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KILL BILL: VOL. 2 by Tom McCurrie
OK, I've done my duty. I've waited the six months. I've seen both the trailers and the TV spots. I've even gone out and bought the DVD release of KILL BILL: VOL. 1. So how does VOL. 2 shape up to its predecessor? For action, Number One is still Number One. But for where it counts, emotion and character, VOL. 2 is the winner and new heavyweight champion hands down.
(Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino (like you didn't know), KILL BILL: VOL. 2 (hereafter known as KB 2) continues the saga of the Bride, the pregnant Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman), as she slices and dices her way through the remaining (i.e. breathing) members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (Budd, Elle and the King himself, Bill) for wiping out her wedding party and leaving her for DOA.
Now the rule with follow-up/sequels to action films is that they're supposed to top the original in crash and burn excitement. Tarantino violates that rule like Beatrix violates the guts of her enemies with that Hattori Hanzo sword of hers. With the exception of one primo catfight between Elle and Beatrix, KB 2 lacks the spectacular, epic action of KB 1. No House of Blue Leaves here. In fact, the climactic battle between Bill and Beatrix is not only a blink-and-you'll-miss-it affair, but takes place with both combatants sitting down! If you're expecting oodles of gunfights, swordfights and fistfights this time around, you're going to be one mighty disappointed action junkie.
So why is KB 2 still better than KB 1? Part of the reason is that KB 1 isn't an action movie, it's a revenge movie. Now revenge flicks are certainly cool: "cool" because they are visceral fun to watch, and "cool" because they keep the viewer at an emotional distance. It's difficult to warm up to someone committing pre-meditated murder over and over and over again, no matter what the provocation. I mean, Chuck Bronson in DEATH WISH isn't exactly what you would call lovable. So for all its spellbinding action, KB 1 remains a chilly cinematic experience.
But isn't KB 2 a revenge movie, too? Very much so, but it substitutes depth of character for action, making the movie more emotionally accessible. And since emotions are the bedrock of cinema, KB 2 becomes the better film.
How does KB 2 use character to stir up those emotions? By making the people on screen refreshingly complex. We're all complex when it comes down to it, a bevy of conflicting, contradictory impulses we call human nature. So when we see characters on screen as complicated as we are, we recognize ourselves in those characters and thus identify emotionally with them. Those characters that come across one-dimensionally, on the other hand, are dismissed as fictional creations that have nothing to do with us.
Despite Uma's charisma, Beatrix in KB 1 is fairly one-dimensional -- a woman consumed with animal rage. Because she lacks complexity, it's difficult to warm up to her, and thus difficult to warm up to the movie as a whole. In KB 2, however, Beatrix is given more shading. She discovers the kid she thought was toast is very much alive, so we get to see mother love and animal rage mixed together in one person, complicating her character and striking a chord of emotional recognition.
Even more complex (and compelling) is bad guy Bill himself, played in career-capping fashion by David Carradine. Heard but not seen in KB 1, Bill is the center of KB 2, and the movie is all the better for it. This guy is a fascinating combination of the vicious and the romantic -- after all, he doesn't gun for Beatrix out of hate, he guns for her out of love. As we learn in KB 2, Beatrix left Bill because she didn't want to raise their child in the toxic world of hit men and contract killings. This broke Bill's heart, causing him to express his grief the only way he knew how -- through violence. Now Bill's behavior in KB 1 makes more sense. There's no joy or satisfaction for Bill in massacring Beatrix's wedding party. In fact, he's rather forlorn about it, calling himself "masochistic" as he blasts his lover in the noggin, almost as if he's killing himself. And once he discovers he didn't waste her after all, Bill realizes he still has feelings for Beatrix, ordering Elle not to slay the helpless woman in her coma. These feelings grow in KB 2 -- even though Beatrix wants to kill him, Bill allows his former squeeze to find out exactly where he is so he can see her one last time before they duke it out. Talk about your love/hate relationship!
Seeing KILL BILL in its entirety, we realize that Tarantino has pulled the greatest switcheroo of them all. We thought we were watching a revenge epic, but what he's really given us is a love story gone utterly, tragically wrong. KB is a meditation on the things we do for love (both good and bad), and what is more universal, and emotionally poignant, than that?
Responses, comments and general two-cents worth can be E-mailed to gillis662000@yahoo.com.
(Note: For all those who missed my past reviews, they're now archived on Hollywoodlitsales.com. Just click the link on the main page and it'll take you to the Inner Sanctum. Love them or Hate them at your leisure!)
A graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television, Tom McCurrie has worked as a development executive and a story analyst. He is currently a screenwriter living in Los Angeles.
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