KILL BILL – VOL. 1

In KILL BILL – VOL. 1, “The Bride,” played by Uma Thurman, is a female assassin in this fourth film venture by Quentin Tarantino, director of the acclaimed movie PULP FICTION. The pregnant bride is attacked on her wedding day by her betraying group leader and boss, Bill (David Carradine), whose team leaves her and the wedding guests for dead. Unknown to the assassins, however, “The Bride” survives the brutal attack but lies in a coma for four years, apparently losing her unborn child in the process. After being repeatedly raped, she wakes up from her coma, remembers everything about her assassins and seeks bloody revenge. Her plan is to re-learn to walk, (which takes 13 hours), then locate and eliminate every member of the betraying assassin team, leaving Bill for last.

The pulp fiction KILL BILL is told in chapter format, making the narrative flow more like a book than a film. Tarantino shot the movie with edgy black and white sequences, and has included various music styles such as classical, country, and flamenco music – playing eerily over brutal scenes of violence. Limbs and heads fly in sword-fights, and blood squirts like a hose from numerous screaming, dying victims. The movie switches to Japanese anime to set up the audience for the second half of the film, which takes place in Japan.

The film ends with a cliffhanger because Miramax took a 3-hour movie and split it into two 92-minute volumes. KILL BILL – VOL. 2 is slated for release in February, 2004. Apparently, the second movie will delve into “The Bride’s” husband, the baby she was carrying, how she was found after going into hiding, and her relationship with the evil head assassin, Bill.

KILL BILL is a gory, disgusting, over-the-top, violent comic book film about hate-and-anger-driven revenge. Moral audiences that might accidentally stumble into this movie will need to take a bath immediately afterwards – to cleanse the heart and mind of the graphic images of rape and every type of violence. The worldview espouses Buddhism and other false eastern religions, as the sword master makes comments that not even the Lord, Buddha himself, would survive a fight with an opponent who used his unique sword. There is one anti-Christian slam as the rapist is wearing a cross around his neck. There is also a scene where a policeman reprimands his son for swearing in the house of God, a small church where multiple murders of a wedding party just took place.

The tone of KILL BILL falls into a trend of recent dark, depressing, and brutal movies. It’s like CHARLIE’S ANGELS on steroids, portraying angry, revenge-laden, sexy women who bear no resemblance to the wise, kind, and compassionate wives and mothers of so many movies and TV shows prior to this decade. Though movies like these are intentionally campy, they do leave a perverted, ungodly impression of angry, dangerous women in the minds of our vulnerable sons who will be drawn to the action of Tarentino’s films.

Apparently, the KILL BILL movies are designed to be an extensive homage to the martial arts movies, Japanese gangster movies, adult Japanese cartoons, and spaghetti westerns that Tarantino loves. Volume One contains some brief, powerful moments from Uma Thurman regarding the physical and emotional brutality inflicted on her character and some interesting scenes between her and the samurai sword maker played by Sonny Chuba, whose ultra-violent STREETFIGHTER movies influenced Tarantino. For most of the running time, however, Thurman’s character remains a non-entity. In fact, the rest of the movie is a wretched exercise in excess that neglects elemental story and character devices that help audiences identify with the protagonist. This is not something that truly great action movies have. If Tarantino were truly the cinema aficionado he claims to be, he would not have forgotten these basic facts of good storytelling.

Please address your comments to:

Bob & Harvey Weinstein

Co-Chairmen

Miramax Films

8439 Sunset Blvd.

West Hollywood, CA 90069

Phone: (323) 822-4100

Website: www.miramax.com

SUMMARY: In KILL BILL – VOL. 1, a female assassin attacked on her wedding day by her group leader, Bill, wakes up from a coma and seeks bloody revenge. Filmed in a pulp fiction, Japanese anime style, the movie is filled with over-the-top violence, sex, obscene language, rape, murder, false religions, and anti-Christian portrayals.