A pop extravaganza

Rating: Null/10 (20 October 2003)

All pop culture of the last 30 years collides in a carnival of color, motion, violence, and sound in "Kill Bill, Vol. 1," perhaps the most unique action film since "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
Quentin Tarantino once said that "Pulp Fiction" was not based on real life, but on movies. It was a tribute to the fantastic and the exaggerated--all banter and witticism and sex and drugs and blood. "Pulp Fiction" didn't just breathe new life into movies. It brought them back. There is no more apt way to express it than that. It established a new way for film, laid a new road between the glitz of big-budget Hollywood and the stodginess of indie cinema--both of which were choking on their own dullness. It found the synergy between pop and art more than any film of our time.
Countless filmmakers have followed Tarantino's path since, but "Kill Bill" proves emphatically that none can navigate its twists and turns with the aplomb and vitality of the creator. "Kill Bill," like "Pulp Fiction," is an unapologetic tribute to the heightened reality of the screen. Tarantino ecstatically glorifies the genre films which make up his inspiration: film noir, spaghetti Western, kung fu, '60s biker movies, even animation. What makes "Kill Bill" special is that we feel the same ecstasy.
"Kill Bill" is arguably the single most violent major motion picture release in American history. The kung fu sequences are breathtaking ballets of dismemberment, capturing the voluptuousness of carnage as well as any John Woo or Sam Peckinpah sequence.
The soundtrack and score are stunning, with Wu-Tang Clan's the RZA providing the original music. Just as he enhanced the somber "Ghost Dog" with gritty, tragic rhythms and melodies, he embellishes "Kill Bill" with flamboyant, aggressive movie music.
The cinematography and production design are as striking and daring as anything you've seen in recent memory, and awards are sure to come in those categories.
But for all of this, I find myself marvelling at just how good the underappreciated STORY of this film is. Like kung fu and spaghetti Western films, it is a fable of violence and revenge--relying on its simplicity for impact. You sort of have to be a fan of these genres to "get" this, but if you do indeed get it, this becomes perhaps the most heartfelt of Tarantino's tributes. It is a recognition of films as more than entertainment, that basic moral themes of truth and justice can run underneath even the glossiest and most appallingly violent exterior.