| Kill Bill: Volume 1 | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Quentin Tarantino |
| Written by | Quentin Tarantino |
| Produced by | Lawrence Bender |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Robert Richardson |
| Edited by | Sally Menke |
| Music by | RZA |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films[1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 111 minutes |
| Country | United States[1] |
| Languages | English Cantonese Japanese French |
| Budget | $30 million[2] |
| Box office | $180.9 million[2] |
Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a 2003 Americanmartial artsaction film written and directed byQuentin Tarantino. It starsUma Thurman asthe Bride, who swears revenge on a group of assassins (Lucy Liu,Daryl Hannah,Vivica A. Fox andMichael Madsen) and their leader, Bill (David Carradine), after they try to kill her and her unborn child. Her journey takes her to Tokyo, where she battles theyakuza.
Kill Bill was inspired by 1970sexploitation films and martial arts films. It features ananime sequence byProduction I.G.Volume 1 is the first of twoKill Bill films made in a single production. They were originally set for a single release, but the film, with a runtime of over four hours, was divided in two. This meant Tarantino did not have to cut scenes.Volume 2 was released six months later.
Kill Bill was theatrically released in the United States on October 10, 2003. It received positive reviews and grossed over $180 million worldwide on a $30 million budget, achieving the highest-grossing opening weekend of a Tarantino film to that point.
In 1999,the Bride, a former member of the Deadly Viper assassination squad, is rehearsing her marriage at a chapel inEl Paso, Texas. The Deadly Vipers, led by Bill, attack the chapel, shooting everyone. As the Bride lies wounded, she tells Bill he is the father of her unborn child just as he shoots her in the head.
The Bride falls into a coma. In the hospital, Elle Driver, one of the Deadly Vipers, prepares to assassinate her via lethal injection. Bill aborts the mission at the last moment, considering it dishonorable to kill her while she is defenseless.
The Bride awakens four years later and is horrified to discover she is no longer pregnant. She kills a man who intends to rape her, and a hospital worker who has been selling her body while she was comatose. She takes the hospital worker's truck and vows to kill Bill and the other Deadly Vipers.
The Bride goes to the home of Vernita Green, a former Deadly Viper who now leads a normal suburban life. They engage in a knife fight, which is interrupted when Vernita's young daughter arrives home. When Vernita tries to shoot the Bride with a pistol hidden in a box of cereal, the Bride throws a knife into her chest, killing her, in front of her daughter, who she offers the chance for revenge when she becomes older.
The Bride goes to Okinawa to obtain a sword from the legendary swordsmithHattori Hanzō, who has sworn never to forge a sword again. After learning that her target is Bill, his former student, he crafts his finest sword for her.
The Bride travels toTokyo to find another Deadly Viper, O-Ren Ishii, now the leader of the Tokyoyakuza. After witnessing the yakuza murder her parents when she was a child, O-Ren took vengeance on the yakuza boss and replaced him after training as an elite assassin.
The Bride tracks O-Ren Ishii to a restaurant, where she amputates the arm of O-Ren's assistant, Sofie Fatale. The Bride defeats O-Ren's squad of elite fighters, the Crazy 88, and kills O-Ren's bodyguard, the schoolgirl Gogo Yubari. O-Ren and the Bride duel in the restaurant'sJapanese garden. The Bride kills O-Ren by slicing off the top of her head. She tortures Sofie for information about the other Deadly Vipers, and leaves her alive as a threat. Bill finds Sofie and asks her if the Bride knows that her daughter is alive.
Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman conceived the Bride character during the production of Tarantino's 1994 filmPulp Fiction;Kill Bill credits the story to "Q & U".[4] Tarantino spent a year and a half writing the script while he was living in New York City in 2000 and 2001, spending time with Thurman and her newborn daughterMaya.[4][5] Reuniting with the more mature Thurman, now a mother, influenced the way Tarantino wrote the Bride character. He didn't realize that her child could still be alive until the end of the writing process.[4]
Tarantino developed many of the Bride's characteristics for the character ofShosanna Dreyfus for his 2009 filmInglourious Basterds, which he worked on beforeKill Bill. Dreyfus was to be an assassin with a list of Nazis she would cross off as she killed. Tarantino switched the character to the Bride and redeveloped Dreyfus.[6] Thurman citedClint Eastwood's performance asBlondie in the 1966 filmThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly as an inspiration. In her words, Eastwood "says almost nothing but somehow manages to portray a whole character".[7]
