Product Details

• Actors: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Lucy Liu
• Directors: Quentin Tarantino
• Writers: Uma Thurman, Quentin Tarantino
• Producers: Bob Weinstein, Dede Nickerson, E. Bennett Walsh, Erica Steinberg, Harvey Weinstein
• Format: PAL
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Run Time: 111 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,160 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00008W64B
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #354,422 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1 is trash for connoisseurs. From his opening gambit (including a "Shaw-Scope" logo and gaudy '70s-vintage "Our Feature Presentation" title card) to his cliffhanger finale (a teasing lead-in to 2004's Vol. 2), Tarantino pays loving tribute to grindhouse cinema, specifically the Hong Kong action flicks and spaghetti Westerns that fill his fervent brain--and this frequently breathtaking movie--with enough cinematic references and cleverly pilfered soundtrack cues to send cinephiles running for their reference books. Everything old is new again in Tarantino's humor-laced vision: he steals from the best while injecting his own oft-copied, never-duplicated style into what is, quite simply, a revenge flick, beginning with the near-murder of the Bride (Uma Thurman), pregnant on her wedding day and left for dead by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (or DiVAS)--including Lucy Liu and the unseen David Carradine (as Bill)--who become targets for the Bride's lethal vengeance. Culminating in an ultraviolent, ultra-stylized tour-de-force showdown, Tarantino's fourth film is either brilliantly (and brutally) innovative or one of the most blatant acts of plagiarism ever conceived. Either way, it's hyperkinetic eye-candy from a passionate film-lover who clearly knows what he's doing. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

In this Quentin Tarantino fantasy pastiche of samurai and martial-arts films, the trunk of a body, its head lopped off, will spurt blood like a fountain. We know that the non-stop violence is not meant to be real: for starters, the blood looks like cranberry juice. Yet Tarantino is working in a photographic medium, and the real-world associations are not so easy to shrug off. Tarantino's heroine, Uma Thurman, kills another female warrior in front of the woman's little girl, and the child doesn't react. Tarantino wants the shock of a mother killed in front of her daughter without the audience undergoing any discomfort at all. The movie is what's formally known as decadence and commonly known as crap. Saying that it's an homage to long-established genres in Hong Kong doesn't reduce its pop-nihilistic stupidity. Some of the sequences have a scintillating visual flair, but you come out feeling nothing at all. And this is only the first half. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

259 of 301 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A near-perfect epic, November 3, 2003

By A Customer

"Kill Bill" is an anomaly in today's Hollywood culture. Here is a movie that neither makes you think too hard nor tears at you heartstrings--and it is a truly excellent flick. Under the shrewd (and possibly insane) hands of Quentin Tarantino, "Kill Bill" details an ultrally brutal and even more emotionally statisfying quest for revenge.

Beat to a bloody pulp and shot in the head and left for dead at her wedding day, The Bride (Uma Thurman, whose name is never revealed) is carted away in a four-year-long coma. She wakes up and vows revenge. And, oh, does Thurman play revenge well. It seems that the supporting cast (Lucy Lui, Vivica A. Fox, among others) truly beat Thurman to the edge of death. Her eyes convey her emotion--the limited and brief dialogue isn't even necessary. She is surpremely convincing in every aspect of her performance, even throughout the amazingly stylish fight sequences (which put "The Matrix" to shame). She fights like a pro with samurai swords, lethal daggers, butcher knives, and frying pans.

One of the main draws to this redefining adventure is the hilarious subject matter. Tarantino goes overboard. Blood flies about like fruit punch, gushing out of wounds like a torrential downpour (sometimes, in fact, you will even wonder if the human body has that much blood), and in any other movie, that gore would force you to leave--but here, it doesn't. Why? Because Tarantino never takes himself too seriously. Fight scenes are punctuated with effective and sometimes laughable dialogue. But beneath the hokey action scenes and the cute quips, there is a real movie at work here. Tarantino dances about the timeline, bouncing the story back and forth to a dizzying point, which forces your full attention on the gradually unfolding general story. The cliffhanger ending merely seals the deal.

"Kill Bill" deserves all of the accolades it gets. Although it may seem to be a hackfest on the surface, there is true talent at work here. Uma Thurman and Lucy Lui give inspiring performances; the story, however linear it may be, it instantly grabbing; and Tarantino's masterful direction is as inspiringly as it is slightly distubring. A true masterpiece. One of the films to beat for 2003.

78 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a Great Release, by Blu Standards, November 11, 2008

By 

A. Dent "Aragorn" (Minas Anor, GD) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Kill Bill - Volume One [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

I want to make it VERY clear, the three stars are NOT for the movie. Kill Bill, in my view, is one of the best movies ever made but this evaluation is for THIS Kill Bill Blu-ray release.

