above and beyond expectations

Rating: 10/10 (10 November 2003)

Some spoilers included
Revenge. It is the one-word summary of `Kill Bill.' The plot could not be more transparent with the main heroine periodically reaffirming the goal: to kill all the members of the DiVAS. Yet the plot's brazen simplicity becomes the skeleton for Tarantino to build on the muscle fibers of his home-made story-telling.
The first scene of the movie explicitly introduces the story's timeframe, the 60s or the 70s. The story itself does not flow seamlessly but assumes an anachronistic sequence. The time steps are range from few days of travel to a few years of coma. Since very early on, the viewer learns of the revenge as the fuel for Black Mamba's unstoppable rage. Tarantino's manipulation with the time sequence affords a graceful flow of the movie towards the first manifestation of the revenge as the fight between Cottonmouth and Black Mamba which chronologically belongs to the beginning of the film. Alongside this adjusted timeframe the visual and cinematographic elements pick the pace as well with the final fight being the zenith of the first movie.
The visual effectiveness of `Kill Bill' is astounding throughout the film. Tarantino genius delivers the highly stylized violence with the backdrop of fluid atmosphere that seems to ooze from the screen and onto the minds of the viewers. Yet the rest of the movie fades away if compared with the Cottonmouth fight. Following the seemingly mundane and gory fight with the Cottonmouth's private army, the fight between Black mamba and Cottonmouth happens in another world. Cottonmouth's immaculately white kimono complements the tranquility of the snowed Japanese garden and the menacing snow clouds. Black Mamba's poisonous-yellow biker suite reaffirms her presence as a stark contrast and a deadly challenge to the Cottonmouth's home-world. The battle, elegant with courtesy, is perfectly timed with only other mobile element of that particular set, the snow and the fountain water. With the color scheme and the choreography the battle seems more of a phenomenon of the natural forces rather than the action of human mind. Of course, Black Mamba prevails with a coup de grace worthy of the grand fight.
Once again Tarantino has shattered the stifling cinematographic limits of Hollywood. `Kill Bill' undoubtedly is another permanent milestone by Tarantino's genius in the history of world cinema.