Textual Analysis

Characters
The film's main protagonist , The Bride, A.K.A. Beatrix Kiddo, abandons her life as a hired assassin for the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (D.V.A.S.) upon realizing she is pregnant with Bill's child, denying him the right of fatherhood. This action provokes the attacks on her and her loved ones and its ensuing revenge, which is the entire basis of the film. The Bride shares a unique relationship with each of the D.V.A.S. members, as evidenced by the way they speak and interact with one another. Her code-name whilst working for D.V.A.S. was Black Mamba.

Bill is the main antagonist of the film, though his role eventually changes to more of an antihero. He is the leader of the D.V.A.S., to which The Bride formerly belonged, and also her former sweet-heart. He and the four remaining Deadly Vipers attempt to kill her after she learns she is carrying Bill's child and leaves him without warning. Though the squad has since disbanded, he is still in touch with each of its former members.


O-Ren Ishii / Cottonmouth is a half-Chinese, half-Japanese American woman who, after seeing her parents brutally murdered at the age of nine years under the orders of a Japanese mob boss, becomes an expert assassin proficient in sniper marksmanship and sword fighting. Though once a member of the Deadly Vipers, she eventually became the head of the Tokyo Yakuza and possessed her own body-guard army, the Crazy 88 (see below). O-Ren is fiercely proud of her heritage, going so far as to kill her own subordinate when he vented his frustration over being led by "a half-breed Chinese-Jap-American bitch". There are several clues that she and the Bride were close friends before the massacre, such as their "silly rabbit" inside joke, as well as O-Ren's apology and the Bride's tears at her death.



Vernita Green, A.K.A. Copperhead, is a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She took part in the massacre at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel. She is second on The Bride's "Death List Five." Four years after the massacre she is living a normal life under the alias of Jeanie Bell. She is trained in hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting, and it is hinted that she and The Bride share a mutual, professional, respect for each other. At the start of the first movie, they engage in a vicious fight, destroying Vernita's living room in the process. They are interrupted, however, when Green's four-year-old daughter Nikki comes home from school. Green sends her to her room and she talks with the Bride over coffee, apologizing for betraying her and asking for mercy on behalf of her family. The Bride coldly refuses and they agree to meet in the middle of the night to have a knife fight. However, Vernita betrays her promise, and tries to shoot the Bride with a handgun concealed within a cereal box (named Kaboom). She misses and the Bride throws a knife into her heart, killing her. Her death is witnessed by Nikki which the Bride had not intended.

Elle Driver, A.K.A. California Mountain Snake, is another swordswoman loyal to Bill. Unlike the Bride's relationship with O-Ren and Vernita, where there seemed to be a genuine friendship and professional respect, Elle and the Bride despise each other with a passion. Nonetheless, they do seem to treat each other with a grudging respect. Elle even describes the Bride as "the greatest warrior [she] had ever met" and also said that she deserved better than to have supposedly met her end at the hands of someone like Budd. (The latter claim, however, this seemed to be mere vanity in that she was declaring herself the one worthy to kill The Bride.) She was trained by Pai Mei, like Bill and The Bride, but Elle disrespected Pai Mei and he plucked out her right eye. She has worn a distinctive eye-patch ever since. In retaliation, she murdered Pai Mei by poisoning his fish heads. She is depicted as greedy and sadistic, while offering large amounts of money to buy The Bride's Hanzo sword from Budd, and planting a black mamba (the Bride's namesake) in the suit-case carrying this money. The black mamba bites Budd and kills him. In their climactic fight, The Bride pulls out Elle's remaining eye and leaves her for dead alone in the trailer with the black mamba. Elle's fate is left ambiguous, and in the film's end credits, when lines are drawn through the names of the Deadly Vipers, Elle's is left with a question mark over it.

And Finally Bill's degenerate brother, Budd, codename Sidewinder, is recognised by Bill as 'the only man I ever loved'. He was the only other male Deadly Viper and, since the assassination squad's disbandment, took to living in a mobile home, where he steadily became a poor alcoholic, making ends meet by working as a bouncer at a strip club. Bill warned Budd of his impending danger, but when the Bride does find him, he sees through her sneak attack, shoots her with rock salt (making him the only Deadly Viper to single handedly defeat The Bride), buries her alive (later described as a 'Texas funeral') and steals her priceless sword. She escapes her casket, but not before Elle has planted a live black mamba (the Bride's codename) that kills Budd. Budd once owned a Hattori Hanzo katana, and told Bill and Elle that he had sold it for $250 in El Paso (Budd lied; The Bride later found the sword in a golf bag in Budd's trailer). When told by Bill that Beatrix was coming to kill him, Budd philosophically said "that woman deserves her revenge. And we deserve to die. But then again, so does she." It is unknown what type of relationship he had with the Bride prior to the massacre. He told The Bride that her live burial was retribution for breaking Bill's heart. During Bill and Budd's confrontation Bill mentions an unpleasant event between the two of them that Budd was apparently angry at Bill for, but this event is not elaborated on.

Narrative
In kill bill volume 1, bill has become the biggest unknown enemy to not just Beatrix kiddo but to the audience aswell and they really want to know who he is. This is what makes bill the biggest enigma in this film. The only information the audience knows about him is that he ordered an assassination on his best assassin and she survived n she is really angered by it, and all Beatrix wants to know is where bill is. We all these questions lead her to killing off all of her assassin comrades who aided in her failed assassination.
In kill bill volume 2 we finally find out who bill is and the love storybehind bill and Beatrix but it does not stop her killing him with a forbidden kung fuu move. Suspense i created in this by doing alot of cut scenes when it gets to the really intense parts.
Information is kept away from the audience in volume 1 by bleeping out Beatrixs name, we do not find out what she is called until the end of volume 2.

Themes
Kill bill is unique because of the kind of thriller it is. The film is an epic-length revenge drama, with homages to earlier film genres, such as Hong Kong martial arts films, Romantic Love films Japanese Chanbara films, exploitation films and Italian spaghetti westerns; an extensive use of popular music and pop culture references; and aestheticization of violence. This was done to bring in a varied demographic of people that is why this thriller is unlike no other, because it has all other thriller sub-genres rolled into one.