WHY KILL BILL IS A BAD FILM

Rating: 2/10 (20 October 2003)

RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION hit a chord with filmgoers. An imaginative script and fresh storytelling were a breath of fresh air in the stale environment of contemporary filmmaking. However, what many predicted has come to pass. Tarantino has revealed his lack of depth and world view; what was thought to be a keen insight into universal truths has turned out to be just visual glibness.
It has been stated that KILL BILL is an homage to the martial arts genre. If it is, it is no more useful than an homage to oil-on-velvet paintings. The martial arts genre is about NOTHING other than exotic cinematic action pretending to be treatises on honor and revenge. Tarantino has tried to say that this is important in the grand world view of things. If revenge is the theme, then it would have been better to copy the films of Kurosawa.

While Tarantino obviously has a vast knowledge of films due to his years of watching videos, he lacks as a filmmaker a world education. Hinted at in RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION and clarified by KILL BILL is the fact that Tarantino knows very little about the world, human life, human desires, and love. He is the outsider looking in -- looking through distorted glass -- and trying to copy what he sees. Trying to copy (and do one better) the martial arts genre is the perfect example of someone with a very narrow cinematic vocabulary who has run out of "words."
It was extremely disappointing to see a filmmaker squander a chance at making a quantum leap in storytelling. Instead Tarantino has returned to his lonely room and engaged in cinematic masturbation.