Tarantino's Masterpiece About Cereal

Rating: 10/10 (21 October 2003)

As if Pulp Fiction didn't confirm it, Kill Bill finally certifies Tarantino as a genius. What is a genius? Someone who possesses uncanny knowledge of his medium, and has the inborn skills to master and tranform his artform.
With Kill Bill, Tarantino references everything from grindhouse cinema, to sphaghetti Westerns, to early Brian De Palma, giallos, and even Kurosawa's Samurai movies. However, in the process of referencing these movies, what makes Tarantino so brilliant is that he reveals the artificiality of movies, thus forcing us to laugh at, instead of be repulsed by, the copious amounts of gore and bloodshed. Why? Because all the spurting limbs, beheadings, and scalpings exist in a parallel, cinematic universe totally divorced from the real world.
To prove this point, Tarantino opens with a scene of intense bloodshed, which culminates in the Bride's first victim lying in a pool of blood, and a pool of "Kaboom" cereal. The cereal, with its fake facade, and sugary coating, is the ultimate symbol of the pop-culture world of movies which Kill Bill exists in. Just like the tacky cereal, the violence and blood in Kill Bill is so over-the-top that anyone who takes it seriously is totally misguided.
So, for anyone who argues that Kill Bill is too violent, they should stop eating cereal, and leave the rest of us to indulge in our junk food!
That, I suspect, is why Kill Bill is receiving negative reviews from some highbrow critics (The New Yorker, anyone?). Instead of referencing "high" art, such as Shakespeare and James Joyce, Kill Bill references what many refer to as trash cinema. But, the true geniuses are the ones, who, like Tarantino, see the beauty in popular culture.
Kill Bill proves that Tarantino is both insane, and brilliant.
I also suspect that after Kill Bill, Tarantino may head in a completely different direction, as he may run out of things to reference, or he may start referncing his own movies.
To all the naysayers, go watch your six hour movies about rich snobs eating and killing the masses.