Quentin Tarantino's KILL BILL VOLUME 1 was released on DVD yesterday and KILL BILL VOLUME 2 will be released in theaters Friday. So low and behold here's a special Tarantino edition of film babble blog. Hope you enjoy. Ed Callistan reviews the video release and Bertie Shafer shares with us his thoughts written right after attending a advance screening of VOLUME 2. Of course we've also got lists, links, and lotsa fun stuff to celebrate the God of film geeks everywhere.
First up -
BASIC FILMOGRAPHY AND INITIAL GUIDE TO THIS BLOG
MBFB - MY BEST FRIEND'S BIRTHDAY (1987) - Don't worry - I've never heard of it either.
RD - RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
PF - PULP FICTION (1994)
JB - JACKIE ROBERTS (1997)
KBV1 - KILL BILL VOLUME 1 (2003)
KBV2 - KILL BILL VOLUME 2 (2004)
Those are the movies Tarentino has written and directed. He has been involved in a bunch of others doing acting or writing or producing duties or all three. They are :
PAST MIDNIGHT (1992) - Associate producer.
EDDIE PRESLEY (1993) - Actor.
TRUE ROMANCE (1993)
KILLING ZOE (1994) - Executive producer.
SLEEP WITH ME (1994) - Actor.
SOMEONE TO LOVE (1994) - Actor.
NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994) - Story credit.
CURDLED (1996) (executive producer)
FOUR ROOMS (1995) Actor, writer - the segment "The Man From Hollywood"
DESPERADO (1995) - Actor.
DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO (1995) - Actor.
FROM DUSK TO DAWN (1996) - Actor, exectuive director.
GIRL 6 (1996) - Actor.
GOD SAID, 'HA!' (1998) - Executive producer)
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2 : TEXAS BLOOD MONEY (1999) - Executive producer.
LITTLE NICKY (2000) - Actor.
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3: THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER (2000) - Executive produceR.
IRON MONKEY (1993) (producer) (2001 release)
But those movies won't really be what this blog is about today - The famous five movies from RD to KBV2 IS what we're talking about! So let's get to it :
THE QUENTIN TARENTINO REPORTORY ROLE CALL
Lawrence Bender - RD, PF
Steve Buscemi - RD, PF
David Carradine - KBV1, KBV2
Sonny Chiba - KBV1, KBV2
Vivica A. Fox - KBV1, KBV2
Daryl Hannah - KBV1, KBV2
Samuel L. Jackson - PF, JB
Harvey Keitel - RD, PF
Lucy Liu - KBV1, KBV2
Michael Madsen - RD, KBV1, KBV2
Tim Roth - RD, PF
Quentin Tarentino - RD, PF
Uma Thurman - PF, KBV1, KBV2
TARENTINO FUN FACT FORUM
Michael Madsen's character in RD (1992) is named Vic Vega. John Travolta in PF (1994) plays Vincent Vega. According to interviews with Tarentino they are brothers. He has spoken of making a Vega brothers movie but at this rate don't hold your breath.
The criticisms of a boy club mentality of Tarantino's early work are especially valid in RD (1992) in which there just a precious few women among the cast. Literally 2 woman appear - there is a waitress overheard and seen in the opening coffee shop scene but her face is never seen and she's not enought credited on the IMDB, the other is killed right in front of us by the supposed 'good guy' - the undercover cop trying to bust the rest of the crew. Definitely the polar opposite of a 'chick flick'.
Samuel L. Jackson said the line "this is some repugnant shit" both in PF (1994) and JB (1997).
These names are used in more than one Tarantino movie : Bonnie, Jodie, Koons, Marsellus, Scagnetti, and the before metioned Vega. We're assuming they refer to the same people in the world his movies exist in.
A more comprehensive view of the connections between Tarantino's films at this excellent site :
http://www.godamongdirectors.com/tarantino/faq/tarantinoverse.shtml
And now the film babble blog review of the brand new shiny DVD of :
KILL BILL VOLUME 1
Dir. Quentin Tarantino.
Starring : Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Sonny Chiba, Vivica Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and David Carradine.
It's obvious from the first minute where we're going here. Old '70's feature attraction titles are used directly and the music accompanying is suitably retro as well. From that we're thrust head first into a tale of a woman whose fiance is killed at the wedding chapel by international assassins. This is pure setup to a revenge plot that seems borrowed from the classic Truffaut film "THE BRIDE WORE BLACK". It's funny that when Uma introduces herself early on her name is bleeped out. She's known simply as "the Bride". One by one she tracks down and annihilates the killers (actually half of the killers on her hand written list - the second half will be taken care of in KILL BILL VOLUME 2 presumably). I would describe the plot in more detail but truth be told that's all the plot there is. This movie is basically one big scorned-woman-kicks-major-ass sequence after another. That's not to say it's not good - it's got plenty of fire in it's belly and many of the stunts and tracking shots are beautifully done and a lot of fun to watch. The downside of it is with so many slick stylized action movies in the last several years at times this can feel like a thinking man's CHARLIE'S ANGELS but at least Uma doesn't do a backwards moon-walk like Drew Barrymore did after viciously finishing off a room full of adversaries.
Driving home the notion of cartoon violence is actual animation interspersed into the action. Sonny Chiba provides another drive home to the world of martial arts cinema as the sword maker that hooks up Uma with her weapon of choice - "I need Japanese steel" the Bride says in Japanese moments after saying she knows very little Japanese. One thing is for sure - when Taratino worked as a clerk at Video Archives in Hermosa Beach, California he watched every Hong Kong martial-arts movie that was on their shelves. Uma Thurman's perfomance is mannered and precise, a true display of stoic grace that is incredibly admirable within this choas. Dialogue is spare, blood sprays like a lawn sprinkler in sheets, and punctuating rifts by the 5,6,7, & 8's all makes this a good ole time. Take it from somebody who truly wanted to hate it for honestly film geek poseur reasons - KILL BILL VOLUME 1 delivers.
