it work. 

There are more than a few nods to other movies with Uma's famous yellow jump suit being the most overt. It's a reference to Bruce Lee in Game of Death (1978).

Uma Thurman plays The Bride.

This kind of movie is something that only a director with a few hits can make. An unknown director wouldn't get this kind of latitude. There's an animated sequence in the middle of the movie. There are a lot of feet shots which I don't like, but that is Tarantino's thing.
It's a gamble, but with Tarantino people were going to watch whatever he made. The plot is simple, The Bride (Uma Thurman) is out for revenge. She's going to kill everyone that wronged her.

This shot included only because it features a Z32 300ZX.

The most impressive thing might be how much I like this and knowing that almost any other director would have made something I outright disliked. Tarantino walks a fine line with a very indulgent movie that's still engaging. This just isn't something every director can do. The fight with O-Ren Ishii's (Lucy Liu) protege is really well directed, from the sound to the shots and pacing. It then devolves into madness. I'm guessing the change to black and white was to appease the ratings review. In black and white the blood looks black which would likely appease the review if they ruled there is too much blood. There's a lot of blood.

Being split, this ends in a nice spot. If you didn't know it had two parts, you'd almost think this was a suitable ending.

My favorite Tarantino movie is The Hateful Eight. I don't really like this movie, but I appreciate what Tarantino accomplishes. This is how you take budget action movie style that is known as inferior and elevate it to something that feels legitimate. This is style over substance. Tarantino showing off, but when you're this good, you get that opportunity.