Kill Bill Script review
Asiteapart
Im having trouble with the Kill Bill script review page at AICN. For some
reason it comes up blank on my computer. Could somebody cut and paste the
review to the messageboard for me? Thanks.
pete
Joe Kramer
"Asiteapart" <asite...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010916092534...@mb-mf.aol.com...
Here you go:
Harry exclusively reviews for your pleasure Quentin Tarantino's Screenplay
to KILL BILL!!!
Alright, so it was the second day of the QT5 film festival and right before
the lights lowered and the projector lit up to show a mint beautiful print
of STAR TREK II: WRATH OF KHAN, Quentin drops by my corner chair.
I hand him the manuscript for my Book. He hands me a 222 page stack of paper
that has this on top:
The 4th Film By
QUENTIN
TARANTINO
UMA
THURMAN
Is going to
KILL BILL
Written
&
Directed
By
Quentin Tarantino
Based on the Character
of "The Bride" , created by
Q&U
And that was all handwritten. If it had been any other film than STAR TREK
II: WRATH OF KHAN, I would have hobbled my sickly carcass out to the lobby
and started pouring through the pages of this 3 lbs of pulp paper.
Quentin smiles and says, "Let me know what you think. Gotta go!"
I reach to flip the first page, when the lights go out and my eyes see
nothing. I set the script back and watch as Captain Terrell and Commander
Pavel Andreievich Chekov see if the life readings are something they can
transplant on Seti Alpha 4. As soon as Khan Noonien Singh appears on screen
though. All thoughts of sitting in a stall in the Drafthouse Bathroom
reading KILL BILL. Well, its Khan. I know what is good in life.
As soon as the camera finds Spock's photon torpedo tube which soft landed on
the brave new world of Dr Carol Marcus' extraordinary cooking skills and the
end titles began.
The lights came up.
My arms leap out before me, the first page is turned and I see a TABLE OF
CONTENTS. there's a PROLOGUE followed by 10 chapters, each individually
titled:
1. "2"
2. THE COMATOSE BRIDE
3. THE MAN FROM OKINAWA
4. SHOWDOWN AT HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES
5. YUKI'S REVENGE
6. "CAN SHE BAKE A CHERRY PIE."
7. THE LONELY GRAVE OF PAULA SCHULTZ
8. THE CRUEL TUTELAGE OF PAI MEI
9. ELLE AND I
10. THE BLOOD-SPLATTERED BRIDE.
I think. Chapter Titles? I thumb the 222 pages and think. It's a book.
I flip the page and scream. "HOLY SHIT!" then quickly wrap both hands around
my mouth and look both ways.2 fellow geeks come running over to see what
provoked this autonomic response from me. The script is now in my lap, and I
'm trying to look as innocent as my cherub cheeks could allow.
They ask, "What's wrong?"
I respond, "Really bad back spasm." and they leave taking pity on me. The
ends of my mouth twisting up as I look back down at the page.
KILL BILL starts with a quote from STAR TREK II: WRATH OF KHAN. Not for all
the money in the world will I spoil the quote, but dear god. Having just
watched the film. For the first words in quotes to be read to have come from
the film I just celebrated in a room full of geeks. That evil damn Quentin.
He calculated exactly to the moment when he wanted my hands to touch that
script. I read on... I get to page five and read:
The BRIDE (VO)
Looked dead, didn't I? Well I
wasn't, but it wasn't for lack of
trying, I can tell you that.
Actually Bill's Last bullet put
me in a coma. A coma I was to
lie in for five years.
When I woke up,...I went on what
the movie advertisements refer to
as a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
I roared and I rampaged and I got
bloody satisfaction. In all, I've
killed 33 people to get to this
point right now.
I have only one more.
The last one.
The one I'm driving to right now.
The only one left.
And when I arrive at my
destination....
...I'm gonna Kill Bill.
TITLE SEQUENCE
This is gonna rule.
I managed to read 36 pages that night in-between the various films, but when
I left the theater at 9am Sunday morning, I went home and collapsed into the
sleep of ages. The script laying on my desk. next to my computer. And I was
exhausted.
It was two days till I had the time to sit down and just devour the script
in a sitting. I settled down into the living room of Geek Headquarters
putting VH1 CLASSICS on the TV which happened to be doing a retrospect of 50
's and 60's Rock-N-Roll. I-Deal music to read this script to.
