Kill Bill Volume 2 (2004)
Directed by Quentin Tarentino
Written by Quentin Tarentino
Starring Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Gordon Liu
Release Date April 16th, 2004
Published April 15th, 2004
Much griping ensued when Miramax decided to cut Quentin Tarantino's magnum opus Kill Bill into two pieces. I was amongst those who were dismayed by the choice, but now that both halves of the film have been released it's clear that Miramax did the right thing. As one three-and-a-half-hour film it would have been brilliant, but as two films with a total combined length of more than four hours, we see Tarantino's vision uncompromised. The fact is, Miramax could not release Kill Bill as one four-hour film, and they did us a favor by cutting it. Because of that, we get two brilliant films for the price of one.
When we last saw our vengeance-seeking heroine The Bride (Uma Thurman), she had wiped out her former associate O-Ren Ishii and 88 of her henchman in a bloody brutal martial arts sword fight. Now, she is back on the road and on her way to Bill (David Carradine). But first a revision of history. In voiceover, the Bride explains what really happened in "The Massacre at Two Pines" where she and her wedding party were wiped out by Bill and the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. In one of many scenes of brilliant Tarantino dialogue, we get the backstory of Bill and the Bride.
Back to the future, the Bride is on the trail of Bill's brother and fellow assassin Budd, code name Sidewinder (Michael Madsen). Budd has given up the assassin game and has taken a job as a bouncer at a strip club. Bill has warned him that yhe Bride is coming for him, and regardless of Budd's current state of mind, he's still very dangerous. Budd is more than ready when the Bride arrives which leads to a torture scene that is like a film school class in sound editing and building tension. After knocking the bride unconscious, Budd loads her in a coffin and buries her alive, but not before yet another brilliant but of Tarantino dialogue as Budd offers the bride a flashlight. Claustrophobia has never been so well rendered on screen.
This leads to another flashback, this one taking us back to the Bride's training with the legendary master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu). The master is a brutal taskmaster who, we are told hates Americans, white people, and women. This, of course, makes our hero's training that much more difficult. This series of training scenes have been rendered in any number of classic kung fu movies and Tarantino manages to evoke the look, feel, and sounds of the films he is sampling from.
Needless to say, the Bride escapes from her premature grave and is soon back on her quest for vengeance with Budd and Elle (Daryl Hannah) standing in her way. Budd's end is a little disappointing, but the Bride's fight with Elle is arguably the best of both films. Daryl Hannah gives a comeback performance worthy of Travolta’s in Pulp Fiction. Elle's habit of writing everything in a tiny notebook is the kind of little quirk that most screenwriters neglect; the kind of quirk that makes an average character a memorable character. Hannah has a terrific monologue that she recites directly from her notebook.
Of course, the film’s centerpiece is the confrontation with Bill and to describe any further is to describe too much. Suffice it to say that it lives up to and in fact exceeds expectations with a legendary Tarantino dialogue exchange. The words between Bill and The Bride are better than most fight scenes and the finale is quick but very satisfying.
Where the first film was an exercise in style and direction, with little of Tarantino's trademark dialogue Volume 2 makes up for lost dialogue by providing some of the best screenwriting we have seen since Pulp Fiction revolutionized the art form. Kill Bill is proof that the auteur, the director whose vision is complete from script to screen is where film d'art still lives. Say what you will about great screenwriters, it takes a director to create art and Tarantino is the pre-eminent artist of our time.
Mixing genres from a noirish opening credit and direct-to-camera black and white sequence, to Sergio Leone-style western vistas, to more of the first film’s kung fu grind house vibe, Tarantino is like a club DJ, but instead of mixing Elvis Costello into Public Enemy, he mixes Michael Curtiz into Sergio Leone into Kurosawa. Call it film sampling if you want; the result is a work of art that belongs solely to Tarantino.
