SPEAKER_02 0:00

There's so many films like this to get to, but man, it did not disappoint. I mean, if I was doing our top five right now, I would be hard-pressed to squeeze this out of a position on the top five list. It is an absolute and total masterpiece in every sense of the filmmaking work.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

You're listening to the O Brother Podcast. Real Brothers, Real Talk.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Welcome to the O Brother Podcast. I'm your host, Dan Smith, alongside me as always, my brother from the same mother, Mike Smith. Good to see you, Dan. It's a little nippy up here in the north. Not down here. He's still. Yeah. Are we going to get that report from you every episode now for the next few months? Probably.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

I actually have the heat on, which shocked.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

That's ridiculous. That's that's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

It's in the 50s. It's September. You shouldn't have the heat on. That's crazy. I would kill for the 50s right now. It's still like pushing high 80s, low 90s down here. So anyways.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

I think let's those days are gone.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Yeah, let's jump right uh right into this one. So Kill Bill Mike, the whole bloody affair. This should be part of a segment on the podcast we do called uh classic films that Dan hasn't seen yet. And so uh this is one of those. I had not seen it yet. And this you know, obviously Volume One and Volume Two came out as separate films back 2003-2004, which was really never the way that Tarantino intended it to be.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Well, actually that's that's not true. But the Weinstein brothers talked him out of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

No, I'm saying he didn't want it released as two separate films. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, so he won agreement as one film, but I don't know, but as might have been a wise decision, box office-wise at that time to to No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

People weren't gonna sit through four hours.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Well, they're certainly not gonna do that now. No. So you imagine trying to do that today. I mean, we've had some examples, like Scorsese is still doing it. Right. With Killing in a Flower Moon.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

But look at how those did in the theaters. They did almost nothing. I'm trying to think of the other one he did. Um Tarantino or Scorsese. Scorsese that did low numbers. The one I like with the Irishman. The Irishman.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Yeah, shout out. We had uh uh somebody comment on a video. We we had put a clip out. We were talking about on the review we did on The Runner, starring Gal Godot. And, you know, you went on this this uh commentary about the problem with the streamers now. And you know, you were saying name one, and one of the clips we put out on uh YouTube, I think it was, you know, name one feature film you've seen recently that was like super popular that went straight to streaming. Because we were talking about that as compared to the old days of direct-to-video, and this guy leaned in with the comments, and you should love it because he said the Irishman are like that's a great example, actually.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

No, it did wind up going to the box office for like two weeks. But after technically. Uh no. Right?

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Didn't it hit streaming or was it simultaneous?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

No, it was supposed to go to streaming first, and then there was a little bit of an uproar, and it went to the it went to the box office first. Might lose this guy as a subscriber. Now you're, you know, he got him on a technicality.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Got him on a technicality.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

No, it's not a technicality. It's just it's confusing.

SPEAKER_03 3:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

But I I remember because I I liked it a lot and I researched it a lot. So they are the so the the the point still stands. Name us a straight to streaming film that is like I mean, that's a great example because as we were talking about straight to that popped in my head, and I said, no, he was gonna go straight, and then Netflix said, Okay, we'll give you a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Yeah. Well, so so this one again comes out volume one, volume two, 2003, 2004, a year apart. Now, I didn't realize, I didn't know that he had a version of this kind of stitched together back in 04, and it was shown at Cannes, and I think a couple of little places that he screened it. He screened it in his house for a lot of people. Right, right. But so I had no idea, and I did I also did not know that this actually goes back to pulp fiction because apparently the story goes that he and Uma Thurman were on set of pulp fiction and they're having a discussion and talking about films and whatnot, and that gets on to this discussion about you know certain characters or films that they'd like to see get made, and she comes up with this image of a film opening with a a woman bloodied and battered and in a in a uh wedding gown. Which and so she, if you notice at the end of, I don't know if it's at the end of Kill Bill Volume 2. I can only speak to the whole bloody affair. Q. Yeah, the Q, it says brought to you by Q and U or something. And it's Quentin and and Umba because she was credited with the idea of the character, the bride, that she portrays in this film.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Yeah, they had a falling out. I don't know if it was Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction, but he wanted her to do a stunt driving, and she didn't want to do it. He kind of pushed her and she got into an accident and hurt her back. And they didn't speak for like a couple of years.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Yeah, well, okay, so let me let me lean into that a little bit. Okay, good. So the story is, and actually, Mike, there's footage of this. If you go on YouTube, you can find about I don't know, five or ten-minute clip of the raw footage of the scene in Kill Bill where she's in the convertible driving down this one-lane kind of dirt road in Mexico. And so it's that it's that raw footage, and she loses control and slams into a tree. Right. And so she suffered, as you said, uh ongoing knee and leg injuries and neck injuries and so forth. And so that was part of it. Now, what I read was it was also you if you go back to the Weinstein era, yeah, and and what has since become of the Weinsteins, that you know, she also was. I think there was, she came out and finally spoke about the kind of misogynistic culture that was present on set. And, you know, Quentin is a I think he plays it fast and loose. And yeah, I'm not gonna besmirch or say anything about his character. I don't know the guy, but not personally. But um, so I think it's those things combined. Now, I wondered about that. I don't know what their relationship is in the current day. I hopefully they buried the hatchet, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yeah, I I think they repaired it. But, you know, again, they were really close. And then, you know, Tarantino will spout out off the top of his head something that will cause he did it with Paul Dano uh with the movie There Will Be Blood, saying he ruined that movie. I thought Paul Dano was excellent in that film. Yeah, you're right. And he spot out, he's like, yeah, he ruined the film. Yeah, I mean that was a whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

