Bill

Apropos of nothing, I’ve been giving some thought to Kill Bill. I agree with Scott that KB is Tarantino’s weakest work, but this isn’t saying very much; his first three films are among the best of the 90s. Tarantino’s extraordinarily annoying personality sometimes makes us forget that he’s a magnificent filmmaker. For some reason, his irritating sociability irks me (and others) more than the genuine misanthropy of any number of other directors.

Anyway, Kill Bill combines a largely unengaging storyline (to me, at least) with technical mastery, and provides an occasional showpiece for Tarantino’s most exceptional strengths. Tarantino’s two most important talents are his ability to write dialogue and his capacity to bring out the best in mediocre actors. In Kill Bill, I think it’s fair to say that the second is on impressive display; David Carradine isn’t just good, he’s GREAT, and one of the flaws of the first film is that he’s not on display often enough. I find it interesting to think about what Tarantino could do with other mediocre actors; what about Keanu Reeves, for example? Regarding the former, the Chiba-Thurman restaurant scene must be rated among the strongest that Tarantino has ever written and directed. Thurman in particular does an outstanding job shifting from the innocent and hapless American to the vengeful killer, all in four lines of dialogue.

Anyway, the exceptional aspects of the films make me more tolerant of the wankery. Tarantino is one of those few popular figures who have become so overrated that they are, in an important sense, underrated; his reputation tends to get in the way of the genuine quality of his product. There are few directors I can think of who, with only five films, have demonstrated a more consistent level of mastery. Kubrick, perhaps, would be another.