Almost There: Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill"
Monday, April 27, 2020 at 11:11PM 
To this day, I am shocked at how poorly the Kill Bill movies did with AMPAS. Both pictures conquered precursor support, including Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Guild nominations, but failed to secure a single Oscar nod. I consider this duo to be Quentin Tarantino's magnum opus, so the outrage is particularly intense when it comes to its awards run. It's a couple of perfect movies, from Robert Richardson's cinematography to Sally Menke's immaculate editing. However, no matter how great those elements might be, this is the Almost There series, so our focus today is the work of an actress who is only matched by Samuel L. Jackson when it comes to her ability to embody Tarantino's vision onscreen.
She's Uma Thurman and she's never been better than here, playing Beatrix Kiddo aka The Bride aka Black Mamba aka Mommy…
In good Tarantino fashion, Kill Bill's structure is a byzantine affair, constantly folding in on itself. Similarly, its style is in constant mutation, each chapter shot in radically different ways, going from kung fu movie pastiche to sobering drama. Before we see any of that, though, we start by hearing our protagonist's labored breaths, a death rattle. When an image contextualizes the sound, what we see is a portrait of savage brutality in silvery monochrome. It's Uma Thurman's bloody visage, battered and dying while an offscreen voice pontificates about mercy and masochism. That voice belongs to Bill (aka Snake Charmer) and when her eyes focus on him, they shine with fury and fear. The Bride doesn't want to die and the first words that come out of her mouth are a weak plea, a confirmation that the baby she's carrying belongs to her assailant.
The words have barely left her mouth when Bill shoots her in the head.
The brutality of that moment is so visceral and revulsive that it propels the entire revenge narrative that concerns the rest of the story. After that kind of merciless suffering, it's easy to imagine our blonde anti-hero selling her soul to the Devil in trade for violent retribution. Still, part of what makes Thurman's performance so good is how she never plays The Bride as a soulless killing machine. That becomes evident right from her second scene when she tracks down one of her former colleagues in the Deadly Vipers Squad who was complicit in the murder of her wedding party and unborn child. The search takes her to the suburbs and Thurman's fight with Vivica A. Fox's Vernita (aka Copperhead) is a merry blasphemy against domesticity.
It's spectacular to see The Bride in full-on assassin mode, her body language calling to mind her reptilian codename. Ruthless and tense, she looks like a snake prepared to attack at any moment. However, not everything is mindless violence. Both actresses play their characters as humans and not cartoons. Specifically, they are two women united by motherhood, a theme the films will return to later on. During this early fight scene, this manifests itself in The Bride's compassion. She won't kill Vernita while the other woman's daughter is near. When she is forced to do so, it's not a sense of victory that illuminates The Bride's face, but regret and resignation. She's rueful and sorry for a girl who just lost her mother and had to watch it happen.
The Bride as a victim and The Bride as a killer are two facets that the film needs to establish before going forward. Once it does that, the narrative leaps back to her awakening from a four-year coma, allowing Uma Thurman to showcase her talents. First, she illustrates the shock upon finding herself alive, the horror at realizing she lost her unborn child and then we get to gawk at her discombobulated physicality as she kills and crawls her way to freedom. Tarantino concedes entire scenes to Thurman, observing her maneuver through difficult situations, letting us see how she thinks and inhabits her own body. In the case of the famous foot-fetish Pussy Wagon scene, the static camera simply observes how Thurman plays a woman willing her limbs out of entropy. "Wiggle your little toe" - it's riveting stuff, truly.
Still, on the matter of Kill Bill: Volume 1, it's important to note how the actress plays her many action scenes. The entire act set in the House of Blue Leaves is particularly good, demanding that the actress goes through a rainbow of emotional variations while also doing incredible fight choreography. Thurman always runs away from robotic bi-dimensionality, showing that The Bride can be scared of her enemies and respectful of them too. Hell, she even gets to add some humor to the proceedings and genuine sorrow when the death of Lucy Liu's O-Ren Ishii (aka Cottonmouth) approaches, at last. This same approach repeats itself in each instance she fights or kills, but the emotional variations are everchanging.
The only time when the actress gives in to one single tone is during her fight with Darryl Hanna's Elle Driver (aka California Rattlesnake) in Volume 2. Then, Thurman leaves any sort of sentimental undercurrent at the door and lets herself be flooded by all-consuming contempt. It's only appropriate since her scene partner does the same. The opposite of that acting dynamic is the prolonged sequences Thurman shares with David Carradine as the eponymous Bill. In those moments, the actress abandons the stylization she brings to the more poppy violent parts of Kill Bill and embraces a surprisingly lived-in naturalism.