Tarantino originally wrote Bill forWarren Beatty, but as the character developed and the role required greater screen time and martial arts training, he rewrote it forDavid Carradine.[8] Beatty said he turned the role down, as he did not want to be away from his family while shooting in China.[9] Tarantino also consideredBruce Willis for the role.[10] He cast Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver after seeing her performance in the television filmFirst Target. The physical similarities between Thurman and Hannah inspired how he wrote the rivalry between the characters.[11]Michelle Yeoh met with Tarantino about a role in the film.[12]
An early draft included a chapter after the confrontation with Vernita, in which the Bride has a gunfight with Gogo Yubari's vengeful sister Yuki. It was cut because it would have made the film overlong and added $1 million to the budget.[4] Another draft featured a scene in which the Bride's car is blown up by Elle.[4]
When Thurman became pregnant as shooting was ready to begin, Tarantino delayed the production, saying: "IfJosef Von Sternberg is getting ready to makeMorocco andMarlene Dietrich gets pregnant, he waits for Dietrich!"[8] Principal photography began in 2002.[13] Although the scenes are presented out of chronological order, the film was shot in sequence.[4] The choreographerYuen Woo-Ping, whose credits includedThe Matrix, was the martial arts advisor.[14] Theanime sequence, covering O-Ren Ishii's backstory, was directed byKazuto Nakazawa and produced byProduction I.G, which had produced films includingGhost in the Shell andBlood: The Last Vampire.[15] The combined production lasted 155 days and had a budget of $55 million.[16]
According to Tarantino, the most difficult part of making the film was "trying to take myself to a different place as a filmmaker and throw my hat in the ring with other great action directors", as opposed to the dialogue scenes he was known for.[4] The House of Blue Leaves sequence, in which the Bride battles dozens of yakuza soldiers, took eight weeks to film, six weeks over schedule. Tarantino wanted to create "one of the greatest, most exciting sequences in the history of cinema".[14] The crew eschewedcomputer-generated imagery in favor ofpractical effects used in 1970sChinese cinema, particularly by the directorChang Cheh, including the use of fire extinguishers and condoms to create spurts and explosions of blood. Tarantino told his crew: "Let's pretend we're little kids and we're making aSuper 8 movie in our back yard, and you don't have all this shit. How would you achieve this effect? Ingenuity is important here!"[14][17]
Near the end of filming, Thurman was injured in a crash while filming the scene in which she drives to Bill. According to Thurman, she was uncomfortable driving the car and asked that a stunt driver do it. Tarantino assured her that the car and road were safe. She lost control of the car and hit a tree, suffering a concussion and knee injuries.[18] According to Thurman, Miramax would only give her the crash footage if she signed a document "releasing them of any consequences of [Thurman's] future pain and suffering". Tarantino was apologetic, but their relationship became bitter for years afterwards. Thurman said that after the car crash she "went from being a creative contributor and performer to being like a broken tool". Miramax released the footage in 2018 after Thurman went to police following theaccusations of sexual abuse against the producer,Harvey Weinstein.[18][19]
Kill Bill was planned and filmed as a single film.[16] After editing began, Weinstein, who was known for pressuring filmmakers to shorten their films, suggested that Tarantino split the film in two.[16] This meant Tarantino did not have to cut scenes, such as the anime sequence. Tarantino toldIGN: "I'm talking about scenes that are some of the best scenes in the movie, but in this hurdling pace where you're trying to tell only one story, that would have been the stuff that would have had to go. But to me, that's kind of what the movie was, are these little detours and these little grace notes."[4] The decision to split the film was announced in July 2003.[16] Tarantino saved most of the Bride's character development for the second film, saying he wanted to make her scary rather than sympathetic forVolume 1.[20]
Kill Bill was inspired byexploitation films that played incheap US theaters in the 1970s, includingmartial arts films,samurai cinema,blaxploitation films andspaghetti westerns.[21] It pays homage to theShaw Brothers Studio, known for its martial arts films, with the inclusion of the ShawScope logo in the opening titles and the "crashing zoom", a fastzoom usually ending in aclose-up commonly used in Shaw Brothers films.[22] The animated sequence pays homage to theanime ultraviolence shown inGolgo 13: The Professional (1983) as well as theurban gothic elements ofWicked City (1987).[23] Tarantino stated in the supplementary material on theKill Bill DVD that the character Hattori Hanzō was named in tribute to Sonny Chiba's former role as Hattori Hanzō (the historical 16th-centuryIga ninja) in the 1980s Japanese TV seriesShadow Warriors.