He says what's on his mind. Now, of course, you also have to take it with a grain of salt as far as social media and things that are taken out of context and whatnot. So, you know, I I mean I don't I haven't actually seen an interview with him saying that, but yeah, that was all over the headlines for a while.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

A lot of actors came to the defense of Paul Dano.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Yes, they did. You're right. So obviously written and directed by Quentin, uh, and this was his fourth film, Mike. Uh-huh. And, you know, it comes after uh what was it, Jackie Brown, I think, in '97. Again, because this technically has a release originally of 2004. Okay. But the whole bloody affair actually finally gets its wide release in December of 2025. And that's what we're talking about here. Right. Now, Starzuma Thurman, I mentioned, let me just run down a little bit of the principal cast that we would talk about here, which would be Uma, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Bowen, Mike, who plays a character named Buck, who I'm like, geez, I know Michael Bowen, I know Michael Bowen. I had to look it up. Not only did he play a very sinister character on Breaking Bad, he was kind of a head of uh uh this gang that ends up, spoiler alert for Breaking Bad, uh, folks that haven't seen it, he he was the head of a gang that ends up uh killing Walt's brother-in-law, played by Help Me Out. Yeah, Hank, exactly. And he was also like uh played the nemesis of uh uh we were just talking about him, Spider Noir, Nicolas Cage in Valley Girl, one of my favorite films. Wow. See, I knew I knew him. You recognize him.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

I couldn't find where I knew him from.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Yeah, Breaking Bad, if you think of in the desert when they kill Hank, he's that head guy leading that whole crew.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Yeah, it's wild. Um, Daryl Hannah who's awesome in this, just so good in this. It's incredible. Yeah, Lucy Lou, Michael Madsen, the late uh Michael Madsen, David Carradine, also posthumously talking about him, and then Julie Dreyfus, uh, who plays what? Sophia Fatale, I think is uh her character's name. All right, so do you want to set it up? I mean, I can read the very brief IMDB plot lines. Yeah, do the brief IMDB. I'll go too long. That's okay. A female assassin seeks revenge on her former lover and squad members, all of whom have left her for dead. That's a good kind of setup on it. Yeah. I have to say, now, another thing I didn't know, Mike, Uma Thurman, born in Boston, Massachusetts. I had no idea. Nope. And she grew up in Amherst, Mass. Wow. And I've since heard her in interviews talking about it and everything. That's I never would have guessed that. But she went to school at the University of Amherst. I don't know that she went to school there. She might think she might have I think she might have. Probably went to an arts school or something, yeah. Yeah. But um, anyway, so let me just give you my initial because I hadn't seen it. You've seen Kill Bill 1 and 2 independently.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

I've brought this up more than once. We should do it. And I'm so like, I was jealous that you get to see this for the first time.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Yeah, that is one of the nice things about it. I mean, it's there's so many films like this to get to, but man, it did not disappoint. I mean, if I was doing our top five right now, I would be hard pressed to squeeze this out of a position on the top five list. It is an absolute and total masterpiece in every sense of the filmmaking. I always call it an epic. It's an epic.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

And that's what I want you to watch is the Godfather epic, which is you know, the first two piece together in a linear timeline. Yeah. You know, there's not many epics. Now I'm interested in film.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

I put a poll out on our YouTube channel trying to get a sense of w, you know, which film people uh would would praise more. Volume one, volume two, the whole bloody affair, or anybody that's still out there like me who hadn't seen this film. Yeah. Right. And you certainly couldn't have seen it. You would have you'd been hard pressed to see it in this uh fashion up until last year.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Yeah, up until last year. It wasn't. You know, there was some bootlegs, but you know. And they weren't they weren't accurate to this cut.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

It's it's uh there's too many things to comment on. You know, there's too many great moments, there's too many amazing sequences, there's the acting is is just like you said, it's aces all around. But man, I could sit now. I watched the first part, which is chapters one through five, and then you get the 10, 15-minute intermission, which was cool to see. Even now, I'm ashamed to say I didn't see it in the theater when I had the opportunity because it really should be seen on the big screen. But yeah, had a really nice setup here at home, got a great sound system, and it was it didn't disappoint. It was really uh it was really fabulous. Now, Mike, jumping ahead, Rotten Tomatoes score on this, 100% from the critics and 99% from the audience. So it's a basically a perfect film. They got it right in that in that regard, and 95 uh metascore on IMDB, too. So tell, talk, tell, share with me your and the listeners and viewers, your impressions. Again, having seen now, did you see volume one and two? You probably saw it back when they came out, I would imagine.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

