Tarantino Week: Revisiting ‘Kill Bill’ Volumes 1 & 2

Quentin Tarantino is the epitome of a movie geek. He is the foundation for the reason I even started this site and for that reason I had to do the writeup for ‘Kill Bill’. This movie, although sculpted from a wide array of genres is one of the greatest films ever made.

The Movie:

The film is based around one woman’s need to seek revenge against the group of assassins she formerly belonged to. “The Bride” is murdered by her ex-lover after she attempts to marry to another man. Unfortunately for him 1 shot to the head doesn’t kill her and when she wakes up from the coma, it becomes her duty to kill every member of the Deadly Vipers, and eventually… Kill… Bill.

The film was split into 2 volumes because of the running time being right at 4 hours even though it was shot as a cohesive unit and will eventually be released as such with ‘The Whole Bloody Saga’. Both volumes jump around in the story as you have come to expect from a Tarantino film, except here these need to be watched together. As soon as Volume 1 finishes I always pop in Volume 2. It just doesn’t feel right to watch them one at a time.

Tarantino jumps into every genre that can possibly be covered in a revenge/martial arts film. Some of those include Hong Kong martial arts movies, Anime, exploitation films, horror, Japanese Chanbara films and Italian spaghetti westerns… what more could you ask for?! Oh, you want to see some references to his previous films? Done. Its all covered in this massive homage to all movie geeks and film lovers.

References:

The amount of references and throwbacks in the film cant all possibly be uncovered here so I thought I would go over some of the basic and more obvious ones.

First off has to be the most obvious reference from the film…

The yellow jumpsuit:

The jumpsuit was featured in almost every form of print advertising they did for the film and for those of you that are fans of marial arts films it is immediately recognizable. The jumpsuit is a direct throwback to the one Bruce Lee dawned in ‘Game of Death’. You can see them compared together below:

This is probably one of my favorite throwbacks from the film. ‘Game of Death’ is a fantastic film that I could watch forever and never get tired of it even if it was never truly finished. Bruce Lee is a legend and Tarantino shows his respect and pays homage to him in one of the biggest ways he could.

Pussy Wagon:

You are asking yourself, “What the hell could this be possibly referenced from?” and the answer might SHOCK you. In ‘Grease’ during the grease lightning song routine this lyric is said:

“We’ll get some purple French tail lights and thirty-inch fins, oh yeah/A palomino dashboard and duel muffler twins, oh yeah/ With new pistons, plugs, and shocks, I can get off my rocks/You know that I ain’t braggin’/she’s a real pussy wagon“

So it seems that even Tarantino is a fan of ‘Grease’, or is at least paying homage to the film in a small way…his way.

Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan

The opening line from the film “Revenge is a dish best served cold” is a pull from the a scene in ‘Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan’ which goes like this:

Ah Kirk, my old friend. Do you know the Old Klingon proverb that tells us ‘Revenge is a dish that is best served cold’? It is very cold in space.”

In the film its listed as an “Old Klingon Proverb’. (PS I know the image above isnt from the scene, thanks in advance.)

Further Bruce Lee references:

In the film the Crazy 88’s all wear masks similar to the one Bruce Lee wore as Kato on ‘The Green Hornet’ TV Show. The theme song from the show by Al Hirt is in the film and on the soundtrack.

I could go on for days about all of the stuff he referenced in the film, but I still need to writeup my ‘Inglourious Basterds’ review so I think ill just stop and end it on a high note. If you haven’t seen either of these films then I highly suggest turning off your computer, and going out to buy it. There is no excuse for not owning these, unless of course you are Armond White and hate good cinema.