Why do people like the "Kill Bill" movies?

[m-jean03]

How can you handle that much graphic violence?

It just makes me sick to watch, and to think we are so numb and cynical that these movies are considered the ultimately cool thing among many younger people.

[Dookus]

1. the violence was cartoonish

most of the time, and a literal cartoon for some parts.

I found Reservoir Dogs MUCH more violent, in a close, personal way. Kill Bill was comic violence.

[m-jean03]

9. I don't understand "comic violence"

Unless you're talking about The Three Stooges, who I love.

It may have been intended to be ironic or tongue-in-cheek, but it looks real.
People are killed, brutalized, bloodlet.

And people watching these movies watch it in part for the thrill of seeing violent death that is "just special effects" but looks like the real thing. The people who make them speak of the "poetry of violence".

To me, it is perverse, Roman.

To me, the ultimate cinematic poetry is the movie musical. Whole, intact people expressing a "joie de vivre" through song and dance.

[Dookus]

28. My point is that the violence

is so over the top as to not be horrifying, but rather comic.

Somebody else mentioned "We Were Soldiers". There were scenes in that movie that horrified me infinitely more than anything I saw in Kill Bill.

I guess it comes down to if you can imagine the violence happening to you. The Kill Bill stuff was so outrageous, it never once occurred to me that *I* could have my arm cut off by a ninja-assassin. But watching "We Were Soldiers", I could easily imagine the skin on my legs being burned so badly that the skin would come off when someone tried to move me.

The comic violence just isn't "personal" to me.

[ender]

40. its a real-actor anime flick...

complete with ultra violence of japanese anime/manga

the movies are quite ground-breaking, really...

at least we were spared the alien-tentacle-rape-schoolgirl bits of manga...

[Forkboy]

46. Prezactly!

[7th_Sephiroth]

2. theres a difference between movie violence

and real violence, if you dont like it, dont watch it,i think it makes for a good story "pissed off assasin in love" basically

[ixion]

3. I am a pacifist,

and yet I enjoy Kill Bill and other movies. I also like first person shooter video games, yet I think that violence, in reality, is a bad thing.

There is a difference between movies and video games vs. reality, and the important thing is to understand that difference. ;-)

[Kid_A]

10. Amen, bother/sister/other...

An old roommate asked me how I can be so liberal but still play games like Grand Theft Auto. I said it's because I can tell the difference between reality and virtual reality, and I don't see any hypocrisy there at all.

Take the game Manhunt. It's hands-down the most violent and disturbing game I've ever played, but also one of the most well-made and engrossing. When the graphic violence is backed up by excellent design, then I see playing a violent game as the same thing as watching a well-made but violent movie.

[Connie_Corleone]

4. Graphic Violence

The violence is so cartoonish and over the top, that it doesn't bother me.

The graphic violence in some horror movies is far worse to me.

I like horror movies, but not the graphically violent ones. There's some good PG-13 horror movies out there without all of that violence. They go more for the scare than the gross.

[lovedems]

5. Quentin Tarentino ROCKS!

I liked Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction better. I generally don't like graphic violence but Tarentino movies are the exception to my rules. He tells a very interesting story.

[Jack_Dawson]

6. Why do people watch beheadings?

I don't, but a lot of sickos do. To each his own I guess...

[Shrek]

7. As others have said

The violence was so over-the-top that it was impossible to take seriously.

I find movies like We Were Soldiers to be a lot more disturbing, both for the realism of the violence and for the unflinching portrayal of its consequences.

[m-jean03]

15. Yeah, but there is a point to watching We Were Soldiers

A movie like that is *intended* to disturb, to sadden, to make the viewer aware of the evil and pure waste of war. It serves an important purpose.

Kill Bill, on the other hand, is supposed to be "fun" entertainment. I don't understand watching that much destruction of fellow human beings as "fun".

I guess I can't argue with those who say "I couldn't take the violence seriously" because maybe we all function on different levels of sensitivity. For me, movies ARE ALL the "feelies" of Brave New World. I have a peculiar level of empathy, I guess.

I relate intensely to what I see on screen, and while it can make a film a wonderful experience, or a profound one, it can also be very painful and disturbing when I find myself watching pure violence disguised as entertainment.

[Rainbowreflect]

33. I'm with you, I just don't get it.

My husband is a very kind, gentle, non violent man and he loves violent & gory movies. They just make me ill.

[m-jean03]

36. Thanks!

And I don't question the basic goodness and peacefulness of the many folks who do like these movies. My dad is like your husband.

I guess everyone just has a different threshold for pain.

[DrWeird]

8. Graphic violence?

I don't know, maybe because IT'S FICTION!!

Hello, Saving Private Ryan? Indiana Jones? TItus Andronicus?

[vi5]

11. Oh please....it's called knowing fiction from reality...

I love horror movies and ultraviolent movies. The same way I enjoy gritty and violent novels. I can tell when something is fiction and when it is reality.

I would have never dreamed in a million years of watching the Nick Berg video. I had to turn my head and close my eyes during the scenes of carnage in F911. That stuff is real. I have no desire to see real horror or violence.

