catapult magazine

Random thoughts.

Visually the movie is spectacular.
I liked the anime.
It’s hard to tell whether the story will have any substance until Vol. 2 comes out.
Loved Uma.
Cool soundtrack as expected.
If I cut off someone’s arm does it really spray blood in all directions like that?
In Pulp Fiction, it seemed like there was actually less violence in the movie than the audience thinks there is (much of the violence was implied – left to the audience’s imagination). In Kill Bill, it seems like there is more violence than the audience thinks there is (much of the violence is cartoon-like or shown in black and white or shown as silhouette).
Don’t anyone dare compare the fight scene in this movie to the fight scene in the Matrix Reloaded.

i don’t read these forums. but i was really excited about a couple movies i’ve seen recently and thought i might check out what other christians think of them. kill bill, dogville, and love actually. and well, i started with this thread.

i’m angry. and i didn’t even finish reading dvdschp’s six page pretentious essay on movie history.

so what is kill bill grant? if you can’t “treat it from a christian perspective” than how can you treat it?

and what is treating something from a christian perspective anyway?

hey, I was being arrogant and self-aggrandizing.
There’s a difference.

i haven’t seen this film and probably won’t in the near future (simply because i don’t get the oppurtunity to watch anything other than a computer screen lately), but i haven’t been completely satisfied with this discussion either. i need to read through it again, but it seems like no has been able to come at this thing from a transformative point of view yet. if they have, they haven’t articulated well . . . yet.

so, that’s where i’m coming from.

micklynn: why does this discussion make you angry? what did you like about kill bill? what is your perspective on the film (i’m assuming you are coming from a christian perspective)?

I found DvdSchp’s post pretty interesting. I never thought of vengeance movies from that perspective.

I enjoyed Kill Bill up until the final 20 minutes or so where Tarentino seemed to really take his time with everything. Perhaps I need to see it again to understand why he did that.

It seems like Tarentino views film styles and techniques as toys. He’s just playing around with feelings and atmospheres rather than trying to be personally expressive.

The Zamphir pan flute music was quite a unique choice. Kind of unsettling in that context.

I’m sorry that my comments about not wanting to apply a Christian perspective to Kill Bill were not very exact, because I do agree with DvdSchp that our own Christian-ness is a filter through which we see everything, but I don’t think we always apply a Christian perspective naturally as we watch or talk about things, just because we’re Christians. But the whole “Christian Perspective” thing is a topic or two unto itself.

I think what I meant to say is that we needn’t try to determine whether all films are “Christian” or not, which is what I was tempted to do with Kill Bill at first. But it is so obviously not a Christian film (Dave’s comments affirm my suspicion that Tarantino has a film fetish that leans more toward idolatrous love of movies than a healthy love for audiences), that I didn’t feel like applying this kind of judgement on it here in this discussion. What would be the point of that? Eventhough people said they liked Kill Bill, we don’t have to jump to any conclusions that they therefore like violence or that they aren’t applying their critical Christian eye.

dignan:
does the fact that i’m trying to do it do it for you?

—bottle rocket

i am a christian.

i watched kill bill.

i liked kill bill.

(discliamer: i’m going to write this next paragraphs without hesitation, i’m really not sure if i really think this, but respond as if i do.)

i believe that being a christian infiltrates your whole life. therefore when you watch a movie like kill bill and like it some questions are risen. first i wonder, is it my sinful nature that likes this movie so much? second, if it is so evil how can i like it so much? third, there must be something “redemptive”, good, God blessed, or i don’t think i could like it as much as i do.(?)

so, i am a christian who liked kill bill. i don’t think that all christians will like kill bill, but i do think that there is something about the time/effort/joy that qT puts into his films that i respect. he cares about this movie, this story, enough to put everyone’s bottom of their shoes in the film. he goes all out, and it shows in how much detail and how amazing the film-work (cinematography…can’t spell it write…) is. i have an appreciation for what was done, so i liked the film.

does this make sense? am i just saying what others have said in different words that i understand and you may not?

i am enok.

hi i’m taking a nervous jump into this film discussion. i think i probably have a lot less of a scholarly approach with assessing film that i watch.

i have read the two discussion boards regarding kill bill and i have seen the movie twice. DvdSchp’s opinion regarding the film has probably made the most sense to me.

of course i walked away thinking that it was quite impressive, the technical work of tarantino. but overall i had this sickly feeling after seeing it both times. the first time i kept being distracted by the fact there was extreme laughter at all the bloody gory arms flying with bloody sprinklers apparently in their armpits. but i guess it’s funny if you get off on blood sprinklers. so ok whatever. and i got bored, yes, fell asleep a bit, like grant said.

but i tend to regard that after-the-movie sickly feeling as a pretty important. it wasn’t a sickly feeling because of blood or killing. it wasn’t a sickly feeling from too much junior mints. it wasn’t a sickly feeling because i view films from a mordernists view (i don’t). and it wasn’t a sickly feeling because i didn’t get any lesson from it or was left hanging to find out what happens in the next. i think it was a sickly feeling because it seemed like a confused mess of an artist’s work who was caught up in certain selfish pleasures only. i guess i realize that i often times will try and view and artists work from another artists perpective. and i feel like his work in kill bill seems flaunting and bragging and definitely influenced by many things that he’s interested in at once. but i think that great art will be a giving art. one that is entertaining and giving, not selfish. and thats the sickly feeling i had i think. i was sadly enjoying this masterful work of selfishness.

i usually don’t tend to think super deeply about movies. i’ll think about them and get a feel for them. but i don’t watch it to talk about it all with my friends or to know about the quotes, etc. i just enjoy movies like what grant was talking about, the flickering of the big screen and junior mints. it’s only art but i like it.

oops, for some reason it posted my thingy a few times, sorry bout that

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I concur
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