Kill Bill Returns! Quentin Tarantino’s Iconic Saga Hits Theaters as One 4-Hour Cut

If you’ve seen the two “Kill Bill” movies, you know that neither film really stands independent of the other at all. If you’ve only seen the first movie, you’re missing out on all the actual backstory that forms the basis for the titular goal of Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman), not to mention the actual accomplishment of said goal. If, perchance, you’ve only ever watched “Vol. 2,” then you’ve been denied the uniquely Tarantino-given pleasure of seeing two of Beatrix’s four other targets get their bloody comeuppances. To an even greater extent than most other series with multi-film storylines, the “Kill Bill” movies are really two halves of one movie. However, they’ve never been released as one movie – until now.

“The Whole Bloody Affair”: The Original “Kill Bill” to Be Released at Last

Now, first of all, it’s important to emphasize that “Kill Bill” has never been released as one movie: this is not to say that such a single feature has never existed. As a matter of fact, “The Whole Bloody Affair” is actually the original cut of the two films. Back in 2002, Tarantino shot both films as one. (Ironically, though both “Vol. 1” and “Vol. 2” exemplify Tarantino’s penchant for nonlinear storytelling, the films’ events were shot in chronological order).

From a theatrical-release standpoint, this single film had one obvious issue: it was, to use Elle Driver’s favorite word, gargantuan, clocking in at over four hours. Ultimately, producer Harvey Weinstein (who was already known for his tendency to insist that directors shorten their films) persuaded Tarantino to release the film in the two volumes we know today. The alternative, as Tarantino explained to IGN shortly after the release of “Vol. 2,” would have been to trim and excise some of the best scenes of his saga.

Tarantino Teased Us For Years

For nearly 20 years now, Tarantino has been teasing “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair,” which has actually been screened before at least three separate times: at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006, at Los Angeles’s Tarantino-owned New Beverly Cinema in 2011, and this past July at another one of Tarantino’s Hollywood venues, the Vista Theater. Now, it has been announced that “The Whole Bloody Affair” will get its first wide theatrical release this coming December.

This past August 15, during an interview on a podcast called “The Church of Tarantino,” the director explained that he’s taken so long to give this long-anticipated “Kill Bill” edition its wide release because he wanted to ensure that “The Whole Bloody Affair” was his and his alone. “Basically,” he said, “I didn’t want to do anything with it until I owned it. I own it now. So, I wanted to wait until the rights were completely all on me… That’s not owned by a corporation. That’s owned by me.”

Some Subtractions and Additions

“Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair” is not a simple combination of “Vol. 1” and “Vol. 2.” As a single film, it contains some notable revisions that may take fans of the double feature by surprise. The most prominent excision is the absence of the first film’s ending and the second film’s beginning. Gone are Bill’s final, cliffhanger-dropping conversation with the traumatized Sofie Fatale and Beatrix Kiddo’s supremely iconic monologue behind the wheel of her convertible at the start of “Vol. 2.”; presumably, this bridge between films is superfluous once the two volumes are fused.

But rest assured: “The Whole Bloody Affair” adds to the “Kill Bill” experience even more than it subtracts. The single feature includes an animated sequence, approximately seven-and-a-half minutes in length and of unspecified content. “Vol. 1” is already notable for using animation to memorable effect, with an anime sequence of roughly the same length detailing the backstory of Beatrix Kiddo’s first adversary, O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu).

Is “The Whole Bloody Affair”‘s exclusive footage devoted to O-Ren once more, to another of the Bride’s foes, or perhaps even to the Bride herself? We can find out in just under two months: “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair” will be released on December 5.