Kill Him, But Be Fair

Ron Rosenbaum's essay on Kill Bill (and other cinematic exercises in style) makes some good points, but still misses the boat. His argument is allusions to other films don't create deeper meaning. As he puts it, "referentiality itself is not an intrinsic aesthetic value."

Well, duh. Every single fan of Kill Bill I know (and I'm not one) likes it because of exciting action, cool dialogue, interesting plot--you know, the stuff one assumes Rosenbaum likes. Sure, some are into catching all the references, which make it that much more fun, but no one I know thinks mere references make a movie--otherwise experts playing the silver screen edition of Trivial Pursuit would be a great film.

When Tarantino made the Kill Bill duo, certainly he was saluting many of the films he'd loved. Why not? Filmmakers from Kurosawa to Godard have been doing it since there was a film history to salute. The trick is to do it in a way that's original and entertaining. If Rosenbaum thinks Tarantino's failed, fine, but don't accuse him of a crime he didn't commit.

Speaking of criticism that's a bit off, let's turn to Slate. In particular, Clive Thompson, who writes about "gaming and technology." He apparently needs to brush up a bit on film.

His latest piece puts forward the thesis that Star Wars fans make better films than George Lucas does. It's a cheap shot, but sounds like it could be fun. However, while discussing one fan's film, Revelations, he states it "retains the funky vibe of the original Star Wars, down to the kitschy, '70s-style wipes...."

The kitschy, '70s-style wipes? Back in 1977, when fans first saw what is now Episode IV of Star Wars, their reaction was "wow, isn't it cool that Lucas has revived those wipes that you never see anymore--he's wedded classic-style adventure with state of the art stuff. And hey, look at that great vertical wipe when they're lifting someone and it helps them along."

Okay, maybe they didn't verbalize it, but that's how they felt. Far from being '70's style, wipes were extremely old-fashioned by then and Lucas made them cool again.