The only scene Quentin Tarantino would happily cut from ‘Kill Bill’: “You don’t need that”
As one of the few filmmakers in Hollywood afforded complete creative freedom to make their movies however they see fit, it’s been a long time since Quentin Tarantino has been placed under studio pressure to shorten his increasingly epic efforts.
For comparison’s sake, Reservoir Dogs was a lean and mean 99 minutes, while Once Upon a Time in Hollywood encroached on butt-numbing territory with a 161-minute running time. Tarantino hasn’t made a film under two and a half hours since Death Proof, and there’s even a caveat if you want to get picky.
Seeing as Kurt Russell’s vehicular rampage was designed to be half of a picture that ran for a combined total of 191 minutes, you can rule it out if you want to. If you fancy viewing Kill Bill as a single cohesive story instead of a two-parter, then you can rule that one out, too, which means – with a big asterisk – that Tarantino has never made a sub-150-minute film since his debut.
On one hand, fair enough. If he doesn’t have to make his features shorter, then why would he? It’s become increasingly clear that Tarantino is dangerously obsessed with securing his legacy, and if he thinks a certain shot or scene is essential to the story he’s telling, then he won’t budge.
However, when he was spitballing his ideas for releasing Uma Thurman’s bloodthirsty quest for retribution as one movie, he did – in a roundabout way – confess that shoehorning his frequent collaborator, Michael Parks, into the narrative as a retired pimp wouldn’t make the cut.
“The Esteban Vihaio scene wouldn’t be in the movie,” he told IGN. “If you’re trying to tell your story in three hours or so, you don’t need that scene. I think that’s one of the most mesmerising scenes in the movie. If I had to lose anything, it would have been that. You always have to make those kind of choices.”
Did Tarantino prove to be a man of his word? No, he did not, ironically. When he finally got around to re-editing the duology and screening Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, Vihaio was present and accounted for. The two-time Academy Award winner made several changes, but the one scene he said would happily cut from the film wasn’t among them, so go figure.
The 215-minute Whole Bloody Affair removed the introductory Klingon proverb and replaced it with a tribute to Kinji Fukasaku, the anime sequence reintroduced several snippets that were cut to avoid an X-rating in the United States, the iconic House of Blue Leaves battle is presented in full colour, and Sofia Fatale loses her other arm.
Those were just some of the alterations, and yet, Esteban Vihaio lived to fight another day.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.