I did. I I saw them in the theater, and I remember at the end of the first one, I was like, oh, you know, because you knew there was another part. They they did made no secret of there was gonna be a part two, because this one was called volume one. And although Mel Brooks did that with History of the World Part One, and then he didn't for many, many years, he wasn't gonna make us part two, and he he ultimately did. Um but yeah, it I just remember that opening sequence with Vivica Fox and Umma, and it just set me off right from the the jump. I was like, wow.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Yeah, it it's also you know, there's a lot of influences here, I think, but there's one, I think it's called Lady Snowbird. It's a it's a film from 1973, it's a martial arts film. And if you watch the trailer, you'll immediately see the absolute uh tribute that he's paying to that film.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

There's several films, especially Japanese films, that he references. And you know, I started to think as I'm watching this for I don't know how many times, but I'm thinking, yeah, when does it become plagiarism and not, you know, uh an salute, an homage to the other films? Because he literally would steal clips, yeah, almost, you know, yeah, verbatim.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Yeah, the the writing is you know, it's funny. I have to, I want to give a shout-out, Mike, to this. I listened to a podcast just today, uh and it's called the Church of Tarantino podcast. So shout out to those, shout out to those guys. Here's what I love about it. Now, these guys, independent podcasts, much like ourselves. I'm not sure how long they've been they've been they've been doing it. I stumbled on it as I was looking for some interviews with Quentin talking about Kill Bill. And lo and behold, Quentin stumbles on their podcast and listens to a few episodes and kind of takes a liking to it. Next thing you know, they get him on the podcast. Yeah. They they they land the big fish, and they have this really good conversation about the state of the box office, which I found pretty interesting. And this is like the interview's like late last year, it's about when this came out. Wow. And he he was talking about like streaming and you know, Netflix and uh because doesn't he isn't his next film coming to Netflix, the Cliff Booth story or whatever? Isn't that I don't know. I'm with David Fincher directing.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Yeah, David Fincher directing, but it's not like he's so hung up on his tenth film.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Well, not as much as you think, I I think is according to this conversation. I think some of it is overblown, according to him. Maybe. Yeah, like overblown.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

But he was supposed to do a Star Wars film. He was gonna do a Star Trek film. All these films, but he from you know, again, I'm hearing this secondhand that he turned them down because he didn't want it to be his tenth and final film.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

I don't I I don't believe that to be true. I think Quentin certainly has earned the right and the street cred to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. Right. But I think in listening to this one interview, it seems pretty clear to me. No, he goes between the states and and he's got a place in Israel. He lives in Tel Aviv. And so he's back and forth all the time. But he's he's he's enjoying this particular moment in time with his kids. Right. And so he's like, I don't want to get locked down in a production where I'm six months pre-production and I'm this, that, and he seriously genuinely sounds like he's just digging this particular moment in time, and so he's probably just passing up things because the timing isn't right, you know, perhaps. But um, so who knows if that'll stay true, right? If it's 10 and he's out, that would be a shame. That would be a shame.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

But I, you know, I think he it's very Kubrick of him. He wants to, you know, have that kind of legacy that Kubrick, you know, has. Every film is a five-star film.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

Well, coming back around to this point I was making about the streaming is, you know, Quentin is an autor. I mean, he's not making, he's not a filmmaker that's making films for them to end up on a streaming platform, right? This guy is, and that's what I loved about the conversation. He's another like Tom Cruise. It's all about the movie going experience. And he's like, you know, why do I want to go through all that just for something that's gonna what, maybe be two weeks in the theater and then gone? Because he he said a lot of the things we've been talking about on the podcast for the last few years about the state of the box office and how, you know, it it's it's a hit, it's a flop, or it's you know, there's there's really no embedded. It's big money or it's it's it's nothing. Right, right. So I I would encourage people to listen to the podcast. It was pretty fascinating. There's a lot of other things they talked about on there, some insight into the film and so forth. But but that in particular, because one thing he was saying, the streamers, Netflix in particular, right? Ted Serandos, he doesn't, he doesn't care. Like this film I think he mentioned is latest. It's like a hundred million dollar plus budget. A, we don't know. We'll never know if it makes that money, right? Because they're not going to report the earnings in that way. Right. But Netflix doesn't care. What they're banking on is you're gonna buy a subscription to Netflix to watch that film. That's the whole business model. So it's interesting a guy like him, uh a filmmaker like him, and and where things are today. I mean, there's not a lot of motivation for him to make an epic film. What, an epic film to be seen on prime video? Come on. Right, right. Which I agree with. I mean, which Mike is why, right? Isn't that why it's taken so long for us to get our hands on this?

