KILL BILL VOL. 2

US, 2004, 135 minutes, Colour.
Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Gordon Liu, Michael Parks.
Directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Just as well I read an interview with Quentin Tarantino as I went into the cinema to see whether Uma (after roaring and rampaging, as she puts it in the trailer and the opening of the film - though her wink at the end of the trailer appears only during the final credits) does actually kill Bill. Tarantino gives the necessary information - especially to those who are anticipating a second serve of Eastern chop chop, cut cut - that his models for part 2 are spaghetti westerns. While there are some flashbacks to the martial arts days of part I, especially with Uma learning secret moves and Daryl Hannah's vicious killer disposing of the master's eye (which those who are repelled need to remember that Shakespeare did the same in King Lear), this is the West.

Tarantino would probably be highly alarmed if anyone considered him in the same sentence as Shakespeare. He is strictly pulp fiction in comic book form. He has more speeches in this movie than in part 1 but we are told that the interesting discourse by Bill on superheroes of the comics who are ordinary citizens who put on bat or spider or daredevil masks whereas for Superman, he is always a hero and Clark Kent is his mask - it all comes from a 60s book by writer and artist, Jules Pfeiffer. Great speech, no footnote reference.

Another literary comparison comes to mind in a sequence which is powerfully horrifying (even though you know The Bride is going to get out), the Poe-like premature burial of The Bride in a coffin with the soil piling and thudding on top. This sequence shows how dramatic and emotionally effective Tarantino can be.

With lots of Ennio Morricone music and homages, the backblocks and trailer parks of Texas, the confrontations are Western. (Kill Bill Volume I was his Eastern.) And, with that pacing and less confrontative massacres, it is less unsettling to watch Kill Bill 2. There are some interesting cameos, especially by Michael Parks and Michael Madsen. But the focus is well and truly on Uma Thurman plus attention-grabbing evil from Daryl Hannah and, at last, a sardonically effective performance from David Carradine (before he is finally killed) as Bill.

1. The impact of Volume 1, audience expectations? Similarities, differences?

2. Tarantino seeing the film as a western, contrasting with Volume 1 as an Eastern? The influence of the spaghetti westerns, characters, landscapes, posers? Robert Rodriguez's score, the homage to Ennio Morricone?

3. Quentin Tarantino and his style, visual impact, verbal? The chapters indicating themes of the film, his use of quotations and speeches from authors - especially about popular culture, comic-strip heroes, masks?

4. Tarantino's moral universe, its laws, conventions, violence and death, revenge? The increasing role of family and love?

5. The prologue, the bride and the monochrome scenes, driving, her comments about roaring and rampaging? The wink during the final credits?

6. The flashback to the wedding, the bride, the groom, the guests? The bride having a name? The minister, Samuel L. Jackson playing the organ? The rehearsal, the arrival of the killers, the posers and tableaux? The mayhem in the massacre? The monochrome for this flashback? A reminder of Volume 1? A reiteration of the bride's motivations?

7. The aftermath of the massacre, the bride in a coma, pregnant, the delivery of the child without her knowledge, Bill taking the daughter? Her awaking and having a mission of revenge?

8. The background of the eastern and the martial arts in Volume 1? The flashback to the acquiring of the secret moves? The Master and his instruction, the remoteness of the school, the bride's pilgrimage there? Her learning, absorbing the arts? The arrival of Elle Driver? Her jealousy, working with the Master, blinding him, the destroying of his eye?

9. The bride, her search, leading her to Bud and his work in the strip joint, his being Bill's brother, Bill disowning him for selling his precious sword? His jobs, at the strip club, type? The people at the club, their style, sleaziness, his having to clean up messes in toilets? His caravan, meeting the bride? Their interactions, the fight, his overwhelming her, burying her?

10. The impact of the bride being buried, the close-ups of her in the confined space, her limitation of light, hearing the earth thudding on the coffin? The overtones of Edgar Allen Poe and the premature burial? Her using her wits, her summoning her strength, the moves that she had learnt from the Master, breaking the coffin lid, coming out of the earth?

11. The confrontation with Bud, the fight, his death?

12. The personality of Elle Driver, her being with Bill, in Volume 1, her arrival, her place in the flashbacks, her cruelty towards the Master? Giving the money to Bud, the snake in the case, his death?

13. Elle Driver and the bride confronting each other, the reversal to eastern fight techniques, western fight techniques, in the trailer? The bride outwitting Elle Driver? Her death?

14. The bride continuing her search, driving, the Mexicans, the village, the information from the old man?

15. Bill, David Carradine and his presence and performance, in himself, having been in charge of the killing squad, his relationship with each of the women? With the bride? The child? His vengeance on her? Her meeting him, his living in luxury, his caring for his daughter, the domestic sequences - yet training her to be a future martial arts killer?

16. The bride's arrival, getting in, their talk, Bill's explaining the reasons for what he did - even to over-reacting? His plans?

17. The speech about the masks, about heroes, about Clark Kent being the mask of Superman? The other heroes having to put on masks? His mask - with the overtones of kung-fu? The bride's mask?

18. The build-up to the confrontation with Bill, the fight, the sword, the impact of his death?

19. The bride, her daughter, her daughter knowing her, with the books, the domestic sequences, the softening of the bride? Their future?

20. The overall effect of the two films? Quentin Tarantino as a film-maker? Their contribution to images for popular culture? The violence and the world of Tarantino?