When Quentin had told me on the phone that this script was 30 years of
Grindhouse films squeezed into a Duck Press, I didn't know what to think. I
suppose I thought that we'd have Pimps and Zombies and Graphic Death and Sex
and Women in Cages and Kung Fu and Animal Vs Animal Pit Matches and all with
an Ennio Morricone / Goblin jam piece score with title song by Isaac Hayes.
I'm not really sure if that was exactly what I wanted from Quentin though.
While many of the Tarantino fans felt that JACKIE BROWN was a massive
misstep for him, I really dug the film. Sure it wasn't as purely fun as PULP
FICTION, nor was it as deliciously evil as RESERVOIR DOGS. But it was a far
more mature work across the board.
If Quentin choose a film to make which would have him regress. I was going
to be disappointed. I didn't want to see a retread of his previous work. I
didn't want him to lose the maturity that I felt he gained with JACKIE
BROWN. I wanted to see the Maturity married to the unbridled joy of cinema
that PULP FICTION gave us, with a mistress of RESERVOIR's don't you dare
look away vitality.
Instead, what I got was KILL BILL, which was far beyond anything I was
expecting from him. KILL BILL is unapologetically EXPLOITATION! This film is
indeed 30 years of Grindhouse Filmmaking in a Duck Press, but. BUT the
genius of the script is that Quentin doesn't give us cardboard cutout
characters that often populated the world of the Exploitation films. He
doesn't write peppered characters of black and white tones. What he has done
is create a universe where the rules of the exploitation film are every bit
the natural order of things, but the people in this world are human beings.
Human beings trapped in the situations that only happen to you in
Exploitation films. These characters have all the superhuman powers that
Grindhouse characters have, but they wake up scarred, bruised and hurt by
what they have been through.
What happens to the "Bride" in the first few pages of the script. Well, ya
know how THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES watched his entire family be murdered by a
bunch of Kansas Red Legs? His home burnt to the ground? His face scarred by
the butcher of it all? Then he watches as his entire unit of freedom
fighters turn themselves in only to be machine gunned to death before his
very eyes? Well, that ain't nothing.
What "The Bride" goes through. Well, it is the sort of thing that you never
fully recover from. You never forgive. And for all time, a piece of you will
always be missing.
The rumors going around was that Bill was a pimp and that "The Bride" was
his top whore. This is way wrong!
"The Bride" was once a part of a band of the top female assassins in the
world working for the world's greatest assassin. BILL. Now "The Bride" was
the top assassin. They fucked her over real bad. REAL BAD, and now she is
going to hunt down every last one of them and exact bloody satisfaction on
each of them.
You'll meet O-Ren Ishii as Cottonmouth, Vernita Green as Cobra, Budd as
Sidewinder, Elle Driver as California Mountain Snake and BILL. Oh sure,
there's a ton of other people you'll meet. There's the Crazy Eighty-Eights,
Mr Barrel, Pai Mei, Hattori Hanzo and. well, there's so much more.
What this film has that you've never seen in a Quentin Tarantino film is
that thing they always talk about around a table, or between two characters.
That scene he shows you the beginning of, the end of and always tells you
about later. Well this time. This time he's going to show you those scenes
of legend. That stuff that makes you sit up and scream, FUCKING A!
You know how PULP FICTION was non-linear for no particular reason other than
to be a stylistic bit of cool? Well Quentin's structure here is breathless.
By using the CHAPTER format, Quentin will sometimes build a chapter leaving
something unfinished, begin the next chapter years before perhaps, but it
always comes together to provide us the audience with the information that
we need to understand how the character can move forward today. in the
linear part of the story. This isn't handled as FLASHBACKS. these are merely
the beginnings of new chapters. and it works fantastically.
This script is hardcore action and cool. And it is original as hell. In the
past two years at the last two QT fests here in Austin, I've seen a great
deal of the films that Quentin has taken inspiration from. Scenes have not
been lifted. Characters have not been lifted. Themes, subtle elements taken
for inspiration and taken further than we've ever seen.
This is Quentin Tarantino's THEY CALL ME ONE EYE by way of ROLLING THUNDER
by way of FISTS OF FURY by way of WRATH OF KHAN by way of DAY OF ANGER by
way of THE BEYOND by way of a hundred other exploitation films. However,
what he did with that duck press brain of his was squeeze and squeeze and
squeeze til he had the essence, that bowl filled with the juicy tasty fats
of the Grindhouse Genre. and then he used all that sauce to sauté with his
own special herbs and spices a film that will taste like the greatest damn
exploitation film ever.