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Yeah. And although there was a rough cut, it wasn't really firmed up until last year when he, you know, had to go and find things. And there's also, I know this because I remember watching the trailer for it in the theater. And I I don't know why it got cut, but the one line that always sticks out is Uma Thurman behind I think she's behind the wheel, and she says, I'm gonna kill Bill. And that was like a huge part of the trailer, and then I go see the first one, it's not in it. I see the second one, it's not in it. I'm like, when did that happen? So there's more footage that we haven't seen.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

Yeah, and and I didn't even dig into, in fact, I didn't even see if the digital had any extras or not, because that's how I watched it was on just the anime stuff. Okay, does it have the thing that ended up in the Fortnite video game, the the additional animated sequence about Yuki's revenge or whatever? You know, the Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay, and and that's one of the differences here, right? Is there's this animated sequence that is about seven. Plus minutes longer than the you know it is in the what volume one it it appears, I guess. Volume one. Because it appears in relationship to Lucy Liu's character, O Ren. Wren, yeah. And and Lucy Liu of the principal cast, the only one with really any street cred as a martial artist, she's been a black belt since she was like eight years old. So but the others, you know, were trained and learned and and um except for a few of the older, there's a guy that has like the Cato mask, and he also plays the master that Uma trains with, that David Carries.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

No, the other guy.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

Um Mike's with a P. Pime. Paime. Yeah. Here I've just watched it last night. Paime, yeah, he plays both characters, and he does this thing as Pime with the stroking of the beard that is just so brilliant. That I guess it was his decision, his artistic decision to do that. And apparently Quentin had trained for that role. He was potentially going to play that role. Wow. And uh, you know, I'm glad they went in the direction. Yeah, I'm glad they went.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Even like, you know, his sequence in pulp fiction is kind of iconic. And I always have trouble with his language, you know. You know, and that's the one caveat. If you don't like poor language or violence, you know, perhaps you're not gonna you're gonna be in the 1% that doesn't like it. We grew up in the same household, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:39

Just checking, but just to be clear. I don't have any issue with it. But you're putting a warning out there for yeah. Well, listen, yes, strong language, intense violence. So intense. But you know, that's that's what you get when you you you go to a Quentin Tarantino film. That's you know, that's part of the gig. And uh he should make no apologies for it because he does it in a way that is still very artistic.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

So um you know, also, Dan, before you move on, yeah. The reason this didn't show up till 2025 is Quentin didn't have all the rights.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Yeah, so that's right. He needed to get the rights to certain footage. I think the Weinsteins owned some of it. There was somebody else that owned some of it. So he's been gathering those rights, which as you know, is very hard to do once you give up. You know, anybody that knows Taylor Swift, it's the same thing for her, only with music. I mean, she gave away her whole catalog.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

And then recently got it. Yeah, she got it back.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Yeah, she got it back, and Bruce Springsteen sold his catalog to Sony, which well, a lot of a lot of big artists are doing that now.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Yeah, it's shocking to me. Yeah, Billy Joel hasn't caved in yet, but you know, it's it's early. Um you know, the look of the film. So, you know, Quentin is one of those that tends to work with a lot of the same cast and crew, and this was no different, you know, with uh cinematographer Robert Richardson, three-time Oscar winner. Uh, Mike, it's funny. You know, I was looking at his credits, he was the DP, the cinematographer on JFK. We were just talking about that at the first look we did with November 1963 that's coming out with Travolta. And he also was the cinematographer on Volume 1, and also uh The Equalizer 3, which is our most viewed episode on the O'Brother podcast of all time.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

For whatever reason.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

Also, the late Sally Menke was the editor here, also had worked with Quentin on Pulp Fiction and Glorious Bastards. Mike, she died in 2010 at the age of 56. Uh, but geez, I mean, you talk about a task to edit this epic film. Uh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

That's and you can go frame by frame. And it's shocking to me that you don't catch a glimpse of the stand-in. Uma thurman's stand-in was injured during the whole shoot, but she would not tell anyone because she did not want to get cut from the film. She knew how good it was going to be.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

Yeah, the the martial arts, it's so impressive and fun. I like how Quentin, you know, it brought me back to when I was a kid. I can remember what was it, Mike, on Saturdays or Sundays, you know, the local TV, right? It was like Kung Fu. Uh what was the, you know, it was on every weekend, and you'd see all these old classic kung fu films. Yes. And, you know, some Bruce Lee and some other things back then. But he was like, David Carradine. Well, the Kung Fu series. I grew up on Kung Fu. But that was more, that was less, it was more like dramatic dramatized than it was like hardcore martial.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

No, no, like that.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

He was uh meh, I loved him in this film. I mean, I don't know the last time I've seen David Carradine in a film, but God, he was great at this. And I here's the other thing, too. I'm watching Mike. Yeah. I don't know who Bill is. I didn't know it was David Carradine, even. You know, so this is all being revealed to me as I'm watching it. I didn't know. I didn't look at the credits. I didn't, I went in knowing nothing about the film. So it was really blowing my mind seeing all of the revelations as I watched.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Another, yeah, another similar detail is kiddo. Did you get that? It's her it's her last name.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

It's it's it's Uma Thurman's character's last name, yes. And Beatrix, which was Uma's idea for her first name to be Beatrix, this is another funny aspect of the film. Of course, fans of the movie already would know that they in the beginning, up until I don't know, three quarters of the way through, you know, in the volume two, yes, if you're watching me independently, we don't know her name. It keeps getting bleeped out. And the most horrible bleeped sound effect you could ever, it's so janky.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Well, it was like uh there's a lot of sound effects that sound like the 1970s drive-in.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

