I think that any person who wasn't laughing throughout the "film" (flick), clapping when people got it bad...they didn't get it.

Charles,

"Also, did all the Tarkovsky fans notice the shot of the Japanese overpasses lifted from SOLARIS?"

I thought it was the two shots of Michael Madsen's PG-13 heiney that were the references to Solaris...

"And what about the Brakhage, Fellini, DePalma, etc., etc.? I'm sure my being stoned means I missed tons of lifts/homages (as well as read a few where there weren't any)."

If there was one thing that was frustrating for me about KBV1, one thing I "didn't like" about the flick, it's that Tarantino's references are far sharper and far wider-ranged than mine -- so I know I missed tons and tons of the ones he threw into this film. The fact that everything outside of those references was so engaging didn't help; I was constantly distracted from looking for those references by the fun the film was providing me. I tried my best. I figured Hannah's whistling, and also her magic-markered-on overcoat *had* to be film references, but I just don't got 'em, so I didn't get 'em. Luckily, that whole sequence is funny as Hell, so it didn't really matter.

Matthew

Charles, thanks for a thoughtful counter-argument. Several of the points you raise are actually things I've been thinking about since posting, although you help bring them into slightly sharper focus. Gotta turn this over a bit, and not much time to post now anyway, so I'll reply in more detail later.

Darryl, thanks for providing the complete antithesis. I enjoy the effect of those two posts lined up right next to each other like that. But, glad you enjoyed it. No question the movie probably has more balls, enthusiasm, and -- almost ironically -- originality than pretty much anything else out now.


K

Oh, one other quick thing -- I agree completely (with Charles) about the music, the opening sequence in particular. Kill Bill may have Tarantino's strongest opening, ever ... my whole body was tingling with the power of it. I'd never heard much Nancy Sinatra other than These Boots and As Tears Go By ... Baby Shot Me Down has launched me on a quest for all the NS I can find. Pretty sad it'd take Kill Bill to turn me on to her, but damn ... I had no idea she had such cool stuff!

K

Huh. That was Nancy? I missed a lot of the song credits. I always do, but this time was worse, as I had to confer with three movie-mates, and I usually see films alone.

Also, when it actually popped up in the film, I swore one of 5, 6, 7, 8's songs was a tune from the Hairspray soundtrack (in Japanese, of course). But I was able to catch two song-credits for them, and neither title was familiar.

And, Charles, can you point out the Brakhage references, please? I've read a decent amount about Brakhage, and I hope to be renting and viewing my first Brakhage films relatively soon. So I didn't get them.

Were the teeny, few, and super-quick spots of in-color blood, during the b/w section of the Tokyo nightclub battle, film references, or were they just inserted to blow Matthewwave's mind?

Thanx.

Matthew

Well, it didn't bother me for the movie to be cut into two.

The real problem with this film was the unrealistic limbs being cut and what actually happens if such a thing happens.

Not to mention that woman who was cut up by Uma would have been dead a long time before she got her into the car trunk. Of course, how many people survive a bullet going through the brain?

"The real problem with this film was the unrealistic limbs being cut and what actually happens if such a thing happens.

"Not to mention that woman who was cut up by Uma would have been dead a long time before she got her into the car trunk. Of course, how many people survive a bullet going through the brain?"

Samuel, you've dumbfounded me. I mean, you're joking, right?

The problem isn't that one person could take down about a hundred assassins/thugs all by herself -- and then have the energy to take out a master killer. The problem is that, when she did this, the limbs being cut off, and the consequences of such, aren't realistic.

Matthew

...

Anyway. Charles: I've been formulating my reply and it has grown to fairly monstrous proportions; so, predicting the complaints that may ensue from a four-page post full of nit-pickity doodahs, tangents, and comparisons, I'm going to shoot this one along privately, I think. Although it solely addresses Charles' points, if anybody else wants to crawl through it, lemme know and I'll shoot it along, replies welcome; I just don't want to irritate the many others who probably don't care.


K

I thought that was kind of obvious as well, so obvious I did not want to mention it...