The Guardian wrote thatKill Bill's plot shares similarities with the 1973 Japanese filmLady Snowblood, in which a woman kills off the gang who murdered her family, and observed that like howLady Snowblood uses stills and illustration for "parts of the narrative that were too expensive to film",Kill Bill similarly uses "Japanese-style animation to break up the narrative".[21]
According to Tarantino, the animated sequence inKill Bill was inspired by Indian directorKamal Haasan's 2001 film,Aalavandhan.[24]
Kill Bill: Volume 1 was released in theaters onOctober 10, 2003. It was the first Tarantino film in six years, followingJackie Brown in 1997.[25] In the United States and Canada,Volume 1 was released in3,102 theaters and grossed$22 million on its opening weekend.[2] Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, saidVolume 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.[26] It ranked first at the box office, beatingSchool of Rock (in its second weekend) andIntolerable Cruelty (in its first).Volume 1 had the widest theatrical release[26] and highest-grossing opening weekend of a Tarantino film to date;Jackie Brown andPulp Fiction (1994) had each grossed$9.3 million on their opening weekends.[25] According to the studio, exit polls showed that 90% of the audience was interested in seeing the secondKill Bill after seeing the first.[27]
Outside the United States and Canada,Kill Bill: Volume 1 was released in20 territories. The film outperformed its main competitorIntolerable 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 because of its homages to Japanese martial arts cinema. It had "a muted entry" in the United Kingdom and Germany due to its 18 certificate, but "experienced acceptable drops" after its opening weekend in the two territories. ByNovember 2, 2003, it had made$31 million in the20 territories.[28] It 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.[2]
In the United States,Volume 1 was released onDVD andVHS on April 13, 2004, the weekVolume 2 was released in theaters. In a December 2005 interview, Tarantino addressed the lack of a special edition DVD forKill Bill by stating "I've been holding off because I've been working on it for so long that I just wanted a year off fromKill Bill and then I'll do the big supplementary DVD package."[29] After one week of release, the film's DVD sales had surpassed its$70 million US box office gross.[30]
The United States does not have a DVD boxed set ofKill Bill, though box sets of the two separate volumes are available in other countries, such as France, Japan and the United Kingdom. Upon the DVD release ofVolume 2 in the US, however, Best Buy did offer an exclusive box set slipcase to house the two individual releases together.[31]Volume 1, along withVolume 2, was released inHigh Definition onBlu-ray on September 9, 2008, in the United States. As of March 2012,Volume 1 sold 141,456 Blu-ray units in the US, grossing $1,477,791.[32]
AfterDisney soldMiramax toFilmyard Holdings in 2010, the home media and streaming rights for bothKill Bill films were sold toLionsgate, who reissued the Blu-ray and DVD releases on April 26, 2011.[33] A limited edition steelbook release sold exclusively inBest Buy stores was released on November 24, 2013.[34] FollowingParamount Global's 49% stake in Miramax, the film was reissued on Blu-ray and DVD byParamount Pictures Home Entertainment on September 22, 2020.[35] In 2023,Lionsgate announced that they had purchased the distribution rights to bothKill Bill films, along withJackie Brown, and announced a UHD release for the film's 20th anniversary; all three films were released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 10, 2023, and in 4K on physical and digital on January 21, 2025, with both Kill Bill films upscaled to 4K.[36][37][38]
On the review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes,Kill Bill: Volume 1 has a score of 85% based on reviews from 238 critics; the average rating is 7.70/10. Its consensus reads: "Kill Bill is admittedly little more than a stylish revenge thriller – albeit one that benefits from a wildly inventive surfeit of style."[39] AtMetacritic, which assigns a weighted average score 69 out of 100 based on 43 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[40] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[41]
A. O. Scott ofThe New York Times wrote:
While being so relentlessly exposed to a filmmaker's idiosyncratic turn-ons can be tedious and off-putting, the undeniable passion that drivesKill 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.[42]
Manohla Dargis of theLos Angeles Times calledKill Bill: Volume 1 a "blood-soaked valentine to movies. ... 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." She also recognized Tarantino's technical talent, but thought the film's appeal was too limited to popular culture references, calling its story "the least interesting part of the whole equation".[43]Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave it 4 out of 4, describing Tarantino as "effortlessly and brilliantly in command of his technique". He wrote: "The movie is not about anything at all except the skill and humor of its making. It's kind of brilliant."[44]
Cultural historianMaud Lavin states that the Bride's embodiment of revenge taps into viewers' personal fantasies of committing violence. For audiences, particularly women viewers, the character provides a complex site for identification with one's own aggression.[45]
Uma Thurman received aGolden Globe Best Actress nomination in 2004. She was also nominated in 2004 for aBAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, in addition with four otherBAFTA nominations.Kill Bill: Volume 1 was placed inEmpire Magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Films of All Time at number 325 and the Bride was also ranked number 66 inEmpire magazine's "100 Greatest Movie Characters".[46] NeitherKill Bill movie received anyAcademy Awards (Oscars) nominations.
A direct sequel,Kill Bill: Volume 2, was released in April 2004. It continues the Bride's quest to kill Bill and the remaining members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad.Volume 2 was also a critical and commercial success, earning over $150 million.[48][49]
Kill Buljo is a 2007 Norwegian parody ofKill Bill set inFinnmark, Norway, and portrays Jompa Tormann's hunt for Tampa and Papa Buljo. The film satirizes stereotypes of Norway'sSami population. According to the Norwegian newspaperDagbladet, Tarantino approved of the parody.[50]
ThePussy Wagon vehicle fromVolume 1 made a cameo in the music video forLady Gaga andBeyoncé's 2010 song "Telephone" at Tarantino's behest.[51] The 2023 single"Kill Bill" by the American singer-songwriterSZA was inspired by the film.[52]
Kill Bill: Volume 2's total... confirmed the financial good sense of Miramax's decision to split the movie in two.
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Travel information from Wikivoyage
Data from Wikidata
Kill Bill | |
|---|---|
| Films | |
| Soundtracks | |
| Characters | |
| Related |
|
