DVD/Movie Review: Kill Bill, Vol. 1

 

Kill Bill is a revenge story written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Volume 1 was released in 2003 and starred Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Chiaki Kuriyama, Vivica A. Fox, Julie Dreyfus, Daryl Hannah, and Sonny Chiba. David Carradine and Michal Madsen also appear in the movie but have much larger roles in Volume II. Volume I gives you bits and pieces of the story, but the entire story is fleshed out in Volume II.  In Volume 1, we see Uma Thurman's character (just called "The Bride") beaten and shot during her wedding rehearsal. We find out that she is attacked by the assassin squad she used to be a member of, led by the titular Bill. She awakens from a coma 4 years later and starts picking them off. Volume I introduces all the main characters (somewhat) and shows The Bride, although Bill is never shown. You just hear his voice. The story kind of jumps around a little (somewhat to the way it did in Pulp Fiction), but it is really not that hard to follow if you pay attention.

You have to know what you are getting into with a Tarantino movie. There is lots of over-the-top violence and gore, off-color humor, and bad language. If any of those are immediate turn-offs for you when choosing a movie, don't even think about this one. You will hate it. If you can accept those things and you like his other films, you will very likely love this one. Volume 1 is actually the more violent and gory of the two films, although there is a lot in both. The gore, however, is so extreme it is more tongue-in-cheek than it is real. Like chopping off arms and gallons of blood spewing out like a geyser. It is meant to be more humorous than scary and is far less believable than what you would get in a horror movie. The movie is kind of a combination of a Western, with the 1970s martial arts films. Right down to The Bride having to go through tons of subordinates to get to her main target in the climactic fight scene.

The bonus content is relatively light. There is a about 20-minute making-of documentary and trailers for some of Tarantino's other movies. Hopefully, subsequent releases will get more extensive extras, especially if Tarantino ever makes a follow-up. Ultimately, whether you like this or not is totally subjective. If you are a fan of Tarantino's other movies, this is very much in a similar vein. It definitely deserves its R rating and will not appeal to everyone. For everyone else, though, it is a great story, well acted, funny in parts (although very dark humor), and has lots of action. If those are the kinds of things that appeal to you, it is definitely worth the time to watch and/or worth adding to your physical media collection.