SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains significant spoilers for Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed at your own risk!
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, Quentin Tarantino’s original vision for his kung-fu epic before it was cut into two separate theatrical releases, includes a number of details that audiences don’t get from simply watching Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 as a double-feature. The four hour-plus film that arrived on the big screen this weekend includes an expansion of the anime sequence (with more of the origins of Lucy Liu’s O-Ren Ishii); a longer, full-color version of the Crazy 88 battle; and it nixes the black-and-white introduction scene from Vol. 2 (the exposition delivered being rendered unnecessary in the single-sitting cinematic experience).
All of these alterations contribute to the specialness of The Whole Bloody Affair and make it superior to the bifurcated cuts… but there is another change that I feel deserves special notice, as it has the effect of transforming the way in which we watch the tale of Uma Thurman’s Beatrix Kiddo a.k.a. The Bride a.k.a. Mommy. What makes it particularly fascinating is that the effect is created simply by eliminating a single line of dialogue.
The Big “Twist” From Kill Bill Vol. 1 Doesn’t Make It Into The Whole Bloody Affair
I imagine that anyone who has seen Kill Bill Vol. 1 would have no issue recalling what plays out in its final scene. David Carridine’s notorious Bill goes to see Julie Dreyfus’ Sofie Fatale – who is in the hospital after having both of her arms chopped off by The Bride. As instructed by the film’s violent heroine, Sophie recaps everything that happened to her and the information that she gave up while being tortured, and instead of reacting to these revelations with anger, Bill reacts with sympathy.
In The Whole Bloody Affair, a bit more violence is added to what is the pre-intermission sequence, as we actually see Sophie’s remaining arm get chopped off (having lost the first earlier at the House Of Blue Leaves), but that’s not the big change in question here. In the four-hour-plus cut, the scene concludes and cuts to black with the Bride’s line, “And I want them all to know they'll all soon be as dead as O-Ren”... which notably isn’t the final line in Kill Bill Vol. 1. What’s missing is this big revelation from Bill:
One more thing, Sofie: is she aware her daughter is still alive?
Its purpose in Vol. 1 is obvious: it's a cliffhanger that is meant to juice your anticipation for the second part of the story, which was released in theaters less than a year later (though if we're being totally real, I think there is plenty of juice simply in the unfinished business presented in the title). Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, on the other hand, cuts out that big twist, and it’s fascinating what kind of impact it makes on the second half of Tarantino’s epic.
Not Knowing That Bebe Is Alive Changes How We View The Bride’s Story
I’ll state it bluntly: I desperately wish that I had seen Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair instead of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2, and it’s purely because of the aforementioned change. I appreciate all of the other alterations that the four-hour-plus cut offers, but cutting Bill’s big question substantially alters the way in which the audience takes in the narrative, and I’m sad that I can never watch Tarantino’s story as he intended it to be watched.
When we watch Kill Bill Vol. 2, we know something that The Bride doesn’t know, and we subconsciously wait for her to catch up – which she only does when she bursts into Bill’s bedroom with homicidal intentions and finds young Bebe playing “cowboys” with her father. There are no other hints or clues dropped along the way in the movie that lead her to wonder about her daughter’s survival; it’s a pure bombshell that appropriately leaves the heroine shellshocked. And we would be shellshocked too… if it weren’t for the fact that Vol. 1 already told us that moment of emotional discovery was coming. The audience is robbed of the experience of being alongside the main character when she receives news that wholly upends her entire existence.
The consequences extend beyond a spoiled moment too, as the final line of Vol. 1 very much has an impact on the way that we view the protagonist’s arc. Tarantino’s intention is for us to see Beatrix Kiddo as a pure weapon of vengeance, righteously slaying those who betrayed her and murdered her friends, fiancée and unborn child – but that purity is soiled with the twist. She may not know it herself, but she is fighting toward a reunion with her daughter. In addition to coloring how we watch her struggle for survival when she is buried alive by Michael Madsen’s Budd, advanced knowledge of her motherhood also diminishes the impact of Beatrix’s honesty about her violent nature while under the influence of Bill’s specially designed truth serum in the final chapter. Nothing is “ruined,” but the impact is significant, as everything is taken in via a different lens.
Until time travel is invented or science delivers us services that allow us to edit our own memories a la Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, I’ll have to make peace with the fact that a part of the Kill Bill experience was tainted by the decision two decades ago to split the film into two parts. That being said, if you have friends/family who have never seen Kill Bill and you’re looking to introduce them to it, do them the favor of showing them The Whole Bloody Affair and ensure that they have the truest possible Kill Bill experience.
