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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1499399" data-attributes="member: 812">I'm not saying she was a GOOD person at the end of the story. I'm just saying she changed.See, we disagree fundamentally. Beatrix did NOT change prior to the massacre -- that's the WHOLE POINT of the movie. She was lying to herself prior to the massacre. Sure, she'd convinced herself that she'd changed, but she'd been unwilling to do what was necessary in order to actually transform her life.She'd been afraid to confront Bill, to face the real consequences of her life of murder and violence, and it caught up with her in a bad way and destroyed what she THOUGHT she'd been willing to accept. In the process, she lost that which had triggered her desire for change in the first place -- her child.It's only through the course of the story that she acquires the courage and the compassion to take herself into the darkest corners of herself, to confront that which ultimately defines her, and destroy it.You're just hand-waving the actual evidence in the movie, the fact that her confrontation with Bill is DRASTICALLY different from her confrontation with O-Ren, that her behaviour is different and that the presentation of her behaviour is different -- all of which indicates that we are meant to see this action as DIFFERENT from the former one. That we are meant to see her in a different light, as a different person.If you want to say, "Things look different, but I know they haven't changed," go ahead. I'll take the story as it is and assume that when something is presented in a different manner, it's because things have CHANGED.But it IS different. The fact that she DOESN'T go crazy until somebody wrongs her is completely different than at the beginning of the film -- where she slaughters a host of people who haven't done anything to her.Look at the progression of the "Crazy Bride Scene":1. Hearing Sofie's cell phone ring (it's not even somebody who did anything to her, just a reminder of what happened)2. Confronting Vernita Green face-to-face3. After Budd has buried her alive4. ...nothingYou don't see a transformation there, well, I can't force you to. It seems clear to me.Okay, so you wish that this film expressed a moral stance that you agree with -- that is, that revenge is bad in and of itself. I agree that this film does not show us that -- or at least, if doesn't show us that in an unproblematic manner. But I suggest again that this film is not primarily about revenge. It's about self-transformation and the pain and heartbreak that involves. It's about the fact that if you really truly want a new life, you'd better be prepared to sacrifice what you always thought defined you. You'd better be prepared to destroy what you love most.You're going to meet the Buddha on the road. Kill him.My wife had exactly the same thought.It's interesting to note that O-Ren and the Bride appear to have no animosity -- in contrast to Vernita Green, who's pretty hostile ("I shoulda been mutha-f***ing Black Mamba"), Budd and his sympathetic savagery ("That woman deserves her revenge"), and Elle's untempered venom ("Oh, you don't owe her s***!"). I don't think it's a coincidence. Note also that O-Ren gets a long backstory to make us sympathetic to her -- I think the Bride likes O-Ren (or did, before... you know). It seems like they might have been friends at one point.It's exactly this sort of tantalizing detail, these unspoken connections between characters that are NOT spelled out for the audience, that makes me love this film. It lets me use my imagination to fill out the story. It doesn't try to explain everything. Good stuff.</blockquote>

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