Yeah, and also with the I was what I was getting to earlier, which with Kung Fu, it's the old, you know, he does a lot of the over-the-top wire effects, and yeah, you know, someone coming in horizontally at slow motion is really kind of funny. And uh, but also the at one point someone said hi-yeah. I heard a hi-yeah at one point. Uh it was just the sound design, and uh I don't know. I want to say that I I think it might have won for for sound design too, actually.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

But but anyways, you know, Uma's outfit. Bruce Lee. You talked about the shoes that are so famous. That's a tribute to Bruce Lee. Yeah, Bruce Lee's movie Game of Death.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Yeah, and and the funny thing about this, now she had just given birth, if you can believe that, Uma Thurm. Shocking. Now she had trained day and night for like six months for the film, and she looked amazing. But the you know, Bruce Lee in Game of Death wears, it's a onesie, it's a one-piece jumpsuit. Yeah. Whereas hers was like this two-piece, but the same design. And yeah, the shoes, the shoes are legendary. I meant to bring, I there was a pair here in the house I was gonna bring out, but I don't have them handy. Um, yeah, bleeping her name, that was kind of funny to reveal that now. Beatrix Kiddo, there's in the very first sequence you talked about with Vivica A. Fox, which is super violent and like super hardcore violence. And the only thing I'd ever seen before watching the film, I'd seen a little clip of that sequence. Is I came over to the girlfriend's house, and she her kids were watching this film, and it turns out it's like their favorite film or one of their favorite films, and it's like, I'm like, you show this to your kids. Like it was they were they were uh trying to murder each other, but there's a there's a sequence in that opening um clip where there's a box of trick cereal, and the two characters, right? It's like silly girl.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

Although what's the name of the silly girl?

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Like Vivica says silly girl, and then she and then Uma's character says tricks are for kids, and then you say B-trix kiddo. Now, I don't think Quentin intended that, but it's one of those funny accidents that happens. Now, what you're talking about in that sequence, there's a cereal box that Vivica A. Fox gets out of the kitchen cabinet as they're having a break in this battle they're having because Vivica's daughter, young daughter comes in, so they have to break it up. Right. And the cereal's called kaboom. Well, we come to find out she's got a pistol hidden in the cereal box. And Mike, here's a perfect example, and there are many, as I said. Quentin's shot of her shooting that gun through the cereal box and the bullet coming, the whole action of the gun firing. If you ever wondered what goes into a bullet coming out of a gun, and uh it's fascinating, it's so visually stunning to watch.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

It's also in part two, he shows it when he shoots her in the head. Spoiler alert. Which we'll find out in the first minute of the film.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

Now the as I said, it's split into two parts. Intermission comes after chapter five, and then you get chapters six through ten. This what I was trying to ask you earlier, but having seen the original Volume One and Volume Two back when they came out, and now seeing this, what stands out to you now, having seen the whole bloody affair, and do you like this stitched together in this way better than seeing them as independent films? Can you even make that assessment? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

Yeah, I definitely like it stitched together. I I love the epic. It's an epic now.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

You know, and I can hold up the other epic. Uh, you're a big fan of the epics, as you said. Is it nearby? The other one in your The Godfather Epic? Is that handy?

SPEAKER_00 32:40

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

But yeah, I should. But it's definitely because that's what I think of when I see the the both films. You gotta see them together. You know, even when I saw it, it ended, I told you I was disappointed. But my favorite sequence, and this is kind of wild when you think about it, is the the dialogue in the the writing at the end of the film between David Carradine's character, Bill, and Uma Thurman, the bride. That dialogue keeps me on the edge of forget the action sequences that are insane. Yeah. That sequence, and it's a long sequence. I I didn't clock it. I was gonna clock it. And it goes on for a while. They're having this conversation, you know, he's talking about the rules he has and all this other stuff. I'm just at the edge of my seat every time I watch.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Well, and I think Quentin, yeah. So first and foremost, as you're pointing out, that's a testament to the quality of the writing, the craftsmanship that goes in. Now, he spent a year plus, I think, writing this film.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

And we're always talking about storytelling. This is the example of brilliant storytelling.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

It is. And on that podcast I mentioned, The Church of Tarantino, he, you know, he says, and he's not shy about, you know, giving himself accolades when he thinks it's it's warranted. And this is one where I agree with him. I think because he is often credited directing and writing, his writing doesn't get as much accolade as it should. Right. Right. Because it's like, well, he's just writing things that suit him because he's directing it. It's like, no, he's an unbelievable writer. Right. That's just the reality.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

And he's right in the mix of it. He's one of those directors that's right there at the camera. In fact, there's there's a sequence, the crazy 88. Is that what they call themselves?

