Comic-Con Flashback: Why Kill Bill Rules
There may never be a bigger film geek also entrusted with actually making movies than Quentin Tarantino. His magnum opus, Kill Bill, stands as one of history's greatest homages -- as well as being a kick-ass action movie. Here's why we love this Comic-Con favorite.
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By Matt Patches April 20, 2011 |
| 15 | The Bride Vs. the Crazy 88's |
This is what Kill Bill Vol.1 is all about. The massacre.
The Crazy 88's (in reality determined to be a group of 82 assassins by several scientific counts) storm the House of Blue Leaves and, one-by-one, The Bride takes them down in a variety of over-the-top maneuvers, leaving a pile of blood and limbs in her wake. The original version of the scene had to be shown in black & white to avoid an NC-17 rating, and while the style choice looks cool, it doesn't match the blossoming reds spattered across yellow walls of the original.
When The Bride kills, it's on par with Pollock.
| 14 | Scalped |
Most summer movies forget that while BIG EXPLOSIONS and HYPER ACTION can be fun while diving into your popcorn bucket, sometimes the quiet fight is even more suspenseful and fulfilling.
The Bride's showdown with O-Ren Ishii is slow and methodical, the antithesis from her previous all-out battle with the Crazy 88's. Their weapons only meet a few choice times, but when they do, they make it count.
| 13 | Sophie Fatale Sends a Message |
If Sophie Fatale's life didn't suck hard enough, The Bride once again uses her as a symbol for her conquest of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, slicing off another arm and rolling her down a hill. It's like the beginning of a dirty joke -- "there once was a girl with no arms..."
| 12 | Breaking the Fourth Wall |
The original cut of Kill Bill was one singular, three-and-a-half hour movie, -- and idea that didn't fly with Miramax head honcho Harvey Weinstein. So, to be as faithful as he could to the movie he intended to make, Tarantino split his film in half.
Vol. 2 picks up with a brief, vengeance-filled monologue fired straight into the audiences' brains like a point-blank bullet. The theatrical moment may have never been intended for the original cut, but heck if it isn't badass in its colorful language and old school execution (who can resist old fashioned rear projection?).
| 11 | A Shot to the Chest |
Up to this point, The Bride (or should we say...Beatrix Kiddo!?) has had little resistance in her self-imposed mission to steamroll her enemies. A few cuts and bruises, but nothing major. With her katana, Kiddo turns baddies into mince meat and walks away to her next target.
That ended when she showed up at Bud's door.
Warned by Bill (his brother), Bud sits at his door with a shotgun, ready for The Bride's entrance. For all the graceful, stylistic moments in Kill Bill, this one is raw and out of place -- in an entirely deliberate, hilarious way.
