You people are seeing it all wrong (not all of you)!!!!!!

Rating: Null/10 (26 December 2003)

Funny, i registered purely in order to write this review, which isn't really a review rather a comment on how people are seeing this movie. There are spoilers, but before we get to those i want to say something to all those who are going to see this movie. The truth is, in order to enjoy this movie or even understand it, you need to free yourself of your preconceptions of what film is and get back to the basics. Film is, in its purest essence, a fine art, and it tries to do what all fine arts try to do: convey the desired emotion. Plot, mise en scene, soundtrack - these are devices, and it is my opinion that QT, as he is afectionately referred to here, is in full mastery of all these elements.
Ok, now i'm going to talk about the movie.
So far there have been these complaints: It is too slow. There is no plot (which isn't true, but the plot is very simple, so it gives off that impression). There is too much violence/gore. The editing is annoying. And in the end, it really just comes down to "what is all the hype about?"
And the truth is, all these things are right on, or at least right to a point. The plot is very simple, compared to all of QT's other movies (except maybe From Dusk till Dawn, and i know he only wrote that but it still counts). It is slow. The editing is troublesome at points. There is an immense amount of gore, in fact a cartoonish amount (you start to wonder if there is really that much blood in the human body).

What makes the movie so great is that all these things are purposeful...they are all tools for the end result, which if you stand back and take a look at it is quite monumental. The plot is simple because the bride's existence is centered around a single point - avenge her daughter, her husband and herself. The simple plot thus thrusts us, the viewer, into that sort of single pointedness. Likewise, all the other elements of the story fit together in that sort of fashion.
Of course, the fact that these parts of the story work together wouldn't by themselves make this a great movie. Rather, it's greatness comes from the fact that at heart this is a cartoon which takes itself with utmost seriousness...and in the end, it deserves it. A wedding is destroyed, seemingly without reason. A young child has her family murdered before her eyes, and she needs to sleep her way to the top of a japanese gang at 11 years old in order to get her revenge. A coma patient is pimped out over and over again for over four years to anonymous clients. This is what makes up Kill Bill...in essence, it needs the cartoonish elements to even make it watchable.
But the movie isn't about happiness. The movie isn't even really about the plot. Rather, it's about all the little scenes tha tmake your spine tingle. Like when The Bride tells, very evenly to Vernita Green," Get even? Even steven? No no...i'd have to kill you. then i'd have to go upstairs and kill your daughter. then i'd have to wait here till your husband, the doctor, comes home and kill him. That would be even. that would be about square." Or when Hattori Hanso says "I say with no pride this is the finest sword i have ever made. If god shoudl come across your path, you should cut him down." Or when The Bride wakes up from her coma, and realises that she's not pregnant anymore, and she completely breaks down. I can't remember being that sad in a long time.
No, the real greatness of the movie comes from all the little lines that sparkle, all the little glances that rob your attention blind. The litle siren sound whenever The Bride sees an old 'freind'. The way she calmly claims all the body parts she 'removed' from her victims in the House of the Blue leaves. Even the somewhat operatic opening credit sequence, where they introduce the entire cast of the movie and what parts they play.

And of course, the action scenes kick ass.