Kill Bill
I was probably 12 or 13 when I first saw Quentin Tarantino's epic 2 volume tale of revenge, Kill Bill. The premise is quite simple, but it takes over four hours (2 full length films) to tell: Uma Thurman's character (whose name is a spoiler, so I will refer to her as The Bride) has been part of an assassination team, called "the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad," led by Bill. When the movie opens, she is pregnant and getting married, moving on with her life, and starting over - until during the wedding rehearsal, the rest of the squad shows up and murders everyone. Then, Bill cocks a gun, puts it to her head, and we hear her say "Bill... It's your baby-"
Gunshot.
After waking from a coma, the film narrates her quest to take revenge on those who took everything from her, the members of the squad (Vernita Green, O-ren Ishii, Budd, and Elle Driver, codenames Copperhead, Cottonmouth, Sidewinder, and California Mountain Snake) and finally, to Kill Bill.
I was enthralled from minute 1, but the film as a whole had a strong impact on me for a few reasons. First, the film is pretty literally about smashing the patriarchy, something I had rarely seen before that age in an action movie. The first reason I was so enamored with it was no doubt the presence of so many non-sexualized, fully developed, badass female characters. The squad itself is majority women - Vernita Green, O-ren Ishii, Elle Driver, and The Bride (codename Black Mamba, the deadliest of all of vipers) are all extremely skilled assassins who spend the movie fighting in practical clothing and oftentimes looking pretty beat up. The film even implies that the women assassins are far deadlier than Budd, the lone man under Bill's command, who has to use guns and other tools to do his work. Additionally, The Bride has quite literally been wronged by the patriarchal structure of the assassination squad, and it is now her quest to work her way up the ladder in order to kill the patriarch and dismantle the system that wronged her. This representation of and elevation of women heroes (or villains) from the sidekick role was something I'd never seen before and really excited me.
I was even more emotionally connected to the film because I felt like Uma Thurman looked a little bit like me and a little less like the perfectly groomed and symmetrical women of most Hollywood action movies - she has an angular face and unconventional features. It's really saying a lot that I am a white straight cis woman, and there are tons of hero movies which feature white straight cis women characters, that it affected me that much to see someone unconventionally beautiful and not sexualized being a true hero with a personality on the big screen. That I was affected that deeply by her representation speaks to how narrowly defined the role of "woman hero" is, and speaks even more greatly to the need for heroes of underrepresented or minority identities. Unfortunately also, Kill Bill is culturally appropriative, an aspect of the film that I've grown disillusioned with as I've learned about the subject. The film definitely reads as white feminist. I'm still working on how to reconcile the parts of the film that inspire me with the problematic parts.
Another aspect of the film that impacted me was The Bride's character. The Bride undoubtedly goes through a hero's journey, fighting harder and harder foes throughout the movie and proving herself worthy. The trait that struck me was her sense of honor, discipline, humility and persistence. Throughout, she fights enemies who get cocky, but she never says anything arrogant. Other characters say things like "I should've been Black Mamba", "you might not last five minutes with me", or otherwise mock The Bride, but The Bride's prowess answers on its own. She is skillful - why brag with words? This and her sense of never giving up even when faced with impossible odds was the thing that most inspired me - I wanted to be like her, so hardworking that my work and my skills could stand on their own. To see her totally dominate some fight scenes and overcome incredible challenges on screen felt like seeing myself reach my loftiest goals.
The Bride inspires me every single day of my life. Whenever I really struggle with something, I think of her. I knew that if she could survive a gunshot wound to the head and wake up kicking, I could get through whatever I was going through. She gave me my work ethic. She was one of the biggest reasons I started doing Jiu Jitsu, a martial art which focuses almost entirely on technique and discipline. I cannot thank her enough for all of these things, for being an example and making me believe in myself and my drive. Kill Bill taught me a ton about my sense of self.
Gunshot.
After waking from a coma, the film narrates her quest to take revenge on those who took everything from her, the members of the squad (Vernita Green, O-ren Ishii, Budd, and Elle Driver, codenames Copperhead, Cottonmouth, Sidewinder, and California Mountain Snake) and finally, to Kill Bill.
