How To Disappear Completely

Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)

I just finished watching the first part of Kill Bill, but due to great negligence on my part, I forgot to get the second half at the library while I was at it, and while I have subsequently put the second half on hold, I am nevertheless in a great deal of suspense.

I have to say that I have mixed feelings about the film. I mean, there aren't many directors that can touch a Tarantino in terms of aesthetic filming, but the recurring blood fountain motif was a little much. Until I realized that the drama I was watching was actually really cheesy. Come on, all martial arts films are inherently cheesy. But I'll give Tarantino the benefit of the doubt and attribute him a level of ever-so-subtle self-mocking tongue-in-cheekiness. Maybe even some melodramatic humor.

All in all, it was somewhat better than Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which I honestly never finished. It wasn't for lack of trying and motivation. I mean, Antonio Banderas and Johnny Depp, how could I abandon you mid-screen? But I was unable to sludge through to the bitter end. I mean, poor Johnny had lost both his eyes. I couldn't handle that anymore. Except I really didn't even care anymore by that point.

This is probably why I watch so much BBC. It's more my cup of tea.

EDIT: I was talking with Luke (a Mel Gibson fan) a little more about different uses of violence in film. Luke's theory (and I agree) is that Gibson's violence is much more emotionally based: the gore and blood are intimately attached to real evil/real, struggling good. In the case of a director like Tarantino, the violence is aestheticized almost to numbness. You really don't care whether the characters live or die, or whether good triumphs over evil (as if there really IS good or evil in a Tarentino film). You are just morbidly fascinated by the pretty contrast that red blood makes against white snow, etc. After a while, one stops feeling all together and goes into a coma of aesthetically-induced anaesthesia....

EDIT [AGAIN]: So I watched the second volume. I liked it so much better. Perhaps because there was less gore? Or maybe it was just more developed in terms of story. Whatever the case, it made the whole experience not a loss.