There can be no doubt that Quentin Tarantino is cut from a very different, very unique cloth. Fables of his experiences toiling away at video rental stores in his younger days clearly exposed him to more cinematic forms than any academic course could possibly achieve. His exhaustive viewing of B-grade movies was not merely a self-indulgent pleasure. He was subconsciously, or perhaps fully consciously, cataloguing any number of camera techniques, fictional landscapes and diverse means of visually presenting a story. Poised for the day when his eclectic tastes would receive carte blanche and his fantastical reveries would finally be indulged, Tarantino's creative mind lay in wait until he exploded onto Hollywood and developped a trusty canon of acclaim to fall back on.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 represents a kind of epiphany for Tarantino, a chance to splatter as many cinematic influences and geek pop references into one movie as he possibly can. Destined to polarize those who cannot get past its copious violence with those who revere the martial arts form above all other genres, the filmmaker has clearly drawn a narrative line in the sand. On the one hand, it is easily his weakest project both story-wise and in terms of identifying with his characters; on the other hand, his confidence in the material is so palpable and the presentation so well-executed, it's impossible to dismiss its obvious merits.
The principal character is the Bride, played by Uma Thurman. An assassin by trade, on her wedding day she has apparently been attacked by her leader, Bill (David Carradine, whom we only really catch a tiny glimpse of), and ends up in a coma (the flashbacks throughout the film merely provided clues, presumably to be answered in the second volume). When she wakes up four years later, she decides to make a list of her five targets, namely the members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. Among them are O-Ren Ishi/Cottonmouth (Lucy Liu) and Vernita Green/Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox), two tough as nails fighters who are targeted and confronted by the Bride. The other three (Carradine, Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah) are being saved for Volume Two.
Visually, the film is never short of riveting. Writer/director Tarantino deploys every weapon in the arsenal, from a gruesome animated sequence (which, I must confess, lingers with me the most), to a black and white action montage when the Bride gets to work taking on a sea of attacking lackeys. There is a lot of care in the presentation of each scene, from colour schemes and costumes, to set design and fight choreography. It comes across as a martial arts ballet thrown into a music video blender.
However, this style choice also becomes one of the movie's biggest flaws. Knowing how gifted a writer and storyteller Tarantino is, we wait for explanations to clues or connections to flashbacks that never materialize. There is simply the assumption that we are meant to associate with Uma Thurman as the heroine and that is all we need to know (to be fair, some of the action sequences are so eloquent, we momentarily tend to forget about much else). The disappointing simplicity of the screenplay means that, unlike most other movies comprised in a series, Kill Bill: Volume 1 does not really stand on its own. Given it was originally produced in one complete volume but deemed too long by either Miramax's distribution people or by Tarantino himself, it is completely dependent on its second half to be fully entertaining.
When it was first released, there was a lot of critical cheer for Uma Thurman's portrayal, but I must confess I found it difficult to evaluate her effectiveness because she comes across more like a fixed, Hitchcock-like performer, merely being pulled this way and that by her brilliant puppeteer. The rest of the cast, including the legendary Sonny Chiba, seems to be savouring their noble and/or villainous roles and their exuberant glee comes across most of the time. In the end, although I have not yet seen the second installment, Kill Bill: Volume 1 currently stands as my least favourite Tarantino film. Be that as it may, I'll take my least favourite of his films over most other generic pieces of schlock that are being produced these days.
