Assignment 3

I'm the kind of person who has a hard time picking favorites. When it comes to movie, I generally tell people that my favorite is The Shawshank Redemption, however I feel as though a lot of people are likely to pick that for this assignment. Another movie that I rank as one of my favorites is Kill Bill: Vol. 1. I'm a big fan of Quentin Tarentino's work because he maintains styles and influences for each film he directs while making each a unique and entertaining experience.

The story begins with a group of assassins walking into a wedding chapel and killing everyone within, or so they think. The pregnant bride survives, although she is in a coma that will last her the next four years. When she wakes up, the baby is gone, and she immediately begins planning her revenge. She knows who her would be murderers were because at one point she was one of them, a skilled member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. The Bride, played by Uma Thurman, makes a list of all five members that serves as the order in which she plans to kill them. As with many of Tarentino's films, Kill Bill has a non-linear plot, so the opening scene shows The Bride taking down the second name on her list. Then it moves to the wedding massacre and her awakening before flying out to Japan to acquire the world's finest katana. The movie ends with The Bride storming a yakuza stronghold and assassinating the first name on her list. By the conclusion, very little is known of the titular character, Bill, other than that he is the head of the DVAS and that he is the father of The Bride's baby. The end is a total cliffhanger, which ensures that people will see Vol. 2.

Kill Bill was produced on a budget of $30 million, which is cheap by today's standards. Domestic box office sales more than doubled production costs at around $70 million, and worldwide it sold over $180 million in ticket sales. The fact that Tarentino is so successful with such a small budget is testament to his movie making skill. One thing that I particularly enjoy about this movie is the soundtrack. All of the music is chosen perfectly for each scene, and really seems like it was written to accompany it. I really appreciate Tarentino's love of Ennio Morricone's work because he fills his movies to the brim with music from old Westerns. I'm also a fan of the fusion of Spaghetti Western and Samurai movie action. It makes for fight scenes riddled with electricity and emotion. I also admire the director's dark sense of humor, as well as the fact that he makes a point to cameo in all of his movies. Tarentino can be seen dancing at the front of the crowd in the House of Blue Leaves extended shot. The sum of this brilliant directing creates one of my favorite movies of all time.