6 TheBritishJournalofGeneralPractice,July2004 564 reflection Miramax FilmCorporation,2004 directed by Kill BillVolumes 1and2 Particularly ifGeorge Clooneyfollowsitup Tarrantino takeabulletbetweentheeyes. performance. Audiences reallyenjoyseeing guilty pleasuresofany Tarantino From DuskTil Dawn cast, 1997’s Then helosthiswayalittle.Despitestellar backbone ofhismovie? gold watch)he’dfilchedandmadethe whose story(aboutaboxerandhisdaddy’s share itwithformerfriendRoger Avary, Original Screenplay. Sowhatifhe hadto d’Or atCannes.ItwonhimanOscarforBest Jackson. It wonhimthePalme of SamuelL John Travolta’s failingcareerandmadeastar diverse as scumbag whogetsshotinthefacefilmsas and hemadeaprettygoodmotor-mouthed too. Butotherpeoplestartedusinghimtoo, bigger thanyourgargantuan chin,youwould himself inhisownmovies.Ifyouhadanego on deliveringagoodfilm.Obviouslyheput was moreinterestedinhisactingcareerthan good andforawhileitseemedthat Tarrantino did nextwas knew whathewasgoingtodonext. What he 30 andhehadtheworldathisfeet.No-one either lovedhimoryouloathedhim.Hewas puppy inaroomfullofunhumpedlegs,you Passionate, arrogantandasexcitablea Tarantino wassuddenlyeverywhere. excellent rip-off) ofHongKongdirector RingoLam’s the filmwasanunacknowledgedremake(or zeitgeist. Sowhatifwefoundoutlaterthat young directorsurfingthepopculture gave Tarantino areputationasdangerous surrounding thatscenemadethefilmand Middle With You inspired drunkenmentodance horrific. Itwasnauseating. Worse still,ithas to therestofsong. The scene was cop stillhasoneearleftandisforcedtolisten ear withastraightrazor. Unfortunately, the to aGerryRafferty song. And slicingoff his tortures aboundandgaggedcopbydancing scene. ElvisimpersonatorMichaelMadsen equal measure. And thentherewastheear which amusedandoffended audiencesin humour andhischeerfullyvulgardialogue, pop culturesensibilities,hisperversesenseof funny andviolent;ashowcasefor Tarantino’s 1992’s modeloflow-budgetindependentcinema, A Steven Soderbergh. And Quentin Tarantino. makers, amongthemtheCoenBrothersand American andinternationalindependentfilm world, championingthebestmodern the mostinfluentialfilmfestivalsin guardianship, Sundancehasbecomeoneof Sundance FilmFestivalwasborn.Underhis I The Emperor’s newclothes:volumes1&2 based independentfilmfestival,the really. When hebailedoutasmall,Utah- blame RobertRedford.It’s allhisfault Reservoir Dogs City onFire Reservoir Dogs Quentin Tarantino Jackie Brown Pulp Fiction . And hereliesoneofthe ? . The controversy . The was fresh,vibrant, , . Itjump-started just wasn’t very Desperado Stuck inthe and Of thetwohalves,Ipreferred alarmed. You haveseenitbefore. suddenly youexperiencedéjàvu,donotbe Hornet showslike Suzuki andcult TV kitsch JapanesegangstermoviesofSeijun well aslessmainstreamsourceslikethe Kurosawa, NagisaOshimaandJohnFord,as (stealsfrom)amongothers, ‘pays homageto’ cribbed thebestbitsforyou.Elsewherehe worry. Tarrantino’s seenthemallandhe’s a ShawBrosmartialartsmovie?Don’t equivalent. Neverseenaspaghettiwesternor in thepast. so manypoorstudentsthroughtheirexams the Gray’s Study Notes,whichhavehelped cinema. Watching deliberate andwholesaleplunderingof it’s almostimpossiblenottospotthe fanboy referencespotting,butwith been funforfilmbuffs toindulge ingeeky comedy. With hisearlierfilmsitmayhave violence, martialartsfantasyandblack between surrealisticbloodletting,gritty something ofacurate’s egg,veeringwildly tendencies. Taken together, thetwofilmsare Time hasn’t curbed Tarantino’s magpie gamble thatalmostpaysoff. Fiction Thurman whiletheywerefilming conversations between Tarrantino andUma based, apparently, onseveraldrunken magnum opus, now he’s back,louderthanever, withhis his woundsandbattlingwriter’s block.But and spentacoupleofyearssulking,licking and hisactingcareer, Tarrantino disappeared After thetwo-for-one failureof by drivingatablelegthroughhisheart. former colleagues,astheydemolish Green’s Fox),oneofher Vernita Green(Vivica A knife-wielding assassins The Brideand headlong intothepitchedbattle between years intechnicolourandwe’re thrown her inthehead.Fastforward