Kill Bill, Vol. 2: Pro-Life?

I'm not a Quentin Tarantino apologist, or even a fan. But the talented and eccentric director's influence and abilities are hard to deny. I recently watched "Kill Bill, Vol. 1" and "Vol. 2" and was, in turn, impressed, repulsed, fascinated, entertained, and even, on occasion, moved.

Much can be said, but what struck me about the second entry ("Vol. 2") in Tarantino's latest mythology was how openly pro-life it was. It's an odd statement, I know, since the "Kill Bill" movies (like all of Tarantino's movies) are extremely violent, even sadistic, containing some very shocking and graphic imagery. But the heart of the story—the very catalyst for the entire mythology—is The Bride's (Uma Thurman) realization that she is pregnant. This realization leads to her almost immediate decision to radically change her life, flee from the world of hired killing, and seek to disappear into the "normal" world as a mother, wife, and music store clerk. Of course, life isn't so easy; instead of peace and quiet she is nearly killed, while all of her friends and fiancé aren't so fortunate, dying at the hands of her former boss/lover, the mysterious Bill.

Anyhow, "Vol. 2" is especially forceful in showing that the (initially) unborn and (later) born child is, in fact, just that: a child. Not a fetus, not a potential abortion, not even an inconvenience. No, the baby is the reason to change and to hope that life is not fatalistic and ultimately cowed by death, but actually involves free will and moral choice.

I'm not saying that I think this is Tarantino's main concern; he might even scoff at such an analysis. But he seems to intuitively recognize that that the amoral, bleak landscape he wandered through in "Pulp Fiction" is mostly barren and devoid of the sort of moral conflict that propels good drama. Cleverness and hipness only go so far. Eventually an artist needs characters, purpose, and a moral vision to create work that has some value beyond cheap thrills.

"Kill Bill" is not for everyone (far from it!) and it's not perfect. But it does prove, I think, that Tarantino is capable of work that has depth and value, if only he is willing to keep embracing the basic premise that the universe has a moral core, that humans are agents of free will, and that a character's humanity is of more value than his pop culture IQ. In a way, his work reminds me of something Flannery O'Connor might have created if she weren't a Catholic, made films, and had worked in a video store during her college years. Maybe I'm giving Tarantino too much credit; I hope not. But I do hope his work continues on the strange and often surprising trajectory is appears to be on.

Comments

[John Herreid]

Hm.

I saw both Kill Bill 1 and 2. But I came away from both thinking that they were a male fantasy created by Tarantino for himself. And a kind of creepy one at that.

Most of my friends who saw the movies liked them a lot. But I don't know...

The movies, on the surface, seem like a hip, postmodern feminist tale. Strong women beating the tar out of everyone who crosses them. But what Tarantino gives is a group of beautiful actresses graphically wounding each other. Women get their arms cut off, heads chopped in half, shot with rock salt in the chest, eyes torn out, stabbed, etc., mostly by other women. It seemed almost like the director was giving lip-service to feminism while simultaneously sniggering at the defilement of women.

At the end Uma Thurman's character does forsake killing in order to become a mother to her child--but was the point of the plot, or a gloss thrown on to make all of the violence go down smoother?

Perhaps Tarantino is becoming more mature, but I didn't see it in Kill Bill.

[Carl Olson]

John: But don't you think that the "Kill Bill" movies have a much more obvious moral core than does "Pulp Fiction"? I don't completely buy the conventional wisdom that the two "Kill Bill" movies are pro-feminist. One reason is that The Bride longs for the things that staunch feminists despise: a husband, domestic bliss, motherhood. And that dream is only mocked by the bad guys. The Bride is told by Bill that she is incapable of having those things, that she is a "natural born killer." This fatalistic view is never directly rebuffed: The Bride confesses later that she never really thought she could have those things, yet the movie ends with the promise that she really can be a mother and somehow escape from the bloody life she has been trapped in for so long. I don't think the ending was a gloss; rather, I think it was a major focus from the start, even if Tarantino does get caught up in lots of gore and violence.

[John Herreid]

>>I don't completely buy the conventional wisdom that the two "Kill Bill" movies are pro-feminist.<<

Neither do I. I think that they are almost misogynist. The movie does have more of a moral dimension than Pulp Fiction, but it is also a tough slog to get to that moral point.

Maybe the theme of motherhood was a focus from the start. But if it was, it didn't surface for quite a long time. The overarching theme that I noticed was revenge.

The moral point of motherhood, obscured as it is by hip banter and bloody violence, might get across to the audience. I kind of doubt it though.

Contrast the world of Kill Bill with the world of Spider-man. It's possible to make a modern movie that appeals to everyone and still has a good, prominent moral message.

[Pat Norris]

Just a thought.

The Roman games had female gladiators. Sometimes they fought each other, other times they fought men. The Romans found that there was something erotic about women fighting other women.

Could that be the intention or "Kill Bill"? If so, then the death of a child could mearly be the justification for female violence.

[Jeff Grace]

I thought KB 1& 2 did have a real voice...and I was also repulsed yet awed by the thing. Then again, I think Tarentino earned a permenant spot in the pantheon of film gods with "Jackie Brown", one of the best films I've ever seen.

[Mark Brumley]

While you guys were watching Kill Bills, I saw I, Robot. It was a good flick, even if it had significant problems with its natural philosophy and philosophical anthropology. Certainly, it was better than the Asimov "novel."

[Steven Ambuul]

You're kidding Mark. You saw "I Robot"? How did you get dragged into it?

[Michael]

Just curious. Why would you even spend your time watching that trash.

[Grace]

I don't believe the fact that The Bride chose to keep her baby makes the film inherently pro-life.
Being pro-choice doesn't mean that you necessarily don't want babies or that you will jump at the chance to have an abortion; it just means you think women shouldn't have compulsory childbirth shoved upon them. The Bride could easily be pro-choice- it just so happened that her 'choice' was to keep her child in this case (much as my mother, who is pro-choice, decided to keep me and my two sisters).

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