October 15, 2003 - 5:38 AM

Kill Bill: An Exploration of Bushido and Revenge Fantasies

As far as Revenge Fantasies in film go, Hollywood seems to be lacking in satisfactory material of late. Now, I admit to not being a film scholar, and I readily put forth the fact that I've watched far fewer films than have been ever made, but I do know what I know, and I know what I like. And, this is my diary, so I can say what I want.

For me, the ultimate revenge fantasy is Hamlet. The "hero" has someone close to him/her (parent, spouse, child, mentor, master) killed, or maybe he/she is almost killed, and the rest of the story is spent following the character's trials and tribulations in seeking revenge, atonement, justice. In Hamlet, you have the Crazy Dane seeking out retribution for the murder of his father...but ultimately, this bloodlust (which might be construed as immoral) leads to his own undoing. He goes crazy, his Ophelia commits suicide, his mummy dies, and some other bit players in the court kick the bucket. Oh, yeah, he does get the bad guy, sure, but Hamlet in the end dies too. This perhaps teaches the lesson that, while revenge may be sweet, the sweetness, like all those twinkies you've been eating since kindergarten, will come around and kill you. One could argue that the most satisfying conclusion to a revenge fantasy is for the "hero" to fulfill his destiny and then die, because a)after achieving his goal, he has no other purpose in life and b)in achieving his goal, he has himself committed a sin that can not be erased, so he MUST die.

The problem here is that if all revenge fantasies stuck to this idea, all the stories would be really dark and depressing. Good for the critical "ooh ahh how daring" set, but not so much for the "I want my happily ever after" crowd. So maybe you work around this by having the "hero" and the "villain" spar, but before the hero can deliver the killing blow (or after he's had a change of heart and lets the villain live), the villain provides his own undoing and kills himself, allowing the hero to walk away with clean hands and a clear conscience. Or maybe the hero isn't so totally focused on getting revenge. Maybe his anger is tempered by some sage advice, and he decides to seek a more peaceful resolution, or even go through legal channels; but the villain returns and goads him into a battle where the hero must kill the villain for the sake of self-preservation.

Or maybe, the hero lets the bloodlust run full boar through his veins, but at the last minute, he comes to the realization that this is not the true path of the hero, so he pulls back, only to have the main villain attack him with lightning bolts from his hands, and, just as it seems like the hero is going to die, his dad, who is evil, comes to his senses and picks up the main villain, who had turned him evil, and throws him down a reactor shaft. Thus, the hero doesn't have blood on his hands, and the father is redeemed (although he must die for having been so evil in the previous films), and we all get misty-eyed. And then the Ewoks give a kick-ass party.

But these and other alterations to the revenge fantasy, while perhaps making the story more palatable and giving us an upbeat ending, do not deliver the same punch as a true revenge fantasy. You know, you always get that cliche of the sidekick telling the hero "don't kill him (the villain). he aint' worth it" or "that'll make you just as bad as him" or "you're better than that". Usually in those cases, that's when the villain springs to life with a hidden gun and the hero must kill him while defending himself. Then the hero gets a forlorn look, a look like he just put his dog to sleep, and then we get a little closing piece that puts him in a better mood where things are wrapped up and tidy. Bullshit. Once you have started down the path of revenge, you must see it through with a single-mindedness. And then when you are done, you must balance the scales by dying.

The Japanese really seem to have a handle on the revenge fantasy. Think about it: how many samurai/kung-fu/gangster stories and films do you know where the "hero" follows the true revenge-then-death path? Tons. I think they work it so well because of Bushido, the Way of the Warrior, which dictates that there is a proper way to comport oneself in life, in death, and in war. It stresses honor and self-discipline, and a respect for the unspoken codes and rules of battle. Thus, you get a samurai who is bound unquestioningly to his lord, or a kung-fu student who is bound to his school and master, or a gangster who is bound to his boss. When the lord, the master, or the boss is murdered, the disciple is honor-bound to seek revenge and then, for having let the lord/master/boss die, he himself must die.

Recent Hollywood offerings that attempted to do the revenge fantasy but didn't work for me include Road to Perdition, Gladiator, Payback, The Patriot, and Rob Roy. Gladiator never really gussied up my ardor as much as it did others, and I don't think it deserved even to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Sure the battle sequences were marvelous (although that had already been done in Saving Private Ryan); but something about the story just left me cold. It was a revenge fantasy that tried to dress itself in something more and diluted Maximus's vengeance. It was like a poor-man's Braveheart without the heart or the honor. In Braveheart, William Wallace was seeking revenge for the death of his wife, the death of his friends, the betrayal by the lords of Scotland, and the rape of his country; he sought the revenge with nobility and honor, and in the end accepted his death as a form of penance/redemption for all the blood he had shed on his crusade. Maximus, on the other hand, was a whiny bitch who would rather mope over his family's death and his own betrayal by Joaquin Phoenix than actually kill him. He did not have the adequate Bushido. There was something empty in his honor, something underhanded about his path to revenge.

All this I write to point out why I think I liked Kill Bill:Volume 1 so much. Even though all the characters are evil, the scum of the earth, they still follow Bushido, to some extent. Uma especially, and that's why I can root for her. She is single-minded in her revenge and has no illusions about what she will do or why. And I get the sense that, once she is done, she knows that death is the next step for her, and she accepts that, too. There is honor in her revenge.

There are lots of other reasons why I liked the movie too. The Sam Raimi-esque blood-o-rama, the well done fight sequences, the interesting story-unravelling devices. I hope that Quentin Tarantino delivers on the story in Volume 2 and has Uma's The Bride fulfill her revenge and then die. That's the only way I can see it happening that would be right.

Now Listening To : Jonatha Brooke-10 Cent Wings
Random Thought : I saw the Ring last night and it scared the poop out of me. Not as much as I feared, but still, a lot.

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