[m-jean03]

19. "Knowing fiction from reality"

This is, I suppose, a function of the Supreme Intelligent Modern Mind.

Feeling, reacting empathetically to things we see is a reaction of the body to what we rightly percieve to be an abomination.

The thing about Kill Bill, and movies like it, is that IF YOU WEREN'T TOLD you were watching fiction -- say, if you were plucked out of an aboriginal society in the jungles of South America, and made to endure that movie -- you *wouldn't know* that it was fiction. It is that realistic.

My feeling is that many modern people are overly analytical, and the overuse of our minds blocks us from feeling fully.

So while my mind may tell me, this is only fiction, my body is reacting very differently, viscerally, primitively to a percieved horror.

[Beware the Beast Man]

20. Then again, those in the aboriginal society

May not have the aversion to gore as we do. Remember, they have to hunt and kill to survive.

[m-jean03]

26. Yeah, but killing animals for food

In what is probably a supremely reverential manner, isn't the same as killing people.

And I didn't mean just aboriginal. I just meant, innocent, peaceful, sensitive and not in the habit of overriding what they feel with what their minds tell them they SHOULD feel.

We are cynical, we are over-stimulated, we are numb and we, though not I, can handle excessive violence for these reasons. That is my firm belief.

[DrWeird]

21. Are you kidding?

1. Just because they're from South American jungles doesn't mean they're stupid.

2. Half of the movie is a frickin' cartoon.

3. The other half is about as realistic as the Black Knight scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

4. Aborigines see plenty of violence themselves.

[m-jean03]

25. No, it doesn't mean they are stupid

(And not all aboriginal people see/saw "plenty of violence.")

But let's go back in time, before violent movies became common, before movies even. Take someone who is not aboriginal, just innocent and unmodern, say an Irish farm girl from 1781.

I'm not saying these people are stupid, unless you're saying I am stupid. The violent scenes look like violent scenes. There are some cartoons, but they are separate from the rest of the film.

I'm just of the belief that our hyper-analytical and over-stimulated society these days has collectively dulled senses. Analytical thought is the opposite of emotion, you learned that in philosophy class right?

Like I said before, I have a perhaps peculiar level of empathy/sensitivity.

We can have separate beliefs about what is realistic, but to me, this looks real. People look like they are being slaughtered and dying, and my body chemicals react as if to real-life horror.

[Frangible]

27. Odd

My reaction to the Crazy 88 fight scene was that of boredom. I didn't find it particularily interesting (except for the O-Ren and whatshername with the chain and ball) and it got tedious/boring. All of the effects were obviously faked, and I found the entire premise to be rather ludicrous and the dialog not up to Tarentino's usual standards.

Tarentino's point in that scene, was that no matter what the odds, the hero could never lose, because they are the hero.

The only movie I've ever seen that really disturbed me was Schindler's List.

[DrWeird]

29. Aborigines see a lot more violence then modern westerners do.

Aside from all the hunting and butchering, violent crime is much more common in aboriginal societies. You're far more likely to die a violent death as an aborigine then a westerner.

Why, there was just a two-day battle among New Guinea aboriginies fought with bows and arrows that made the news.

Anywho, an Irish farm girl from 1781? Well, she'd certainly be able to tell you that the blood in Kill Bill was a couple of shades of red too light to be real. And it also, of course, does not spray like that. Then there's all the fictional graphic violence she's exposed to in her own society. The Bible, for instance.

[Frangible]

23. Erm, no

"It is that realistic."

I hate to break it to you, but the blood in Kill Bill does not obey the laws of physics. Not to mention you can't even own swords in Japan.

And the anime part in Japan isn't realistic. You know, being friggin anime and all.

[m-jean03]

30. Well, neither does the blood in Pingu Bash or whatever that

game is where you hit the penguin with a spike club and send it flying across the minefield where it's blown up in a dozen pieces.

We can respectfully disagree about whether this "less realistic" violence is better than "more realistic" violence. I am simply of the belief that it's a negative thing to make our entertainment, a thing that reinforces cynicism and world-weariness and dulls our collective empathetic pain receptors.

[Frangible]

31. It's acting

What empathetic pain? Seriously. It's acting. What is there to have empathy for... actors making millions of dollars?

Even my dog knows its fake. If there was a human in pain my dog would get pretty worried, but during Kill Bill she just lied there and looked away in disinterest.

[ender]

41. how can you say that?

>you *wouldn't know* that it was fiction. It is that realistic.

you're telling me that you thought it was *realistic* that a petite woman could chop off dozens arms, legs and heads with a sword, in one chop each, and every single one of them start shooting blood like a garden hose?

thats realistic?

[m-jean03]

45. It was realistic enough --

See my post about the bastardized Pingu game.

In my opinion, most people, without all this mental justification you're giving me, in a state of simple awareness that our modern lifestyle makes very difficult, would find these things very horrific. Human beings inflicting senseless, brutal violence on each other for entertainment is reminiscent of the Colusseum shows of the Roman Empire.

This is my belief, and you may disagree with me. I feel that people these days are very desensitized to violence of all kinds. I don't fault them for it individually, as it is merely a trend in society, but on the whole I think it is a harmful thing.

