C'era una volta il West (Once Upon a Time in the West) influenced Kill Bill

Tarantino's debt to Leone is the most openly stated thing about him, and Kill Bill is where it is most visible outside a western.

• The revenge plot built as a list, with each name a set piece
• Extreme close-ups on eyes held past comfort, cut against very wide frames
• A musical cue that announces a character before they act, used as Leone used Morricone's harmonica
• The long wordless stand-off, where the tension is entirely in duration

Filed MEDIUM. Kill Bill is assembled from a dozen traditions at once, chiefly Japanese chanbara and Hong Kong martial arts; the spaghetti western supplies its grammar of waiting rather than its content.