Kill Bill: Vol. 2
The only Deadly Viper Assassination Squad kill where our girl Beatrix Kiddo expresses the tiniest bit of remorse is when she kills O-Ren Ishii. I think this is very likely because she perceives O-Ren as being a victim like herself.
(Alright, there's Bill, too, but I don't think she regrets it.)
I don't know exactly what that means, except that I think that for better or worse, every single member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad is thoroughly humanized in the course of the two volumes. Well, I say all of them, but actually, Tarantino does some work to undermine Beatrix in part 2. Why does she train with Pai Mei? Mostly because she was sent to train with him by Bill, but under Pai Mei's questioning she tells him that she wants to have the kind of power he has. Under Bill's truth serum, she tells Bill that she's enjoyed every single murder she ever carried out. And, of course, every Squad kill is carried out in ways which are humiliating for her opponent: O-Ren loses the duel to a girl "playing samurai," Vernita dies in front of her own daughter, Elle loses her remaining eye, and Bill learns that Beatrix was taught the five point palm exploding heart technique when he wasn't. Beatrix Kiddo is a fabulously cruel person, and worse, she's incapable of recognizing her cruelty as evil.
I mean, hell, she's Pai Mei's favorite student. Doesn't that say everything about her? Doesn't that tell you that she's abhorrent?
I sort of think, when it comes to this "Beatrix Kiddo is the villain" interpretation, the Shaw Brothers logo says it all. It's not really true because this story isn't really about heroes and villains as much as it is about revenge. And, evidently, Beatrix Kiddo is already monstrous before the hit takes place. She's still a monster after she wakes up, and the people she kills are monsters. Her cause isn't righteous just because she wants to kill equally abhorrent people who wronged her.
It seems intentional to me that the mentor figure highlighted in the first part is Hattori Hanzo, a noble man sworn to no longer promote killing, but who is only a means to an end for Beatrix Kiddo. Meanwhile, the mentor figure highlighted in the second part is Pai Mei, a deranged mass-murdering xenophobe misogynist, who is incredibly dear to Beatrix Kiddo and an integral part of her backstory. Pai Mei is someone whose death makes Beatrix Kiddo cry out in rage and grief. Hattori Hanzo is just someone she had make her a sword so she could insult the members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. The appearance of Pai Mei undermines the righteous image we have of Beatrix Kiddo and reveals young Beatrix as who she was: a violent misanthrope, hungry for unusual power. In other words: Beatrix Kiddo is a woman after Pai Mei's own heart.
That's sort of where I think the Superman monologue is leading, too: he's not calling Beatrix a superhero, he's telling her she's just as vile as he is. I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill, though. Bill is evidently someone capable of feeling a great deal of love for his daughter, as Beatrix Kiddo is.
The sentimentality of all the killers is a major focal point of the films, too, and I think it plays into this. Budd tells everyone he sold the Hanzo blade, although he's actually held onto it. Bill left a message on that blade telling him he loved him. Even Elle brought the Black Mamba as a symbolic gesture because of her anger over Beatrix's apparent, undignified death. But for all the people talking about who owes who what over the course of this thing, I think Budd's sort of got the right of it: Beatrix deserves her revenge, they all deserve to die...but so does Beatrix.
Oh yeah, I can't really figure out where to fit this into the whole thing I just wrote, but I think it's wild to pose what Beatrix says to the kid as some sort of noble gesture, like she's telling the kid she can have her bloody revenge, too. No, she's telling that kid she'll die, too, if she ever tries to do anything about it.
Anyways, Kill Bill is great.
"Superman didn't become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red "S", that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears - the glasses, the business suit - that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent. He's weak... he's unsure of himself... he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race. Sorta like Beatrix Kiddo and Mrs. Tommy Plimpton."