Josh Basks in the Glory of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair!
I’ve always loved the two-part theatrical versions of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, released in 2003 & 2004. I think Volume 1 in particular is one of Mr. Tarantino’s best films! And yet (or maybe because of that fact), I’ve always longed to someday see Mr. Tarantino’s often-rumored and much-discussed re-edit that combines the two films into the single film it was always intended to be. I’d thought probably I’d wind up getting my hands on a bootleg copy of this someday. So I am thrilled and delighted that Lionsgate has given Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair a theatrical release! I was able to see the four hour and forty-one minute epic (that run-time includes a 15-minute intermission) in a theater this week, and it was amazing.
First of all, don’t be afraid of the combined film’s lengthy run time. I thought this movie absolutely BLEW by. I was happy to have an intermission, because I am no longer a young man and I needed a bathroom break. But otherwise, I didn’t think the break was necessary. This film had me completely hooked from start to finish. It felt shorter than many other two-hour movies.
What I’d long suspected (hoped!) would be the case proved true, in that these films work even better as one combined film. That makes sense, because Mr. Tarantino wrote this as one film! I’ve always felt that Kill Bill Volume 2 was a little slight. It didn’t match the intensity and energy of Volume 1. This makes sense, because it was never designed to stand on its own. Here, the quieter second half of the film flows perfectly from the more action-packed first half. We’re deeply hooked into the characters and the story, so the longer conversations in the second half play perfectly well for the audience. Taken together as one unified film, the two halves work together beautifully, the way they were always intended to.
Just getting a chance to see any Quentin Tarantino film on the big screen is a delight. Mr. Tarantino is a big-screen filmmaker. His movies are designed to be seen on a big screen. It’s a joy to get to see Mr. Tarantino’s always-interesting shot choices and compositions displayed on a huge screen, where you can truly feel enveloped by the imagery, and mesmerized by the action and the violence. That violence, by the way, is so much more impactful when seen on the big screen. Watching the Bride get almost-murdered is horrific. And watching her cut a vengeful, bloody swath through the Crazy 88s at the House of Blue Leaves is glorious, giddy fun. And the sound! This is yet another benefit of seeing this film in a movie theatre. Mr. Tarantino’s films are always jam-packed with perfectly-chosen needle-drops, and getting to hear this music in a powerful movie theatre sound system elevates the film enormously.
It’s a joy to get to revisit Uma Thurman’s magnificent performance. Is this her greatest role? I think it might be. She is extraordinary. The physicality with which she plays all of the film’s many violent action scenes is incredibly impressive. And even more so is the way she finds ways to imbue this indomitable Amazon superhero with pathos and emotion. The way Ms. Thurman plays the moment in the first half, when the Bride wakes up from her coma and realizes that she’s lost her baby… and the moment late in the film in which she rolls through an array of emotions when lying on the floor of the bathroom in Bill’s house… these are Academy Award winning moments of extraordinary power. Here too, it’s a joy to see these scenes on the big screen the way they were meant to be seen.
Kill Bill is jam-packed with incredible actors turning in amazing performances (as is always the case in Mr. Tarantino’s films). It’s a thrill to revisit David Carradine as Bill; Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii; Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver; Michael Madsen as Budd; Sonny Chiba as Hattori Hanzō (possibly my favorite character in this film filled with great, memorable characters!); Michael Parks in the dual role of Ranger Earl McGraw (who, by the way, also appears in Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk till Dawn as well as the Tarantino-Rodriguez collaboration Grindhouse, a double-feature film that I think is hugely underrated) and the pimp Esteban Vihaio; Gordon Liu as Pai Mei; Vivica A. Fox as Vernita Green, and so many more! (That Michael Madsen, Sonny Chiba, and Michael Parks have all passed away in recent years makes revisiting their performances even more pleasurable, though also bittersweet.)
For the most part, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair presents the two halves of Kill Bill as we’ve seen them before. This isn’t a major re-edit. However, there are a number of small tweaks and adjustments, all of which made me very happy. We get a wonderful extension to the animated sequence in the first half, presenting the origin of O-Ren Ishii. (Apparently that sequence was animated back when this film was originally in production, but was cut before release.) There’s some extra violence added back into the battle at the House of Blue Leaves, and the whole sequence is presented in full color. (In the original release of Kill Bill Volume 1, much of that scene was presented in black and white, to keep the film’s R rating.) There’s also one brief but notable moment of extra violence right at the end of the first half, when we see the Bride cut off Sofie Fatale’s other arm. Yikes!
Probably the film’s most major change is something I didn’t even realize until after I’d seen it. Mr. Tarantino deleted Bill’s line that originally appeared at the very end of Volume 1, which reveals a key secret. Now, in The Whole Bloody Affair, the Bride and the audience find this out at the exact same time in the film’s final act. I think that’s a terrific choice, and makes that reveal at the end of the film land with far more power.
Be sure to stay through the end credits, because the much-discussed new Fortnite scene is presented in full as a stinger at the end of the movie! This is “The Lost Chapter: Yuki’s Revenge,” and it’s a fun extra action scene that Mr. Tarantino had apparently written in his original script but cut before the film went into production. (Click here to read more about this sequence!) Seeing aspects of Fortnite in a Kill Bill movie is a little jarring, but this is a fun and energetic action scene. And this is a movie that already had a lengthy animated sequence, so having another sequence of animation in a different style doesn’t feel too strange. I am glad they presented this as a bonus at the end, rather than editing it into the movie. That would have been too incongruous.
Getting to see Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair was an absolute pleasure!!! If you’re a Tarantino fan, this is a must-see. I know that finding the time for a nearly five-hour movie-going experience is a challenge, but don’t miss this!!