Blood, pools of it, the sound of gnashing teeth, flesh versus steel, the crushing of bone and the rending of limbs—murder is messy business.

“Kill Bill Vol. 1,” the fourth film from Quentin Tarantino, is one of the finest adult comic book adventures I’ve ever seen. That does not mean that everyone will like it. In fact, many of you will be appalled. But this is nothing new to the genre bending blending Tarantino who with “Bill” has chosen at every opportunity to warp any of the typical action movie rules. After “Vol. 2,” Tarantino will have to make another “Jackie Brown” to atone for his sins. And sins are often the guilty pleasures that pack theaters.

Uma Thurman plays the Bride who also has a code name that is Black Mamba or something. She also has a real name that I suppose was mentioned but trust me those details will have little importance to you. She is a member of a team of assassins who are aptly called the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. The DVAS is composed of California Mountain Snake aka Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), Cottonmouth aka O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), Copperhead aka Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), and principally Sidewider (Michael Madsen). The DVAS is lead by the mysterious Bill (David Carradine) who is barely seen but heard loud and clear.

The Bride somehow survives being severely beaten and even shot in the head by the members of the DVAS on her wedding day no less. And she is, by the way, extremely pregnant at the time of the attack. Well, the Bride spends the next four years in a coma only to awaken with one singular mission: KILL BILL. This is no easy task because she has resigned herself to not only kill Bill but to take the members of the DVAS with him. The Bride travels to Okinawa, Japan, where she enlists the assistance of legendary sword-smith Hattori Honzo (an excellent Sonny Chiba).

In this world created (no, rather adapted) by Tarantino, guns are part of the arsenal but the blade is the weapon of choice. There is a very funny but telling scene in which California Mountain Snake (Hannah) is about to kill the Bride as she lay in her coma that reveals much about this movie universe. While murder could be made easier, the sport is conducted according to careful and even ethical rules. This makes bloodletting via the sword the honorable method to settle the score.

Anyway, we are given little downtime in “Kill Bill Vol. 1” which proceeds at a break neck pace quite literally. Not one shot is wasted and when an origin story is told (people this is done all the time in comic books) Tarantino smartly utilizes animation to relate the events. Its use is better and easier to follow than when similar techniques where employed by Oliver Stone in “Natural Born Killers.” There is no doubt that the anime crowd will be pleased and feel the need to share their insights with friends who have not even taken in “Akira.”

Aside from the clever casting of splendid actors who carry their roles well, “Kill Bill Vol. 1” manages to make sound and special effects the real star. Unlike the sometimes thrilling but just unbelievable action sequences in the recent “Matrix” sequel, “Bill1” makes you feel the carnage with sounds that roar and gurgle bubbling up from a slaughterhouse somewhere. This uncanny realism is coupled with a single 20-minute fight sequence that is just simply astounding. And a pulsing, thumping soundtrack that haunts your lips after you leave the theater seamlessly complements both effects. I found myself tapping my foot to the beat.

But there are problems. I was troubled by the entire coma sequence. First, there are allusions to rape that many viewers will find too disturbing. Second, the science of the coma ward is way out of wack. Just my limited investigation into such a thing reveals that a coma ward like the one featured probably wouldn’t exist and the Bride might have had a surgically inserted feeding tube that would have greatly reduced her ability to just up and leave the ward.

Also, a potential problem spot for some viewers will be the violence. There are many, many lost limbs and maimings on the horrifying level of “From Dusk Til Dawn.” Only this time terror is not instilled, rather, we actually wriggle with delight as one by one the Bride’s attackers fall. In the packed sneak preview I attended, the movie patrons actually cheered more than once. This in and of itself might be troubling to some viewers. Without question, the spraying soaking shooting blood running all over everything is a bit too much at times and will definitely have to be toned down in the next film as the focus will shift to explaining, perhaps, the origins of Bill, the DVAS, and the reason why they saw fit to off one of their own (the Bride).

Tarantino’s fusion of action genres may result in a new sub-genre: the adult comic book adventure. This is the evolution from the DC and Marvel universe to the independent comics to the graphic novel and now directly to the screen complete with an R rating. One thing for sure, while murder may be messy, but in Tarantino’s world, it can also be a Hell of lot of fun.

Jonathan W. Hickman, 2003