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Six different versions of Kill Bill to be released on DVD.

arnwyn said:
Unless someone has a clear source, I don't believe for a second that the black & white scene in KB1 was due to "censoring/violence" reasons.
From IMDB:

The black & white photography is, in the end, an homage to '70's and '80s US television airings of kung fu movies. Black & white, and also black & red, were used to "hide" the shedding of blood from television censors. It was, however, originally, to be shown in color (and is in the Japanese cut of the film) but the MPAA demanded measures be taken to tone the scene down. Tarantino merely used the old trick for its intended purpose, rather than merely as an homage.
Now, who knows where IMDB gets their info from, but you asked. However, you'll recall that in the previews and commercials for Volume One, clips of the House of Blue Leaves fight are shown in color. So a color version was filmed.
 

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arnwyn said:
Unless someone has a clear source, I don't believe for a second that the black & white scene in KB1 was due to "censoring/violence" reasons.
Believe what you want, but its the truth. Directors don't release colorized versions of gory films in select countries for "artistic" reasons.
 

NeuroZombie said:
I was really disappointed in Kill Bill Vol I.

Not me. I looooved it.

Tarantino also discusses the b&w scene in the excellent interview on the KB1 dvd. Really interesting stuff.
 



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?
 

barsoomcore said:
Buy the ones you want, don't buy the ones you don't. Since when is having lots of choices a bad thing?
Exactly. I've never understood the criticisms against studios releasing multiple copies of a film, particularly when they're all announced beforehand.
 



But that's a pretty good idea.

Hm, another thread devolves into Kai Lord and barsoomcore nattering away about stuff nobody else cares about... am I sensing a pattern? :D
 

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