Quentin Tarantino Clarifies if Kill Bill Is One or Two Movies

Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill has gone on to become a modern classic since it hits theaters in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Tarantino released Kill Bill in two parts: Kill Bill vol. 1 and Kill Bill vol. 2. However, a lot of Tarantino fans see the saga of Uma Thurman’s The Bride as one big saga, which some refer to as “The Whole Bloody Affair.” That debate about Kill Bill‘s true format has raged amongst film films, and now Tarantino himself is weighing in.

As Quentin Tarantino tells Cinemablend in a recent interview, even he has two ways of thinking about Kill Bill‘s structure and format, and that both camps of thought have their relevancy:

“Technically, you are correct. Because we released it as two movies, alright. And there is a closing and an opening credits. But since I made it as one movie, and I wrote it as one movie, that’s just some chicanery that I did in editing. [Laughs]

Now it works really good that way. And frankly, the truth of the matter is, I don’t think it would’ve been a popular as a four hour movie. I literally had a guy say that to me. It was one of those diamond bullets. Every once in a while, somebody says something to you that, ‘Okay, I can’t unhear that.’ And he goes, ‘Look, Quentin, here’s the thing, man. My uncle Artie would love this movie. I mean, he would love it. He wouldn’t love it at four hours.’”

Kill Bill was one of several blockbuster movies in the early 2000s that took the approach of filming one big movie, and cutting it into multiple installments. It was quite a popular trend, with Lord of the Rings and The Matrix Trilogy also following that same release format. However, whereas the overall structure of those franchises is pretty clear, Kill Bill was always a bit murkier, as the reason for the division in parts was wholly commercial, rather than creative.

These days, such questions of structure are being levied at Marvel Studios and films like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, while Tarantino has moved on to the horizons of a new Star Trek movie – and perhaps (perhaps) more in the Kill Bill universe. As the filmmaker admitted recently, he’s been talking to Uma Thurman about Kill Bill 3:

“I’d stop short of saying a probability, but there could be… Me and Uma would have a really good time working together, and I put the character through a lot. So I wanted her to have this much time for peace,” Tarantino said. “I wanted her to have some time with her daughter and not have to be in the genre machine; she could really live her life for a while.”

Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, opens this Friday.