Kill Bill's similarities to The Crow

[Aaron Marshall]

I think Tarantino was influenced by "The Crow" for the Kill Bills. Maybe just a little bit. Think about the similarities.

1. Person gets wronged by a group of violent individuals, four no less and with a big boss character (Bill = Top Dollar).

2. Each thug specialized in something. Knives: Tin Tin, Copperhead, both black characters no less etc.

3. Is dead, or in a coma for a period of time. Draven comes back from the grave, the bride comes back from a coma...it all floods back in, the weight of the situation and who they need to kill to seek revenge.

4. In Kill Bill vol. 2 Uma Thurman's scene coming out of the grave is shot almost identically to when Draven comes up from the grave. The camera is up above looking down and slightly spinning. Both draven and the bride screaming. Replace dust with rain.

5. The scene in KB where they're all looking down at her after she's been shot... It's very Crowish like when the thugs watch Draven's body on the street after he goes out the window. It's almost remorse, but not quite.

6. Both were to be married, Draven was a day away from it, and The Bride was very close to her date as well.

I could think of many more. Sure, two revenge stories are going to have similar plot points, and just general similarities. I think there's more to it than that in this case. I'm sure The Crow also paid tribute to many spaghetti western revenge stories as well. A lot of the similarities could root from that, but some influences are very distinct to The Crow. One that really stood out for me was the Grave scene and how it was shot.

John Hudson, I'd like to know your thoughts on this. Have you watched The Crow? I mean really watched and studied it? You should if you haven't. I think the first 20 minutes are the most important. I think it's a big compliment coming from Tarantino if my theory is correct.

 

[micL]

In the trailer for Catwoman, didn't they say something about how when you die they say a cat takes/watches over your soul? Something like that anyway. I remember in the crow they pretty much said the same thing and when I first heard it for Catwoman, i immediately thought of The Crow.

 

[TC]

I've been wanting to watch The Crow again lately.

...this is just more insentive.

 

[Zak Forsman]

uhh... yeah.. this is tarantino we're talking about.... he's filmmaking's equivilant to a hip-hop artist with all the "sampling" he does. here's alist of all the other films that influenced Kill Bill.

The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad is a nod to The Five Deadly Venoms

Several major plot points come from Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black. A woman's life is shattered when her husband is murdered on their wedding day. She tracks down the five men responsible and she kills them in five different ways wearing five different outfits. She even writes their names in a notebook and crosses them off after she kills them. She's even called "The Bride" throughout the picture.

The yellow and black tracksuit comes from Bruce Lee's Game of Death

Lady Snowblood (thanks Yas!) centers around a female child whose mother dies in jail, who then goes on to receive martial arts training to avenge her mother's death.

They Call Her One Eye is a Swedish film about a girl whose life is ruined -- her "pimp" even goes so far as to remove one of her eyes before she studies to seek revenge on them.

The shots of Daryl Hannah walking down the hospital corridor with a big purse are right out of the beginning of Hitchcock's Marnie with Tippi Hedren.

QT has quoted Black Sunday as inspiration for its scene where Marthe Keller goes into the hospital and disguises herself as a nurse to kill Robert Shaw with a poisoned syringe.

 

[Yas Kassana]

That's Lady Snowblood not Snowbird.

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

this is also every other Bronson, Norris, Stallone, Van Damme movie in terms of the hero being wronged or their family being killed

as you point out its a classic revenge plot

also levels of killers each with a specialty is pretty widespread too, several Bond movies and Bruce Lee movies come to mind.

but maybe theirs something to it.

 

[Super Trooper]

Actually I thought The Crow looked like it was heavily influenced by RoboCop.

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

that's what I''m saying ... I think you could go back and back ...

how about swamp thing ?

or how about:

not yet a movie but I hope it will be one day(maybe I'll get to make it - it was my fav growing up)

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

there are a few more specific simmilarities, as noct pointed out, about the circumstances just before the death ... but I think those are coincidental and part of this whole story archetype of the vengeful hero risen from the dead (literally or metaphorically as in a lot more revenge plots like kill bill) because -- there is a very key, huge difference between the crow and kill bill ... while thet were both murdered or attempted murdered on their wedding night ... the crow was not murdered and betrayed by his betrothed - that puts a whole different spin and new layer of complexity on it.