For me Kill Bill has always been my favourite Tarantino film. For me his films range from the very enjoyable to the extremely overrated with this being the one I enjoy time and time again without exception. I have always understood them to be one film and always watched them as such. Hearing talk of the "whole bloody affair" cut together I knew it would be the ultimate way to watch what is easily one of the 21st century's greatest films and now that I have got to see it, I was correct.
Sure the film has different tonal shifts and narrative structures between the first and second acts. That in itself isn't a reason for it to be two films. I very much appreciate a film whose arc can evolve through its narrative and can switch its focus so the story blooms so intricately. I've often pointed to Kill Bill as an example of how to do this quite masterfully. I feel like this is where Tarantino perfected this strategy in ways he had been experimenting before and polishing after.
Seeing the full story play out together also highlights how Uma Thurman's performance here is one for the ages. Beatrix may be one of cinema's greatest characters and her masterful portrayal of her is so complex and powerful. For a film that leans into fun and absurdity, it embraces moments of real pathos and has an emotional depth that goes beyond what one would expect.
I also really appreciated how much this cut emphasizes the grandeur of O-Ren Ishii, my second favourite character in this story. Instead of being the penultimate big bad, finishing chapter one, she is a major focus of the whole narrative. I've always loved the way the movie frames her, putting her as #1 while saving her battle for the first climax. The way this cut comes together felt even more of a showcase for her and I'm here for that.
For me Kill Bill is a shockingly prescient tale of a woman triumphing over domestic violence. Beatrix stands up to her domestic partner's abuse and provides another path for her daughter to follow. She literally breaks Bill's heart at the end of the film. There is no masculine energy bloody battle. She makes a very different choice that both obtains justice for what has been perpetrated against her but does not continue the cycle of violence.
The film's treatment of its women characters is quite different than the men. The female combatants respect each other in ways they do not with the men surrounding them. Even before the discourse of toxic masculinity, Kill Bill wrestled with this concept, filling the screen with misogynistic characters who do not fare well. We see characters like Bill and his "father figure" Esteban for the sad little men they are. While we see the struggle Hattori Hanzō goes through to become a good man again. Kill Bill's gender discourse is ahead of its time.
Seeing the film in this cut has brought all this together even more clearly than before. The changes are subtle and unobtrusive, but they make it an even better film than it was before. This is the way to experience Kill Bill and I hope we'll get as many opportunities to watch The Whole Bloody Affair as possible.
Kill Bill The Whole Bloody Affair
Starring: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Sonny Chiba, Julie Dreyfus, Chiaki Kuriyama, Gordon Liu, Michael Parks, David Carradine, Samuel L. Jackson
Writer/Director: Quintin Tarantino
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