Kill Bill and Postmodernism

(Fig 1: Movie Poster)

'Kill Bill' (2003) Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino is a martial arts, action packed film. The film is iconic and world renowned, partially for its intense and cartoony fight scenes and also for its postmodern film making. 

(Fig 2: Movie Still)

1. Intertextuality: Throughout 'Kill Bill' Quentin Tarantino includes references to other genres of film. Such as; Japanese Cinema, Action, Horror and some of his own films. 'Lady Snowblade' is used as inspiration and referenced in 'Kill Bill'. For example, the shot where the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad are all looking down at The Bride. Another shot is where the Bride is standing in the door way of the church is in reference to 'The Searchers' (1956) The film also includes an animated sequence breaking away from the live action to inform the audience of O-Ren's backstory. 

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2. Non-linear Narrative: The film jumps around a lot. We start with the Bride being "killed", then the opening credits roll which leads us to a car pulling up to a family home. The Bride fights and kills Vernita Green within the first 10 minutes of the film. Once Green is dead, we see that the Bride has already killed O-Ren. At this point we then jump back to when the Bride is in a coma and the events that led up to her killing O-Ren. 

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3. Aestheticization of violence: 'Kill Bill' is full of violence and gore. However, Tarantino makes all the violence in the film a spectacle, people are either covered head to toe in someone else's blood, limbs cut off or blood spluttering out all over the place. The best example would be when the Bride finds O-Ren and starts to cut down all of her henchmen. This scene was considered so bloody and grotesque that Tarantino made it black and white, which in the end made it seem more artistic and calling back to the beginning which is also black and white.

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4. Hyperrealism: Throughout the film the Bride overcomes many obstacle which seem impossible. From the beginning the fight with Green, Green misses a shot from close range and the Bride manages to throw a knife right in the chest. The most obvious scene where hyperrealism occurs is the scene where the Bride takes down groups upon groups of trained yakuza and comes out victorious.

(Fig 6: Movie Still)

5. Miniatures: In the early 2000s CGI was still in its early stages, but becoming more of a trend in cinema. The choice to use a miniature was different and the scene where the plane is flying over Japan shows the full scale of the country, while also paying homage to older films where miniatures are more common.

Illustration:

Fig 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_dNIXwrbzY

Fig 2: https://wiki.tarantino.info/index.php/Kill_Bill_References_Guide

Fig 3: https://gradingfightscenes.com/2013/07/11/kill-bill-fight-1-of-4/

Fig 4: https://screenrant.com/kill-bill-3-not-happening-uma-thurman-car-crash/

Fig 5: https://blahg.josefsipek.net/?p=128

Fig 6: http://www.andsoitbeginsfilms.com/2015/11/top-52-things-i-love-about-kill-bill.html