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Therefore the marathon effort was spliced, the latter half being released after a hiatus of eight months. True, the storyline is wafer thin, almost non-existent, but the intricately carved script and the ultra-slick execution of every sequence, makes Tarentino’s action fest a treat to watch, in spite of the violence. But then violence and Tarentino are synonymous. For his films, Tarentino draws on world cinema. Cleverly, he borrows from every genre, the Shaolin monk movies from China of the 1970s, the film noir classics of the 1950s and even earlier Western classics of John "Stagecoach" Ford and the latter-day spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone, king of the giant-size close-up. There is also a touch of the surrealism of Luis Bunuel. But then that’s what travelling through Tarentino country is. The black-and-white flashback to the church massacre and the swordfight to the finish between the Bride and her indestructible woman opponent (Darryl Hannah) are shots with so much tension and suspense that one is always on the edge of one’s seat and that makes the final face-off with arch villain Bill (David Carradine), in his super-chic villa, rather abbreviated and tame by contrast. Samuel L. Jackson (so vital in Pulp Fiction) is wasted in a gone-in-a-flash cameo and one-time Splash mermaid Darryl Hannah seems to relish her sword slashing part. If one can stomach Tarentino violence (not everyone can) the stylish, over-the-top bratish entertainment is clearly its best selling point. |
THIS
is a marketing gambit that worked. The Bride (Uma Thurman), whose groom
was gunned down in a desert church before the marriage was solemnised,
is back. Let it be made clear, Kill Bill : Vol 2 is not a sequel,
it is simply the second half of Quintin Tarentino’s action blockbuster
which, on completion, totalled a running length of nearly four hours.
But then, that’s Tarentino, he has his own distinctive way of going
about things .