Review of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2011) by Andrew H — 06 Dec 2011

Saw a double feature of the Kill Bills with minimal editing to seamlessly attach the two together. It was so many amazing emotions I can't even begin to comprehend. It was in 35mm on the big screen which was also a major plus.

All the times before I've seen the Kill Bills, they've been seperate. That's not the way they're meant to be seen. To properly experience The Whole Bloody Affair, one must watch them back to back so that they're the original 4 hour epic.

And lemme tell ya, them 4 hours fly by. I once read some comment on YouTube of some kid's video that was all about how he thought Kubrick was extremely overrated because he didn't like 2001. He said somewhere he loved Tarantino.

The comment said something along the lines "You don't like Kubrick because you don't understand serious drama, which is why you like Tarantino". First of all, I heartily don't believe that Kubrick and Tarantino are mutually exclusive, I love them both, they're great filmmakers.

And second, that motherfucker either has never seen Kill Bill who wouldn't understand serious drama if it hit him in the face. Tarantino movies are extremely entertaining, and one of the reasons for this is because of dramatic motivations.

I feel Kill Bill exemplifies Tarantino's knack for "serious drama". Seeing this was probably around the third or fourth time I saw Kill Bill, but I had never seen it like this. Seeing the two movies back to back, everything is fresh in your memory, and you see what you never saw before because everything is hitting you at once.

The motivations of the characters have never been clearer, and characters themselves have never been more fleshed out and well drawn. Not that the first three kills on her list are important, but I'm just gonna skip right to Elle.

Elle is not as great of a warrior as Beatrix, and she's a lot more stubborn. She's not willing to go through a bunch of pain even if the end result is far increased strength and skill. Beatrix is, and combined with a bunch of natural skill and determination, this automatically makes Beatrix a better warrior.

She uses what she's learned through pain to save her life. She avenges the person, Pai Mei, who taught her how to do said method, by doing what he did to Elle. She's off to Bill. This is where the film (I'm totally calling this a film) reaches its brilliant climax.

There are no good guys, or bad guys, there are people. Extraordinary people. Beatrix decided to raise her child with a clean slate, leaving Bill and covering up the fact that she was a cold blooded killer on the inside.

Bill overreacted by killing everybody (except for two) at the wedding. He deserves to die. She deserves her revenge. But she broke his heart. But he had just cause. But there's still love there, whether it be nostalgic or true.

When Beatrix kills Bill, she doesn't feel no remorse like she's felt with the others. She had to do it, but she knows what she's done and it affects her emotionally. Because of this, it affects the audience emotionally.

I cried fairly hard when Bill asked "How do I look?" and Beatrix replied "You look ready." When on the fifth step, Bill falls, it's heartbreaking, but just, and you feel regret, but it's over, and it's all these complicated emotions that are so far from arbitrary and I'll be damned if that's not considered "serious drama" by some pretentious douchebag with his fuck-you flip flops.

I don't think I'll ever be able to see this movie again in its two halves separately, even one after each other. I'll either have to mash them up together or wait till The Whole Bloody Affair comes out on DVD.

I feel after seeing it in this environment in 35mm strung together as they were, it's tied with Fight Club, Boogie Nights, and Pulp Fiction for the title of greatest movie I've ever seen. I dread watching Titanic, a 3 hour movie.

I oh so highly anticipate Kill Bill, a 4 hour movie, the best 4 hour movie I've ever seen, one that's length does not feel ironic or gimmicky or arbitrary, but necessary. The story can't be told in 2 hours, 3, or even 3 1/2.

There is not a wasted second in Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair.