Kill Bill Vol 2 by Quentin Tarentino

Institutions
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Production Company: Miramax Films,
Released 23 April 2004 UK
Made in USA
Critical Review by James Christopher from The Times
Kill Bill: Vol.2 is a revenger’s comedy. In the way that Akira Kurosawa exploited the Wild West to illuminate his classic Japanese melodrama Seven Samurai, so Tarantino reverses the current to inform his batty western.
What makes the young American director such a force is his terrific sense of humour and preternatural feel for the absurd, whether it be Pei Mei’s bushy white eyebrows or the kung-fu way he strokes his 3ft-foot long white beard.
The film simply wouldn’t work without this sensory overload, which smothers the queasy suspicion that what keeps us in our seats is nothing more than blind greed for the next cute nuance or visceral sensation.
Morally the film is as infantile as its rigid code of honour — and there’s not much of that between hired assassins, or directors and critics. The Midas touch is Tarantino’s ability to switch mood and genre — and take his audience with him — in the blink of an eye.
The climax of this blood-soaked odyssey, with its Sergio Leone standoffs, bleached John Ford landscapes, Hitchcockian sense of noir, Ang Lee high-wire tricks, refrigerated Clint Eastwood anger and self-referential importance, is the Dr Frankenstein belief in its own importance. Ultimately, this is a film about an obsession with film. It’s made by a man clearly deranged by trivia, but also an artisan who can pluck something unique and exciting from the collision of two (or ten) completely different genres.
This review tells me that adding intertextual references can be a very powerful thing. It may be good to use intertextual references in my planning as the audience do pick them up and it interests and excites them. Also using mixes of different genres can keep the film interesting and the audience on their toes.

Audience
Rated R (America)/ 18 (UK) due to violence, language and brief drug use. By the 2nd August the film made $149,591,303 worldwide via box office returns.
On IMDB the average user rating is 8.0/10 for both males and females, this shows me that this film appeals to both genders. The highest rating came from males under 18 at 8.4/10, and the lowest rating came from females aged 45+ at 5.7/10, the overall trend for the ratings is that the older the age range the lower the rating, and male vs. female ratings tend to be very similar with an exception of females under 18 which is 7.2/10 against the 8.4/10 males, but this result isn't particularly reliable as only 787 under 18 females have voted whereas for all the other categories thousands have voted. The overall trend shows me that this film appeals to the younger generation better than the older generation.

Codes and Conventions of the Thriller Genre
This film is not a thriller but it does contain thriller aspects within certain scenes and uses techniques and shots that can be taken into consideration when creating my own thriller opening
Chapter 5
The opening scene of chapter 5 is a close up of the bride’s beaten and bloody face, the close up helps to establish the anger and fear in her eyes as well as the extent of her injuries, this catches the audiences interest as the opening shot is already full action. This scene is also filmed in black and white, it establishes the fact that this is a flashback, this is also established by the narrative that follows the shot with the bride saying “Looked dead, didn’t I?” At this time there is also a quiet soundtrack that consists of violins and after the gunshot to the head the soundtrack grows louder and harsher, which grows to be similar to the soundtrack in Hitchcock’s Psycho. This soundtrack creates tension and drama, and a sense that something is building up and is about to happen.

The second scene is a medium close up of the bride in a car driving along the road, this slowly zooms in on her face as her speech grows more and more intense and violent, this creates the illusion that the viewer is being pulled in closer to the bride and as the camera zooms closer her monologue seems more personal as though she is talking to each individual in the audience, along with the soundtrack this creates a growing tension.

This scene is also in black and white, and the way the car is set on a fake background creates a reference to the 1940’s style noir filming.

Scene 7
Scene 7 is the graveyard scene where the bride is buried alive. This is a good example of generic thriller conventions such as entrapment where the bride is tied up, also when she is buried six feet under the ground. Also the graveyard location is empty, unglamorous and secluded.
The lighting is non-ambient, chiaruscurro, it's very harsh lighting with alot of light contraating against dark, this indicates a nightmare scenario which is ironic as the nightmare of being buried alive is something alot of people fear so the audience can relate to this scene.
diagetic sound is used which includes the sounds of shovelling, footsteps, the chain on the truck. This is used very effectively as the sounds are made very crisp and clear as to put the audiences in the brides shoes as this is what she is hearing although she can't see it.
When the bride is pulled out of the truck and onto the ground medium shots are used from a high angle which is used as a point of view shot of what Budd is seeing when he is looking down on her, it also makes her seem helpless and him seem more powerful.
A similar shot is used of Budd and his friend standing over the bride when they are talking and joking about her, this shot is a low angle shot from the brides point of view making them seem powerful and in total control.
Extreme close ups are used on the brides eyes to emphasise her anger and horror.
When the bride is in the coffin the same technique is used with the diagetic sound with the sharp sounds of mud being shovelled on top of her and the nails being knocked into the coffin, it adds to the tension as it can be heard but not seen.
Finally, when the bride begins to punch at the coffin non-diagetic western music is played in the background, this is an intertextual reference to Clint Eastwoods The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, this shows a sign of hope as it is hopeful music.

Representation
This film is very stereotypical and at the same time very farfetched. It has the main character punching her way out a coffin under six feet of solid ground which is impossible, she has had god knows how many near death experiences and every single time miraculously survived, but the character is the typical beautiful, powerful heroine. Budd especially is portrayed as the stereotypical redneck hillbilly, living in a caravan with a job as a bouncer at a strip club with long greasy hair, stubble and the cowboy hat he has been made into a very typical character. Also he is quite womanizing, the way he discusses the bride with his friend during the graveyard scene including sexual innuendo directly in front of her while her mouth is gagged so she can't fight back shows his low standards.