More random Kill Bill thoughts
Apr. 16th, 2004 08:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiThe more I think about the movie, the more I enjoyed it.
This will be filled with spoilers, so there'll be a cut tag. Don't click on the spoiler tag and then whine that I mentioned the part where Bill attacks The Bride with a pair of electric egg beaters at the finale.
Interestingly, the previews kind of spoil the point about Budd's sword, although not tremendously (but the scene of Bea and Elle clashing swords in the trailer is very prominent, and how else could she have gotten the sword?).
Budd's character is the most fascinating one for me. We know he's Bill's brother (cute naming convention by the parents). We know that at one time, he was one of the world's best killers. Hell, he's the only person who got the best of Bea (although see my comments on Bill, later). Yet he's let himself go to hell in a hovel, getting treated like shit by second-rate nightclub dancers and owners, and acting like he's about as spineless as could be. He shows one hell of a cruel streak in dealing with Bea (although he really should have thought of taking off her boots), he tells everyone that he sold his sword, yet he still keeps it (and we see the inscription showing the affection the brothers have for one another). Whatever the fallout between him and Bill years ago (and of all the unanswered questions in the movie, that's the big one for me), it must have caused Budd's dichotomies.
[He's also the only one not killed by Bea (although, notably, he is killed by a Black Mamba, her code name).]
Elle, on the other hand, is the least complex character. With the other four villains, we get backstory, we get motivations, etc. With Elle, all we know is that she's a malicious woman. Evil enough to kill her master, even, but no motives, no nothing. She's just a bitch. Made for a nice counterbalance. With her, I don't care why she does what she does (although I found the obsessive-compulsive writing notes thing interesting). She's there to fight, that's it. And regardless of the question mark, I'm treating her as dead. Massive trauma to the head, blind, a poisonous snake loose in the trailer, and miles from anywhere in the desert. Yeah.
And then there's Bea and Bill. Wow. Where did Carradine pull this performance out of? Granted, he hasn't had anything this juicy to work with in, well, ever, but this was still amazing. Bill could have killed Bea on any number of occasions (he got the drop on her twice with various guns), but he chose to let her have a fair fight, knowing that he'd probably not win (he's double her age, after all). And both of their unexplained actions from the first movie -- her running away from her life, his killing her and the wedding party, are explained fully. And that makes both of them a hell of a lot more human. Hell, we see Bill as someone who, like Bea, went on a furious quest for revenge. Given the hints of the same thing with Vernita's daughter, what we've got is the same cycle of violence/revenge that others (Eastwood in Unforgiven, for example) have studied, in a vastly different setting and with a vastly different tone.
What really showed how effective the movie was at growing Bea's character, for me, was that final scene, with her bawling on the floor. At no point during the first movie did The Bride seem capable of this. But by the end of that second film, it was completely in character, and her grief made complete sense.
Edit: All of the previews show a scene with Bill throwing a knife at someone. Did I blink and miss something?
This will be filled with spoilers, so there'll be a cut tag. Don't click on the spoiler tag and then whine that I mentioned the part where Bill attacks The Bride with a pair of electric egg beaters at the finale.
Interestingly, the previews kind of spoil the point about Budd's sword, although not tremendously (but the scene of Bea and Elle clashing swords in the trailer is very prominent, and how else could she have gotten the sword?).
Budd's character is the most fascinating one for me. We know he's Bill's brother (cute naming convention by the parents). We know that at one time, he was one of the world's best killers. Hell, he's the only person who got the best of Bea (although see my comments on Bill, later). Yet he's let himself go to hell in a hovel, getting treated like shit by second-rate nightclub dancers and owners, and acting like he's about as spineless as could be. He shows one hell of a cruel streak in dealing with Bea (although he really should have thought of taking off her boots), he tells everyone that he sold his sword, yet he still keeps it (and we see the inscription showing the affection the brothers have for one another). Whatever the fallout between him and Bill years ago (and of all the unanswered questions in the movie, that's the big one for me), it must have caused Budd's dichotomies.
[He's also the only one not killed by Bea (although, notably, he is killed by a Black Mamba, her code name).]
Elle, on the other hand, is the least complex character. With the other four villains, we get backstory, we get motivations, etc. With Elle, all we know is that she's a malicious woman. Evil enough to kill her master, even, but no motives, no nothing. She's just a bitch. Made for a nice counterbalance. With her, I don't care why she does what she does (although I found the obsessive-compulsive writing notes thing interesting). She's there to fight, that's it. And regardless of the question mark, I'm treating her as dead. Massive trauma to the head, blind, a poisonous snake loose in the trailer, and miles from anywhere in the desert. Yeah.
