CompleteMartialArts.com - The Kill Bill Diary: The Making of a Tarantino Classic as Seen Through the Eyes of a Screen Legend
|
List Price: $16.95
Our Price: $12.38
Your Save: $ 4.57 ( 27% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.4372
EAN: 9780060823467
ISBN: 0060823461
Label: Harper Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2006-11-01
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Release Date: 2006-10-31
Studio: Harper Paperbacks
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
|
David Carradine is Bill—the complex, charismatic master assassin from the critically acclaimed, monstrously successful Kill Bill films. Throughout the filming of Quentin Tarantino's brilliant, violent epic, Carradine kept a daily diary—capturing all the action, the genius, the madness, and the magic that combined to make a masterpiece. More than simply an insider's close-up look at the filmmaking process and the astonishing cast and crew—director Tarantino, star Uma Thurman, and all the other artists whose extraordinary skills helped create something glorious—The Kill Bill Diary illuminates the fine points of the serious actor's craft, as a truly unique talent takes us along with him on a quirky, breathtaking, no-holds-barred, and altogether miraculous journey. It is a must-own volume for anyone who loves the movies.
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Inside Look at a Cinematic Masterpiece!
Comment: Carradine's candid detailing of the daily grind of starring as the title character in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill is a fascinating and honest look at the process of movie making.
As a filmmaker myself, one of the things I most enjoy is the bond formed between cast and crew. When thing's are going well, being on set is like being a part of a secret club that the audience rarely gets to be a part of. This book puts the reader onto the set to see all the pain and passion that goes into creating art.
Like Robert Rodriuguez's "Rebel Without a Crew" before it, this book should be a filmmaker's Bible for what to do and what not to do. Fan's of film and especially Tarantino, should find it to be a very entertaining read.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A minor gem underneath the autograph
Comment: Before Tarantino, David Carradine was--and I'm quoting here, so don't think I'm dissing--a "cult actor who couldn't get work". As I imagine this sums up many opinions, the reader can forgive much from Carradine's production diary. And there's much to forgive, but it's always fun. Carradine's an engaging writer: parts puffy testosterone and lowly gratitude, arrogance and wide-eyed observer. He's everything you'd think (or fear), but never, ever pompous. And the star of the book--the superhero who comes off looking like a mutant crusader for film--is the ever-enthusiastic Tarantino. No wonder the cover quotes Quentin as saying--or yelling--, "I LOVED it!"
Carradine raps on everything--Thurman and Hannah's beauty, the weirdness of China, even Einstein: "Someone once asked Einstein if the universe was infinite. And he said, 'No. But it's ALMOST infinite.' Albert was one of the greatest stand-up comics of all time; I mean, look at his hair. He had to know that was funny. And I think the mustache was camouflage, to hide the secret smile."
Carradine takes the reader to production meetings, through fabulous sets, and out of snaffus that boggle the organized mind. Tarantino chucks out whole scenes, changes plot mid-stream, and coaxes grand performances out of everyone with a winning smile and hyperactive energy. I'd dearly like to know him, and now feel that I do.
Sure this book is mostly fluff, but underneath the glitz, we glimpse the sobering life of an aging minor (if cultic) star, and the gratitude with which he receives a second career. I actually held my breath at Carradine's bravery--one whole chapter is dedicated to a nightmare variation to the naked in class-taking the test you forgot in the course you never attended--dream, but on the set, his elusive script forever out of reach. The anxiety expressed here, the fear that something could go wrong with his comeback, is a universal fear anyone past the age of 30 can relate to, and I thought it was human of him to express it. Well, after all, it is a diary of sorts!
I found this book enjoyable, and a lot more thought-provoking--and fun--than I feared it would be. I hope he writes more.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It's not bad, it's just very light...
