MovieChat Forums > Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Discussion > I'm assuming Tarantino lifted the plot f...

I'm assuming Tarantino lifted the plot from...

posted 4 years ago by Wuchak (8233)
11 replies | jump to latest

..."Comin' at Ya!" (1981), which was a Spaghetti Western and the first major release with 3D effects in 17 years. Being successful at the box office, it paved the way for 3D flicks of the early 80s: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082193/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3

The style & content are reminiscent of Leone's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966), but has superior colors, more action and doesn't overstay its welcome. Unfortunately, like all Leone-styled Spaghetti Westerns, the characters are either caricatures (the slaver brothers) or cardboard thin (the hero & his wife), which makes 'em uninteresting. There's barely any dialogue with no verbiage at all until almost the 13-minute mark.

Some people call "Comin' at Ya!" garbage, obviously because of the sadistic brutalities and horrific components (e.g. the rat attack), but there's an undeniable artistic genius to the filmmaking. For its DVD release (2016), the digital transfer was subjected to CGI alterations. The most obvious of these was the changing of some shots to B&W with one or two elements of color within the shot. I thought this improved the film.

[–] BourbonKing (5674) 4 years ago

Holy Shit you pinged my memory banks. I remember seeing the trailer for this but never got to see it as it was never released where I was living as a kid.

As for KB 1 & 2, both films are crafty and fun to watch but the actual story line about Beatrix' revenge was rather lame and outright uninspiring. I genuinely felt no empathy for her plight to exact revenge when she herself partook in the very thing she felt victimized by.

For me KB is what sent QT down this pathway to making self-indulgent homage flicks. Pulp, Reservoir and Jackie Brown had characters with arcs. The films afterwards have caricatures with style posing as substance.

[–] Wuchak (8233) 4 years ago

If you want to see "Comin' at Ya!" it's available for free on Tubi. It's only 90 minutes.

I think Tarantino's last four movies -- Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, Hateful Eight & Once Upon a Time -- are as worthwhile as anything he did in the 90s, although "Pulp" reigns supreme.

Those movies feature key characters who aren't caricatures: Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent), Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), Django (Jamie Foxx), Col. Hans Landa & Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) to name a handful.

[–] AP (5260) 4 years ago

Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs are homage flicks too. All his movies are.

[–] BourbonKing (5674) 4 years ago

not as self-indulgent

[–] Mrmojo4700 (20660) 4 years ago

I agree, but the more self-indulgent the better when it comes to QT for me. It’s for this very reason that I love Death Proof the most above all his films.

[–] AP (5260) 4 years ago

How so? All of his movies are about things that he loves and he's fine with stopping said movies to indulge in whatever he wants to indulge over.

[–] BourbonKing (5674) 4 years ago

Yes and he his more self-indulgent with Kill Bill and his subsequent films than he is with RR, PF, and JB which in my opinion have more character driven arcs. Everything with and after Kill Bill has very caricature-driven stories.

[–] cj3333 (1046) 4 years ago

No. Its 'lady snowblood'.

[–] Wuchak (8233) 4 years ago

Thanks; that's an interesting tidbit.

Still, I can't help but wonder if he was also inspired by "Comin' at Ya!" due to the plot similarities and the fact that he liked Spaghetti Westerns.

[–] ODB82 (2055) 4 years ago

This is what I expected the op to mention.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

The massacre scene at The House of Blue Leaves probably takes inspiration from the final fight at the end of "The Yakuza" (1974). They are quite similar.