Thursday 1 March 2012

Tarantino's use of Inter-textuality in Kill Bill 2 from the ending of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" ----Unfinished

Quentin Tarantino has made a very significant intertextual reference between the 2004 Kill Bill Volume 2 and the 1966 western “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.” This intertextual reference is used in the form of landscape, the scenes from both films show a baron and limitless landscape that connote isolation. The use of the deserted landscapes is also present in many other thriller films, such as in Animal Kingdom when Craig runs away from the police and Essex boys when Jason leaves his victim stranded in the inescapable marshes. In addition to this 10 years after “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly,” Clint Eastwood directed his own western style film called “High Plain Drifter” and in the opening scene of this a very similar landscape is used as well as music, inferring the same isolated and ruthlessness.




Tarantino uses this inter-textual reference to present the Bride as an iconic heroin. In “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” the good character is called Blondie, similarly to this the good character in Kill Bill is The Bride [Bellatrix.] Because of the similarities between the two characters the audience can infer that they are both knowledgeable and courageous figures, this is reflected in the buried alive scene from Kill Bill and the Digging for Money scene in “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.”
The song used by Tarantino is “Ecstasy of Gold” by Ennio Morricone, a distinctive composer that has collaborated with Sergeo Leoni on many occasions. The song is used perfectly, it encapsulates the struggles that The bride is going to go through and the song starts just as Bud has finished digging her grave, and in “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” it is used just as the three are entering the baron fighting ground, which is coincidently surrounded by a graveyard. The use of this song and it’s intertextuality indicates to the audience that Bellatrix is brave, strong hearted and that she will get escape death for sure. It is also a very good indication that Blondie will defeat his foes and continue to live on, the song has been used in a very effective manner as it foreshadows future struggles that the hero type characters will evade from.