"Kill Will" - Rough Draft Revision

Kill Will

There are an unbelievable amount of similarities betwixt modern day cinema and what is considered to be classic literature. What was once reading between the lines becomes a visual thematic undertone. Veiled symbology in the written word becomes a glimpse of something we just know is important in the films we view today. What is cinema but our version of literature? Not that books are - or ever will be- obsolete, this new (in comparison) medium only opens our eyes to new possibilities. For instance, Kate Chopin became a master story teller of her time, albeit posthumously. When held up against one of our more modern day story tellers like Quentin Tarantino we can delve deep enough to ascertain what they may have in common. They are both staunch feminists though in different ways (Chopin's understated rebellion, Tarantino's emasculating ferocity.) Now, what if we were to take a work by each and hold it up under a light? Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour," put next to Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill," at first seems like comparing night and day -- but then we must take into consideration that the moon of night is a only a reflection of the sun. "The Story of an Hour" tells us a story about a woman who finds out her husband is dead; then he isn't dead. The shock kills him. Comparably, in a complete case of role reversal "Kill Bill" is a story a woman who's mate finds out she is not dead either -- and the fall out from such a discovery. These are certainly not the only similarities the two works share. "The Story of an Hour" and "Kill Bill" are both pieces about women who suddenly realize, because of a cataclysmic event, that their lives are their own. What I want to do is analyze and compare the similarities, differences, symbols, and themes of each.

There is a franticness to each "Kill Bill" and "The Story of an Hour" shared by the main characters. In "Kill Bill," Uma Thurman's character -- known simply as The Bride for most of the film is a woman hell bent on revenge, but beyond that we can sense that this is something she has to do; her rampage of violence is essential to her being. Likewise, in "The Story of an Hour" Kate Chopin's main character, Mrs. Mallard mistakes her feelings of freedom as mourning. It is because this is a feeling she has never felt. In each character their frenetic emotions are almost palpable.

"The Story of an Hour" and "Kill Bill" are both intense studies of gender roles, more specifically the traditional role of women and their identities (or lack thereof.) Examples of this are their names (or again, lack of) in the pieces. At the beginning of each piece we do not know the names of the characters. Chopin's Mrs. Mallard was defined by the husband she was now, supposedly, free of; she was his. Of course we all know that Uma Thurman was called "The Bride" throughout most of "Kill Bill" -- a loaded name if there ever was one. By doing this Tarantino frees us of all the complications that come with the title "Mrs. Such and Such," she is simply The Bride - a man's wife. By doing this each author showed us that there was something each character needed to accomplish and discover; that is a sense of self.

Another notably similarity between the two are the physical absences of the men in each characters life. Of course, the appearance of Mrs. Mallard's husband at the end of "The Story of an Hour," but the fact remains -- he was there. Likewise in "Kill Bill," the title character's physical presence is not felt into the very end of the film. We get small glimpses of Bill throughout the movie, but we do not actually see who he is until the end. In this way each author has turned the men into shadows; they are phantoms, myths, insubstantial beings. When we see that these men actually do exist neither woman is able to live with this fact. After asserting themselves as individuals throughout both film and story, neither woman would be able to ever accept their respective men back into their lives.