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Originally Posted by demonrail666
That was the one (or two) that marked the end of my interest in him, before getting to the point where I couldn't even watch his earlier stuff, which I'd previously enjoyed.
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Hmm. Really?
I can't relate. Kill Bill was a whole different kind of movie than any of his previous films, and by comparison it's extremely campy and at times outright dumb. But it's supposed to be, so I can't imagine seeing it as a failure.
Tarantino has always been big into genre-hopping. Making films within certain archetypal molds, and putting his stamp on them — which often means blowing them to hell in one way or another. He's done this with mob films, and westerns and war films and noir films and Blacksploitation films. He was already about this shit before Kill Bill, but Kill Bill sent him into overdrive with it.
I think Kill Bill is Tarantino's superhero epic. But because he's Tarantino, he did it in a really weird ass way, and made sure to accentuate the absurdity at every angle. The polar opposite of Christopher Nolan doing Batman, and elevating the production and experience and acting and everything. Tarantino didn't bring the hero's journey to his "high art" level; he got down and wallowed in the muck with all the corny tropes he could find.
What strikes me most about Kill Bill is a.) how much fucking fun it is! and b.) how it manages to actually achieve some genuine, emotionally powerful moments amid all the insane bullshit.
I just love Kill Bill, and I may be totally out of my mind for feeling this way, but I think it's actually my second favorite Tarantino movie. It's just a blast... until, of course, it gets uncomfortably dark and people start getting buried alive and whatnot.
Also, remember, Jackie Brown was a FLOP. It was and is a great movie, and an excellent follow-up to Pulp Fiction, but most people didn't get that at the time. It was a disappointment to people who thought he was going to be some kind of slacker Scorsese. If you'll remember, after the release of Jackie Brown and in the subsequent years, he was frequently discussed kind of an M. Night Shamalamadingdong (circa... well, everything after Unbreakable) kind of way.
He felt he needed to win back some fans, so he made a big stunner.