A couple of quick responses:
The black-and-white would indeed have made the movie more likely to receive an "R" rating rather than an "NC-17" rating. And that was a wise thing to do. Here's a note from eFilmCritic on that rating:
eFilmCritic said:
The way it stands now, anyone who releases a film rated NC-17 faces at least three major obstacles, any one of which could spell commercial doom: (1) many major newspapers will not carry ads for NC-17 films, (2) many theatre chains will not show NC-17 films, and (3) Blockbuster Video—the Great Satan of video-store chains, and the biggest of them all—will not stock NC-17 films.
All this has created what they call a “chilling effect” on the movie biz. Since the inception of the NC-17 not quite a decade and a half ago, sixty-nine films have been released with the rating. But since 2000—here’s the kicker—the number of NC-17 films released is precisely four.
It's pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to make any large amount of money releasing an NC-17 film. To have released KB with that rating would have meant pouring the millions of dollars spent making the movie down the drain.
Now you may say, "But Tarantino stands for artistic purity! He's caving in to commercial pressure!" and feel justified in saying so. He has a responsibility, however, to everyone who works on his films (and everyone who invested in them) -- to find solutions that maintain his artistic vision AND maximise the chances of making a profit. If he says the black-and-white fits his vision, I see no reason to doubt him. There were other options available to him, certainly, but he chose this one. I see this as the artistically responsible choice.
It's definitely true that non-red blood will garner a lower rating -- Sam Raimi did the same thing in both the first two
Evil Dead movies by using green, blue and yellow "fluid" rather than red.
As far as "directors' cuts" goes -- is there any evidence that any of the disks will contain different versions of the film? I haven't seen any. Just because they're called "Special Edition" doesn't mean that the film is any different -- my "Ultimate Edition" of
The Mummy is exactly the same film I saw in the theatre, just with lots more special features. I assume that's what's planned for the "Special Edition" versions of Kill Bill.
Really, this just seems like a lot of fuss over nothing. If somebody said, "They're releasing a
Master and Commander DVD, followed with a "Special Edition"
Master and Commander DVD -- and then at Christmas the "Russell Crowe Box Set" with
Master and Commander,
Gladiator and
The Insider," nobody would squawk. This is exactly the same thing as far as I can see. Big deal.
Buy the ones you want, don't buy the ones you don't. Since when is having lots of choices a bad thing?
