Ainsley and I went to see Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair last night, and it was fantastic. It was originally shot as one movie, but split into the two movies, we all know, due to length. This version got rid of the cliffhanger ending that wrapped up the original theatrical installment as well as the recap opening of the second. It also extended several fight sequences and the animated sequence that explained O-Ren Ishii’s backstory.
The movie was amazing, as expected, but it was elevated even further by the experience at the Alamo Drafthouse, housed in the New Mission theater in San Francisco’s Mission District. The New Mission theater was renovated a few years ago, and is just wonderful. Walking into the classic lobby—lined with giant, framed movie posters of Bruce Lee classics from around the world—sets the stage for the presentation inside Theater 1. Despite the classic stage setting, Theater 1 has a screen with working masks and curtains, and can project 70mm and 35mm films as well as digital movies, including support for HDR by Barco. The seats are comfortable enough that I didn’t feel sore after sitting for five hours(!)—it was probably good that they aren’t recliners, given that the film ended after midnight.
The SF Alamo is one of just nine theaters in the US projecting this in 70mm, and the only other in California is Quentin Tarantino’s own theater in LA, the Vista. I had been paying close attention to the release of tickets, and got excellent seats: row 4, seats 19 and 20 seemed like they might have been a little too close to the screen than would be optimal, but they were great. The 70mm presentation was excellent, with that characteristic glow that you just don’t see these days. I’m not generally super sentimental about film vs. digital, but in this setting and with this movie, and its callbacks to classic film movies, it just seemed so appropriate. The bright picture and the vibrant colors were just perfect.
The pre-show, which started 30 minutes before the main show, showed clips from some of the sources that Quentin Tarantino has cited as influential over Kill Bill, including several from classic kung-fu movies and from Sonny Chiba films. It was so refreshing to see this kind of respect for the experience before the movie, instead of the constant barrage of crap and advertising that theaters bombard us with these days.
In fact, the entire evening was pretty much the exact opposite of what I've been lamenting about the movie going experience for the past few years. The people working the at-your-seat dining were polite, attentive, and fast. For instance, our server took the time, after taking our food order, to explain that there was an additional scene after the first round of credits at the end of the film. Our food was delivered quickly, and like the service, it was well above-average.
The audience was clearly filled with movie lovers who had respect for this kind of movie-going experience: There were enthusiastic applause at the appropriate times and complete silence the rest of the time—there was no talking, no cell phones rang out, nor did I see even one glowing screen raise during the whole run.
I wasn’t sure how the pacing was going to hold up when Kill Bill was presented as one movie, but I felt like it really was clear that this was how it should be seen. With a 15-minute intermission (there was no special music or presentation as there was for The H8ful Eight Roadshow’s intermission, which featured an Ennio Morricone overture), it felt tighter than a lot of modern movies that are much shorter. Moreover, moving the dramatic reveal that The Bride’s daughter was alive to the confrontation with Bill at the end of the story, rather than the end of the first installment, really changed the movie for the better, in my opinion.
This was the best theatrical experience I’ve had in a long, long time. Today, I’m still enjoying the afterglow, and looking forward to going back to Alamo SF the next time they have a special presentation like this one. I’m so happy that I was able to convince Ainsley to see this with me. She recently saw her first Tarantino movie, Pulp Fiction, at home with me, and didn’t come away impressed. And, as with many 17 year olds, it’s not only getting increasingly difficult to convince her to do stuff like this with her dad, but she really wasn’t sold on sitting for five hours of movie. But even the skeptical teenager had to grudgingly admit it was good, and I’m pretty sure this memory will burnish itself over the years.