SPEAKER_03 35:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

And there's a young girl that's got like a ball, there's a spike ball. Right. She hit Tarantino in the head with it with one of her swipes because he was so close to the action.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

Imagine being her and whacking Tarantino with it.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

That doesn't that doesn't surprise me. Yeah, this go-go that you're talking about. Go-go, yeah. Uh, which yeah, it's another great sequence. I mean, the action sequences are second.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

You know, Dan, the the sequence with the uh baseball with Hanzo, he throws a baseball and Uma Stu Thurman's character slices it with the newly minted sword.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

That was really done by the standard. She threw it, she sliced it.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

It was effects.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

There's an actor, Shahulu, and I hope I'm saying his name right, played both Johnny Mo, again, the guy with the Kato mask, like the Green Hornet sidekick, and he also played Paimei, as we said earlier. He's one of the he's only one of a couple like legendary kung fu artists, you know, black belts and all kinds of forms of martial arts. One of them, I believe Lucy Liu, maybe, is has a black belt and wushu, which the great Michelle Lang, a friend of the podcast, who we if you have not seen our interview with Michelle Lange, go into the O'Brother archives on YouTube and watch that interview. It is fantastic. She's a black belt martial artist herself, um, of the same of the same uh form. But there's a couple, and then um I think he I think they call him Sonny Sheba, Sonny Shiba, who uh plays Hatura Hanzo, makes the swords. He's the other legendary martial artist too in the film. But man, I don't how this could not be in your top ten all-time films. I just it's as you you put it perfectly, this is an epic. Yeah. And um I can't believe it took me this long to watch it, but now um I have to admit there's a couple of other Quentin films I haven't seen yet. God, I have I have not seen all of The Hateful Eight, and I've not seen Django Unchained. So I've got a couple I still have to get through. I mean, he's only nine feature films. Yeah. Right? So um what else you got on your uh note list there?

SPEAKER_00 37:55

Yeah, I'm looking at my notes here, a couple of things. You know, the black and white sequences, there's two reasons that those are in there. One, it's paying homage to some of the famous kung fu films that were filmed in black and white, probably for the same reason as part two, which is in the beginning, they did not want a bride with a blood splattered dress, or they were gonna make it NC17. So he had to change and pivot to black and white for that reason.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

And the other thing I was gonna throw out the potential actors that were gonna be oh, wait, hold on.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

Don't just gloss over that. This is a uh a very popular segment on the Yo Brother podcast where Mike tells us he does a little bit of a deep dive and always comes up with who could have been right cast in who was offered the part. Who was offered the part, etc.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Yeah, let's hear it. Okay, number one, Warren Beatty. He was gonna do it. Play Bill? Yeah. Oh, okay. But Bill would have been much more like a James Bond character than the character he turned out to be. So that was the difference. Okay. Uh Jack Nicholson, Kurt Russell, Mickey Rourke at the time was very hot.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

Now I could see Mickey Rourke playing Michael Madsen's part, perhaps.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

And one for you, especially Kevin Costner. Why did he turn it down? To do open range.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

Oh, good decision, Kevin.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

Yeah, good decision.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Because otherwise I wouldn't have got that film, and it's argu it's it's it's unforgiven and open range. Yeah. For me.

SPEAKER_00 39:55

Well, that's a good list. The the truck that Uma rides around in. The Pussy Wagon. Does this say it? It's okay. Well, in the in the if you watch this on TV and you see a cut of it edited, it's party wagon.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

Well, that's a good edit, though.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

Although the the license plate is P S Y W G N that they didn't catch.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Oh, that's funny. Yeah, and see, that's another great detail where right, the way that Quentin reveals it is this I like I've again, I hadn't seen it before. So to me, I'm like, okay, is this her truck? What what I have no reference whatsoever. So to find out how she comes into possession is from Buck, the character I mentioned, who's like an orderly at the hospital where she's in a coma for four years, essentially, right. After this massacre at the church where she's getting married to this guy.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

Right. Now it was very different, apparently, in one of the rough cuts, because he didn't go through the whole thing. Because, yeah, of course, your legs have been laying there for four years. Sure. She had to build up the strength in her legs to do that. But and the the other thing was that the House of Blues fight, the band fight.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

Oh, you're talking about oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I love this, the five, six, seven, eights. Yeah, that's a real band.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

Actual group. They were awesome. And he was listening to them in the airport getting on a flight. Wow. And he asked the kid, who's who is this? And he what he winds up doing is buying it off the kid at the airline. And then he got a hold of the band and and set them up in the film.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

They were so cool. This all female group. The the girl with the bass, Groovin. And they're all they're all barefoot and they're all funky. Yeah. The score is is fabulous. I mean, Robert Rodriguez, a fine director in his own right, is credited with the score. Yes. As well as Rizza from the Wu-Tang clan, any Wu-Tang fans out there. And the score is awesome. And like you said, what Quentin does with the music and the lenses, I think at times he's using to sort of transport us back to what feels like the early 70s, frankly. Yeah. Is is phenomenal. And you, you know, it's very subtle, but you feel it happening, and he just transports you, especially when when Kiddo goes back, when we go back and see how she comes to meet Pai May and gets trained. That's a what a wonderful sequence. And Mike, we should talk about it's very this it's very funny too, the film.

