The final fight was a letdown. All that buildup for a few seconds.
shareI liked it. The fight kinda starts the minute the Bride kicks in the door and comes face-to-face with Bill and BB. She fights a lot of emotional battles before the physical one. There wasn't anything else that "needed" to happen during the final fight, so it ended quickly. Anything else would have been indulgent, and for once Tarantino didn't indulge.
shareIt was 'diverting expectations' (an epic, satisfying swordfight to the death) and giving in to expectations (Beatrix still kills Bill easily) at the same time.
I think both choices are wrong.
In my opinion, a better, more shocking way to divert expectations, would've been if Beatrix had re-assessed the situation, realized Bill is an old man already anyway, and both of them being full of regret and guilt, would've negotiated an attempt to live as a family, now that they actually are one anyway, and see how that goes. Maybe it would've worked, maybe it wouldn't have, but at least they would've done what's best for the daughter, and have her grow up in a full family unit instead of just a 'Lioness (how quickly she changed from a snake to a lion) with a cub'.
As a sidenote, single mothers are the worst parents, whose kids suffer the worst problems because of bad parenting.
It's not about indulging, it's about 'huge build-up leading to nothing', and I kind of agree with it.
I think the ending isn't completely bad, but with all that build-up, AND all that hinting at a different direction (not killing Bill for SELFISH reasons, but learning to forgive and forget for the sake of daughter, and thus, UNSELFISH motivations would emerge) that it all could've taken, ends up being disappointment, because:
1) The monster (Beatrix) still has the revenge
2) The other monster doesn't even try to stop it
3) The end battle is feeble, short and non-satisfying
4) The possibilities for 'different-than-I-thought'-type ending were not explored after all.
I mean, if you're going the 'predictable revenge story ending', go with FULL BLAST, not with a tiny, almost non-audible plorf.
If you're going to subvert expectations and NOT give an epic, climactic swordfight with full satisfaction, then at least do something ELSE interesting, like not killing Bill after all, and learning to live as a family without murdering people.
Or have it be a weird murder-family...
.. where the daughter learns the ways of a murderer as a teenager. What do either the parents care, they're murderers themselves?
Of course, even in movies, I would really like to see all murderers and lawbreakers have their comeuppance - how about having the daughter murder Beatrix after learning how she has manipulated her and lied to her and murdered tons of people, and then commit a harakiri?
I am not saying my ideas are necessarily good, but all I am saying, is that the story at the end COULD'VE been taken to more INTERESTING DIRECTIONS than just 'typical, predictable story ending, BUT done in the least epic and most disappointing way possible'.
You don't have to agree, but just thinking about all these alternative directions seems more exciting to me than the boring anti-climax we were shown.
The murder family would be intriguing as a follow-up, though, had Bill survived.
To me, the movie is about breaking that cycle of violence, and I really hope there either are no sequels (ideally), or if Quentin makes Vol.3 that BB manages to stay out of it all. He has talked about Vol.3 being about Nikki revenging herself on the Bride, and I don't mind if the Bride gets brought low by her bloody karma, but if BB got killed, the whole journey would feel like it wasn't worth it and would take on this nasty, nihilistic tone.
You do have good ideas with the alt-ending where Beatrix reconciles with Bill rather than killing him, but I still like the original ending. The one you've got there is maybe a good movie, but it's a different movie and would require Bill to be a very different character. It'd be hard to build somebody capable of the violence of Bill towards the Bride for the reasons he had (jealousy, basically), and then give him a 180 turn-around, or at least enough of one that we can see it working. Maybe if the Bride was in DEEP denial about it?
It's a good idea, but it's a different movie.
Of course, you'd need a new title, too. You can't call it Kill Bill and then not deliver on that promise.
I agree with you as far as those under-cutter ideas are interesting; where we diverge is that it would have been better or that the ending was an anticlimax. It wasn't what I was expecting, but I think it was pretty perfect - especially with the Bride busting out the ultimate kung fu.
These are good points, and very interesting ideas.
I still like the way it plays out just fine.
The re-assessment that you're talking about does happen, she just can't come to that conclusion. She sees the potential for a family with the three of them, and I think Beatrice wants that more than anything, but she knows what a bastard Bill is, and that won't change. His controlling, manipulating, jealousy, anger, aggression, violence - it's all going to be there all the time. I think Beatrice made the decision to wrench herself free of that world, and break it off from her daughter.
That pull between two worlds is what I like about the conflict of the ending. She wants to try to build this, she does love Bill to some extent, wants to make it work, but knows that's a fantasy and she has to follow through. Tarantino makes it so that her objective is not the joyous revenge fantasy it was, that it's not an ideal ending either way, but he goes for the "better" ending.
1) It's a revenge movie and the revenge is justified (if revenge can be), and by the end B. is doing it for her daughter not (just) for herself.
2) Bill was fighting, he just couldn't defend against the ultimate technique because it's a kung fu movie.
3) I didn't mind the lightning-flash final fight, or I don't now. The more I think on it, the more I dig it.
4) The ending might have gone even more off the rails, sure, but the final sequence yo-yo'd me around enough to toy with my expectations, and it did explore those possibilities.
"As a sidenote, single mothers are the worst parents, whose kids suffer the worst problems because of bad parenting."
best sidenote ever submitted on moviechat
I sorta feel like the deadbeat dads who abandoned their kids and left that mom to try and cope by herself...maybe those jerks are worse?
sharei was quoting the other poster, not sure how you even saw i replied...
but fathers that abandon their children aren't considered parents anyway
I'm like a post psychic; I see all...
I see a lot of single mothers trying hard and I see a lot of vacant spaces where the dad should be. So, in my books, the dad that scarpered (assuming he knew about the kid) is the real villain in my books.
It was amazing.
It was exactly what I wasn't expecting.
AWESOME!
It bothered me at first but after watching it a few times since, I learned to appreciate it more. The build up with Bea and Bill talking about their relationship was the true final battle while the sword fight was just the end result.
shareThe Bea/Elle fight was so good it didn't need to be topped.
share