Quentin Tarantino: Ranking His Movies

4. Kill Bill Volume 1 Easily the better half of the Kill Bill conundrum, Volume 1 is a potent revenge story that's most notable not for its cutting, acerbic dialogue, but its glorious style. If the early sections of the film seem relatively "realistic" and pared down - aside from the fact that, you know, The Bride (Uma Thurman) survives being shot in the head - then that's completely confounded once The Bride kills Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) and makes it to the House of Blue Leaves to face off against O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu). From here the film becomes a relentless, insanely gory homage to the martial arts and sword-fight cinema that Tarantino naturally grew up watching; The Bride cuts down all of the Crazy 88 in a gratuitously violent scene, so filled with gore that the colour had to be changed to black-and-white for the English version (the Japanese equivalent is still in colour). Even once this epic fight is over, we have the superbly minimalist duel against O-Ren, an extremely satisfying battle that helps to ensure a potentially rote revenge tale has a distinct personality and style. Also, the twist at the end - that The Bride's daughter didn't die in her womb - left us waiting for Volume 2 with bated breath.