SPEAKER_00 43:00

Oh yeah. Yeah. Just you know, like you pointed out the the sequence between Silly Rabbit, Trickster for Kids.

SPEAKER_02 43:09

Right. And and and and Sam Jackson is in this too. He has a little bit of a cameo.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Because he's been in every single film. Has he been in every one? He was not in in one or two. I know in the mashup, he's in two, isn't it? Or or the latter part of the film. I'm trying to think of it.

SPEAKER_02 43:32

In this, you mean the whole behavior?

SPEAKER_00 43:34

He wasn't in one of the releases. Okay. He's in this, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

Yeah, that's how I saw him. But I can't remember which one he I can't remember at this point. But it's uh yeah, this is how I would recommend seeing it. You know, set aside, and honestly, I could do it. Like if I had set aside a l enough time in the in the night or the afternoon, I could have got this through this easy. I would have watched the first five chapters. I I would have let the 15-minute intermission because it literally goes to intermission on the disc and just keeps going. Go get a refreshment, go to the bathroom, come back, and then get ready for the next half.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

And in the disc, you have to switch discs. So the 4K and the Blu-ray, when it hits intermission, you gotta eject and put in the second.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

Another another argument for digital media, just saying, I didn't have to get up once, quite frankly. One of the songs you hear, uh, geez, it brought me back. I I had to I thought about dad because um, you know, in our in our basement of the home we grew up in, the dad built well, he he built the whole basement. He custom bar he built and the whole thing. And back then, paneling, wood paneling was all the rage. And what he did was he had these recessed shelves, like took up all one wall of the entire basement, and it was filled with A-track tapes. If anybody, you know, if you're of a certain age, are those still in there? They are, they're still and most of them would have been, you know, melted by now or probably whatever. But one of the ones he had was from St. Esmeralda, um, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, which is in this film. It's just one of the many tracks that that's that's great. You know, Daryl Hannah, it was nice to see her in this. I hadn't seen her in quite some time. And you know, I love the code names because you know what we don't what we don't learn is the sort of origin story of this gang. Like how how did Bill get to be who he is? How did this Michael Matts and Lucy Lou and all of them form this Viper assassination squad because they all have state code names, right?

SPEAKER_00 46:03

Correct. The way we saw the the anime shows O'Ren and her development, her ascent.

SPEAKER_03 46:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

You know, and one of the reasons it was shot like that is money. You know, I I don't know what the budget was on this. I didn't even look at the numbers.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

Well, I think also, well, I can tell you independently the volumes. I don't know about this. I think this probably looks relatively low.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

Yeah. But because it was, it didn't get a long epic release. You know, now as I'm looking across, I see the Godfather Epic in front of me.

SPEAKER_02 46:47

Well, the uh volume one uh worldwide did nearly 200 million bucks, and you're talking 2003, so keep that in mind. Right. Volume two, uh almost 160 million itself. So surprised that did less, even you know, neither at a time. Neither are a slouch, you know. I I was mentioning that uh film that you know he kind of pays homage to uh Lady Snowblood. And God, there's so many, even from you know, there's a sequence with Lucy Lou, and she's in the traditional sort of Japanese garb, right down to the wooden shoes, and even the way she walks, all very sort of you know culturally appropriate and everything. And if you just watch the trailer to Lady Snowblood, you'll see that exact sequence in the trailer. And so um it was very cool. You can clearly see the influence there. But um I loved it. I I couldn't I couldn't rave about it enough. I think I would encourage anybody who e if you've seen volume one and two, see the whole bloody affair. If you haven't seen any of it, you gotta see this. It's uh it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

And again, uh, you know, I've been after you to watch it, and I figured when you watch the first part, you probably wouldn't be able to sleep without watching part two.

SPEAKER_02 48:22

Yeah, I did do it over the course of two nights, just you know, I didn't didn't have time to fit it in, but I I would have, like I said, I would have easily stayed riveted and engaged enough to to watch it.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

And it was tough in the theater to to stay there for four hours. I mean, it was tough.

SPEAKER_03 48:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

Well, there you go. Kill Bill the Whole Bloody Affair. Again, there's so many. Do you have a favorite sequence? Like when you think of this now, what what do you go back to again?

SPEAKER_00 48:52

I I go to that ending sequence between her and him. Even him calling her kiddo. I didn't get at first that that was her name. I thought he was using it as a term of affection. Well, I think it's both, right?

SPEAKER_02 49:08

I think it's both.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

Yeah, I think it's both.

SPEAKER_02 49:11

My dad would call us that. Hey, what are you doing, kiddo? Hey, kiddo. Yeah, he did. He did. You're right. He used that a lot. Yeah, isn't that interesting? Of all the sequences, you would pick the non-action sequence, although it does eventually get there, and we see the uh the teachings at work of Pai May with the five-finger, you know, the whole okay, so there's I do want to comment. There's a sequence where, spoiler alert, where Kiddo is buried alive. It is a fantastic sequence with Michael Madsen. Another also very funny sequence.

