Two days of Kill Bill: Final Lesson

Well, the movie went on expected lines with the (usual) occasional twist and I enjoyed it thoroughly. What was more important was the fact that I learned a few things from it (well, not exactly learned since I've always been thinking about those philosophies, but just that now I have more reason to believe I am right).

The point is "Life doesn't play by the rules. In fact, nobody plays by the rules called morals and ethics and all that. We ought to improve ourselves only by beating these people or things or whatever, by playing by the rules. That's what will make us great. Whining that Life is unfair is silly, since Life was never meant to be fair."

Anyway, about the movie itself- almost every scene I could understand, but the climax was something that left me with a bitter aftertaste, but probably it was the right decision.

The heroine isn't effortlessly winning the revenge battle. Her antagonists are shrewd and just about as good as her in fighting. She makes mistakes, gets caught, is even buried alive, but still you and I know that it's not going to be the end. However, Tarantino plays with you when he extends your agony by delaying her escape from the grave scene.

The audience are treated to myriad and circuitous ways to kill a person and some cheesy soundtracks, but still you've got to love this film- it's got this eternal swagger (especially the heroine).

To me, after having watched each film on consecutive days, I get a feeling of relief- it's over. I learnt a lesson (not spoken in the dialogues, which aren't really worth remembering, except perhaps one-"Revenge is a forest..." something which we hope you won't have to repeat to anyone) watched a film worth watching once, got some basic ideas about the film (so that I don't look silly when folks talk about it at a party, not that anyone will do- it being a killer film and all that, it'd end up being a killjoy topic), and can now rest my mind on these kind of films.

So what's my opinion of Kill Bill Vol.1 and Vol.2 combined? Watch it only after you've watched the Dollars' trilogy (at the least). And watch it just once- there aint nothing there you'd have missed the first time around- the film's so uncomplicated.

Two days of Kill Bill: First Look

I had been hearing a lot about this film and references were made to this film in a lot of articles I read, so I decided finally that I had to watch it and be done with it once and for all.

Well I've not watched a lot of spaghetti westerns to understand every tribute to all those films- I could relate to some of the music (that sounded very much like from the Dollars trilogy of Sergio Leone) and to the all-powering demeanour and inexorability of the lead character, but nothing more- I couldn't recognise any link to old films.

But it really didn't matter, since the story stood out by itself. Now I was really impressed by the illusion of reality created by Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and I can imagine the kind of expectations this film would have had and although this film doesn't stand upto Pulp Fiction in the reality front, it has drama to compensate.

The spaghetti westerns were all about that- drama, theatre, pure action you could enjoy with a suspended sense of disbelief. The moment simply overpowered you that you couldn't think whether this was humanly possible. Who cared, you thought, this is cool!

It transported you back to your days as a young boy dreaming of becoming a superhero or something like that. In that respect, you wouldn't get better tributes than Kill Bill.

I love Tarantino's style- there are only a few main characters, and he mentions clearly the name and personality of each of them and along with the chapter-wise screening of the movie, it allows for the smooth flow of the film that you just sit back and enjoy the action as it unfolds.

You don't have to strain your brain cells to understand what's happening out there on the screen- each scene has sufficient buildup, expected talk between characters and expected action (with a few twists, but nothing shocking) that you get the feeling of playing a video game.

But then again, a lot of spaghetti Westerns and a few celebrated films like Desperado (of a similar genre) were accused of looking like a video game. The best advertisement for this genre is its simplicity and Tarantino sticks to it- it's simpler than Desperado and about as lucid as Leone's Dollars (the first was simplest and the best I'd say).

Anyway, I've just watched Vol.1 today (actually yesterday). Vol.2 calls out for me. Catch up with you later.