Skip to main content

Film Essay: Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2

It must be said that when I became routinely aware of the existence of Hollywood films, the one name that always crossed my path and eyes was 'Kill Bill'. It wasn't very hard to guess it's genre from its poster...Uma Thurman in a yellow spandex suit with a 'killer-looking' sword were very much indicating that it was an action film and we Indians LOVE action picchhers. But I wouldn't watch it, not until a week ago and the reason was that I never quite liked those 'action picchers'. It's very UnIndian to say but I was always more into 'Drama' and other genres of movies that unsurprisingly brought me to Hollywood and World Cinema doors. And Kill Bill I had to watch it because of two people that I respect and admire very much from movie fraternity, viz. Martin Scorsese and Roger Ebert. As much as these two people were fond of each other, I was doubly in awe of them. One a master filmmaker and other, the most popular film critic of the world. They had both reviewed 'Kill Bill' and picked it in their list of 'great films' of last decade (2000-2009). And so I finally decided to give in and now let me recount my experiences with it.....

I didn't like 'Kill Bill'. Volume 1 was trying to make a momentum towards Volume 2 till 30 minutes were remaining and then 'O-Reni and crazy-88 Party Massacre' simply put me off. It stretched too long and ended too abruptly with part of O-Reni scalp flew on the stroke of Beatrix's Hanzo Hattori sword like a saucer. My primary interest going into the second volume, now when I had committed to it, was to find out who played this iconic badass guy, Bill. Now when everything got clarified in the film, I googled this 'Bill' guy. Turned out he was David Carradine in original...A prolific B-grade movie star of Hollywood and known to America for his headlining role in popular TV series of 80s, 'Kung Fu'. No big name, academy awardee, you see and although his Bill was great, his low-profile in Hollywood was yet another big reason to leave me disappointed. I couldn't even afford to like 'Kill Bill' on its face-value for it wasn't funny like hell or martial art-action heavy like some of those specialist films. It was a 'cross' and Tarantino as I got to learn later, had drawn the inspiration chiefly from Roger Corman's big-money churning B-grade movie repertoire of late 80s. Uma learnt how to fight like the starring ladies of those films and Quentin learnt how to direct them like Roger. It was a money-making exercise in disguise of a tribute (or a 'rip-off')to those genre and now greatly admired B-grade movies. It could also be my inclination towards other genres of film making that I didn't manage to like Kill Bill but hey, I liked, actually loved, 'The Raid Redemption' and Its sequel, 'The Raid'. 'Mad Max: Fury Road' completely blew my mind and these films were great because they were original and Quentin's NOT. 'Kill Bill' failed me, predictably as I can say now and then when I was just becoming conscious of my true instincts. I should have trusted them in this case!!!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

P.S. Hoffman & Joaquin Phoenix: The Master

My infatuation with the movies is well known but my involvement with the actors and their characters is even more heartwarming. There are innumerable movies that I saw simply because they featured my favorite actors, however they themselves were not great. Examples could be infinite, however for the sake of this article I'll have to produce something here. Anger Management for Jack Nicholson (boy, isn't he a legend?), Swing Vote for Kevin Costner, Snatch for Brad Pitt, Legends of the Fall (Brad Pitt), Leon: The Professional, Immortal Beloved, Bram Stroker's Dracula, State of Grace & Prick up your ears; all for Gary Oldman (mind you, he is a chameleon). Meanwhile, I started accumulating some of the finest performances by some of the legendary actors of all time. Very recently, as anyone who follows me regularly knows, I grew very much fond of the craft and artistry of Daniel Day-Lewis. He is a fine, fine actor whose study and impersonation of a character is often pictur...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Monumental 30-years Wait for Premier League Title is Finally Over for Liverpool

Finally, yeah finally. Liverpool, my beloved lads in Reds conquered the England. 30 years. It's been a long wait but this title run was worth the wait..... From the bottlers of 2013-14 to the one point loser of 2018-19, to the Champions of 2019-20; it's been a remarkable story I am chasing after since 2004-05 and I have seem many come and go but Liverpool's RED stuck to me and Jurgen Klopp's mentality monsters just bulldozed their way through the English Premiere League title after 30 years in such a way that it seemed it was never ever far away from our grasp. Manchester United, Manchester City, Everton, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur; look away now, guys.....this moment is ours to savour. There was a time when you laughed at us thinking how in hell Liverpool became 18 times champions of English Football bit this sweet 19th will remind you for a long, long time how we became 18-time English Champions at the first place. A huge shout-out to my man, Steven Ge...
Post a Comment
Read more

BBC's India's Daughter: An Indian Response

I assume you all have watched BBC's Documentary on Nirbhaya a.k.a Jyoti Singh (I don't know whether I'm legally entitled to speak up her name publicly in India or not, but let's take the risk). It goes by the name 'India's Daughter' in India, but at the same time, it's banned here. Though it was released way back on 4th March and I downloaded it right away on the very next day for my relatives but only yesterday, I got to watch it and that's only because Meryl Streep vouched for it for an elusive 'Oscars Nomination'. That's not to say that I was skeptical of its content or plot but somewhere I was afraid that I couldn't quite grasp its central idea. So let me tell you that if you are a parent or a certain male chauvinist, you can certainly do away with a strong stomach for it will certainly test your strength of character. Awaneendra who was accompanying Jyoti that fateful night, was when asked later to comment on this documentary, ...
Post a Comment
Read more