A short while back someone posted a query about films related to the crisis
in masculinity and Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs was mentioned. After recently
seeing Kill Bill: Vol 2 and an interesting conversation with a friend, I
began to wonder if this too is not a kind of parable about the crisis in
masculinity. More specifically, the film seems to address the issue of
strong women and the threat they pose to traditional roles of masculinity --
Bill is an "older man" and corresponds to a more traditional version of
masculinity. He is not only a father figure, but a teacher or mentor -- a
role men often fulfil in relation to women --so this further complicates the
relationship. According to the Hegelian dialectic, doesn't the student have
to slay the teacher in order to be free? Or is this more of a psychological
dilemma, and hence Freudian, or even Lacanian? I don't know if anyone out
there is interesting in pursuing this, but it strikes me as worth
investigating. Even in Pulp Fiction the female character is bound by a
powerful male, a black man in this case. Then looking back at Reservoir
Dogs, one can perhaps see the stage being set for the upcoming crisis. I
don't agree with the critic, about writing Kill Bill off. It seems that
there is a progression or line of development here, one that is
intrinsically linked to gender issues. Does anyone know of any insightful
feminist readings of Tarantino's films?
Regards,
Elaine Pigeon,
Concordia University
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