A slick, stylized, glossy, brilliant and beautiful bloodfest!

Rating: 10/10 (11 October 2003)

There are those who can look at this movie and see nothing more than a huge, violent blood fest. While I can see where these people are coming from, the simple fact that they write this off as merely a bloody action film is proof of their total ignorance towards the art of film. Yes, there is a lot of violence in this film and there is a rather weak plotline. However, Tarantino does this intentionally because, in making this film, he decided that he was going to devote all of his attention to one aspect of his filmmaking technique: style.
What people fail to understand is that, artistically, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this if it is done well. Every aspect of this film uses a style so original that it is destined to change filmmaking for years to come. From his separation of the film into chapters, to his integration of Japanese style animation, to his easy transition from black and white to color in the big fight sequence, to the breathtakingly beautiful cinematography, the film plays out like nothing that has ever been seen before on the screen.
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The film follows a stream of consciousness narrative rather than a chronological one. This is a sadly underused device in filmmaking that is strangely much more popular in literature. The fact that we know after only ten minutes of the film that The Bride will successfully kill O-Ren Ishi is reminiscent of such literary works as Gabriel García Márquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold or even Thornton Wilder's Our Town. And strangely, this knowledge doesn't seem to take away the suspense we feel during The Bride's fight with Ishi and her henchmen/women. This is because of the fact that the desperation of the character's predicament (which somehow is not countered by the character's cocky attitude) is portrayed so well that we feel the desperation ourselves and become worried about the character vicariously, even if The Bride herself doesn't seem as worried as we are.
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So why choose to chop the film up and present it in a stream of consciousness format rather than chronologically? Well, one could simply say that it's all about style, but style needs to have a purpose if you're going to do it right. The stream of consciousness style forces us into The Bride's mindset so that we can relate to her more. This becomes a necessity because of the fact that the character is by nature so cold and distant that, no matter how effective Thurman's portrayal of the character may be, the acting alone can't give us the necessary sympathy for the character.
Another claim people have made against this movie is that the brutal violence and the glamorization of it is irresponsible on Tarantino's part. But, as glamorous as the film is in its portrayal of this violence, there is also an element of surrealism in this film, although it's not the surrealism we've come to expect, even in artistic and experimental films. The surrealism is in the exaggeration of certain aspects of the film, most notably the color scheme. The beautifully rich color scheme of this film is strikingly artificial to the point of being ridiculous. The Bride, who is known as the Blonde Killer, rides a yellow motorcycle and dresses in a yellow jumpsuit. This all seems far too convenient to be real. And that's the point. The artificial color scheme gives the film a sort of plastic gloss so that it becomes impossible to take things such as the violence of the movie seriously.
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There are also several other obvious examples of exaggeration which render the movie unrealistic in the mind of the viewer. The fact that The Bride survived a bullet to her head somehow, a fact which is the basis of the whole film, is utterly ridiculous. The fact that The Bride can somehow bring a samurai sword with her onto a commercial airplane and not raise any suspicion is another glaring example of exaggeration. Because of these exaggerations, the viewer is put into a separate universe with the understanding that none of the events taking place in this film have any bearing on reality whatsoever.
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So, no, Kill Bill is not just another of the mindless, testosterone-driven action films that our culture is constantly bombarded with despite their lack of artistic and intellectual integrity. The film is a masterpiece of visual style from a director who demonstrates that he knows how to carefully craft a film to best convey a sense and a feeling he wishes to get across to his audience. And most of all, we have to understand that this is an extremely experimental film in terms of style. So much so that it will not only shake up the film industry, but will entirely shatter every unwritten rule about the visual and narrative aspects of filmmaking. It is thanks to this film that we will soon see a sudden and massive influx of directors willing to experiment and stretch the limits of visual style thanks to this monumental achievement, this action packed masterpiece, from Quentin Tarantino.