Confessions of a Bibliovore

Hello, all my three readers! Do I even have that many? Ah well.

Just a movie for tonight, folks. It's late.

Movie: Kill Bill, Vol. 1
Genre: Drama? Comedy? Blood-splattering? Martial arts? Can't honestly say. Erm, okay, Action would be my best guess.
Original Release Date: 2003

I watched this last night on DVD, and I really liked it. Yes, 450 gallons of fake blood were used. Yes, there is a scene where she rips out a man’s tongue with her teeth. (Not shown, but implied, thankfully.) However, it’s also morbidly funny, beautiful to look at, and very powerfully written. Also, apparently, it’s jam-packed with homages to kung fu films that I’ve never seen, so that element was lost on me, but I still enjoyed it. Hard to pull off. The anime section especially was really neat.

I’ve seen one other Tarantino film, Pulp Fiction, and I found that I liked the same things in both--the characters, the plotting, and the visual style. So Tarantino has become an admired filmmaker for me.

I especially like the way Tarantino does characters. This could very easily have been just a gore-splatter-fest without any real element to keep us interested. However, he gives even the villains (the main ones she fights in this movie at any rate) a background and a fullness of character that I have to admire. The Bride skates close to the edge of being someone you hate, but there are a couple of moments that save her. Good thing, cuz it’s her story and there are precious few other characters to root for. (Buck who likes to f*ck? Or maybe the sheriff who calls her a c*cksucker as she lies mostly dead and beaten all to hell at his feet. Eh. Maybe we pull for the Bride because she’s the closest thing we have to a hero in the entire movie.)

The purity of her revenge quest reminds me of a Greek tragedy . . . the Oresteia coming to mind. That marvelously intellectual remark being made, I’ll say it wasn’t my idea. I read the liner notes. However, it rings true. The Bride has one aim in life, and one only--to make them pay. Not terribly complex, but powerful enough to pull us through the movie and bring us back to see “Kill Bill Vol. 2.”

Which I haven’t yet. I will.