Uma Thurman lives in a world where gender rules do not apply, where violent revenge is the only solution to personal wrong-doings and where one woman can single-handedly kung-fu fight her way through a room of more than 50 masked men. And where the final, and only goal is to "Kill Bill."
"Kill Bill - Volume 1," the highly anticipated fourth film from director Quentin Tarantino is, without a doubt, a brilliant work. It is also an extremely violent film. But violence, which has become a trademark of Tarantino's films, is in no way gratuitous and actually contains stylistic merit here.
Thurman plays a former member of the Viper Assassination Squad and is known as the Black Mamba, or simply, for soon-to-be explained reasons, the Bride. The V.I.P.S. are a group of elite and highly skilled assassins headed by Bill (David Carradine), who was also the Bride's lover. Through flashback we learn that after the Bride left the V.I.P.S. in pursuit of a normal life, Bill and his squad arrived at her wedding to assassinate her.
Despite a severe beating and a bullet to the head, the Bride did not die, but lay in a coma for four years.
When she discovers upon waking that a creepy hospital warden has been selling her inanimate body for sex, the Bride decimates him, even without the use of her legs. Stealing his car, aptly entitled the "Pussy Wagon," she becomes determined to exact revenge on those who tried to kill her. The Bride spends the rest of this film killing off two of the four members of the V.I.P.S. who were involved in the massacre at her wedding.
But this is only half the film. The conclusion will not arrive until February of next year. Because Tarantino felt the film was too long, it was decided after its completion to cut "Kill Bill" into two parts to be released separately. A money-making ploy? Perhaps, but sitting through a three-hour-plus film chock full of violence probably would not settle well with anyone. And this means that we get to experience the anticipation created by the cliff-hanger ending to Volume 1.
Stylistically this is a truly innovative film. Inspired by B-quality Westerns, Chinese martial art films and Japanese samurai and anime movies, Tarantino has created a world unlike any other. To explain the childhood of one of the assassins, O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), Tarantino employs an extended and notably bloody anime sequence. This sequence might feel out of place in any other film, but after watching it in "Kill Bill," one cannot conceive explaining O-Ren's childhood in any other manner.
The film, in a way that is unexpectedly similar to "The Matrix," centers around the fight scenes. The final 30 minutes of the film depict the Bride fighting her way past O-Ren's goons to reach the assassin herself. The final battle between the Bride and O-Ren is beautifully filmed and, oddly enough, almost poetic.
Thurman's character is one of the coolest characters that has ever existed in film. She resides in a world where men and women are so equal that the notion of gender equality doesn't even exist. She can defeat both men and women, although the women certainly appear to have more skill and stamina than the men in the film. Thurman fights her way through the movie with grit and determination in such a way that we are sure she will succeed.
It should be noted that "Kill Bill - Volume 1" is not for the faint at heart. The violence contained in this film is beyond graphic, and the plot requires this violence to progress. Tarantino treats the bloodshed with a certain amount of respect and employs it only when necessary; however, moments of the film are certainly difficult to experience.
This is arguably Tarantino's best film, and one of the best films of the year. It will be a long wait for Volume 2, but it will absolutely be worth it. Of all the films currently available for public viewing, this is the one to see.
