Quentin Tarantino Ends the ‘Kill Bill’ Debate Once and For All: It’s Not Two Movies
Zack Sharf
Quentin Tarantino has been quite vocal during his “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” press tour about retiring after his 10th feature directorial effort. Ironically, “Hollywood” marks the 10th film release of his directorial career. What’s the catch? “Kill Bill.” Tarantino’s martial arts epic was released as two films, “Vol. 1” in 2003 and “Vol. 2” in 2004, but in Tarantino’s eyes only counts as one movie. Tarantino fans and “Kill Bill” lovers have long debated whether or not the film counts as one movie or two, but it’s pretty clear where Tarantino stands considering he views “Hollywood” as his ninth movie.
During a recent appearance on the CinemaBlend podcast, Tarantino was asked to settle the debate once and for all. “Technically we released it as two movies, and there is a closing and an opening credits [on each movie],” the director said, “but I made it as one movie and I wrote it as one movie, [so it’s one movie].”
“Kill Bill” only became two movies in post-production. “Now it works really good that way,” Tarantino admitted. “Frankly, the truth of the matter is, I don’t think it would’ve been as popular as a four hour movie. I literally had a guy say that to me. It was one of those weird diamond bullet moments where you can’t unhear it. He said, ‘Quentin, here’s the thing. My uncle would love this movie, but he wouldn’t love it at four hours.'”
Tarantino told CinemaBlend that his original “Kill Bill” script started with the scene that opens “Kill Bill. Vol 2,” featuring The Bride (Uma Thurman) driving and addressing the camera. When the movie was split into two parts during editing, Tarantino bumped that scene to start “Vol. 2” and replaced the opening of “Vol. 1” with the close-up of a bloodied Bride moments before she is shot in the head by Bill.
Both “Kill Bill” installments were acclaimed by film critics and earned over $150 million worldwide. Tarantino said earlier this month he’s still talking to Thurman about a possible “Kill Bill Vol. 3”
“Me and Uma have talked about it recently, frankly, to tell you the truth,” Tarantino said on MTV’s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. “I have thought about it a little further. We were talking about it literally last week. If any of my movies were going to spring from my other movies, it would be a third ‘Kill Bill.’”
A potential “Kill Bill Vol. 3” would be written and shot as a separate movie, meaning if that’s what Tarantino decides to do next it will be his 10th and final movie. The director’s latest, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, ” opens nationwide July 26.
