One of the more heated movie debates of the 21st century has been settled once and for all. That is, if you take the writer-director’s word for it. Following his severely underratedJackie Brown, filmmakerQuentin Tarantinotook alongtime developing and deciding on his next project. When he finally resurfaced, he had a truly epic screenplay calledKill Billthat he intended to make as his fourth film. Production lasted a whopping 155 days onKill Bill, which took a kitchen sink approach to genre as Tarantino tried his hand at kung fu, spaghetti Western, tragic romance, and revenge tale all in one story.
WhenKill Billentered post-production it was already a running joke amongst the crew that the three-hour film should be cut in half, and even producerHarvey Weinsteinhad already suggested considering a split, but as editing continued, it became clear to Tarantino and Miramax that releasingKill Billas two films made sense. Thus, in July 2013—three months before the intended release ofKill Bill—it was announced that the movie was being cut into two parts, which would be released separately.Kill Bill Vol. 1hit theaters in October 2013 as planned, andKill Bill Vol. 2was released in April 2014.
Two release dates. Two opening and closing credits. Two movies, right? Wrong, according to Tarantino. The debate over whetherKill Billis one movie or two has raged on over the past decade, but in an appearance on theCinemaBlend podcast, Tarantino stated emphatically thatKill Billis one movie:
“Technically we released it as two movies, and there is a closing and an opening credits [on each movie], but since I made it as one movie and I wrote it as one movie, [it’s one movie].”
But Tarantino went on to admit that releasing the film in two parts worked to its advantage:
“Now it works really good that way. 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.'”
That’s not untrue, and there is a combined cut calledKill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affairthat edits the film together as one movie with key differences (the opening scene forThe Whole Bloody Affairis the opening scene fromVol. 2), but the fact remainsKill Billwas released as two movies. It exists as two movies. Ipaidfor two movies. And each movie has a fairly distinct tone and focus—Vol. 1is pretty much all action, whereasVol. 2is more character-centric. Moreover, with talk thatKill Bill Vol. 3is once again a real possibility, the numbering would getveryconfusing. So as far as I’m concerned, until Tarantino finally makesThe Whole Bloody Affairwidely available,Kill Billis two movies.
On the bright side, since Tarantino considersKill Billone film, we still have one Tarantino movie left afterOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodbefore hisself-imposed retirement.
