Quentin Tarantino and Philosophy (28 page)

Clearly, cutting off Sophie’s arm of in front of O-Ren is no sign of compassion. Beatrix herself, before killing Vernita in the kitchen, says, “It’s mercy, and compassion, and forgiveness I lack.” To follow the Buddhist path Beatrix has to be compassionate and she just isn’t. She doesn’t have a genuine concern for living creatures. At the beginning of this chapter we mentioned the Dalai Lama, who said that the Buddha permitted killing under certain circumstances. Unfortunately for Beatrix’s enlightenment, killing for revenge is not one of those circumstances. Conditions that might merit killing in Buddhism are typically ones in which the only way to avert the death of a certain number of sentient beings is to kill a lesser number. Beatrix was not faced with such a situation
and under no Buddhist system is her relentless bloodbath acceptable.

Beatrix lives in the interconnected, interdependent world of
Kill Bill
where the law of causation (Karma) is in full effect. On one level she understands
her
interconnectedness with the world and her place in it. Unfortunately, she doesn’t see the extent of interconnectedness. Her understanding is limited. She sees Bill and the assassination squad as the cause of her suffering, so she kills Bill and the assassination squad. What she doesn’t see is that this is only a band-aid and that more suffering will occur.

What if someone else massacres her next wedding? Will she go on another rampage? Is she completely free from suffering now? A Buddhist would answer “No” since a Buddhist can see deeper than superficial causes and results to emptiness. To truly end suffering, Beatrix has to look inside and begin to eliminate that internal static. Now we understand her lack of compassion: her lack of a true understanding of interdependence does not allow compassion to grow.

But Beatrix can be enlightened yet. In Buddhism, when an organism dies, it is reincarnated as another organism. It’s common to present this idea through the metaphor of a candle: the dull, flickering flame of an old candle (the dying organism) is transferred to the flame of a new candle (the reincarnation of the dead organism). Buddhists believe that the impermanence of life continues beyond death. There is no self; a person is not the same person he was a year ago or ten minutes ago. Each moment gives rise to another, and another, and another—and in this there is a momentum that carries beyond death. It is this momentum that is reborn. There is an ordering principle (your mind) that gives you your identity and perspective. It is birth-less and deathless, continually manifesting itself in sentient beings. So if Beatrix can’t be enlightened in this life, then maybe she can in the next. Or the one after that. If Beatrix is able to cultivate the right wisdom and compassion—if she can water the right seeds—then she can be enlightened in some future rebirth.

Another concept we haven’t mentioned yet is Buddha Nature.
¹⁴⁰
Because all creatures possess Buddha Nature (the potential to be enlightened), all creatures can, of course, potentially be enlightened. So, yes, Beatrix can be enlightened, but so can Charles Manson, and so can Buddy. Over many rebirths, Beatrix can possibly attain enlightenment as she comes to understand the ultimate nature of reality and follows the Buddhist path.

But there’s yet another route for Beatrix. In Zen Buddhism, there are two roads to enlightenment: a sudden or instant one and a gradual trajectory towards enlightenment.
¹⁴¹
The idea in sudden enlightenment is that a person reaches Nirvana instantly without rebirths, without a lifetime of practice, and with little cultivation of Buddhist principles. The problem is that it’s very, very, very difficult. Sudden enlightenment is the realization of your own Buddha Nature, that peace and enlightenment are dormant within you. It is not something “over there” that you work towards but an actualization of the joy that has been covered by the deluded mind and attachment. It’s also easy for people to claim that they’re enlightened when they’re clearly not. Monks, in fact, are examined by their teachers to verify claims of enlightenment and levels of understanding.

Beatrix’s possible case for sudden enlightenment is in the last scene in
Kill Bill Volume 2
. She’s just killed Bill, and she’s in a hotel with her daughter, with whom she’s been reunited after four years. As her daughter watches TV, Beatrix rolls around on the bathroom floor in ecstasy with the door closed. She’s laughing. She’s crying with joy. She’s in a new world of emotion. There is an old Zen saying: “If you’re not laughing, you’re not getting it.” So is Beatrix enlightened?

We decline to give a definitive answer as there may not be one. We leave the decision to the reader. But we leave the
reader who answers in the affirmative with the following thoughts: how will Beatrix respond to Vernita’s daughter, Nikki, if she seeks revenge in the future? If Beatrix does anything but extend a compassionate hand to Nikki, she is not enlightened.
¹⁴²

AARON C. ANDERSON
is a Ph.D. student in Literature at the University of California, San Diego. In between consuming tasty meals at Big Kahuna Burger and debating the esoteric meanings of obscure song lyrics to K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the 1970s, he studies hip-hop and reggae culture, theoretical and applied Marxism, and psychoanalysis with an eye to contemporary U.S. and Japanese film studies.

 

TRAVIS ANDERSON
is Associate Professor of Philosophy and former Director of International Cinema at Brigham Young University. He generally publishes on topics involving the phenomenology of art, film, and architecture. His response to grumbling students is to paraphrase Mr. White: “You complain to me in a dream, you’d better wake up and apologize.”

 

RANDALL AUXIER
lives in the French Quarter of “Illinois,” which is a corruption of a Native American word for “boring, endless fields of maize.” There are two notable features of his hometown of Carbondale, a university at which he teaches, and a small cinema which shows only French films and Tarantino movies. He may be found in attendance at one of the two, but not both.

 

MICHAEL BRUCE
holds multiple degrees in philosophy and hopes to make it as a professional Ninja. If that does not work out, he plans to fall back on his safety occupation—acting.

