Quentin Tarantino ends the ‘Kill Bill’ debate: It’s not two movies
Since his directional debut with Reservoir Dogs in 1992, celebrated filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has shaped a cinematic career like no other. His unique script-writing style and directional grasp make for a familiar experience in each film. His nine movies to date have followed a distinctive trail of dark comedy and sensationalised violence. They have featured a reel of recurring A-listers who bring top-flight entertainment to any story, from World War II-era vengeance stories to satirical studies of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Besides minor acting roles, production duties and script-writing collaborations, Tarantino has long maintained that he would call it a day after his tenth movie, much to his fans’ dismay. Naturally, as the years roll away and Tarantino’s movies arrive, fans often dispute how many have gone and hence, how many might remain.
During an interview with CNN in 2022, Tarantino revealed why he plans to stop at the ten-movie mark. “Well, I’ve been doing it for a long time,” he said. “I’ve been doing it for 30 years, and it’s, it’s time to wrap up the show. Like I said, I’m an entertainer. I want to leave you wanting more, you know, and not just work, and I don’t want to work to diminishing returns. I don’t want to be… one, I don’t want to become this old man who’s out of touch when already I’m feeling a bit like an old man out of touch when it comes to the current movies that are out right now. And that’s what happens.”
When The Hateful Eight arrived in theatres in 2015, it was suggested that we had reached number eight on the Tarantino doomsday clock. However, fans began to dredge up a hot topic of a decade prior: does Kill Bill count as one or two movies?
When the first Kill Bill volume arrived in 2003, the Uma Thurman-starring martial arts spectacle was advertised as Tarantino’s fourth movie to minimal protest. However, when the second volume arrived the following year, many fans expected it to count as a fifth movie and a sequel to the first volume.
If Kill Bill counted as two separate movies, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood would have been Tarantino’s tenth and presumably final direction. Thankfully, as Tarantino has clarified, Kill Bill is technically just one film split into two halves.
“Technically, we released it as two movies, and there is a closing and an opening credits [on each movie],” Tarantino said during a 2019 appearance on the CinemaBlend podcast. “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 after filming had finished. It was decided that a four-hour movie might have been a lot to swallow in one sitting. “Now it works really good that way,” Tarantino added. “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.'”
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.