With the Kill Bill movies being part of my favourite films (as both volumes enact one film) of all time, I really wanted to include it in someway in both my blog page and in my groups film. The major reason why I hold this film in such a good light is due to the main protagonist (the bride) being depicted as incapacitated during the opening scene, showing the bride crying and covered in what appears to be blood due to cuts and stains on her face and the menacing black and white filter casted on the screen, then transforming into a vigorous and purposeful killing machine on the rampage to seek out vengeance on who caused her brutal beating and intended killing shown in the opening scene. With this I wanted there to be a powerful female cast especially within the main protagonist and antagonist, this is why when our antagonist attempts to murder our protagonist we chose suffocation, as this is the type of death that the attacker would have to think about it can take multiple minutes to suffocate to death this would then outline a true evilness with her. Also after when our main protagonist is apparently killed through suffocation she is then shown ever so slightly moving to show a sense of hope that she may regain strength, and although our audience will never find out what our character is really like and why she was attempted to be killed, we want our audience to constantly think about it and come up with theories, as even though we have not filmed a full film we know what our full plot would be.
The scene opens to a black screen with a quote stating “Revenge is a dish best served cold”, Heavily insinuating a cold blooded act that has a consequence, making the audience feel slightly uneasy as theme of violence will come to mind immediately. As the credit roll on a black screen we hear the non-diegetic sound of a woman breathing heavily, making the audience believe that the woman we hear is in distress and possibly harmed, thus rolling on the theme of violence. The first image flashes onto screen in black and white edited filter showing a high angle closeup shot of a woman with blood, sweat and tears covering her face on the floor,defenceless she lies in a pool of blood, making her appear weak and pathetic. The now diegetic sound of her heavy breathing and crying show that she is grittily harmed, making the audience wonder why she is in this pain and if so who has done this to her.
The close up shot I believe is to really take in the pain and fear the unidentified woman expresses, but also to conceal her whereabouts and the possible people that surround her, making the film show hints of mystery and having to unravel the story of who, what,where, when and why, making the audience think and come up with their own theories within the first 20 seconds.The woman’s mise en scene shows her only from the neck upwards showing us little about her character and who she may be, but we see a bloodied and creased view hidden behind the now supposed bride’s blood stained hair, giving off the impression of a wedding, making the audience feel that the location therefore may be in a church, and if this was a wedding where is the groom is he dead?, and the guests are they also harmed?
Following this we cut to a straight low angled shot of who appears to be a man due to the style of boot and trouser, walking slowly towards the bride, the slow diegetic creaking of the floor boards as he walks, show a sinful and fiendish sense to the character, as anyone who would normally witness this scene of a grievously harmed woman would rush to their aid, but the slow paced walker is then questioned by the audience to have been the attacker in this heinous crime. As the man approaches the bride we see her face is filled with fear and anger, when the anonymous and suspicious gentleman reaches the bride we see his foot come into alignment with her shoulder, giving off the effect that he is towering over her, in a way to belittle and show power and dominance over her. This is when we hear the first line of dialogue in the picture “Do you find me sadistic?”, This then both confirms that this miscreant has enacted grievous bodily harm to the bride but also that he possible enjoys it due to his word “sadistic” making the audience dislike the antagonist even more.
Still yet to hear the bride speak, we see the the antagonists hand approach shot with a handkerchief in his hand revealing his name is Bill, Then making the audience reach the conclusion through the title of the film, the quote at the beginning of the film and the name displayed by the criminal as “Bill”, that this man is now a target for his crime against the bride but we are still yet to find out who will be evening this woman. Bill then tries to wipe the bride’s face, showing a sense of endearment that maybe he knows this woman previously from this date, but also shows a sign of cockiness and mocking to this action that he is the only hope she has to remain alive and to torture her on the fact on whether she will stay alive or not. As Bill continues to talk her mocks the bride that he “could fry an egg on her head right now, if I wanted to”, by telling the bride “if I wanted to” shows his feeling of complete control over the brides body and therefore life.
Due to Bill’s speech we can tell he has been a comrade of the bride as sorts due to Bill saying phrases such as “kiddo”, then also making the audience believe that he is considerably older than her, making thoughts of fatherly figures as this is the type of pet names a father would say to his child, although this could be a way of showing that the bride is a possession of his like a child to their father. Through Bill’s miss en scene we can argue he has wealth to his name due to the clunky jewellery and bracelets we can see on his hand, showing he could be an authoritative and powerful figure throughout the film, and due to us not seeing his face, that his crater could hold a charlie’s angels type of influence on him as the character charlie had, an authoritative figure with all control but never being seen, only heard. Leading to another assumption that Bill could possibly be the brides employer, but in a slightly different way than a normal job under these circumstances.
From when Bill had previously stated about the brides thoughts on him as a sadistic, Bill follows on from that statement to say “ I like to believe you’re aware enough even by now, that there is nothing sadistic in my actions”, showing that this isn’t the first time that Bill has performed an acute volatile acton to someone and with his saying “even by now” that the bride is aware of this and should believe he takes no pleasure in harming her. Though seconds later contradicts himself by saying “maybe towards those other jokers” showing he took pleasure in killing the others which could be a reference to people also there with her that he has killed, showing that perhaps Bill didn’t agree with this supposed wedding that was taking place, he then continues to say “but not you” to which he gently strokes his finger against her cheek, illustrating to the audience that there is perhaps feelings of a loving matter in a more sexual way rather than when there is in a friendship or a family sense. Thus showing that Bill is possibly in love with the bride and has taken on the style of if I can’t have you no one can.
As Bill stands upwards and as we hear Bill fumbling around, as his last utterance states as “ This is me at my most masochistic”, showing that Bill will take pleasure from his own pain of killing her, showing the audience that through his heartbreak of the bride attempting to marry someone other than him, his humiliation of the bride trying to go through with this marriage has caused him to possibly look foolish to others and will take on killing the bride to gain pleasure by inflicting grief onto himself by killing his love. In an attempt to change his mind the bride speaks her first line of dialogue of “ Bill it’s your baby”, to which she is quickly interrupted by the non-diegetic sound of gunshot that appears to have been fired by Bill at the brides head as we see blood splatter around her head and her eyes shut instantly, causing the audience to believe that the bride has been killed, almost instantly after the gunshot is heard we hear the non diegetic sound track being played of the song “Bang Bang(my baby shot me down)” by Nancy Sinatra, listening to the lyrics we hear that this fits perfectly into what just happened, and also confirms that they were in fact associated with each other in a relationship that would be deem more than friends.
As the black screen was cut to immediately after gunfire we see the credits role again, as the credits come to a close an image then again appears with a black and white edit, of a figure, supposedly the bride, lying in front of a white back ground, as we only see her silhouette as she lie there motionless, appearing to be dead, giving the impression of the bride lying in a coffin in almost complete darkness, then fading to black, the audience are left to believe hat someone will come to avenge her death, but they would be wrong...
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