I think “lots of talking, then she killed him” is oversimplifying a bit. Beatrix didn’t just get her revenge, she got closure. She had the opportunity to explain her actions to Bill, and got to hear Bill’s explanation of his, as well as getting as close to an apology as she would ever get. In the end, Bill almost seemed to approve of her vengeful bloodbath. Plus, she got to kill him with the 5-point exploding heart technique, proving herself to be the better and favorite student of their mutual master.
Sure, it wasn’t the most exciting action. But without that final dialogue, Beatrix’s revenge wouldn’t have been nearly as satisfying and complete.
This is based on Superman post-Crisis, though. Pre-Crisis, it’s a whole different story; there, Clark Kent was just a disguise to be thrown away at a whim, and he was “really,” if not Superman, at the very least Kal-El. Heck, he started his life as (and his parents CALLING him) SUPERBABY, for Pete’s sake! So I think Bill was clearly referring to pre-Crisis Superman here.
I adore KBII, and I can’t even imagine why anybody would call it a snoozefest. Prior to the last act, you have essentially 2.5 hours of hardcore violence and action, and we finally get to the explanation of why it happens and who these people are (after QT gave you literal hours of action) and people bitch about it? What?
I can see why you’d say this, but I think it’s slightly incorrect. And I don’t understand why anybody would go into KBII expecting it to be just like the first one–what would be the point in that? He divided them into two volumes because he wanted to tell the Bride’s entire story, not because he wanted to have two solid movies of sword fighting. But I’m getting away from myself.
It isn’t that the two films are unrelated, it’s that QT switched genres. The first volume is the revenge fantasy as told by the Kung Fu genre. The second volume is a revenge fantasy told within the (Italian) Western genre. These two genres aren’t completely disparate, of course. There’s actually a tradition of blending the two, but besides that, QT kept hints of the western in the first volume (like playing Death Rides a Horse through the animated section) and the kung fu elements in the second one, but ultimately, he’s working in two different genres. And the western can be more “talky” then a Kung Fu movie, but more than that, a western is often more intimate. That is, generally the protagonist knows the antagonist personally and they share a very linked past. QT wrote the exchange between Beatrix and Bill as though he were writing the final pivotal scene of a western–except that the enemies were once very deeply in love with each other.
It reminds me of the way Leone staged the final battle in Once Upon a Time in the West. It’s the big climatic moment, and the stand off goes on for some time, but ultimately, a stand off is over in a second. As soon as the gun is fired. From the moment Beatrix entered the room, the stand off began. Of course it wouldn’t be an epic hand-to-hand battle. It was never meant to be–it was supposed to be pistols at dawn. Except instead of having the two characters stare at each other for long minutes, they talked. And instead of pulling a trigger, the Bride used the exploding heart technique. There really wasn’t any other way the movie could have ended.
It wasn’t that the climactic scene didn’t have enough action, it was that it didn’t have much of anything. Explaining motives to eachother and telling some analogy about superhero’s identities was just blah. Inglorious Basterds had scenes of -zero- action and lots of talking but they were just overflowing with tension. You just listened to every word and were sitting on the edge of your seat palms sweaty. Pulp Fiction had scenes of -zero- action and random dialogue but they hit you with an unexpected punch. Yada-yada BLAM! I just shot Marvin in the face.
The Beatrice/Bill scene had no tension and nothing unexpected. It just kind of wound down.
Fair point. I’m not a comic fan even if I am particularly fond of those two, and the whole crisis thing happened when I was very young, so my only real exposure to a pre-crisis Superman is the movie translation. Perhaps Tarantino was assuming that that would be the basis for how people would interpret his little speech? I’m much more familiar with how Superman appears in the various animated series and somewhat from the recent comics, which is why it seemed a bit off to me.
I know it’s not what the OP had in mind but we can at least mention the end credits which are worth sitting through.
The credits begin showing clips of the various actors from both volumes. There’s a blip from one of the films with the actor’s name and all the while there is an uptempo musical flourish that works well. Say what you will about Tarantino but he has a knack for picking the perfect music to underscore what’s going on in his movies. Also with the credits you would see that the same actor plays one of the lead henchmen from the Crazy 88’s (Vol. 1) also is Pai Mei in Volume 2.
Then after that set of end credits, you have Uma driving off into the sunset while a nifty song, “Good Night Moon” provides the backdrop. The music has nothing to do with the movie and I’m sure QT chose simply because it is an excellent song. Not much going on on the screen which features various camera angles of Uma but then as the song is drawing toward its end, the camera closes in on Uma who abruptly breaks character and the fourth wall with a quick smile and wink directly into the camera.
I actually considered both to be a series of short films, so different from each other that they could have been done by different directors. Sort of like Four Rooms or the Twilight Zone movie.
Tarantino has said he might go back to the story in ten or twenty years and have Vernita Green’s daughter seeking revenge against Beatrix for killing her mother.
The first two parts were originally one movie. The studios had a problem with the length of it and forced QT to break it into two parts. Why they released it a year apart I do not understand and cannot forgive, but the movie was already in the can when the first one was released.