“The woman deserves her revenge. And we deserve to die.” I experienced Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟) in a theater for the first time at perhaps the most relevant moment you can imagine. On the heels of the news that Netflix will be buying Warner Brothers & the future of movie theaters as we know it is in question, Quentin Tarantino just reminded me that there is no television at Best Buy, there is no soundbar from Amazon-there is no substitute for the theatrical experience when it’s done right.
Quentin Tarantino has not written or directed a film in over six years. He hasn’t released a new film since I started this account in December of 2020. What has he done in the last six years other than embarrass himself with ridiculously stupid opinions about other films while simultaneously taking swipes at his contemporaries? He’s basked in this nonexistent sanctimony he thinks he owns because he’s only made 9 films and refuses to make more than 10. I’ve never truly felt compelled to comment on Tarantino personally- not on the remarks he makes about the industry, politics, or other artists. But I will admit, he’s starting to annoy me. Especially with the Paul Dano remarks.
All of that is to say that as adults, we’re required to acknowledge that two things are true at once: Tarantino has annoyed me endlessly the last few years…but man he is an exceptional artist. I pushback so heavily on those who attempt to suggest that Tarantino’s filmmaking or writing is sophomoric and that “the more you study cinema”, the less Tarantino stands out. On the contrary. The more you study cinema, the more you study Tarantino, the more you realize that when you set aside all of his endless, childish bullshit, this guy is worth all the hype.
“O-Ren Ishii!!!! You and I have unfinished business!” By the time Uma Thurman’s Beatrix Kiddo screams this out to Lucy Lou’s O-Ren Ishii nearly halfway through the Whole Bloody Afair (before a brief intermission I’ll add)- as she steps over the blood and guts of the men & women she’s cut down to get this far- as Ennio Morricone’s composition blasts through every lost pour of your body-there is nothing on Earth you can do to resist Tarantino’s power. You have no choice. You are forced to submit to this artist’s vision. Goosebumps. Everywhere. You cannot fight it.
It’s Tarantino’s ability to capture the essence of what it means to fight for something. He captures what it means to put everything on the line in the name of revenge. Beatrix Kiddo, The Bride, is an all-time cinematic character that I will always look to for inspiration in my life because she refuses to take no for an answer. Shoot her in the head. Bury her alive. Take every last thing she loves away from her. It doesn’t matter because you cannot stop what’s coming. Movies are moments and masterpieces are movies filled with moment after moment. That’s precisely what Kill BIll is- a masterpiece of vengeance & revenge, all on the back of Uma Thurman’s Beatrix Kiddo.
When I stepped out of the theater after seeing The Whole Bloody Affair, I stepped out of the theater a different person. Does it matter I’d seen this before? No. And am I suggesting my entire life was dramatically flipped upside down? Of course not. But something small inside of me, perhaps a tiny light- like a switch- was turned on. That’s what great art does. It plants something inside you- it changes you slightly, until that small light grows into something massive.
Kill Bill is precisely that- great art.