After the 2003 release of the movie “Kill Bill: Vol. 1,” one of the most influential trend makers of the 90s was bombarded with questions about why he hadn’t filmed anything for six years (after the creation of Jackie Brown in 1997). The director of “Kill Bill” without hesitation and hesitation replied that he did not want to repeat the mistake of other talented directors, who, in the wake of triumph, hastily created a lot of low-quality, passing movie works. According to Quentin Tarantino, he wanted to appear in the history of world cinema as the creator of exceptionally good films.
Aesthetic gangster movie with martial arts
After watching the movie, the understanding comes that the strategy chosen by the director of “Kill Bill” makes him the forefront director of contemporary cinema. Tarantino, despite the status of a living film classic and age, remained enthusiastic, an enthusiastic boy, with genuine admiration, quoting his favorite movie genres in the author's works. An interesting fact is that the director dedicated each of the novels “Kill Bill” to one of them.
Multi-genre short stories
The Bloodied Bride and Second Victim are inspired by the “junk” subgenre of blaxploitation (a sub-section of exploitative cinema), in which Jackie Brown was also performed. In the First Novel, all attention is focused on the Bride (actress Uma Thurman), who, after beating and shot in the head, comes to herself in the hospital after a four-year coma. In “The Second Victim,” the Bride visits Vernita Green (actress Vivika A. Fox), one of the gang’s killers who takes part in the massacre of her. Beatrix kills Vernita in front of her four-year-old daughter.
The short story "The Story of O-Ren Ishii", which tells about the tragedy of children, growing up and becoming the best killer woman O-Ren Ishii (actress Lucy Liu). This story is an eloquent reference to East Asian kung fu paintings, a fan of which the director of “Kill Bill” has been a fan since childhood. Like the Takedown at the Blue Leaf House, Tarantino drew inspiration from the Fist of Fury (1972).
Acting ensemble. Interesting Facts
If Quentin Tarantino did not see anyone else in the role of the Beatrix Bride, except for his muse Uma Thurman, whom he proposed to play in the film on her thirtieth birthday, then Kevin Costner and Warren Beatty were considered for the role of the main antagonist of Bill. As a result, he was played by the charismatic David Carradine.
Actor Michael Parkis, who embodied Earl McGraw (the sheriff) on the screen, seemed to be transferred to the set "From Dusk Till Dawn", because his hero of the Texas ranger in the movie Tarantino in 1996 was called the same.
Initially, the director planned to attract three actors of different nationalities to the work on the project, as if representing each state: China - Ja Hui Lew, Japan - Sonny Chiba, America - David Carradine. According to the legend of world directing, if the legendary Bruce Lee were alive, he would do everything possible and impossible for him to take part in his film.
One of the director’s most beloved paintings is “The Royal Battle” (2000), so Quentin insisted on participating in his project Chiaki Kuriyama, who played the role of GoGo Yubari. The actress "paid back" to the director. During the shooting of one of the episodes with her participation, I accidentally hit Tarantino standing behind the camera with a metal ball on a chain.
In the role of O-Ren Ishii, the director initially saw only the Japanese actress, but almost on the day the casting began, he drew attention to the actress Lucy Liu's game in the film Shanghai Noon. He was so delighted with her that he immediately changed the nationality of his heroine, inviting without casting for the role of O-Ren Lucy.
Festive fireworks
If especially skeptical film critics managed to find passage or unstressed moments in some of K. Tarantino’s projects, then in “Kill Bill” the director, whose name is known to every film lover, does not provide such a chance. The development of the plot action of the film is similar to a magnificent festive fireworks, in which there are no pauses. Starting from the fight of the heroines of the picture in pans and knives, and until the climax, the viewer has no opportunity to take a breath. However, even among such an inexorable feast of eyes, one scene still stands out - the epic battle of the Bride with "88 frantic", which is not only the culmination, but also a small copy of the picture itself, its manifest, tamped down to 7 minutes. The director of the film “Kill Bill” intentionally visualizes the epithet often sounding in the address of his work - “blood bath”. Blood literally fills the pools, sprinkles with a fountain pressure, languidly flowing down the lens of a movie camera.
Almost no dialogue
For his fourth author’s project, the director “Kill Bill” took up the position of a living film classic. Therefore, in a protracted climax, he, as if once again wanting to show his zealous adherents his power, Tarantino deliberately ties himself to the legs and hands. To begin with, the director refuses the significant power of cinema - dialogue. For seven minutes, the characters present in the frame communicate with each other exclusively through the cry of "cue!" After that, the American director “Kill Bill” removes the color, leaving a black-and-white image (only the unflappable Japanese saw this scene in a color visual solution), and after that the light completely allowed the viewer to watch the shadows dancing in a deadly duel. This directorial move was recognized by leading film critics as the most interesting moment in the film and an extraordinary decision in the history of cinema.
Attraction Range
However, the culmination scene was only the final act in the widest range of stunning attractions of the film. Quentin Tarantino used the full breadth of his directorial soul. Among the main features of the picture: first-person shooting similar to a computer game, raising a fragile heroine above the head of an enemy pierced by a sword, cutting a man in half with the same sword. All these episodes allowed film critics and ordinary viewers to argue for a long time about the sense of proportion and the good taste of Tarantino.
No one before the cult director managed to combine Japanese and Chinese so gracefully and at the same time shamelessly. For this, immediately after the release of the picture, many admirers of oriental cinema seriously took up arms against an American barbarian. Many called the frivolous treatment of Eastern traditions frank rudeness, perhaps it was, but this rudeness was elegant from the world of hooligan performances and art galleries.