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While I share many of the complaints offered up by most religious press critics—primarily, that the film is at times self-indulgent and shallow—I differ from most of them in admitting that I did appreciate many things about the movie. Tarantino is, at times, a masterful director. (At other times he is quite immature and indulgent.) He knows how to fuse music and imagery together in a way that makes for unforgettable scenes, and his work with cinematographer Robert Richardson results in some dazzling rides of color and light. He also knows how to stage an action scene so that it looks like nothing we've seen before.

Granted, Tarantino lavishes all of this amazing style onto a story that is intentionally primitive, ankle-deep, and unsatisfying, at least so far. But it is a type of story that has been an established genre for as long as stories have been told. I wish he would quit giving so much attention to the repulsiveness of his villains, which he does in order to encourage our jubilance when and if they are finally executed (and most of them are.) But I cannot join the majority of the religious press critics who write off the film entirely. Tarantino has accomplished some remarkable craftsmanship here, and that should be acknowledged as much as his failings. If he can find a substantial story to tell, he may yet make a truly great film someday. My full review is at Looking Closer.

J. Robert Parks (The Phantom Tollbooth) is also impressed. He calls it "a spectacular triumph of style over substance." He highly praises Richardson's cinematography, calling it "awe-inspiring. His lighting and camera movement produce so many jaw-dropping moments I don't know where to begin."

Parks also cautiously addresses the criticism that has been leveled at the film's violence. "Violent it is … but the violence in Kill Bill bothered me much less than in some of this summer's blockbusters. It's violence inspired by comic books and kung fu films. When someone's head gets chopped off, the blood spurts like a fountain, just like the 'black knight' scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And just like that movie, I found myself laughing at the excess of it all. Indeed the sheer amount of blood and severed body parts in Kill Bill becomes almost comic."

But Michael Medved counters this with an all-out condemnation, calling the film a "putrid and puerile martial arts epic. Defenders of the movie will cite the self-conscious invocation of hyper-violent Japanese anime comic books, just as they will note the movie's fleeting tributes to samurai classics and spaghetti westerns. The artsy references may provide busy work for film critics and graduate students, but ordinary moviegoers will feel insulted and ripped off. The extent of the gory, sadistic violence, gutter language and unspeakable obscene sex references makes you wonder what more a movie must offer to receive the rating of 'NC-17.'"

Movieguide 's critic says, "Moral audiences that might accidentally stumble into this movie will need to take a bath immediately afterwards—to cleanse the heart and mind of the graphic images of rape and every type of violence." He adds that a good deal of the movie is just "a wretched exercise in excess that neglects elemental story and character devices that help audiences identify with the protagonist."

"[Pulp Fiction] set the standard for brutality and blood lust," writes Stephen Isaac (Plugged In). "It also inspired multitudes of gory rip-offs. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 makes Pulp Fiction look like a Disney flick." He goes on to quote Tarantino extensively, displaying the director's own lack of perspective on his own work and its potential negative impact. "Tarantino brags that his film elevates 'girl power' and tips its hat to the way (he thinks) women should hold their own in the world. To the contrary, Kill Bill demeans, degrades and devalues women at every turn. They're portrayed as vengeful, heartless beasts, bent on death and destruction. What, in fact, he's doing is opening them up to contempt and abuse."

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October (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47