But let’s start at the beginning. We first meet Beatrix Kiddo (also known as Black Mamba) when she’s lying on the floor, and blood is pouring from her nose. She’s sweaty, and her pained facial expression tells us how badly she’s hurt. Bill, her former lover (David Carradine), leans in close and wipes her bloody chin. A beat passes and bang! A gun fires directly into Kiddo’s head. Not before she hurries to inform Bill that she’s carrying his baby.
Although we know that Hollywood has a problem with violence towards women (more about that later), in Kiddo’s case, females responded to and were profoundly impacted by Thurman’s most iconic character. Although partly created by Tarantino, Beatrix Kiddo is much more of Thurman’s creation. That factor multiplies her influence even more.
“I Roared, And I Rampaged, And I Got Bloody Satisfaction.”
Beatrix Kiddo is a strong, independent woman when we meet her, but it takes her some time to get where she is. Her path to her true self is presented in the second volume. As the embodiment of #MeToo, women see Kiddo first and foremost, as a woman, then as an assassin and a mother. Her satisfaction with the acts of revenge she is perpetuating is keenly felt in every action she takes.
“Beatrix Kiddo is invincible. She’s not giving up and fights back.”
Seeing Kiddo’s pain and grief over her unborn child after the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (the very skilled and lethal group she was once a part of) put her into a four-year coma breaks the audience’s heart. Simultaneously, we are eagerly root for her to exact some simple yet very bloody revenge. After waking up, she kills her rapists, who hurt her while in the coma. Then stashing away in the legendary P***y Wagon, a yellow truck belonging to the man who let others violate her unconscious body, Kiddo wiggles her big toe. She’s now ready to start her killing spree.
In Volume 1, the character concentrates on Vernita “Copperhead” Green (Vivica A. Fox) and O-Ren “Cottonmouth” Ishii (Lucy Liu), who contributed to her alleged death; both of whom were assisting Bill in his revenge. In the spectacular apogee and final battle, she fights the latter with the mythical Hanzo sword.
The scene in which Black Mamba battles the Crazy 88 gang and then stands face to face with O-Ren is one of the most beautifully coordinated, perfectly mastered combat scenes of all time. While snow is falling around them, both women fight for their life. “You may not be able to fight like a samurai, but you can at least die like a samurai,” O-Ren says after pushing Kiddo to the koi pond. But we know she’s wrong. Beatrix Kiddo is invincible. She’s not giving up and fights back. O-Ren doesn’t expect her amazing skills when it comes to swords.
Thurman’s character is genuinely undefeatable, but that doesn’t mean she cannot get hurt or is impervious to pain. It’s similar to Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde. When O-Ren fights Kiddo, she gets hurt, but that gives her struggles and eventual victory, that much more authenticity.
If you want to stick with the Kill Bill narrative, O-Ren watched her whole family get slaughtered and she worked her way to the top just to, you know, SHOW ’em.