Kill Bill is a two-part American action film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.
Volume 1[]
Plot[]
Cast[]
Production[]
Quentin Tarantino intended to produce Kill Bill as one film. With a budget of $55 million, production lasted 155 days. Harvey Weinstein, then co-chief of Miramax Films, was known for pressuring directors to keep their films' running times short. When Tarantino began editing the film, he and Weinstein agreed to split the film into two. With the approach, Tarantino could edit a fuller film, and Weinstein could have films with reasonable running times. The decision to split Kill Bill into two volumes was announced in July 2003.
Reception[]
Kill Bill: Volume 1 was released in theaters on October 10, 2003. It was the first Tarantino film in six years since Jackie Brown was released in 1997.[7] In the United States and Canada, Volume 1 was released in 3,102 theaters and grossed $22 million on its opening weekend.[8] It ranked first at the box office, beating School of Rock (in its second weekend) and Intolerable Cruelty (in its first). Volume 1 was the widest theatrical release of Tarantino's career to date,[9] and it was also his highest-grossing opening weekend to date. Previously, Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction (the latter released in 1994) had each grossed $9.3 million on their opening weekends.[7] Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, said Volume 1's opening weekend gross was significant for a "very genre specific and very violent" film that in the United States was restricted to theatergoers 17 years old and up.[9] According to the studio, exit polls showed that 90% of the audience was interested in seeing the second volume after seeing the first.[10]
Outside the United States and Canada, Kill Bill Volume 1 was released in 20 territories. The film outperformed its main competitor Intolerable Cruelty in Norway, Denmark and Finland, though it ranked second in Italy. Volume 1 had a record opening in Japan, though expectations were higher due to the film being partially set there and having homages to Japanese martial arts. The film had "a muted entry" in the United Kingdom and Germany due to being restricted to theatergoers 18 years old and up, but "experienced acceptable drops" after its opening weekend in the two territories. By November 2, 2003, it had made $31 million in the 20 territories.[11] Kill Bill Volume 1 grossed a total of $70 million in the United States and Canada and $110.9 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $180.9 million.[8]
For Volume 1, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 85% based on reviews from 218 critics and reports a rating average of 7.7 out of 10. It reported the overall consensus, "Kill Bill is nothing more than a highly stylized revenge flick. But what style!"[12] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 69 based on 43 reviews.[13]
A. O. Scott of The New York Times said Tarantino's previous films Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown were "an exploration of plausible characters and authentic emotions". He wrote of Kill Bill Volume 1, "Now, it seems, his interests have swung in the opposite direction, and he has immersed himself, his characters and his audience in a highly artificial world, a looking-glass universe that reflects nothing beyond his own cinematic obsessions." Scott attributed "the hurtling incoherence of the story" to Tarantino's sampling of different genres that include spaghetti westerns, blaxploitation, and Asian action films. The critic summarized, "But while being so relentlessly exposed to a filmmaker's idiosyncratic turn-ons can be tedious and off-putting, the undeniable passion that drives Kill Bill is fascinating, even, strange to say it, endearing. Mr. Tarantino is an irrepressible showoff, recklessly flaunting his formal skills as a choreographer of high-concept violence, but he is also an unabashed cinephile, and the sincerity of his enthusiasm gives this messy, uneven spectacle an odd, feverish integrity."[14]
Manohla Dargis of the Los Angeles Times called Kill Bill Volume 1 "a blood-soaked valentine to movies" and wrote, "It's apparent that Tarantino is striving for more than an off-the-rack mash note or a pastiche of golden oldies. It is, rather, his homage to movies shot in celluloid and wide, wide, wide, wide screen—an ode to the time right before movies were radically secularized." Dargis said, "This kind of mad movie love explains Tarantino's approach and ambitions, and it also points to his limitations as a filmmaker," calling the abundance of references sometimes distracting. She recognized Tarantino's technical talent but thought Kill Bill Volume 1's appeal was too limited to popular culture references, calling the film's story "the least interesting part of the whole equation".[15]
Cultural historian Maud Lavin argues that The Bride's embodiment of murderous revenge taps into viewers' personal fantasies of committing violence. For audiences, particularly women viewers, this overly aggressive female character provides a complex site for identification with one's own aggression.
Volume 2[]
Plot[]
Cast[]
- Uma Thurman- Beatrix Kiddo AKA The Bride AKA Black Mamba AKA Mommy
- David Carradine- Bill AKA Snake Charmer
- Lucy Liu- O-Ren Ishii AKA Cottonmouth (Archive Footage)
- Vivica A. Fox- Vernita Green AKA Ginny Bell AKA Copperhead (Archive Footage)
- Gordon Liu- Pai Mei
- Michael Madsen- Budd AKA Sidewinder
- Daryl Hannah- Elle Driver AKA California Mountain Snake
- Michael Parks- Esteban Vihaio
- Bo Svenson- Reverend Harmony
- Jeannie Epper- Mrs. Harmony
- Stephanie L. Moore- Joleen
- Shana Stein- Erica
- Caitlin Keats- Janeen
- Christopher Allen Nelson- Tommy Plympton
- Samuel L. Jackson- Rufus
- Reda Beebe- Lucky
- Sid Haig- Jay
- Larry Bishop- Larry Gomez
- Laura Cayouette- Rocket
- Clark Middleton- Ernie
- Claire Smithies- Clarita
- Perla Haney-Jardine- B.B Kiddo
- Helen Kim- Karen Kim
- Michael Bowen- Buck
- Vanessia Valentino- 1st Grade Teacher
- Thea Rose- Melanie Harrhouse
- William Paul Clark- Soda Jerk
- Victora Lucai- Trixie
- Stevo Polyi- Tim
- Al Manuel Douglas- Marty Kitrosser
- Jorge Silva- Bartender/Pimp
- Patricia Silva- Hooker #1
- Maria Del Rosario Gutiérrez- Hooker #2
- Sonia Angelica Padilla Curiel- Hooker #3
- Lawrence Bender- Hotel Clerk
- Julie Dreyfus- Sofie Fatale (Archive Footage)
Production[]
Reception[]
Kill Bill: Volume 2 was released in theaters on April 16, 2004. It was originally scheduled to be released on February 20, 2004 but was rescheduled. Variety posited that the delay was to coincide its theatrical release with Volume 1s release on DVD.[2] In the United States and Canada, Volume 2 was released in 2,971 theaters and grossed $25.1 million on its opening weekend,[3] ranking first at the box office and beating fellow opener The Punisher. Volume 2s opening weekend gross was higher than Volume 1s, and the equivalent success confirmed the studio's financial decision to split the film into two theatrical releases.[4] Volume 2 attracted more female theatergoers than Volume 1, with 60% of the audience being male and 56% of the audience being men between the ages of 18 to 29 years old. Volume 2s opening weekend was the largest to date for Miramax Films aside from releases under its arm Dimension Films. The opening weekend was also the largest to date in the month of April for a film restricted in the United States to theatergoers 17 years old and up, besting Lifes record in 1999. Volume 2s opening weekend was strengthened by the reception of Volume 1 in the previous year among audiences and critics, abundant publicity related to the splitting into two volumes, and the DVD release of Volume 1 in the week before Volume 2s theatrical release.[5]
Outside of the United States and Canada, Volume 2 was released in 20 territories over the weekend of April 23, 2004. It grossed an estimated $17.7 million and ranked first at the international box office, ending an eight-week streak held by The Passion of the Christ.[6] Volume 2 grossed a total of $66.2 million in the United States and Canada and $86 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $152.2 million.[3]