Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Directed by: Quentin
Tarantino.
Written by: Quentin
Tarantino and Uma Thurman (Character)
Starring: Uma Thurman (The Bride /
Beatrix Kiddo), David Carradine (Bill), Michael Madsen (Budd), Daryl Hannah (Elle
Driver), Julie Dreyfus (Sofie Fatale), Sonny Chiba (Hattori Hanzo), Gordon Liu
(Pai Mei), Bo Svenson (Reverend Harmony), Jeannie Epper (Mrs. Harmony), Chris
Nelson (Tommy Plympton), Samuel L. Jackson (Rufus), Larry Bishop (Larry Gomez),
Sid Haig (Jay), Michael Parks (Esteban Vihaio), Perla Haney-Jardine (B.B.), Helen
Kim (Karen), Lucy Liu (O-Ren Ishii), Vivica A. Fox (Vernita Green),
Back in
2004, I was one of those people who thought that Kill Bill Volume 2 was better
than Volume 1. It was and is a more typical Tarantino film than Volume 1 – with
a lot more dialogue, a lot more digressions and side roads that it goes down,
and it was a more emotional film – instead of just the pure rage of Volume 1,
there are more layers to the emotions in Volume 2. Over the years, I changed my
mind – Volume 1 is clearly the better film – and watching Volume 2 again, a few
days after Volume 1, I wonder why I ever thought it was better. Don’t get me
wrong – Volume 2 is still a great film, wonderfully staged and acted, and
written and directed by Tarantino. And yet, it is a less focused film than
Volume 1. It’s fun to go down all the side roads that Tarantino takes us down
in the film – but watching it this time, I kind of realized that it’s almost
entirely side roads.
The heart
of the movie is really the first scene and the last scene in the film. The
first sequence takes us back to that wedding chapel right before the massacre
happened – that left everyone but The Bride (Uma Thurman) dead – but her in a
coma. We first see her, her fiancé and her friends taking to the minister and
his wife (and a cameo by a Tarantino favorite as the piano player) – but the
heart of it is a long conversation between The Bridge and Bill (David
Carradine) – who we see for the first real time here. It’s a great scene, as
these two people who clearly love each other, but are no longer together, reminiscence
about old times. Tarantino doesn’t portray the massacre itself – he pulls back
to show the assassins entering, and the screams, but the event itself isn’t
depicted. The final scene – which really goes on for about 30 minutes – is the
long conversation, and eventual confrontation between The Bride and Bill that
the whole two movies has been building towards. Once again, it is a great
sequence – with Thurman at her best, and David Carradine showing perhaps what
he could have done had he been given more chances in his career. This really is
the film that will be his legacy – one that references his other major role, in
Kung Fu (and for 1990s kids like me, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, which I’m
not embarrassed to say, I may have seen every episode of). It plays with that
image, but of course makes it darker – showing us what may happen is Kwai Chang
Caine went bad. For good measure, Tarantino gives the pair another scene at the
halfway point – a flashback sequence, which shows just how in awe The Bride
once was of Bill.
The rest
of the film really is a lot of side roads and diversions from the heart of the
film – which is The Bride and Bill. Of course, The Bride still has to deal with
Budd (Michael Madsen) and Elle Driver (Darryl Hannah) – the other two assassins
who were there that day. Tarantino is clearly a writer who falls in love with
his characters, and likes to take time to explore them a little. If O-Ren got
that treatment in Volume 1, its Michael Madsen’s Budd who gets it in Volume II.
There a brief scene between Budd and Bill, where we find out that they are
brothers, before we get a long sequence of Budd, to show how far he has fallen.
He lives in a trailer in the desert and now works as a bouncer at a very low
rent strip club. The lengthy sequence at that club is almost a sad little movie
onto itself – as Madsen is stripped down and humiliated by his boss (played by
Larry Gomez), and he just takes it. It’s a great little performance by Madsen. All
of this leads to The Bride storming his trailer – and not being prepared for
what she finds.
We then
get another digression – the training sequence of The Bride studying under the
great kung fu master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu, playing a different role here than in
Volume I). The whole sequence is pure B-movie bliss, with Tarantino indulging
himself, allowing himself to do whatever he loved in those old Kung Fu movies.
The major fight sequence in the film is between Elle and The Bride – back at
Budd’s trailer (poor Budd gets a fittingly pathetic end) – and this is the
sequence that Tarantino allows himself to go completely over the top, into an
almost goofy fight sequence that makes sense given the Pai Mei sequence.
And yet,
we’re still not ready to get to Bill. Tarantino allows himself too more
diversions – a long conversation between The Bride and Bill’s Mexican father
figure (Michael Parks, again, playing a different character than in Volume I),
and then a flashback sequence in a hotel room when The Bride out she is
pregnant – and convinces a hired killer sent to get rid of her, to her live.
In any
other hands, Kill Bill Volume II would be dismissed as almost masturbatory
self-indulgence by the director. Watching the two films within days of each
other, you can easily see how Tarantino could have edits what turns out to be
just over four hours of movie, into a leaner, meaner revenge movie about half
that length. And yet, with Tarantino, it is that self-indulgence that makes the
film work. Tarantino loves the side roads almost more than the main thrust of
the plot. He doesn’t want the people the Bride kills to be faceless villains –
he wants you to know who they are, before they get offed.
In short,
Tarantino is always self-indulgent – and even on that level, the two Kill Bill
films – Volume II in particular – take it to the extreme. If you hate that kind
of storytelling, then the films are probably insufferable – little more than masturbatory
fantasies by a middle aged man who needs to grow the hell up. That criticism is
fair enough – Tarantino is breaking the rules of cinematic storytelling here,
and most of it is indulge himself. However, if you’re on his wavelength, the
films are terrific. You have to look no further than the countless directors
who have tried to do the same thing that Tarantino has done, and almost all of
them have failed. Tarantino is the most self-indulgent filmmaker in the world.
And he’s great at it.
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