Reservoir Dogs put neophyte writer-director Quentin Tarantino on the map, Pulp Fiction made him a superstar, and Jackie Brown proved that he was no one- or two-hit wonder. That string of 1990s successes inspired some to call Tarantino one of the most original and influential American filmmakers to have emerged in decades.

But that was the ’90s. As each year passed following the release of Jackie Brown in 1997, many wondered if Tarantino had exhausted his ideas and was on the road to being a has-been -- or if he hadn’t arrived there already. Despite being a fan of his, I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps he’d grown tired and we’d already seen his best. In the movie world, six years is a long time.

But now, after the release of Kill Bill: Vol. 1, those years seem like nothing but a long, dramatic pause. Tarantino’s back in ways I think few had expected. KB1 is not only one of the best martial-arts films ever made, it also establishes Tarantino as a topnotch director of action films, an area he hadn’t explored in his first three features. From the incredibly well-executed and -choreographed fight scenes to the dazzling cinematography to the first-rate use of sound, KB1 deserves to win a heap of awards in early 2004. An homage to all those great and not-so-great 1970s martial-arts films, KB1 is nothing short of stunning.

The setup for Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is simple: A woman known simply as The Bride (Uma Thurman) is attacked by the Deadly Viper Assassination squad, led by Bill (David Carradine), and left for dead. She barely survives, and spends the next four years in a coma. When she awakes, she has one thing on her mind: revenge. Check-list in hand, The Bride sets out to visit each member of the squad to do one thing: kill them. But these aren’t just quick-and-dirty executions -- they’re elaborately staged battle sequences involving fists, knives, swords, and countless other weapons, and her enemies range from just one to hundreds at a time. Vol. 1 is one brilliantly staged fight after another, and climaxes with The Bride facing off against O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), also known as Cottonmouth. The final person on The Bride’s list is, of course, Bill, but we won’t see that confrontation until Vol. 2, scheduled for release in February 2004.

Like all of Tarantino’s films, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is heavy on foul language, and even heavier on violence. And although the violence is presented here in a rather "cartoonish" way, the sights of blood gushing, heads flying, and much else I can’t really describe here, will send some running for the exits. Even I squirmed more than a few times. KB1 is not for the squeamish.

Tarantino has warned that KB2 will be even gorier. But for the select audience who enjoys such films, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is an astonishingly well-made martial-arts spectacle that will have you itching to see it again, and will leave you eagerly anticipating Vol. 2. I can’t wait. 

• Go Back