DVD EXTRAS - A decent but truly inconsequential 20 minute making of featurette is the main deal here. There are trailers for all the other Tarentino flicks too and those are actually really nice to view in order. At first I was disapointed that the disc didn't have director's commentary but then recalling how Tarantino rambled on the commentary for RD (1992)going off on anecdotes unrelated to the action playing out on the screen I've concluded that that's not that fatal an ommision.
Last thought - Unless you absolutely have to own the DVD I'd recommed waiting for KBV2 to be released next fall on DVD - I have no doubt that both films will be packaged together in a deluxe edition. I know though by the numbers of sales yesterday of KBV1's DVD that the legions of Tarantino geeks just could not wait.
- Edward Callistan
Great film babble blog writer Bertie Shafer was lucky enough to see an advance screening last weekend of KBV2 in New York. I must stress up-front that Bertie is not really a fan of Tarantino - he liked RD (1992) and PF (1994) for the most part but is extremely critical of how un-prolific he is as a filmmaker and once even called him a "overrated hack" after watching Tarantino's disastrous hosting gig on SNL in 1995. Now he'll share with us his thoughts on KBV2 :
KILL BILL VOLUME 2
First off let me start by saying that unlike fellow film babble friend Ed Callistan I wasn't big on KBV1. I thought it lacked true suspense and at best it was just superficial entertainment pretending to be a big movie event. Also it bothered me that it pretentiously introduced itself as "The 4th Film By Quentin Tarantino" in the credits. I mean who the Hell else does that? Can you imagine - "The 17th Film By Martin Scorcese" in the opening credits of GOODFELLAS? I didn't think so. But if Spike Lee can get away with calling films "joints" in his credits I guess I can let it slide. What I couldn't let slide in KBV1 was the dry humorless tone and the fact that many characters were such general pop culture stereotypes of the sort that have already appeared in Tarantino's work. Take for example the redneck hospital orderly that whores out the Bride's comatose body to redneck scum for $75 a pop. Didn't we already go there in PF? The orderly even has a tacky vehicle in the form of a souped-up pickup called "The Pussy Wagon" that would not look out of place in the same garage as the chopper (Zed's Motorbike) "Grace" in PF. Also the out of sequence chronology that characterizes Tarantino's work was once innovative but now is extremely irritating and obviously a cheap device to hide a lack of a real story arc. A seedy but wise Texas sherriff when surveying the massacre that begins the entire rampage remarks "if you was a moron you could almost admire it." That pretty much summed how I felt about the flick when I saw it last year.
That said I like KBV2 quite a bit and it made me re-evaluate KBV1 to such a degree that I have to say that it now appears to me to be a fine film. You see now that I have the whole picture the 1st volume resonates with a passion and power that I cynically ignored first time around. The 4th film credit I previously bitched about now informs us that this is one big movie that is told in 2 parts. KBV2 doesn't label itself as "The 5th film..." and it's ending credits include actors that were only in the first film. It truly is the cinematic equivalent of those 2 parter TV episodes with the "to be concluded" caption that were done to death in the '70's and '80's.
There is plenty of the stylized violence of the 1st half here but what makes this work is the backstory and genuine emotion fueling the character's motives. We learn why the Bride's fiancee and entire wedding party were slaughtered, how Daryl Hannah's eye-patch came to be, what connection the Bride and Bill (David Carradine) had, and most importantly who the Bride really is - name revealed and all. Don't worry - I won't reveal any of those spoilers here I'll just say that the dialogue while tense and filled with proverbs is smoothly recited and felt by the actors especially Carradine.
A number of critics are saying that KBV2 works alone without seeing KBV1 but I disagree. I mean none of them have actually experienced that so it seems like a silly appraisal. I would say you should not see KBV2 without seeing KBV1 first and since they are out the same week albeit in different formats there's no reason why you shouldn't. KILL BILL as one big movie is a dense collection of styles and tones that will make many treasure their own obscure pop culture interests and realize that if that former video store clerk can make epic cinema out of lowbrow pulp why can't we get off our ass and create something too? At least that's how I'm thinking. But maybe I'm just a moron that admires this flick.
- Bertie Shafer
A great site that lists all the movies KBV1 & KBV2 refered to or stolen from is here :
http://www.tarantino.info/movie/killbill/articles/references-guide.htm
And of course Sarah Warner with help from us all film babble bloggers presents some Tarantino lists :
FIVE GREAT TARANTINO LINES
1. "Well, let's not start sucking each other's dicks just yet." - The Wolf (Harvey Keitel) PF (1994)
2. "I might break you in, Nice Guy, but I'd make you my dog's bitch." - Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) RD (1992)
3. "I can tell you with no ego that this is my finest blade. If, on your journey, you should encounter God... God will be cut." - Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) KBV1 (2003)
4. "AK-47. When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room, accept no substitutes" - Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson) JB (1997)
5. "What ain't no country I ever heard of. They speak English in What?" - Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) PF (1994)
FIVE MOVIES THAT RIP-OFF PULP FICTION :
(some more call them "homages" or use phrases like "in the tradition of" but let's call a spade a spade)
1. TIE - LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELLS/SNATCH (1998, 2000) - Guy Ritchie's 2 smoking Tarantino borrows more like!
2. TWO DAYS IN THE VALLEY (1996)
3. GO (1999) - When it first was released I think I remember some critic saying "this week's PULP FICTION". Snap!
4. SUICIDE KINGS (1997)
5. THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOUR DEAD (1995)
More later...
is the Green Art Nail