In the black-and-white flashback to the day of the wedding massacre, the actress paints a lifetime with Bill using just a couple of gestures. Her smile and relaxed posture speak for their shared love, but there's also petrifying terror when she witnesses Bill's antagonism towards her groom. In an instant, she realizes what's about to happen and her following interactions with the Snake Charmer are the desperate placations of an abuse victim trying to appease their abuser with performative trust. Better yet are her latter and final interaction with Bill, a final act shot through with a sort of painful humanity that's rare in Tarantino's oeuvre. There's one astounding reaction shot when Thurman takes the plasticity of her expression to awesome limits, going through a storm of shock, relief, joy, terror, and fury in less than a minute.
This is already the longest piece in the Almost There series, so we should probably conclude it. Awards-wise, Uma Thurman received plenty of accolades for her miraculous work, including two back-to-back Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress in a Drama. While it's easy to see why she failed to make the Oscar line-up in 2004, since that collection of five appeared to be set in stone very early on in the season, the same can't be said for her 2003 snub. That was a race famous for its unpredictability outside of the two frontrunners and it ended with two actresses that were campaigned as supporting getting into the Lead Actress category. It's preposterous, but, AMPAS ignored Kill Bill altogether. Quite frankly, that's their loss.
Both Kill Bill movies are new to streaming on Hulu. You can also rent or buy them on Redbox, Amazon, Youtube and others.
Reader Comments (22)
Majestic writing!!!! Could’ve gone reading more and more about this perfect performance! Thanks!
Not even an art direction, cinematography or editing nomination.
Criminal!!
The AMPAS action of snubbing Kill Bill is in keeping with previous actions.
In 1973, director Richard Lester made a highly praised film adaptation of the famed Alexadre Dumas novel. Unknown to cast and crew, the father and son producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind planned to release the completed film as two separate features.
When cast and crew learned of the deception upon the first film's public debut, SAG arbitration began. A union ruling, known as the Salkind Clause, prevented such money grubbing at the expense of actors and crew in the future.
The all star swashbuckler was a huge hit. Funny, vibrant, and closely adhered to the source material, Raquel Welch won Best Actress won a Golden Globe and the film appeared on lists of the best films of the year.
However, shooting one film and attempting to raise profits by dividing it in two did not sit well with AMPAS voters, The Three Musketeers was snubbed despite its popularity.
Kill Bill was originally conceived as a long film. The decision prompted by Miramax and Harvey Weinstein prompted release of Part I in 2003 ad Part 2 in 2004. The film suffered two incidents in its making that generated additional ill will toward the film.
Director Quentin Tarantino convinced star Uma Thurman to release her stunt woman and drive a car herself in a tricky maneuver. The car crashed injuring Thurman. The studio refused to release footage of the accident to Thurman's insurance company. The incident provoked a long standing ill will between Tarantino and Thurman. Later Thurman went to the police to file sexual harassment charges against Harvey Weinstein. The accident and the sexual harassment dimmed Thurman's enthusiasm in promotional efforts
Loved reading this. Kill Bill is Tarantino's masterpiece. Thurman was incredible.
I also think the Kill Bill duo is THE masterpiece of Tarantino’s career. Uma should have been nominated for this and in supporting for Nymphomaniac.
James: It's a good theory, and I think the film's two-part nature left voters unsure as to what to do (and this wasn't an undeniable Lord of the Rings-type situation). (Re: the Salkinds, though, the sequel to The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, did get an Oscar nomination, for its costume design.)
Kill Bill never really felt in the mix to me. I may be wrong but I don't remember much speculation at the time that it could get Oscar nominations. If anything, the Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations felt like a bit of a surprise.
It deserved something, though. Cinematography perhaps most of all.
Thanks for the article, Cláudio.
The 2003 Best Actress race was baffling at the time and equally baffling in retrospect! One can argue that Charlize sucked all oxygen from the room, allowing for niche favourites to make a charge to fill the other slots - and yet, only 3 years later Helen Mirren did the same and we got a set of nominees locked down from pretty much the moment that the Notes On A Scandal trailer premiered!
I frequently misremember that Kidman, Wood and Thurman were each nominated before I catch myself... Thurman did great work in an in-Oscary movie - a parallel with Lupita in 2019?