I am totally sold on Blu and, when the Kill Bill bundle became available... well... I ordered it when Amazon offered it at a great discount. The bundle includes Kill Bill 1 and 2 and, IF you wish to upgrade your KBs I highly recommend the bundle because you could save a few dollars. There is no difference between the 2 KBs sold as individual titles and them sold together other than, possibly, the price.

I wish I had a lot to say about the Blu-ray version but I don't so, let me say what is worth saying:

- The contents of the Blu-ray version are EXACTLY those of the DVD edition, nothing more, nothing less.
- Even the artwork is borrowed from the original DVD edition.
- The 'extras' are shot in low resolution, in fact they are the exact extras you will find on the DVD.
- The resolution of the movie is, of course, higher than the DVD's and the audio is available as 'uncompressed' but nothing special was done for the Blu issue. I noticed quite a few artifacts and some graininess but, overall, the picture quality is good. It could have been a lot better. I expect a remastered edition in the near future.

Overall, I am not very happy with this edition which appears to have been put together on the cheap and in a hurry. I suspect that the digital master used to make the DVDs was quickly converted to Blu and thrown out on the market but I could be wrong.

I am looking forward to a complete and professionally done Tarantino filmography on Blu in the near future, meaning that I'd be buying the Kill Bills three times.

On deciding whether to buy this release or not it should be up to one's budget. Those who don't have the DVD edition but have a Blu player, definitely buy the Blu, preferably the bundle because one never knows when a superior version may be released. If you already have the DVD... like I said, I bought my KB 1&2 package when Amazon offered it at a very significant discount.

183 of 231 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Tarantino, January 31, 2004

By 

D. Keusch "euchreman23" (MIchigan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Kill Bill - Volume One (DVD)

Kill Bill vol. 1, the 4th feature from Quentin Tarantino, delivers in most every way that we would expect from Tarantino. It is sylish as hell; the cinematography especially struck me as being more impressive than in his previous films. The final scene particularly illustrates this, with the frenetic action being conveyed through silhoutte lighting, b&w vs. color and creative shifts between them, impressive camera shots such as the rising shot right before the battle royale, and the pure cinematic epicity of the setting of the final battle between Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu. Tarantino's brilliantly dark humor is littered throughout the film as well; Buck describing how to have sex with Uma Thurman's supposedly comatose form may be offensive and appaling to some, but as it is delivered (and to all Tarantino fans), it is utterly hilarious (little details such as bucks "P---- Wagon, the "Kaboom!" cereal box, and the water fountain that serves as the only noise through much of the climatic battle also stand out). I was also very impressed with(though initially apprehensive of) the anime segment that served as a segue into the Japanese setting, it added a surprising amount of emotion, and set the feel perfectly for the rest of the film. Nearly everything is done right, beyond right. The soundtrack is amazing, as is to be expected for a Tarantino film. He has impeccable taste in music, and seems to innately know what will enhance the film; in some places it is even cheesy (the 1,2,3,4s in the Japanese club) but we know that this is all intended, as is the "Feature Presentation" card at the beginning; Tarantino is someone who is obviosuly in love with film, and this film is almost an expression of love for all the "cool" films he watched growing up. I have heard Uma Thurman quoted as saying that this film is "pure, epic, Tarantino fantasy" and this is a perfect description of it. There is little to no depth, it is not a film that will stun you with its character development, or method acting, but it doesnt pretend to, or even want to. It simply revels in being the epitomy of "cool", it is an action film that is done in almost all ways, perfectly. Tarantino's gift is found in knowing what will look utterly amazing on film (again, I found myself stunned simply by the appearance of the final, snow-covered courtyard), in being able to write with a great amount of wit and intelligence, and being able to put the two together with a large amount of what must be called genius. Kill Bill isn't Tarantino's best film (an honor reserved for the utterly brilliant Pulp Fiction, [or is it Reservoir Dogs, it seems to depend on which film ive watched most recently] ), nor will it win the Best Picture Academy Award (which it doesnt deserve anyway), but it is a damn good time. Uma Thurman makes a triumphant return to film, and shocks most everyone in being able to pull off her role as the Bride perfectly; after seeing the film I cannot imagine anyone who could be more convincing. The question remains, can a film be given 5 stars based on style alone? The answer, surprisingly, is yes. I give out 5 stars very, very infequently, to only the very best of films, and while this is by no means the BEST action film ever made, it is certainly a damn good one. repeat viewing may lessen the spectale somewhat, but this reviewer was very impressed (and still is, after 3 viewings) with what he just saw. Very Highly Recommended.