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Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
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TALK ABOUT MOVIES
January 2005
KILL BILL VOL. 2
Directed by Quentin Tarantino. Starring Uma Thurman, David Carradine. 2004, 136 minutes, USA, Black & White/Color, English/Cantonese/Mandarin/Spanish. Available at Blockbuster Video. (Warning: extreme violence.)
Matthew: Beatrix is redeemed by an act of love. She denies what she believes is her nature as a killer to go and be miserable in El Paso and give her daughter a clean slate.
Ernie: But it's a particular act of love. It's natural, not supernatural.
She's not laying down her life for a stranger, she's pregnant. Just the positive pregnancy test was enough to make the other female assassin soften. Suddenly, they were just two women. There's something primal there. Bill says she's a natural born killer, but the point that's born out is that ultimately, she has a nature as a woman and it's ordered around children and motherhood.
Matthew: That's what the film is getting at with the reference to the jungle, and the lioness with her cub. But after she makes that decision, she's surrounded by grace. When she tells Bill, "It's your baby," he misses his shot and fails to kill her. The baby, in some way, saves her.
Ernie: The problem with the film is, even though it shows that motherhood trumps all, that notion doesn't involve fatherhood at all. She's still got to have her revenge against the father of her daughter, even after he makes some kind of defense of himself and shows that he's raised the daughter well. Beatrix continues to live by the sword. If it's a redemption story, it's only 5% redemption. The other 95% is revenge — and cool ways to kill people.
Matthew: For all the talk of swords, nobody dies by the sword. Bud dies because he tries to leave the life of penance he's given himself. Elle loses because of her impiety — it cost her an eye and made her vulnerable. And Bill is treacherous.
Ernie: She's become some kind of kung fu priest, while he's still a murdering thug.