*** Official KILL BILL: VOLUME 2 Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

I did laugh when the cheesy dramatic kung-fu music kicked in as the Bride employs the "five-finger-stink-palm-exploding-heart" move and then the music kicks in once again as Bill then realizes what happened to him. That was pretty gaudy, but it ranks up to the "Beatrix as a schoolgirl" snippet Tarantino slapped in there in the "Elle and I" chapter.

In the Esteban segment, what the hell was up with that girl's mouth? That was gee-narly.

 

[Kevin Porter]

The "Beatrix as a schoolgirl" snippet was so totally unexpected and completely out of left field I burst out laughing and couldn't stop until Beatrix busted into the trailer. So stinkin' funny.

And the movie was a masterpiece. I imagine it would be a bloody brilliant four hour epic. Here's some of the highlights I can remember (Of course this whole thing was one big highlight):

-The flashback to how Elle lost her eye with Pai Mei
-The whole Pai Mei chapter. I got an absolute kick out of all of that. The crazy zooms. That music when she starts her training got a big laugh out of me.
-The brilliant chapter that is "Elle and I". I liked her creative way of killing Budd. Also the first reference to the internet in a Quentin Tarantino film.
-All the stuff with Bill. Loved that guy

By the way, did anyone understand the modern-electronic type music that played while Beatrix was lying down with her daughter watching old movies. It just seems for a movie that evokes such a 70s genre film feel, I didn't quite understand what Quentin was going for. I mean, I like it and all. It's a great little moment and the music really works and I really do like it a lot. I just have a hard time understanding what the purpose was and what genre it was tipping it's hat to. Or was it tipping it's hat to anything?

 

[Patrick Sun]

I wasn't crazy about the loudness/music used when Beatrix bursts in Bill's home and is trying to stealthily locate Bill with gun in hand, mainly because it's too jarring. I thought the music should have been a bit more on the stealthy/sneaky side as well.

 

[Kevin Porter]

I loved it. It felt like a blaxploitation throwback.

 

[Steve Blair]

Saw it again today and liked it even more than the first time. Noticed something new I haven't seen mentioned either. The guy that plays the sherrif in Volume 1 is also the guy who plays the Spanish? guy that Beatrix grills toward the end of volume 2 when she tries to find out where Bill is. He was the pimp living out there in the middle of nowhere. He was also the sheriff in From Dusk Til' Dawn.

Once I recognized him it kinda irked me a little because that's all I thought of when I saw him onscreen...

 

[Gary->dee]

I thought all the scenes with Bud were necessary in order to paint him as this tragic loser, which almost made me sympathize with the guy. He might have been an ass but he was treated like shit.

 

[Haggai]

That's true, but what was the point of that little exchange between the reverend and the organ player anyway?

 

[Gary->dee]

Good lord you're asking a question like that about a Quentin Tarantino movie? :p)

The same could be asked about any exchange of dialogue in any one of his movies.

 

[Haggai]

Hehe, I guess that's true, in a sense. But you have this one character, the organ player, who has that one exchange, and that's it. He doesn't do anything else, so why was he there? Now, The Gimp in Pulp Fiction, that was a memorable character, with not a whole lot more screen time (and no lines, aside from some grunting, chuckling, and yelling). But the organ player was pretty superfluous.

I do agree with you that there was a point to the backstory with Budd, largely to make it more surprising when he turned the tables on The Bride. I just didn't think it was executed as well as almost everything else in the movie.

 

[Craig S]

I thought the same thing at first, but upon reflection it's all part of QT's setup. Everything we're shown & told points to Bud's basically not giving a shit about anything anymore, so (just like the Bride), we're unprepared for the turn of events when the Bride bursts into his trailer.

I thought KBII was just pretty good when I saw it Friday, but as I've been thinking about it since then it gets better & better. Can't wait to see it again!

 

[Matt Stone]

Yep, his name is Michael Parks and he also played the Frech Canadian Jean Renault in Twin Peaks

 

[Quentin]

Okay...now that I'm done praising the film, a couple nitpicks:

1) Where's the list? It's made into SUCH a big deal in the first film. Hanzo spells out its importance, and we see it multiple times. This film? Zip.

