When Stephen King isn’t writing a new book (the author of It of Carrie still puts out at least one novel a year), he likes raving about movies on his Twitter account and in reviews — or throwing them in the pan. His fans know that the star author’s opinion often differs from that of the public, as he repeatedly vented his anger at one of the by far most popular film adaptations of one of his books: King still doesn’t like Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of The Shining (instead he likes the 1997 three-part TV series, which he wrote).
But the writer is strict not only with the screen versions of his books: after the premiere of “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” (2003), Stephen King got into the magazine about the first part of Quentin Tarantino’s revenge epic, from which he could only discover some positive aspects…
“Kill Bill” an idle movie with no meaning?
In his op-ed, King compared the Tarantino film to Clint Eastwood’s drama Mystic River from the same year, which also has a retribution theme. For King, Mystic River is “a movie that definitely made a difference” – unlike Kill Bill, which he called “pretty boring”.
The Tarantino cult film is “certainly well done”, but at the same time “narcissistic”, “boringly self-absorbed” and “a purgatory of Quentin Tarantino’s vanities”. With this, King addresses accusations that the director of “Pulp Fiction” has been made repeatedly throughout his career. In fact, Tarantino puts together “Kill Bill” from everything that has shaped him cinematically: martial arts films, spaghetti westerns, exploitation cinema – and even an anime segment finds its place.
But as is almost always the case, the 60-year-old doesn’t combine all these elements into a pure patchwork of quotes, but creates something that works on its own. In this case: a bloody as well as stylized tour de force that transforms from wild pop-art cinema into a highly emotional thriller – and really could not have been shot down by any other director. In our Filmstarts review, there were good reasons for the top score of 5/5 stars!
But Stephen King sees it a little differently. “The violence is choreographed like an Esther Williams swim number,” he continues, as if that’s a bad thing. “Blood spewed from amputated limbs.”
The legendary author “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” can still struggle with one positive aspect – the main actress. “Uma Thurman is doing her best and she’s the best in this movie,” praises King. “But at the end of the day she plays a woman who is a label, not a human being.” With this line, the creator of the “Stuffed Animal Graveyard” alludes to the fact that Thurman only appears as “the bride” in the first part. – her real one but never found out the name. That all changes in part 2, and rightfully so, as Tarantino delves deeper into his main character’s past after the fireworks of the first film. However, it is not known whether “Kill Bill: Vol. 2” made Stephen King at least a little more forgiving…