a coupleof unborn childbeforetheunseenBillshoots monochrome) forherlifeandtheof battered, bleedingBridebegs(incrisp film openswithaquiteliteralbang;the Volume 1 chopped itintwoanddecidedtorelease to editdownamanageablelength.Sothey decided thatthefilmtheyhadwastoogood and MiramaxsupremoHarvey Weinstein originally conceivedasonefilm, Tarrantino Shot intheUS,MexicoandChina, Daryl Hannah)andBill(DavidCarradine). Fox,MichaelMadsenand Liu, Vivica A to getevenwithherformercolleagues(Lucy understandably alittlebitpeevedandsetsout from acoma5yearslater, The Brideis former loverandemployer, Bill. Waking up dead onherweddingdaytheordersof pregnant assassin,whoisshotandleftfor wrought by The Bride(Uma Thurman), a epic chartingtheglobetrottingvengeance . Soifyou’rewatching . Kill Bill and Volume 2 Kill Bill Kill BillVolumes 1&2 is asprawlingmartialarts Kill Bill monthsapart. It’s a 6 is thecinematic reminded meof Volume 1 Jackie Brown Kill Bill The Green Kill Bill . The Pulp and , A survival guide to later life Marion Shoard Constable Robinson, 2004 PB, 644 pp, £9.99, 1 84 119372 0 suburban home. But watch the background While there is much to enjoy in Kill Bill closely and, in a moment that’s quintessential Volume 2, it is overlong and reliant on the The past is a foreign country, but so is Tarantino, you’ll see the ominous shape of kind of tired Tarantino dialogue that was a old age, and as you enter it you feel you the school bus stop outside the house as notable, and very welcome, absence from are treading unknown territory, leaving Green’s daughter arrives home … Volume 1, and swaps the graphic but surreal your own land behind. You’ve never been bloodletting of the first film for the gritty, here before.1 In the past, I’ve always found Tarantino’s nihilistic viciousness of his earlier films. The films to be too static. Apart from his patented disjointed chapters of narrative drag, they HIS quotation sets the theme for this stylistic flourish of playing around with the lack the sheer kinetic energy of Volume 1’s helpful and practical book. The narrative structure, his films take few animated origins of O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) or Tauthor of A Survival Guide to Later chances. They’re stagey, dialogue-driven the playful humour of Sonny Chiba’s Life deals sensitively with issues such as pieces of fluff, long on quotable lines swordmaster and his sushi house, while Daryl moving house, retirement housing and the beloved by students, but shockingly light on Hannah’s one-eyed Aryan she-bitch is never selection of a care home. She includes, in character. The framing and editing are the serious threat to The Bride that Volume 1’s the latter, a guide to the quality of tea bags pedestrian. They’re flabby. They don’t move. psychotic fetishised Japanese schoolgirl and coffee used. Apparently, if both are Well, whether it’s down to Tarantino or his Gogo (Chiaki Kuriyama) proved. Nothing in cheap, then the presumption is that the action choreographer, the legendary Yuen the second film comes close to the lyricism management of the home may also scrimp Wo-Ping, Kill Bill Volume 1 moves. and beauty of the final snow garden duel on lighting, heating and ‘second helpings’. Tarantino’s direction is tight and confident. between The Bride and O-Ren Ishii which Limbs fly, swords flash, geysers of blood echoes the films of Kenji Fukasaku and The chapter ‘Adapting surroundings’ spray and the camera dances around it all Nagisa Oshima. details changes that can be made to major with almost as much energy as Thurman’s rooms and gardens. There is also an vengeful harpy. While his narrative is as The most surprising thing about Volume 2 is excellent list of gadgets and aids, including disjointed as ever, the film is lean, pared to just how good David Carradine is as stair lifts, alarms and walking aids, and the bone. Gone is the playful dialogue and Thurman’s nemesis Bill. While The Bride clever ways of funding them. Bugbears laid-back delivery of earlier films; elegaic dominates the first film, the second film such as incontinence are described, samurai sword battles replace his tense gun- belongs to Bill. An unseen menace with including suggestions of useful clothing and toting Mexican stand-offs. The film switches mixed feelings in Volume 1, he is revealed as equipment like ‘kylie sheets.’ from black and white to colour to frenetic both father figure and jealous lover to The Japanese anime and back again, climaxing Bride, whose only chance of redemption lies There is a detailed section on professional with a stylised (and gratuitously violent) in his restoration of her stolen daughter. Lean helpers, which states that: battle in a Japanese restaurant that’s right out and weathered by age and experience, of a Seijun Suzuki film. Carradine’s craggily handsome visage ‘The GP will decide, prescribe and control complements Thurman’s fallen angel beauty your access to the rest of the health At its centre, holding everything together in perfectly. His performance is measured, service. Life or death, blindness or vision, the best performance of her career, is Uma hypnotic, still exuding the cat-like grace of inability of freedom of movement, and Thurman. Raw and sexy, tough as nails, his Kung Fu days, his tequila-roughened much more are theirs to determine!’ Thurman is a revelation. A raging, primal voice lending the worst, most banal lines force, literally climbing over the corpses of Tarantino can put in his mouth a worth they It also emphasises practical issues such as her enemies to get at the titular Bill, her quest don’t deserve. That Bill is such a palpable ‘flu jabs’, annual health checks and regular for vengeance is the engine that drives the force in Kill Bill is purely down to Carradine. reviews of medication. Important issues film. Her scream of rage and grief upon He invests Bill with a dignity and tragedy that such as age-related macular degeneration, waking up from her coma and reaching down just isn’t reflected by the script. I wanted to dementia, depression, and employment of to find her previously pregnant belly empty, is scream with fury and throw popcorn at staff are also examined. agonising and humanises her otherwise comic the screen, when at the climax of the two book superhero character. films, after around Other helpful chapters discuss money, state, Tarantino’s genius for 3.5 hours of carnage, housing and council tax benefits, and handling actors isn’t just Bill sits down and a further chapter considers legal and confined to Uma lectures The Bride financial representation, which also covers Thurman. With the on the merits of comic vital issues including bank authorisation, exception of professional books and the power of attorney, receivership, and mannequin Daryl Hannah relationship between appointeeship. An appendix deals with (laughable as a one-eyed superheroes and their complaints and lists useful contacts. killer), the performances archenemies. The scene in Kill Bill 1 & 2 are is light-weight. It’s Each chapter is well referenced. Hoard perfect. Michael Madsen’s kitsch. It’s geeky. The concludes that many elderly people are cool, laconic Budd is a scene is pure Tarantino. happy in spite of some of the restrictions of trailer-trash cowboy It’s an insult to both old age. Moreover, she emphasises that it is cousin to his Mr Blonde of the audience and only at this time of life that many break Reservoir Dogs. Lucy Liu to Carradine. That through the barriers that have prevented is an impossibly dainty Carradine almost pulls it them from really knowing their younger kimono-clad Yakuza. But off is a tribute to his long relatives and descendants. it’s Vivica A Fox’s overlooked talent. That murderous suburban Tarantino ends his I recommend it. mommy who’s perhaps epic masterwork with the best foil The Bride dialogue this bad is proof Lotte Newman encounters in either film that his talent is Reference and it’s a shame that she overcooked. 1. Morris J. Trieste and the meaning of nowhere. doesn’t feature more. © 2004 Miramax Film Corp David Watson London: Faber and Faber, 2001. The British Journal of General Practice, July 2004 565