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| Kill
Bill: Volume II
Directed By: Quentin
Tarantino Plot
Summary - Review 1 - Review
2 - CURRENT REVIEWS
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| After dispensing with former colleagues O-Ren Ishii (LUCY LIU) and Vernita Green (VIVICA A. FOX) in KILL BILL VOL. 1, the Bride (UMA THURMAN) resumes her quest for justice in theseries’ second installment, KILL BILL VOL. 2. With those two down, the Bride has two remaining foes on her 'Death List' to pursue – Budd (MICHAEL MADSEN) and Elle Driver (DARYLHANNAH) – before moving on to her ultimate goal... to kill Bill (DAVID CARRADINE). [TRAILER] “Kill Bill: Volume 2” is more creative than anything I will ever write or think up. In every single scene, I tried to guess where it was going, not only to be blindsided by writer and director Quentin Tarantino (“Pulp Fiction”), but to see him do something more creative, substantive and entertaining than I would have thought possible. It is vastly different from the first hyper, action-oriented, blood-soaked “Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003),” bringing to the story the character depth, empathy and purpose that many claimed was missing from the first edition. I hate it when critics say such things, but “Volume 2” makes “Volume 1” better, and together they represent one of the most ambitious and creative epic comedies ever made. Actually, I don’t know what to call it. It’s action, suspense, empathy, exploitation, slapstick, tribute…the list goes on. The fact that I don’t know what the hell to call this movie only makes me more excited. It continues the story of The Bride (Uma Thurman), who journeys forward on her mission of revenge against two more enemies before finally reaching Bill – the as-yet-unseen gunman who shoots The Bride in the head while pregnant at her wedding rehearsal during “Volume 1.” I walked in expecting more of the same, brilliantly creative style that oozed from the original. In my review of that film, I listed by rating as “To be determined in February, with the release of “Kill Bill: Volume 2”Well, the marketing whores at Miramax pushed it back to April, but now I know what to think of these films as a whole. They are brilliant in different ways, functioning perfectly well as a series but even better as a whole. In regards to “Volume 1,” I said that it was a case of style trumping substance, that it was made with so much skill and creativity that its lack of story simply didn’t matter. Well, the story comes in with “Volume 2” and we suddenly see things a little bit differently. The first half reflected the rage of anger and the kinetic nature of aggression. In the second, the weight of what The Bride is doing is finally realized, the memory of the act that caused her anger is explored and, in an ending that no one can possibly expect yet makes the film better than I ever thought possible, the anger does not reach a fever’s pitch, but dissipates with a flood of humanism and pathos. I think I have finally started to understand what makes Tarantino films brilliant. Yes, his characters are always talking and always have something interesting to say. This is no shocking revelation. What I think I now finally understand is that he uses violence as a means to facilitate his characters’ interactions, rather than minimize them. Think about your favorite action films for a moment, and you’ll realize that the action sequences stop the story, emotions and characters dead in their tracks. In Tarantino films, it allows people to talk about things they otherwise would never talk about and to be insightful in ways that you can only be when death is imminent. So many of his scenes are funny because, within moments of shocking violence or grotesque gore, the humanity of his characters reemerges. In “Pulp Fiction,” the gangsters do not kill people and dismiss it, but are occasionally disturbed by what they do, detach themselves by quoting scriptures they don’t understand, and freak out when they accidentally kill someone in their car. We laugh because they’re not the thugs and toughs we’re used to, and expect, in action movies. They are normal people who are reacting much like we would react, and we laugh because it connects with us more than a movie like “Torque,” which asks us to numbly consume. In both volumes of “Kill Bill,” the characters are always growing and changing in front of our eyes. Not only are the action sequences so creatively executed that the very behavior of the characters while in a fight deepens and enriches who they are, but in every philosophical discussion, threatening rant or mid-fight verbal confrontation, we are watching characters deepen and widen, and the true meaning of the film spread as if it were a butterfly’s wings. Am I just ranting now? Probably. I mean, I want to go see these films again, and take in the ingeniousness of every scene, realizing where Tarantino is headed. I want to hear their conversations and their thoughts again, and to witness a film that dares to say something interesting, without being boring. If there is a moment in this film that I initially considered inferior, it is The Bride’s training with Pai Mei (Gordon Liu), a hilariously eccentric cleric who uses slang and is a racist old fogey. The entire sequence is filmed in exaggerated seventies style, and this extended subplot is a pit stop that initially appeared to be straying off course. But then watch how her training comes in to play, and how Pai Mei’s appearance in the story facilitates the film’s biggest ironic twist – a hilarious moment of both clarity and blindness. (Trust me, those who have seen the film will get the joke.) Also, watch how Tarantino single-handedly brings Hitchcock’s two theories of suspense to life. Hitchcock once described suspense as this: Imagine a couple sitting at a table, and a bomb is placed under the table. If the viewer knows the bomb is there, and is left wondering when it will explode, that’s suspense. If the viewer does not know about the bomb, and suddenly it explodes, that’s surprise. Well, in “Volume 2,” as The Bride waits outside Budd’s (Michael Madsen) mobile home, ready to attack, it is a moment of suspense. Budd hears a noise outside, checks the window, almost sees The Bride, and then goes back to what he was doing. The suspense builds until The Bride finally rushes the door, and we get the surprise. While most directors fail to even recognize the difference, Tarantino uses both to brilliant effect. Again, I return to the ending; the beautiful, heartbreaking, life-affirming, awe-inspiring ending. So many in the theater hated the ending when I saw it, because they were not noticing the substantive, underlying discussions earlier in the film. They were too caught up in the blood, swords, action and music to notice the very meaningful sentiments flowing from the character’s mouths. But for me, the ending is what sold me on the entire enterprise. Using a truth serum, Bill (David Carradine) and The Bride finally talk, and their conversation is more engaging than any fight could ever be. They discuss a surprise, which I will not disclose, Bill’s attempted murder of The Bride, the road The Bride has taken to find him and, finally, the nature of who they are. “You’re a killer!” Bill says, and suddenly we understand these characters a little bit more. The first time around, we reveled in The Bride’s ability to kill. Now, after all this, we realize it is also a curse. It is who she is, who Bill is, and they can’t pretend to be anyone else. They were born this way, it’s what they love doing, and now they’re faced with the prospect of the chase reaching an end. It is a complicated, philosophical climax that sent my mind reeling just as others were falling asleep, but I have to call it the way I see it. And now that everything has been laid on the table – all the style, dialogue, surprises, and thoughts – I have to say that Tarantino is one of my all-time favorite filmmakers. I was never once bored or pacified, pandered or catered to, nor able to see where this whole thing was going. There is a moment in this movie that gave me goose bumps. It is a flashback, where Bill tells The Bride the story of Pai Mei around a camp fire, while playing a flute to break up the segments of the story. And I thought to myself, isn’t this what movies really are? A unique story, a unique tone, cut into segments by some other stuff, in hopes of being interesting, scary, amusing and memorable? I mean, this scene is what storytelling is all about, and I have to think that Tarantino included it for this very reason. For me, that’s what “Kill Bill” is. It is always alive and engaging, and made by someone more creative and audacious than I will ever be. When that very campfire story ends up being the basis for the film’s biggest surprise, my final criticism evaporated. What I had considered to be an extraneous, beautiful moment, had become one of the cornerstones of the movie, single-handedly facilitating an ending that absolutely no one, anywhere, ever will see coming.  Check out Reviews, Commentary, and More at Zertinet.com |
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