2) Why doesn't QT address the obvious issue that Kiddo should have with killing her child's father? He's raised BB for 4 years, she obviously loves him, and she wants the best for her child. She should AT LEAST have a moment where she considers not killing him. It's not there. Sure, she waits...she isn't going to kill him in front of BB, and later, she's looking for her opening. But, she NEVER considers - even for a second - not doing it. I think that's a mistake. I think she should consider mercy briefly, then Bill does or says something that makes her realize she won't be safe - he may try to kill her again - and THEN she gives him the 5-finger-palm.

Anyhow...worth discussing...

 

[James_G]

I know that this is a film filled with genre cliches, but this conventional cliche would've been pretty uninteresting in my eyes. In almost every other movie where the wife kills the bastard husband she has a moment of pause and then pulls the trigger (or whatever), like we're supposed to be shocked that she actually goes through with it.

 

[Seth Paxton]

I disagree on the mercy thing. He was willing to kill BB himself, so to hell with him from her view. Did he hesitate when she said "its your baby", hell no.

So that's the status of their relationship. There was love and respect but she knew that she could never raise her child the way she wanted to with him around. It was more than revenge, it was preservation of the life she wanted for her child. Bill living was in direct conflict with that which is why she ran in the first place.


It was her respect and love of Bill that allowed the moment to last as long as it did, both of them realizing this was the only family moment they were ever going to have. I wondered slightly if Bill thought he could change her mind, but in the end I think he never really fancied that idea. He was just sharing that family moment with her and waiting to get some final answers before the required showdown.



You know, I didn't mind the film being in 2 parts in the least. It reminded me very much of the Samurai trilogy in that way, including the potential swordfight on the beach at dawn ala Samurai III.

You need to see all 3 Samurai films to complete the story, but each has its own themes and tones. In the end you complete a long journey but its such a big story that you look at it in periods and segments separate from each other, and then at the end reflect back on all that has been.

The fact that he was so big on mentioning an on the beach at dawn showdown makes me think that he had the Samurai trilogy in mind all along, at least to some extent (there were so many obvious influences after all).

 

[Chazz_S]

I agree with James regarding the bride 'giving it a second thought' before killing Bill- way too cliche.

The scene in the very end where Beatrix is writhing on the floor crying her eyes out with mixed expressions of anguish and happiness works very well to demonstrate that it was indeed a difficult thing to do.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I never thought for a second Beatrix was writhing in anguish on the bathroom floor.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Interesting so much of the discussion hinges on the Bill/Beatrix stuff. Some in the review thread thought it the weakest part of the film. It was the saving grace for me. I thought it was excellently set-up, acted, staged, and shot. I know Seth thinks Carradine owned those, but as usual, when Seth and I disagree, he's wrong, and I'm right, and that's just that Uma really nailed the entire sequence. I honestly could care less about the rest of the film (Pai Mei was fun, but it was the one thing that wasn't OVERdone). The ending is what made it a valuable experience.

I will agree with Seth (it hurts, just a little) wrt both Volumes being a celebration of film. Even when I was not so impressed with Vol. 2, it always felt like a joyful film. I appreciate that, with the generic drek we're shoveled time after time. I'll take a bad movie that loves being a bad movie, over a competent exercise in filmmaking.

And KB2 isn't a bad movie.

Take care,
Chuck

 

[Tony Mirra]

Why wasn't Sofie at the "Massacre at Two Pines" intro? She was present at the slaughter, but you only see the four assasins (Budd, Elle, Vernita, and O-Ren) walking into the chapel as the camera pulls back, but no Sofie.

 

[Richard Gilmore]

This explains her line in the movie explaining that the Pwagon "blew up". I was wondering where it went.

 

[Alex Spindler]

She was...uh...getting her cell phone from the car.

I'm beginning to think that placing Sofie at the scene was added in later to help justify The Bride cutting off her arm.