Thrilling Bill
Last updated: 11/10/2006 - 10:29
A groovy soundtrack to the latest, hotly-anticipated kung-fu extravaganza from Mr. Quentin Tarantino.
Kill Bill Vol.1: Original Soundtrack
Music soundtracks are an integral part of Tarantino's filmmaking, and like his previous successful soundtrack albums - Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown - Kill Bill Vol.1 is destined to become another worldwide success.
The album ranges from '60s pop diva Nancy Sinatra' Bang Bang, the rockabilly kitsch of Charlie Feathers' That Certain Female, the multi-platinum selling Wu-Tang Clan rapper The RZA (Ode to Oren Ishii), soul maestro Isaac Hayes (Run Fay Run), and The 5.6.7.8.'s (Woo Hoo); a campy '90s all-girl group from Japan.
Cult Television
Some of the tracks on the album have been previously featured in other classic films and cult television shows the latter including such milestone cult favourites including the trumpeter, Al Hirt's Green Hornet, and even the critically acclaimed Raymond Burr detective series Ironside.
With a highly detailed appreciation of film genre exploitation, Tarantino has the ability to tap into different musical styles, and applies to the unlikeliest scenes in his films. When he took Steeler's Wheel's Stuck In The Middle With You and played it during one notorious scene in Reservoir Dogs, audiences didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Tarantino is arguably the most music-savvy of '90s filmmakers, and with Kill Bill Vol.1 - The Original Soundtrack, he has, once again put together tracks from past and present, making this original soundtrack a hot ticket. Read the screenplay, see the movie, and buy the album. With Tarantino, you get the entire Kill Bill experience.
Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman is going to Kill Bill, in Tarantino's latest film about a former assassin betrayed by her boss, Bill (David Carradine). Four years after surviving a bullet in the head on her wedding day, The Bride (Thurman) emerges from a coma with a thirst for vengeance on her former master and 'The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad'; ruthless killers played by Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah and Michael Madsen.
Inevitably, she tracks down assassins one by one, and each due to the death is played out as homage to a different movie genre - spaghetti westerns, Yakuza Samurai, Kung Fu, and so forth.
The Independent newspaper claims, "Test-screening reports have called it one of the most violent movies of recent years, centred on a set-piece battle that is beautifully shot, but brutal, blood symphony of drop kicks and bursting squibs."
To give the movie an authentic kung-fu edge, Tarantino hired the original fight choreographer of The Matrix, Woo-ping Yuen, plus the legendary martial arts choreographer, Sonny Chiba (The Triple Cross), of the 1970s The Street Fighter, to train the actors. Both choreographers even have supporting roles in Kill Bill Vol.1.
"It takes place in this special universe," says Tarantino. "It has its own rules and own mythology and a lot of these rules can be found in the different genre films. Kill Bill is my big, giant exploitation movie, I take it really seriously."
Three Hours
The original duration of Kill Bill was three hours, and was adapted from a 200-page script written by Tarantino. The film will now be released as two separate 90-minute long movies, with the second instalment planned for early 2004.
The full track listing for the Kill Bill OST looks like this:
1. Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) - Nancy Sinatra
2. That Certain Female - Charlie Feathers
3. The Grand Duel - (Parte Prima) - Luis Bacalov
4. Twisted Nerve - Bernard Herrmann
5. Queen Of the Crime Council - dialogue excerpt from film featuring Lucy Lui & Julie Dreyfus
6. Ode To Oren Ishii - The RZA
7. Run Fay Run - Isaac Hayes
8. Green Hornet - Al Hirt
9. Battle Without Honour or Humanity - Tomoyasu Hotei
10. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Santa Esmeralda
11. Woo Hoo - The 5.6.7.8's
12. Crane/White Lightning - The RZA/Charles Bernstein
13. The Flower of Carnage - Meiko Kaji
14. The Lonely Shepherd - Zamfir
15. You're My Wicked Life - dialogue excerpt w/ David Carradine, Julie Dreyfus & Uma Thurman
16. Ironside excerpt - Quincy Jones
17. Super 16 excerpt - Neu!
'Kung Fu Stings and SFX'
18. Uakuza Oren 1
19. Bannister Fight
20. Flip Sting
21. Sword Swings
22. Axe Throws
Kill Bill Volume 1, Quentin Tarantino's first film in six years (since 1997's Jackie Brown) is in cinemas now.
Kill Bill Volume 1, The Original Soundtrack is out now, on CD and as a very pretty retro styled vinyl LP, on Maverick Records.