SPEAKER_00 49:46

Michael Madsen for the small part that he played, I think it's his best film.

SPEAKER_02 49:52

It's he's so good, man. Man, you know, what a shame. Because he just he really had the chops and especially his cool guy. Such a cool guy, and his collab with Quentin, it seemed to bring the best out of him as an artist.

unknown 50:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

And this, but you're right, he's not really got a lot of screen time, but man, you will never forget it. But that sequence, if you seeing it in the theater or even in a nice with a nice home theater, the sound of the dirt hitting the top of that box they put her in to bury her alive, is it's wow. It just really leaves a lasting impression.

SPEAKER_00 50:31

You had asked me about the extras, and I don't know if you saw this or not, but one of the extras, and I don't think it made the the cut in the film, was the drive-in sequence. Let's all go to the lobby. That was in Greece, remember? Yeah, that's in the extras. So you can see that sequence, which I saw many times in a drive-in.

SPEAKER_02 50:56

Now, you had listed a lot of the, you know, who could have been like Jack Nicholson and so forth. Seems like Jack's on every one of those lists, but yeah, he seems to be. Well, what about any of the female cast? Was there any Only Uma.

SPEAKER_00 51:09

He that was it was written for for her.

SPEAKER_02 51:12

Well, that makes sense because again, the impetus was this conversation they had during the filming of Pulp Fiction back in whatever, 93, 94.

SPEAKER_00 51:20

So there was no talk of anybody else but her.

SPEAKER_02 51:24

You know, and I I have to say, I take uh, you know, some pride now knowing that she's from our homeland. I mean, I Yeah, I didn't know that. That that's pretty that's pretty cool. But yeah, you're not man, but it's an epic. That's I can't put it any better than you said. It's an epic. So kill Bill the whole bloody affair, Quentin Tarantino. Um see it if you haven't seen it. But that's the the Oak Brother uh review and deep dive here on the Oak Brother Podcast. Real brothers, Mike, real talk, as it says. Do you think let me ask, I was gonna ask you at the top, but I said, let me just wait. We got into the conversation. But do you think it's possible that there's 800 plus robots out there that would maybe accidentally subscribe to a podcast such as ours? Do you think that's even possible? Well, yeah, there is if you pay for them. That's true. That's true. So we, you know, we we reached another milestone recently, and uh, you know, I put out uh some thank yous out on the channel about it because we we're uh on our way to a thousand uh subscribers on YouTube, which is a huge deal. I I say it every time to you, but I can literally remember when we had like 21 subscribers. And remember, we're like, well, I don't know, should we do, should we do uh should we go live? Should we go live tonight? We're like, well, we only have like five subscribers. Right.

SPEAKER_00 52:49

And we've done it the hard way, you know. I mean, a lot of podcast, a lot of people would would say, but knowing it's six years, and that's all all you've got to show for it. Yeah, but again, we were lengthy because we're an audio podcast, as you always point out, first and foremost. Right, right. So this is a bonus. I like consuming my you know, my shows via like YouTube. Yeah, on YouTube, yeah. But you know, we did it the hard way, you know, one at a time.

SPEAKER_02 53:26

People tuned in and they said, Oh, you know what, I'll consume it in the audio variety. I'm good. That's what they said. But you know, it it is it is kind of wild because okay, even if uh even if half of them are bots, right? There's a there's a pretty significant number to us of people that have made the decision to subscribe and support the podcast in that way. And um, you know, it sounds cliche, but we deeply appreciate it. It does help us continue to do the things that we're doing. And we do it because we like doing it. It's fun, it's a way for us to connect. And we love film, we love talking movies, and um, and so uh, you know, that's why we do it. We're not, although we've listened we've gotten in our fair share of arguments about the numbers, let's like any podcast does, but that isn't our motivation because in fact, Mike, I'm sort of got a clue of what's coming up on the podcast very soon here. If you look behind me on the uh the under construction O'Brothers Studios South here, you will see this uh art piece back here that may or may not look like a witch going across the moonlight. It's a little a tribute to Salem, Massachusetts. We were just talking about our home state, and uh that could mean nothing other than it's almost time for Halloween Fest on the O Brother Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 54:52

We got some good ones this year.

SPEAKER_02 54:54

We we finally landed on a lineup, and so I'm pretty excited about it. It's a good variety. No doubt we're gonna leave some things out, but uh, I can, I just I'm so like I can't wait to get into it. So um, that's coming at you real soon here on the O Brother Podcast. But uh, but again, thanks to those that have supported us, whether you're listening or watching or both, hit that subscribe button and the like button to get that uh podcast out to more and more people. Appreciate the downloads of the audio podcast as well. So you can take us with us, uh, take take us with you on your commute to work if you want. Um, but yeah, Mike, I think that's gonna do it uh for another regular season episode of the O Brother Podcast. I've been your host, Dan Smith. Long time as always, my brother from the same mother, Mike Smith. So he's right there. The OG mug. The OG mug. And you know what's coming next? The Halloween fest mug will be displayed here shortly. That's right. And we will see you next time. Bye, everyone.