And then there's Bea and Bill. Wow. Where did Carradine pull this performance out of? Granted, he hasn't had anything this juicy to work with in, well, ever, but this was still amazing. Bill could have killed Bea on any number of occasions (he got the drop on her twice with various guns), but he chose to let her have a fair fight, knowing that he'd probably not win (he's double her age, after all). And both of their unexplained actions from the first movie -- her running away from her life, his killing her and the wedding party, are explained fully. And that makes both of them a hell of a lot more human. Hell, we see Bill as someone who, like Bea, went on a furious quest for revenge. Given the hints of the same thing with Vernita's daughter, what we've got is the same cycle of violence/revenge that others (Eastwood in Unforgiven, for example) have studied, in a vastly different setting and with a vastly different tone.
What really showed how effective the movie was at growing Bea's character, for me, was that final scene, with her bawling on the floor. At no point during the first movie did The Bride seem capable of this. But by the end of that second film, it was completely in character, and her grief made complete sense.
Edit: All of the previews show a scene with Bill throwing a knife at someone. Did I blink and miss something?
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-16 06:15 am (UTC)It could have been her own sword.
he really should have thought of taking off her boots
That sequence should have bothered me, but didn't. We don't learn that she has the skill required to escape burial alive until after she gets buried alive. With any other filmmaker I'd call that bad storytelling, but Tarantino's such a master I let it go.
However, the handy straight razor does bother me, especially since we saw Budd find the other blade in her boot. Sloppy.
He's also the only one not killed by Bea
Beatrix didn't kill Elle either.
he hasn't had anything this juicy to work with in, well, ever
If you believe that, you need to rent The Long Riders (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081071/combined).
that final scene, with her bawling on the floor.
She was laughing, not crying. I read that scene as about relief that it's all over, not grief.
And why not laugh? Beatrix has BB, no more enemies (until Vernita's daughter grows up), a Karmann Ghia and (presumably) Elle's bag full of a million in cash. The world is at her feet. I look forward to, not a sequel, but some vague reference to or mention of her in a future QT film.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-16 06:27 am (UTC)It could have been her own sword.
Except they looked different (something I only caught after the movie started, since it had been long enough since I'd seen part 1 to not catch that in the preview).
he really should have thought of taking off her boots
That sequence should have bothered me, but didn't. We don't learn that she has the skill required to escape burial alive until after she gets buried alive. With any other filmmaker I'd call that bad storytelling, but Tarantino's such a master I let it go.
However, the handy straight razor does bother me, especially since we saw Budd find the other blade in her boot. Sloppy.He's also the only one not killed by Bea
Beatrix didn't kill Elle either.
Well, I still right her off as dead, but if you prefer, "the only one not dispatched by Bea"
he hasn't had anything this juicy to work with in, well, ever
If you believe that, you need to rent The Long Riders.
Haven't seen that. I'll check it out.
that final scene, with her bawling on the floor.
She was laughing, not crying. I read that scene as about relief that it's all over, not grief.
I saw it as one moving into the other.
And why not laugh? Beatrix has BB, no more enemies (until Vernita's daughter grows up), a Karmann Ghia and (presumably) Elle's bag full of a million in cash. The world is at her feet. I look forward to, not a sequel, but some vague reference to or mention of her in a future QT film.
Someday, someone will write a paper on the importance of bags full of money in QT films (with PF as the wild card). I just want to see a scene in a future film in which all the bags converge.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-16 06:41 am (UTC)Well, I still right her off as dead, but if you prefer, "the only one not dispatched by Bea"
I rightly write her off as dead too, but Beatrix didn't kill her, which I thought was your point.
Someday, someone will write a paper on the importance of bags full of money in QT films (with PF as the wild card).
Money, or diamonds, or a glowing MacGuffin. It's one of QT's many borrowings from other films. The suitcase with a glowing thing in it, for example, is from Kiss Me Deadly (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048261/combined).
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-16 06:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-16 11:01 pm (UTC)The "Lone Wolf and Cub" references made me giggle like a happy little girl.
Oh, and the Bill throwing knife thing -- I wondered about that too. Probably it'll be on the DVD.
I'm assuming that the current DVD release of Vol 1 is so lame-ass because they're saving the good stuff for Vol. 2.
Pure Art
Date: 2004-04-18 02:11 am (UTC)The fact that QT used Yuen Ping for the Martial Arts coreography was awesome and it really showed especially with Pai Mei and Bea. Most people found some of the fx hokey and out-dated. They simply don't realize that the combat and gore in this movie was a tribute. Plain and simply, this movie is on my favorites list along with Hero, Mount Zhu, and Ishi the Killer. Pure Art.