Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is Quentin Tarantino’s giddy homage to the movies he grew up with at the grind houses—the Hong Kong chop-sockies and spaghetti Westerns and samurai and blaxploitation flicks.

A recent New York Times interview with Uma Thurman revealed that "Kill Bill" director Quentin Tarantino spat on her, and choked her with a chain, to get the performance he wanted. Tarantino ...