‘Kill Bill’: A violent male fantasy or feminist empowerment?
What makes a movie feminist? That’s a lofty question with no definitive answer, but we can use a certain loose list of guidelines to determine whether a movie can be considered a piece of feminist cinema. Feminist films must advocate for complex stories about women, told in a way that avoids fetishisation and objectification. Women must be defined by more than their relationships with domesticity and men, or these structures must be criticised through the filmmakers’ narrative and formal choices.
Over the years, many filmmakers have purposefully attempted – and succeeded – in making feminist films, while others have done so less consciously. One of the most popular releases of the 21st century to be labelled the ultimate tale of empowerment and feminism is Kill Bill, directed by Quentin Tarantino. But can it truly be considered a feminist film?
Let’s start by acknowledging that Kill Bill is a terrifically fun movie, perhaps one of Tarantino’s very best. Divided into two volumes, the movie follows Uma Thurman’s Beatrix or ‘The Bride’, who seeks revenge on the assassination squad who attempted to kill her while she was pregnant. From the get-go, Thurman’s character is subjected to countless acts of violence – even in the hospital, she isn’t safe from the threat of rape. As the movie unravels, The Bride trains to become the best assassin she can possibly be, killing a string of people on her quest for self-fulfilment.
These themes of revenge and strength, alongside Thurman’s depiction of pure fearlessness and determination, have often led to Kill Bill being labelled a work of feminist cinema, which is understandable. However, a more nuanced reading suggests that maybe Kill Bill isn’t the feminist fable many of us have been led to believe. That doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy the film; it simply means looking at it with a more considered and analytical lens, one that encourages us to acknowledge how the movie both succeeds and fails as a story of empowerment.
Tarantino’s centring on a strong female character gives us a rare action hero that isn’t male, which makes Kill Bill a welcome addition to the genre in this respect. Thurman plays The Bride incredibly, imbuing her with a sense of resilience and need for vengeance that has undoubtedly inspired many female viewers, particularly victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence, in its wake. Moreover, in contrast to many female action stars, The Bride wears an outfit that doesn’t sexualise her body. She isn’t depicted in scantily-clad costumes for the pleasure of male viewers, unlike characters such as Lara Croft, for example.
Yet, despite the strength of Thurman’s character, she is hardly defined by anything else other than her quest for revenge. As she gets splattered in blood, fights off domineering men and wields an unmistakably phallic sword, Kill Bill comes to feel like one giant male fantasy made by a man whose main aim certainly wasn’t to uplift female viewers and condemn male violence against women.
This is made abundantly clear by the copious behind-the-scenes stories about Kill Bill, which suggest that Tarantino didn’t have Thurman’s best interests at heart. She was made to perform her own stunts at Tarantino’s behest, which resulted in her crashing a car and receiving serious injuries. Moreover, the director was quick to get involved in scenes which involved violence towards Thurman, telling The New York Times that Tarantino spit at and choked her when the actors who were meant to be doing it on-screen weren’t visible.
Thurman’s accounts of making Kill Bill hardly suggest that Tarantino had any traces of feminism on his mind when writing the project. Taking this into consideration, it is interesting to think about how much of the film relies on the male fantasy of a fetishised tough, strong woman – one who manages to still look gorgeous in a lingering close-up while enduring suffering. It is no secret that many men get off on watching women engaging in fights and being inflicted with/inflicting pain, and there are many scenes in Kill Bill which seem to reflect this longstanding phenomenon.
Violence against women in Kill Bill is relentless, and it becomes tiring to watch The Bride (and other female characters) being shot in hyper-stylised ways as they are consistently inflicted with pain. At the same time, it would be wrong to say that these fight scenes, such as the stand-off between The Bride and Gogo, aren’t wholly entertaining slices of action cinema. It is also reassuring that many of the sequences see women fighting other women rather than men simply brutalising women – although this leads us to wonder if this is still Tarantino playing into another kind of male fantasy again.
To put it simply, Kill Bill is not exactly a feminist film. At first glance, it seems to have the makings of one, but the reality is that Tarantino’s beloved martial arts flick is more of a male fantasy than a tale of female empowerment. It is still a fantastically enjoyable piece of cinema – just one that we should perhaps hold off from calling a feminist classic.
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