Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah
Have I Seen it Before: Yes. Although for some reason this one is stuck in my memory less than Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003).
Did I Like It: And I wonder why that is. My immediate, instinctual answer is to say that as a college student when these were released, the first film somehow seeped into the consciousness of a certain kind of guy a bit more than this one.
Which is a shame, because (and forgive me if this next assertion dares to offend your delicate sensibilities) this is the better film. I might be inclined to think that my scant memory of the film made the surprises fresher and more pleasurable, but I think it’s more than that. The story here is tighter, the characters less broad, and the thrills are just as potent (which is only partially attributed to the reflexive cringing I experience after witnessing the repeated self-mangling of Uma Thurman’s hands.
Ultimately, I’m struggling to think of a film with a more potent (or even one to rival this film’s) feeling of catharsis in the aftermath of the climax. We feel the vindication of Kiddo (Thurman) so viscerally, we are very nearly relieved of Budd’s (Madsen) assertion at the top of the film—and I paraphrase—that she deserves to die just as much as the villains.
Here’s the conclusion I think I’m going to stick with. While the first film has plenty of thrills, and it could have suffered from being simply connective tissue in larger sagas like Back to the Future - Part II (1989)*, it is ultimately just a trailer for the far more satisfying conclusion contained herein.
* Which I still like, for the record, and about which I will not hear an unkind word.