Kill Bill Vol. 1 Essay

1564 Words7 Pages
Kill Bill Vol.1: Feminism and Blood Tarantino himself has described Kill Bill, Vol.1 to be a “feminist statement” in its pan-cultural epic mix of genre films. The film steals various tropes from genres such as westerns, melodramas, kung-fu, samurais, which adds up to a cocktail action film with William Congrave’s famous words at its centre: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” The film is progressive by placing the women into roles typically occupied by men. This role reversal is subversive in action genre films, but it maintains the conventionality by maintaining the tropes used. Therefore, it can be determined as a hybrid action genre film. The question remains, however, of the specifics of feminist culture within the film and how…show more content…
The stunts the characters execute are beyond the laws of logic as far as gravity and physical possibility. Tarantino has admitted that, while it masquerades as the early twenty-first century, Kill Bill, Vol.1 does not occur on Earth, but in another world entirely. This blatant lack of realistic expectations might be a parody in that these women could not possibly exist in the contemporary patriarchal reality. It is often assumed in many action genre films that in order for a woman to be considered respectable she needs to assume typically male persona characteristics: composure, high pain tolerance, decisiveness, good judgment. Overall, she needs to be tough by the male expectations. The Bride embodies all of these, and then some by not abandoning her female characteristics. Not only is she resourceful (for example killing two men while paralyzed from the waist down and then stealing one of the men’s truck) and full of gutsy determination and willpower to seek her vengeance with physical prowess and violence, she also carries an emotional strength and an incredible strength of character. This is best illustrated in the back of the truck where she spends thirteen hours willing her legs out of temporary atrophy after her coma). The Bride never sacrifices her female persona in favor of a male one – rather she demonstrates the typically male-associated descriptors under a new
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