Remember when George Lucas and Steven Spielberg took the Serials of old. Put
them all in a blender, took a new story. mixed it all together and came up
with RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Sure it was derived from dozens and dozens of
B-serials, but what RAIDERS did. Well it did better than anyone had seen
before.. Or since.
THAT is exactly what KILL BILL is meant to be to the exploitation genre.
This script reads like COOL CUBED. The kung fu and samurai action doesn't
read like MATRIX-fu. This isn't pick ya up on wires while 99 cameras shoot
you from all around. The kung fu that Quentin describes is Bruce Lee in the
Japanese School meets Sonny Chiba's Streetfighter visceral cartilage pops
meets Jackie Chan's SNAKEFIST IN EAGLE SHADOW meets LIGHTNING SWORDS OF
DEATH!
How do I know?
Well the reason this script is 222 pages long is that he describes every
nuance of the battles. Hell. When "The Bride" takes on the Crazy
Eighty-Eights while O-Ren Ishii, Mr. Barrel, Yuki Yubari and Go Go Yubari
all watch. well it runs 22 pages and by the time you get to the end. You are
left dazed. wondering if Quentin Tarantino has the capacity to peel that
action off the page and onto the screen in a fashion that will make you look
at FIST OF LEGEND and go. Hhahahahahaha. As written, it is there. Depends
who he has as his fight choreographer and how he frames the shots. but the
concepts and action that he has in his head on this page. breathtaking.
It's brutal and punishing. She fights not only with astonishing skill, but
through single-minded determination. This fight. The chapter titled -
"Showdown At House Of Blue Leaves" - might very well end up being a thing of
legend if he nails it.
The film takes place from China to Hong Kong to Los Angeles to Austin to
Mexico. There are moments that feel as terrifyingly brutal as the toughest
moments of FULCI. And the thing that will just kill you is that you like
these characters.
The 'Bad Guys and Gals'. They're cool. You like them. The Bride liked them.
All of this. All of these fights are brutal because noone is played like a
comic book character. Everyone had motivations and reasons. And everyone
wants to live. And they are all trained to be the biggest badasses that have
ever walked the Earth.
Surprises, by the bushel. He plays with all the toys of cinema here. This is
a film geeks wet dream. When you see how he handles his Cantonese scenes.
When you visit the Lonely Grave of Paula Schultz. When you experience the
cruel tutelage of Pai Mei. My friends, if he nails this. If he makes this
script come to life with the energy that it was written with. Then by God.
You'll be screaming and cheering in the theater the whole time.
Come the turn of the year. we should begin to see the casting come together,
as spring begins training and the summer brings cameras rolling. The script
is as quotable as anything he's ever written. there are moments of fancy and
heartache. moments of elation and depression. and there is a great deal of
retribution, for revenge has never been served like this.
Asiteapart
Joe,
Thanks very much for posting the kickass review of KILL BILL. It sounds like
its gonna leave PF and RD in the dust!! Cant wait to see the finished product!
cheers,
pete
OneMonk909
what other Quentin fans think about the script. Personally I think it sounds
very good, though a lot will depend upon who he casts. I don't see Uma Thurman
as a tough assassin, but regardless QT and Uma created the character, so I
guess she's the only one for the part. Rumors had it a few months back that
Warren Beaty was going to play Bill, the master assassin. That I can
definitely NOT see...
Asiteapart
I think Uma could be very convincing as an assassin. Im sure if she has enough
training, etc she would be badass. Its surprising what actors can do and how
much they can transform when they have a challenging role. Warren Beatty as
Bill? No thanks. Id rather see someone like Harvey Keitel, Chris Walken or Gary
Oldman as Bill.
pete
aka chelsea corazon
after all, uma *did* play emma peel in the 1998 remake of 'the
avengers.' i haven't
seen it, but --although the film flopped-- her performance was generally well
received by critics. maybe now would be a good time to rent the video,
if only to
get a preview of whatever quentin saw that moved him to cast her in this role.
chelsea
OneMonk909
Kill Bill's main character, "The Bride," together. So it's only fair that she
be given the role. I don't know, at first I thought Uma couldn't pull off
playing a tough girl, but seriously...if Drew Barrymore can try to do it, I
guess any girl can.