Many of you must have seen Pulp Fiction, the ONE breakthrough movie of the 90s if you want to name one. Quentin Tarantino has made one other movie since then, Jackie Brown and written some screenplays like Natural Born Killers. He has come out of a 7 year break to make a new movie - Kill Bill - Volume I. A short review follows.
Kill Bill has a simple one line story. Black Mamba (Uma Thurman),pregnant,is shot and left for dead in the wedding chapel.This is the opening of the movie, set to a wonderful background song by Nancy Sinatra, Bang Bang - My Baby Shot Me Down. She is attacked by members of the Deadly Viper Assasination Squad whose leader is Bill. She wakes up out of coma four years later to start taking revenge on the Squad which includes four others besides Bill. She first takes care of Copperhead. This is a rather brief sequence. Next she flies to
Kill Bill is an explosion of pleasures, from the background score to the wonderfully choreographed fights (by Yuen Woo Ping, who choreographed Matrix and Crouching Tiger,HD) and the photography by Richard Richardson, who shot many of Oliver Stones movies. Above all, the movie is a homage by Tarantino to all those B-movies he used to see while running a video shop. Movies which you and i would never have heard of. Elements from different genres -spaghetti westerns, Honk Kong kung-fu flicks, Japanese anime, Blaxploitation etc. – have been used to give spice and taste to a simple revenge dish. KB does not have a screenplay to speak of, in fact it hardly has any dialogues, which is very surprising coming from QT. KB is all about action, swordfights, revenge (sounds like the ad for a Dharmendra movie).
It is so easy to be dismissive of QT, some have said that he has cultivated an image of coolness and funkiness where everything associated with him gets acclaim. Some other cynics also say if the same thing were done an Indian director,it would be called trash. My answer to these critics is there is a fine line between "Homage" and "Parody" which is what KB could have ended up in the hands of a less accomplished director. It could so easily have ended up being a Hot Shots Part Trois or Naked Gun 4.44 or something. That the director is able to navigate the territory so well is his genius. KBKB is very, very gory - fountains of blood spurting from beheaded torsos are common here. But the most violent parts are shown in black and white and anime which makes them watchable. Uma Thurman looks gorgeous and QT's fascination with her is evident. In a snapshot: Quentin Tarantino has bundles of talent and is not afraid to show it. And hell, why should he not show it.
The movie has come and gone from the Indian screens before you could say Kill. The reason for writing the movie so late is to ensure that some (or most) of you who have missed KB-I could see Volume II which is releasing soon.
P.S: Trivia: The credits say that the movie is based on a story "The Bride" by Q and U who are Quentin and Uma.
Review of Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby, 1992, 242 p. Fever Pitch was voted the best sports book of all time by Guardian-Observer in a survey a couple of years back (beating out books like Beyond a Boundary). It surprised me that I had not heard about the book till I came upon this list. I picked up the book with some trepidation as I am not a great football fan, though I do catch the occasional EPL or Champions League matches. However one thing which enthused me was that the book was about an Arsenal fan and whatever little I have followed of the EPL, I have always been an Arsenal follower. Fever Pitch is an autobiography – a growing up story of the author set against the backdrop of the the author’s love and later obsessive interest in the Arsenal football club and how the key moments of his life, professional and personally, intertwine with the (mis)fortunes of the club. The book is structured innovatively with memories broken down into specific match days which is in fact re
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