Comment: The Kill Bill Diary is sort of a hard book to review. I ended up giving it four stars because it's well written and engaging, but unfortunately very light. Carradine has done a wonderful job of chronicling his time spent working on the film, as well as shedding some light on both his process as an actor and what it's like as an actor to deal with studios such as Miramax (now the Weinstein Company), but the book tends to be a little off balance if only because it's so guarded. Carradine's prose is very interesting and comfortable, and the book reads very quickly, though in a very nice conversational way.
There is something to be desired in its Diary approach as the book struggles in this style choice, shifting between some all too expedited daily synopses to some almost uncomfortably personal correspondences (in particular a couple of gushing letters to Tarantino) with not much middle ground in between. Though at times Carradine's voice borders on arrogance (and with his lengthy body of work and his iconic rock star status after Kung Fu, who can blame him), he can just as easily come across as the most humble man on earth, so overall the POV of his experiences on the film come off almost pretty well balanced. At the end of the day though it's not as personal as one would think a "diary" would be, and because it tends towards skirting details it feels like he's holding back. Don't get me wrong, I think the book is very honest, and Carradine has a very positive outlook (I'm not expecting him to dish dirt or anything), but because he tends to hold back a little (either guardedly leaving out names or not really getting into detail) it reads a little flat or more like a blog instead of a book.
My biggest gripe with the book though is in its marketing. The back cover blurb makes the book out to be a "making-of" on the Kill Bill film when honestly it's really only about Carradine's time on the set which amounts to about a fourth of the film.
If you're looking for some light, behind the scenes reading on the film industry, this book is great, but if you are looking for "...an insider's close-up look at the film-making process and the astonishing cast and crew, ...the fine points of the actor's craft, ...[and a] breathtaking, no-holds-barred ... miraculous journey" (taken from the back cover) then you might be a little disappointed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: kill bill diary
Comment: i found the book very interesting . i would have to add that i am a huge Tarantino fan who loved kill Bill so im probally pretty biased on this one .
Customer Rating:
Summary: Diary of a Film Masterpiece
Comment: I finally finished this and I'm sad it's over. I can't call it 5-star worthy, because there are obvious flaws, but anyone who would take the time to read this, probably won't care about it. (If you hated the film why on earth would you read the book, right?).
This is actually NOT Carradine's first book (see Endless Highway, which is unfortunately out of print) and since I just started reading it, I can't say which I prefer, but Carradine's friendly narrative is what draws you in and keeps you reading even when the story flags. Like any journal there are some bits that maybe we could have lived without (much to much family stuff, but hey they sound great, so why not go on and on about them?) and of course his experience on Kill Bill was limited to the time he was involved.
This is certainly NOT a complete Making of Kill Bill. It's budget prohibited David being on the set except when he was needed so there are definite gaps in the "movie" story. This is more than made up for with Carradine's letters to Tarantino, dozens of "insider" details about his time on the set, his hope that this will revitalize his career and much more. Carradine is a fascianting dude. This more than comes across in the story!
The one thing I kept thinking throughout the story and even more so now as I see a cheesy tv commercial featuring Carradine, is that unlike John Travolta, Kill Bill did NOT revitalize Carradine's career in the same way. He has been in very little of note since he made Kill Bill. I'm glad he's working, but what happen to the "Tarantino Revitalization"?
This is a somewhat sad footnote to the story that leaves me curious. Bill "was" a career making performance and role. Perhaps it is a continuation of the industry's slight of the film (no Oscar nominations, mixed reviews, no respect, darn it). Very little was made of Uma Thurman's brilliant performance (even more of an Oscar slight in years when very few female performances were Oscar-worthy). Is the industry jealous of Tarantino? Was this there chance to exact a little revenge on the bad boy outsider?
But I'll get off my tangent for now (it was afterall inspired by Carradine's optimism). To sum up: Read It! It's fun. It's gossipy. It's insightful. It's never boring! Some great color photos round out the text. Let's hope that Carradine is still acting and writing for some time. Thanks to Tarantino for making it all possible. And how about reprinting "Endless Highway" someone, anyone?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|