There is an excellent book that takes on fictional violence in Hollywood and video games, and talks about how repeated exposure to it lessens our inhibitions to killing and observing violence in real life; it's called "On Killing", by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.

[yankeeinlouisiana]

12. What I want to know

is why did Bill want to kill the Bride?? I saw the first one and I don't think I want to see the second one. But why did he want the Bride dead?

[Beware the Beast Man]

13. I'll tell you, but it would be a spoiler

And i'd rather not do that to those who havent seen the films yet. PM me if you'd like to know.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

14. because it is not real.

i find the choreography of fighting sequences to be very interesting. i consider it an art. i think it is neat to watch, however when i know that violence is real, it bothers me a great deal. i feel very uncomfortable watching ultimate fighting and other real violence.

it is not real, that is how i can watch it. i enjoy watching a staged fight, it has the intensity of observing a real fight without the sickening feeling of realising someone is getting hurt.

it seems harmless to me, i am an extremely passive person, i have never been in a fight, i grew up playing violent video games and i continue to play first person shooter games daily.

[Frangible]

16. What violence?

"How can you handle that much graphic violence? "

There was no violence. Only acting. No one was hurt.

Fantasy... reality...

[AVID]

17. don't get it either nt

[Beware the Beast Man]

18. Personally-

The sight of blood makes me sick. The sight of corn syrup mixed with red food coloring doesn't.

[m-jean03]

22. It sure looked real enough to me.

Hell, even "symbolic" blood-letting in the crudest kind of animated video game sickens me. My body reads the symbolism: whole living being, violently destroyed.

Gets me in my gut every time.

But I applaud the ability of everyone here to distinguish fiction from reality.
I certainly would be the last person to try to ban the things I found offensive.

I just question the use of graphic violence as entertainment in our culture, and I wonder if it does gradually dull our empathy receptors.

[Beware the Beast Man]

24. It's a primal instinct

Very few people these days kill their own food, nor do they take a rock to strike their own brother (ideally). We're packed into boxes 8-12 hours a day staring into monitors, with no release. Entertainment that simulates violence (as well as sports) are the only acceptable releases we have left to satisfy that primal urge. That and war, but war sucks.

Just to clarify, I'm not advocating anything, just theorizing, in case you think I'm loony! :hi:

[CBHagman]

32. I genuinely despise Quentin Tarantino.

It's not just his mind-set or the crappy supporting acting roles (Destiny Turns on the Radio, anyone?), but the fact that he was overrated so fast. It doesn't help that he has such a dismissive attitude towards other directors.

Anyway, I have no use for his approach to move-making. Get another shtick.

[RetroLounge]

34. Yes, I agree with you. Go rent a nice movie instead

Like Natural Born Killers...

RL

Clue Phone: Use the off button...

[Endangered Specie]

35. Guys. like. violence.

just as much as sex ;)

[m-jean03]

39. But why?

That's what I want to understand. (Plus, you do generalize. Not all guys like violence.)

I don't mind a certain amount of violence. Sometimes it's necessary to get a plot to advance, or to illustrate a situation. I liked "Rocky" & "Lethal Weapon"... realistic but ungratuitous. The plot didn't revolve around the slaughter or beating. And I like some zombie/supernatural horror films, because to me THAT is comic violence, plus it delivers the "scare the shit out of me" factor that this empath supremely enjoys. :)

[Endangered Specie]

42. ...

That is a good question, Im not sure why some (most, not all) guys like action/violence. It probably has something to do with being exposed to it at an early age through culture and society.

Everyone is very suseptable to social pressures, and now (and in the past), guys, according to the dictates of society, are to like violence, gratutitous sex, sports and whatnot. Somewhat like the pressures on women in society, they may be wrong/stupid, but they are.

People who make this stuff get alot of $$$$$$, so its in their interest to keep guys hooked on it.


I didnt mean to over-sterotype men, since, Id like to think Im somewhat of an exception. But, being an observant creature, who has first, second and third hand experience of the average diet of the 18-24 male, its hard to see many exceptions.

[m-jean03]

44. I think you're probably right

It still makes me very sad. I have a cousin I grew up with who joined the Army because of this mentality and little more; he is now learning the hard way that it is not all fun and games.

Thanks for your thoughtful response, ES. :hi:

[sus]

37. because they ROCK!

JUDO PUNCH!

[zbdent]

38. Freepers thought it was Hillary's diary

even though they saw it in the theatres.

[Baclava]

43. Violent movies on TV WILL get us all killed...

Remember how all this is being broadcast into space?
Who knows what the aliens watching will read into us? They won't be sending the little greys the next time...it'll be the badasses...

Oh well, our species needs culling anyway - 6 Billion and counting...mindless, seething, squirming masses of humanity...like maggots in an open wound. No wonder the earth rejects us.

[Donkeyboy75]

47. It's scary how true the second half of your post is.

And...who knows?...maybe the first. :shrug:

[AlFrankenFan]

48. The violence is just so exaggerated

And the plot is relatively good, too.