 

MARK T. CONARD
is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. He’s the co-editor of
The Simpsons and Philosophy
(2001) and
Woody Allen and Philosophy
(2004), and editor of
The Philosophy of Film Noir
(2005),
The Philosophy of Neo-Noir
(2006),
The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese
(2007), and
The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers
(2008). He is also the author of the novel,
Dark as Night
(2004). Though he has no cool reptilian codename, in his spare time Mark likes to play the wooden flute and practice the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.

 

LUKE CUDDY
is a graduate student at San Diego State University. He is currently editing
The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy
, due for publication in 2008. Nerd that he is, reading philosophy and playing video games take up most of his time. Of course, since he experiences time nonlinearly he often loses track of what activity he’s engaged in.

 

RICHARD GREENE
is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Weber State University. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has published papers in epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. Richard would eventually like to learn the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, because his Hattori Hanzo butterknife doesn’t quite do the trick.

 

DAVID KYLE JOHNSON
received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Oklahoma and is currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania. His philosophical specializations include philosophy of religion, logic, and metaphysics. He also co-authored a chapter in
Johnny Cash and Philosophy
. Additionally he has done work on
South Park
,
Family Guy
,
The Matrix
and
The Office
. He has taught many classes that focus on the relevance of philosophy to pop culture, including a course devoted to
South Park
. (One that incorporates Tarantino is in the works.) Lastly, Kyle doesn’t tip—he says he don’t believe in it.

 

KEITH ALLEN KORCZ
is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He has published in
The Canadian Journal of Philosophy
,
The Journal of Social Philosophy
and
The American Philosophical Quarterly
. If he’s curt with you, it’s because time is a factor. However, he is utterly convinced that any time of the day is a good time for pie.

 

K. SILEM MOHAMMAD
is the author of three books of poetry:
Deer Head Nation
(Tougher Disguises, 2003),
A Thousand Devils
(Combo Books, 2004), and
Breathalyzer
(Edge Books, 2007). He is co-editor (also with Richard Greene) of
The Undead and Philosophy: Chicken Soup for the Soulless
(2006). He teaches literature and creative writing at Southern Oregon University—his office is the one that says “Bad Motherfucker.”

 

BENCE NANAY
is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University and Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver every spring. There is an uncanny resemblance between Bence and Fabienne from
Pulp Fiction
in that both are European and both adore blueberry pancakes. Bence, however, unlike Fabienne, knows what Choppers are.

 

RACHEL ROBISON
(DiVAS codename: Gopher Snake) is a graduate student in the philosophy department at UMass Amherst. She does research in metaphysics and epistemology, and has published papers in epistemology. She drives a tricked-out sedan known as “The Scaredy-Cat Wagon.”

 

TIMOTHY DEAN ROTH
is a Philosopher and Life Artist from the scenic town of Ridgefield, Washington. As a Farmer on the Field of Consciousness, he believes he majored in epistemology at Wheaton College but is not one hundred percent certain about that. He received his BMF in Theology at Duke University. Occasionally Tim has been mistaken for Mr. Orange, or Pumpkin, or even Ringo. As a cab driver for the Washington State DSHS, Tim would much rather “continue this theological discussion in the car” than “in the jailhouse with the cops.”

 

BRUCE RUSSELL
is Professor of Philosophy at Wayne State University, home of Edmund Gettier in 1963 (there are pictures of him on the wall in the Commons Room, though some say it’s just a picture of a double with Gettier hiding behind him). Russell writes on the philosophical limits of film, the problem of evil,
a priori
justification, epistemic and moral duty, contextualism, the killing/letting-die distinction, and other topics in ethics and epistemology. He has heard his colleagues talk about some other philosopher named B. Russell who is obviously trying to steal his reputation. If the real B. Russell ever meets up with the imposter, he will ask him to massage his feet and then will throw him off a balcony if he does.

 

IAN SCHNEE
is a graduate student in the philosophy department at UC Berkeley, as well as a wannabe screenwriter. His most prized possession is his father’s gold ashtray.

 

JAMES H. SPENCE
is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Adrian College in Michigan, though his students know him only as “Mr. Shades of Grey”. He is interested in moral and political philosophy, and is the author of “What Nietzsche Could Teach You” in
Movies and the Meaning of Life: Philosophers Take on Hollywood
(2005). When he isn’t philosophizing, arguing about tipping, or watching Tarantino movies he travels and goes camping with his daughter, Daphne. He likes to believe that he tips well, acts like a professional, and don’t want to kill anybody.

 

JOSEPH ULATOWSKI
is Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Weber State University. He did a six-year stretch at the U (that’s the University of Utah) for impersonating a philosopher, a two-year stretch before
that at Ole Miss for a crime he didn’t commit, and a five-year stretch before that at Methodist College for aiding and abetting a professional golfer. He’s unsure of his future, but what his current P.O. doesn’t know about Joe won’t hurt him (unless he finds out).

advice, practical

Alabama (character from
True Romance
)

ECDS of

Alcibiades

Alighieri, Dante

on God’s nature

Hell of

on Lukewarm

America
(Baudrillard)

Angel Eyes (character from
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
)

Angulimala

Antwan Rockamore (character from
Jackie Brown
)

Apollonian power

dismemberment of

Nietzsche on

aporia

in
Jackie Brown

Aquinas, Thomas

on God’s nature

on self-defense

Aristotle

on accidents

on action

on audience

on “global mean,”

on incontinence

on “poetic art,”

on revenge

on “Uncaused Cause,”

Arquette, Patricia.
See
Alabama

Asian Philosophy

aspect-change