Great article, as always!
I agree with Edward L. The movie was doomed in the moment they decided to release it in two parts.
If it was a single movie, Uma would have been nominated, for sure. Richardson could even win.
I think they work very well as stand alone films. That's not the reason Oscar rejected it.
Uma turns 50 this 29th april. Happy birthday, Uma! And it's a shame that she never get a second Oscar nod.
These films, this role and this performance are worth much more than an Oscar.
I mean, would you rather have Amy Adams' 7 Oscar nominations or would you rather have KILL BILL on your sheet? Just saying, Oscars aren't everything.
JF: Well, Amy Adams is actually only at 6 now. And I'm not sure the passion is really there for a win. The only way I can imagine her actually winning? An alternate Oscar history where any winner couldn't get nominated after winning even once. And, in that case, she'd win in a walk, basically, for 2013.
She's so good here. But, it's a violent film about a woman. Sadly, she never had a chance. If the Bride were groom, she likely would have been a strong contender.
I always feel like if the film was released in its intended form (one 3+ hour films instead of two 2ish hour films) Uma Thurman would have been nominated. She's phenomenal in the role, but the arc just stops with no resolution to her character or story. It's not the fault of her performance but the production decision to not let Quentin Tarantino release it as one film. Flash forward to when the producers just said whatever and Quentin's closer to 3 hour films all hit well with the Academy Awards. Hateful Eight did the worst of his long films and it still walked away with 3 nominations and a win.
If it was one film, Thurman, production design, screenplay, editing, and costumes probably had a good chance of getting in. Lucy Liu or Daryl Hannah would've had a shot as supporting actress and David Carridine might have gotten in for supporting. I can't see it being a Best Picture player or even getting in for director because it's so violent, but they wouldn't have been able to ignore the craft behind those scenes.
Robert G: If we're talking Picture as in 5? Yeah, doubtful. Director? Possible. 2003 and 2004 were...not...strong fields. 2003? Yeah, he probably would have been able to muscle ahead of Weir or Eastwood. 2004? Taylor Hackford. That doesn't feel like a real director nominee. That feels like a "we had no idea who to nominate" nominee. Even though Gondry and Linklater were RIGHT THERE?
She may have been hurt by the films splitting, but even in the age of THE IRISHMAN, I can’t fathom this as one really long movie. I think her snub also has to do with genre snobbery. The part when she finally sees her daughter as you screen grabbed ... oof! Carradine was also snubbed for his Vol. 2 performance.
There is no denying Charlize Theron's win for MONSTER in 2003, but Uma Thurman should have been among the nominees. She for sure should have won the Oscar in 2004 for KILL BILL: VOLUME 2. I love this write up! Her performance as a whole is one of the best in the history of cinema.
My nominees for both years would have been:
Jennifer Connelly - HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG
Sarah Polley - MY LIFE WITHOUT ME
Charlize Theron - MONSTER
Uma Thurman - KILL BILL: VOLUME 1
Evan Rachel Wood - THIRTEEN
Julia Roberts - CLOSER
Imelda Staunton - VERA DRAKE
Hilary Swank - MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Uma Thurman - KILL BILL: VOLUME 2
Kate Winslet - ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
Samantha Morton was campaigned as supporting?
Hi - great article! I just wanted to pick up on a point that intrigued me:
"[2003] was a race famous for its unpredictability outside of the two frontrunners and it ended with two actresses that were campaigned as supporting getting into the Lead Actress category."
Were the two actresses who were campaigned as supporting Morton and Castle-Hughes? And who was considered the other frontrunner (behind Theron, of course): Keaton, or Watts? Unfortunately my Oscar race knowledge doesn't go back this far!
P.S. Avid reader of this blog but first time commenter! Keep up the great work.
Luke - Keaton was the other front-runner (or THE front-runner until Theron’s performance landed and demolished everything before it!)
Castle-Hughes and Morton took two of the spots expected to be filled by any combination of Watts, Kidman, Johansson, Wood and Thurman...
Thanks, kermit! Kidman for Cold Mountain? I forgot that was expected to be a much bigger awards hit than it was. As a huge Kidman fan, I'm kind of glad she didn't get nominated for that... It would risk tarnishing her Oscars legacy!
Eastwood was locked in for 2003 so Tarantino wasn't getting in ahead of him.
Vol 1 and Vol 2 are different. They're even shot differently. The only issue with the first one is that it doesn't really end.
Could it have worked as one? Yeah, but would have been different.