I was enthralled from minute 1, but the film as a whole had a strong impact on me for a few reasons. First, the film is pretty literally about smashing the patriarchy, something I had rarely seen before that age in an action movie. The first reason I was so enamored with it was no doubt the presence of so many non-sexualized, fully developed, badass female characters. The squad itself is majority women - Vernita Green, O-ren Ishii, Elle Driver, and The Bride (codename Black Mamba, the deadliest of all of vipers) are all extremely skilled assassins who spend the movie fighting in practical clothing and oftentimes looking pretty beat up. The film even implies that the women assassins are far deadlier than Budd, the lone man under Bill's command, who has to use guns and other tools to do his work. Additionally, The Bride has quite literally been wronged by the patriarchal structure of the assassination squad, and it is now her quest to work her way up the ladder in order to kill the patriarch and dismantle the system that wronged her. This representation of and elevation of women heroes (or villains) from the sidekick role was something I'd never seen before and really excited me.
I was even more emotionally connected to the film because I felt like Uma Thurman looked a little bit like me and a little less like the perfectly groomed and symmetrical women of most Hollywood action movies - she has an angular face and unconventional features. It's really saying a lot that I am a white straight cis woman, and there are tons of hero movies which feature white straight cis women characters, that it affected me that much to see someone unconventionally beautiful and not sexualized being a true hero with a personality on the big screen. That I was affected that deeply by her representation speaks to how narrowly defined the role of "woman hero" is, and speaks even more greatly to the need for heroes of underrepresented or minority identities. Unfortunately also, Kill Bill is culturally appropriative, an aspect of the film that I've grown disillusioned with as I've learned about the subject. The film definitely reads as white feminist. I'm still working on how to reconcile the parts of the film that inspire me with the problematic parts.
Another aspect of the film that impacted me was The Bride's character. The Bride undoubtedly goes through a hero's journey, fighting harder and harder foes throughout the movie and proving herself worthy. The trait that struck me was her sense of honor, discipline, humility and persistence. Throughout, she fights enemies who get cocky, but she never says anything arrogant. Other characters say things like "I should've been Black Mamba", "you might not last five minutes with me", or otherwise mock The Bride, but The Bride's prowess answers on its own. She is skillful - why brag with words? This and her sense of never giving up even when faced with impossible odds was the thing that most inspired me - I wanted to be like her, so hardworking that my work and my skills could stand on their own. To see her totally dominate some fight scenes and overcome incredible challenges on screen felt like seeing myself reach my loftiest goals.
The Bride inspires me every single day of my life. Whenever I really struggle with something, I think of her. I knew that if she could survive a gunshot wound to the head and wake up kicking, I could get through whatever I was going through. She gave me my work ethic. She was one of the biggest reasons I started doing Jiu Jitsu, a martial art which focuses almost entirely on technique and discipline. I cannot thank her enough for all of these things, for being an example and making me believe in myself and my drive. Kill Bill taught me a ton about my sense of self.
Well, you've now interested me in watching Kill Bill. I totally understand so much of what you're saying here. I think that the impact of watching a well-developed female character go through a hero's journey is something very changing for us as women. It's so rare to see, but it feels so nice to see it just because of that.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I've never had a hero who's inspired me as The Bride has inspired you, but I think it's really neat that you have a character that cool to look up to. It sounds like she's shaped you to the point where you don't know who you'd be without her, which is certainly an impactful hero.
I think it's interesting how you mention that Kill Bill has its problems even though it's provided you with such an influential hero. I know that you've run into a lot of situations like this, where people you look up to turn out to be well, kind of terrible people. You might consider diving into that more, because I think that this movie that's affected you so much might have helped you learn how to deal with your problematic inspirations in life.
This blog post has desperately made me want to re-watch KIll Bill, last time i watched it i was so caught up in the cinematography and how bizarre it was that i didn't really think about the meanings of the movie.
ReplyDelete