For those of us who lived and were young adults in the 90s and early 2000s, Quentin Tarantino became the hip filmmaker that we were compelled to follow if we wanted any kind of street cred for an appreciation of modern cinema. His films were raw, gritty, and unapologetic in their approach to dissecting stories and introducing us to characters who embodied the characteristics in most humans and many of us (if we are honest with ourselves) that we would rather keep suppressed, never to emerge form the darkest depths of our psyche and being. But being able to see dark and twisty characters act on their emotions and feelings in a semi grotesque and gratuitous manner, in its own way, was like a release. His films, many with their most violent scenes with the over exaggerated spurting of blood or over the top dismemberment of body parts are horrifying yet interspersed with scenes amplifying the most basic moments in humanity, disagreements turn into philosophical discussions that then evolve further into camp and the films themselves become abstract paintings that you will ponder and contemplate for hours and days after viewing.
To me, his work is derivative and original in the best ways possible. As part of the infamous Generation X, I love his nods to grindhouse films, kung fu movies, 70s action stars, westerns,and entertainment nostalgia. His films pull elements from the crazy B and C movies my brother would drudge up for us to watch or that you might catch on shows like Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Svengoolie or the barrage of afterschool and weekendcinema that would flood household television sets in the 70s and 80s. Kids in my generation traversed the territory of TV from the 40s, 50s and 60s and found places in our heart for crass characters like George Jefferson and Archie Bunker, embracedOur Gang, loved tough guys with tommy guns, and longed to be Burt Reynolds, Richard Roundtree and Angie Dickinson and have car chases, blow-ups and shootouts like the characters who shocked, awed, and horrified us on TV and in film.
All this form of derivation and tribute became the perfect concoction in the Kill Bill films. I will own that I was more of a fan of From Dusk Till Dawn than Pulp Fiction at this stage of my life when Kill Bill Parts I and 2 came out. I had not seen Reservoir Dogs and while there was many barking in my ear about how over the top the blood and guts were in his films, having some perspective on what influenced him always left me a bit tickled by such critiques. John Travolta dancing in a café dedicated to icons is genius. Creating a female assassin on a mission to avenge herself and take out the gang of former compatriots who beat her within an inch of her life is maddening brilliance. From the moment she shows up at Jeannie Bell’shouse with that crazy ass homemade haircut and begins fisticuffs Black Mamba against Copperhead, I was hooked. Up to this point in cinema and TV, most of the fight scenes we had become accustomed to in film with women were a mixture of the levels of gratuitous slapping, drunken verbal jabs, rolling around in skimpy clothing that was designed more to heighten the excitement of male viewers vs. helping women feel empowered and not inducing a great deal of broken bones or serious bodily harm. We had Pam Greer’s Foxy Brown, Jane Fonda’s Barbarella, some good sword play in films like Sheena and Willow and my favorite all out rolling on the floor in evening gowns fight scenes from shows like Dynasty. But in Kill Bill, women are seriously kicking each other asses. Scenes and physical altercations are not sanitized based on gender, and though gratuitously violent in places, it’s still refreshing. Andas you realize in this first scene where a quiet house in the suburbs is quickly descending into madness and a scene like a war zone, I appreciated that that there were no holds barred, no punches being sparred or softly landing. Coffee tables are being destroyed. Cereal boxes house that necessary extra gun in case the intruder who happens to be the woman you nearly killed happens to return and execute revenge culminated in a brutal and bittersweet conclusion where a missed gunshot leaves room open for a thrown knife to the heart that takes out Copperhead and leaves Black Mamba broken, yet one step closer to her ultimate goal of taking out the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. And the best is the brutal return to reality of suburbia when Copperhead’s daughter returns home from school and quickly must come to terms with the fact that 1) she never truly knew her mother, 2) the veneer that so carefully covered her life and made everything seem golden has been forcefully rippedaway and 3) that she has a seed of contempt that is being planted in her heart for the strange gangly women who has detonated that bomb that has blown her world completely apart.
It’s a beautiful, well-planned quilt of chaos. My mind popped off in so many directions. And it was only the first act of a drama that would play out over 2 films! The Bride/ Beatrix Kiddo/ Black Mamba is over the top. Behavior which at first you want to liken simply to pure evil is given context and each revelation is a newly unwrapped gift. We learn how she was nearly beaten to death, overcame a coma, a metal plate in her head, the kidnapping of her child, and sexual assault (lest we not forget Buck).
My other favorite challenge with the Kill Bill films was figuring out which member of the Deadly Viper Assassination SquadTarantino likes the most:
• Bill (aka Snake Charmer) is manipulative, sadistic and twisted. His ongoing need to come off as paternalistic is dripping with condescension that makes each appearance of him irritating. We see some moments of his paternalistic side in Volume 2, but we are left to wonder just how he managed to compel each of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad to align with his cause.
• Vivica A. Fox as Vernita Green/ Jeannie Bell (aka Copperhead) is supposed to derive sympathy based on her post assassin created life as a housewife and mother in the suburbs. Her sensibilities, while probably the most aligned with Black Mamba in terms of the desires for real life and family make her somewhat endearing. Tarantino also opens the doorway for a compelling sequel with Vernita’s daughter coming face to face with the woman who killed her mom.
• Darryl Hannah as Elle Driver (aka California Mountain Snake) is deeply wounded, extremely headstrong, andenvious of Black Mamba despite seeming to have taken her place as Bill’s closest companion. Tarantino creates what I believe to be the most campy, dark humorous scene with her appearance at the hospital where Black Mamba is comatose. Her stroll down the hallway of the hospital in acostume-like nurse uniform, with the singular white eye patch, matching cap with a red medical cross was so over the top. Her disappointment in being called off from adding a little something extra to Black Mamba’s IV was the mistake that each member of the Deadly Viper gang would ultimately regret.
• Bill’s brother, Budd (aka Sidewinder) is self-deprecating. His resistance to outright kill “The Bride” but instead bury her alive aligns with his code name and amplified the same warped sense of providing justice because of her beatingand suffering based on her perceived betrayal.
• Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii (aka Cottonmouth) is in my opinion Tarantino’s favorite character. Her biracial Japanese American and Chinese background was constantly thrown back at her to question her rule over the Japanese Yakuza, a syndicate of crime organizations, so much so that she will readily behead anyone who tries to throw it back in her face. She has her own lawyer, Sofie Fatale, the Crazy 88, her army of swordsman ready to come to her defense, Gogo, her most deadly muscle dressed in a school uniform, and scenes that receive treatments reminiscent of Bruce Lee films. Then the topper is an anime flashback sequence for O-Ren’s origin story which explains how she becomes a vicious assassin. The fight scenes at the club with the confrontation with O-Ren are dazzling, and thoughtfully choreographed after the initial madness of using the gory amputation of Sofie’s arm by Black Mamba to get O-Ren’s attention, clear the club and proceed with her plan to eliminate O-Ren. O-Ren is given the honor of a death in the most serene setting, a startling contrast to the mayhem that ensues in the club and ends with the final contrast of strange final purification of her soul through an honorable death with her scalping in the snow at the hand of Black Mamba and her Hanzo sword.
The madness that plays out throughout Volume 1 and Volume 2reveals the depths of how each member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad has been permanently tainted. The Bride, while brain damaged is not the only member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad with cognitive challenges. The dissonance is pervasive and plays out in a twisted and bold cacophony of combat, revenge, and ultimate resolution.
Been Thinkin’ About 