Sep 13, 2004 04:29 PM
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(Updated Sep 15, 2004 05:44 PM)
In November 2003 I had this to say about Kill Bill Volume 1 '' it is senseless, soulless and a horrible movie'' (https://mouthshut.com/readreview/47050-1.html) and I thought there was no chance I was going to see Volume 2. May 2004, I was in New Jersey and on one very boring day, I had nothing to do but walk to the theatre and watch a movie. There wasn't much of a choice, I had to choose between Kill Bill and Troy, I had already seen the latter, so I was forced to watch this movie.
I didnt have any expectations, 10 minutes into the movie, I was interested, infact more than interested and I was thanking myself for coming to watch this movie. 2 hours later I was out of the theatre and the first thing I told my friend was that the movie was AWESOME and Quentin Tarantino is definitely the Legend people call him. The movie was haunting, the score was mesmerizing and the acting stunning.
I had never been so in awe of a movie after I watched it. It was scintillating. I liked the movie so much that 3 months later I listen to the soundtrack every day, have bought the DVD (features interview with QT and the cast + one live performance by Robert Rodriguez) and I am searching nearby video libraries for QT's earlier movies.
Lets get to what I liked and what I didnt.
The story takes off from Volume 1, here is the official storyline
''After dispensing with former colleagues O-Ren Ishii and Vernita Green in Kill Bill Vol. 1, the Bride (Thurman) resumes her quest for justice in the series' second installment. With those two down, the Bride has two remaining foes on her 'Death
List' to pursue - Budd (Madsen) and Elle Driver (Hannah) - before moving on to her ultimate goal... to kill Bill (Carradine).''
The movie opens with the Bride's monologue while she is driving, the monologue ends with ''..and iam gonna (pause) Kill Bill''. The sequence is shot in black and white and then the Bride narrates what actually happened at the wedding Chapel. The sequence in the chapel between her and Bill just shows the kind of filmmaker QT is. The stillness is compelling, the tension in the situation is as much to the Bride on screen as to the viewer(as we know what transpired after that).The sequence ends with the massacre, but unlike VOlume 1 the violence here is implied, as the camera moves out and we are shown an aerial outside shot of the church. QT is a man so in control of the cinema he makes, he is a Master filmmaker.
The Bride's next target (first of the three in this movie) is Budd, Bill's brother, brilliantly played by Michael Madsen. One of the most stunning scenes in the movie comes at this point.When the Bride waits outside the trailer truck and with all the
caution in the world she opens the door and BOOOM(we see Budd firing a shotgun). She is propelled 10 feet back and lands with a thud, blood on her chest. Budd is not that easy a guy to do away with. Moments later we see the Bride being burried alive and Budd making a deal for the Hatori sword with Elle Driver.
The suffering she undergoes buried alive in a coffin shown brilliantly by just showing the darkness in the coffin and the sounds of the Bride crying helplessly, trying to break through . We then flash back to the Bride's training days with Pai Mei, her tutor. The sequence feels like it is straight out of a samurai movie but QT makes it such fun. The sequence ends with the Bride breaking through
the coffin. You have to see the movie to experience the way this movie has been made, it is a celebration of cinema.
Elle then gets rid of Budd, this is yet another instance where no one was expecting it, intelligently done .And for those who want action, there is hardcore action between the Bride and Elle Driver, the fight is raw and gruesome and the way it ends, half the crowd would say 'yuck!'.
After all this the Bride has one last opponent Bill himself, but when she reaches him, there is a huge surprise both for the Bride and the viewers. I wont explain this any further, you have to see to enjoy it. The movie ends fittingly.Finally she is
given a name too, Beatrix Kiddo, as if to symbolize the emergence of her true self.
This movie is definitely a masterpiece and QT is a master filmmaker. His brilliance coupled with Uma Thurman's scintillating, and fierce acting makes this a must see for everybody. Every single character is characterized well and I feel
David Carradine (Bill) and Uma Thurman have given the performance of their life. Uma Thurman deserves an Oscar for her role, nobody else could have done the role half as good as her.Robert Rodriguez score is what you can say soulful, it is one of the best scores ever for movies.
This is my Movie of the year (followed by Spiderman 2).
If there is just one movie that you are going to watch this year, it should be this!
The enigma
