Kill Bill: Vol. 2  (2004)

Starring: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Gordon Liu, Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Quentin Tarantino

Rating: R

Studio: Miramax

Release Date: 04.16.04

Review Posted: 04.16.04

Spoilers: Minor

By Sara M. Fetters

The Bride Returns with a Vengeance

“I’ve never been nice, but I’ll try to be sweet.”

So says Bill (David Carradine) early on to a justifiably startled woman, known simply as The Bride (Uma Thurman), in Quentin Tarantino’s triumphant “Kill Bill Vol. 2.” What Bill is talking about is how he is going to react to his former employee’s burgeoning nuptials (for all those that saw “Vol. 1,” you know what sort of massacre that sweet side led to), but he could just as easily be talking about the iconoclastic director.

Tarantino’s films are rarely nice. People get eviscerated, browbeaten, whipped, shot, stabbed, mutilated, eaten alive, eyes plucked out and endure a smorgasbord of Big Kahuna Burgers. They are brutal and inhuman, holding to a rigid code of honor that binds them like brothers and sisters up until that final moment of dehumanized decapitation. But with “Vol. 2,” Tarantino shows a soft side amidst all the carnage, bringing an epicurean ethos to his adrenalized double feature that’s intoxicating in its emotional sweetness.

For those that might have forgotten, The Bride ended “Vol. 1” driving off into the sunset in her Pussy Wagon after brutally dispatching Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) in her suburban kitchen on her way to kill the next member of the V.I.P.E.R. gang, Texas redneck Budd (Michael Madsen). Bill, now fully aware with the death of Green and Asian triad leader O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) that his former employee is out to see him lifeless and bloody, rushes to Budd to warn him of the imminent danger coming to his doorstep, whilst final V.I.P.E.R. member Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) coolly looks forward to meeting with her former compatriot intent on proving once and for all which blonde vixen really has the sharpest blade.

There isn’t too much to say plot-wise about “Vol. 2.” Once again, Tarantino bends time back and forth, giving us hints as to who The Bride really is and how she came into Bill’s employ. However, unlike the rage-fueled first film, this second chapter is a much more introspective exercise in character. But how could this chapter be anywhere near as explosive as the first one? That was, after all, Tarantino’s point. There is that initial moment after something awful has happened when rage grips hold, that all reason is lost, and only carnage will suffice. Granted, whereas most of us don’t act out on those tendencies, the horrors descended upon The Bride are so extraordinary that she hasn’t any of those humanistic qualms. But that initial reaction can only last for so long, feelings of love, honor, betrayal and friendship seeping into the emotional landscape as her journey continues.

That Tarantino spirals that journey into greater, surprisingly more emotional depths is downright astounding. What struck me the most about “Vol. 2” was the depth of compassion and downright love that exists between Bill and The Bride. These are not the two nicest people on the planet, yet their love – and thus The Bride’s wrath towards her lover’s betrayal – is blisteringly affecting as it plays itself out. Both characters know what they must do, know that there is only one recourse for the events that have taken place over the last four years. And while they are more than willing to slice their way to that final conclusion, that doesn’t mean heartfelt tears won’t be spent in depressed mourning after.

In my review of “Kill Bill Vol. 1,” I remarked that I didn’t think it was, “great cinema.” Now, after watching “Vol. 2” mix, meld and combine with the earlier piece into something glorious and cockily sublime, I must admit how wrong I was. Tarantino has taken large chucks out of the cinematic landscape and infused it with his love of grade B-cinema, transforming it into something uniquely original and daring. “Kill Bill,” in its entirety, works as a dangerously dynamic action film and a heartbreakingly literate love story all at the same time. It is Kung fu chopsocky shaded with elements of Italian Spaghetti Western shaded with the emotion of a Harlequin romance novel, all boiling in a froth of ‘70’s vigilante cinema that would make Dirty Harry and Paul Kersey stand up and cheer.

Here, in “Vol. 2,” there are plenty of individual moments that stand out. From a wrenchingly funny and dynamic action set piece inside a scummy motor home, to the piercingly ethereal sight of Chinese icon Chia Hui Liu instructing Thurman with all the fury of a power-mad Yoda, to a buried-alive sequence that’s equal parts “Night of Living Dead” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Tarantino gets so much right it’s easy to overlook the moments here and there that just don’t cut it. That said, a cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as a chain smoking piano player seems overly self indulgent, while usually reliable Tarantino regular Michael Parks has a devil of a time making his aged Mexican pimp anything other than an oily laughingstock.

Flat out – I don’t care. “Kill Bill” is an awesome achievement. The musical selections; whether original score pieces by Robert Rodriguez and The RZA to songs by Shivaree and Johnny Cash to the brilliant western musical motifs of Ennio Morricone; are astounding, the director using each one to such perfection I couldn’t help but feel Tarantino’s eyes and ears must work in some daringly energetic collaboration other directors lack. Robert Richardson’s camerawork also continues to amaze, his ability to change styles and methods for each chapter truly magnetic. His best moments come during the final chapter when “Vol. 2” bursts forth into almost Technicolor delight, each frame so full of sharp, contrasting images that the full force Tarantino’s vision bursts forth into otherworldly radiance.

In the end, though, so much of the praise for the success of these pictures must go to Thurman. As good as Carradine and the rest are – in the former’s case I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this vigorously effective onscreen – “Kill Bill” and the character of ‘The Bride’ is Uma’s world, and we’re just grateful to be a part of it. The shades of grey pulsing through her character strip away layer by layer, as if the actress is pealing her apart in thin slices with a razor blade, until Thurman reveals to us a battered soul thunderstruck by the way she’s chosen to live her life and with whom she’s chosen to give her heart. It is a transcendent, multifaceted performance that makes The Bride instantaneously one of the great female screen characters off all time, Thurman and her character joining the ranks of Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, Bette Davis’ Margot Channing, Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson and a handful of others as one that will be remembered decades hence.

There is a moment in any critic’s life when you remember why it is you do what you do. Unfortunately, in this day of corporate cookie-cutter commercialism and boringly rudimentary formula, those moments come few and far between. Almost ever feature made these days is technically proficient, made by professionals that know their craft; it’s just the heart and soul that is achingly absent. “Kill Bill,” not just parts one or two, but the picture in its entirety, is a masterwork. It reinvigorates the spirit and makes me eager to enter the multiplex. How much sweeter can you get?

Film Rating: êêêê  (out of 4)

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