October 10, 2003: The film Intolerable Cruelty premieres. It stars George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The title is explained by the fact that Catherine does not play my girlfriend. (Don't judge me, unless you haven't also long had a hopeless celebrity crush on someone.)
Also on this day, Kill Bill: Volume 1 premieres. Quentin Tarantino made this film so long, he had to break it into 2 films, with Volume 2 premiering 6 months later, on April 16, 2004.
Volume 1 is 1 hour and 51 minutes long, while Volume 2 is 2 hours and 16 minutes. Total: 4 hours and 7 minutes. Given that he probably had to cut a lot of footage from each to get them down to that much, he probably could have made it a trilogy.
It's a revenge fantasy, and, like so many of Tarantino's films, a tribute to the kind of movies he loved as a kid. In this case, the martial arts films of the 1970s. Uma Thurman, whose character is known in Volume 1 only as "The Bride," spends much of the film wearing a yellow jumpsuit with black piping, like Bruce Lee did in Game of Death. Volume 2 establishes The Bride's name as Beatrix Kiddo. Given what she has to do to gain her revenge, maybe the wrong film was titled Intolerable Cruelty.
One of the most popular film tropes is waiting to show the villain's face. The James Bond films hit Ernst Stavro Blofeld's face for 2 films and most of a 3rd (and that doesn't count Goldfinger in between, where he wasn't even a factor), Jaws didn't show the shark until 1 hour and 21 minutes into the movie, and Saw didn't show Jigsaw until 3 minutes before the end.
So it is with Bill, the leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, or DVAS: While it was already known that Tarantino had cast David Carradine, the hero of the 1970s and 1990s TV series Kung Fu, in Volume 1, the "Snake Charmer" is heard, but seen only from the neck down. He is fully shown in Volume 2.
But the star of the film(s) is Uma Thurman. Going with the "Viper" theme, every member of the Squad has a snake-themed code name. Uma's character, referred to as "the deadliest woman in the world," is the Black Mamba, which was also the nickname of basketball star Kobe Bryant. At first, though, she is identified as "The Bride." While we hear Bill call her "Kiddo" after having her shot at her wedding, after she's left him to marry someone else and raise their baby, it's not until Volume 2 that we learn her name is actually Beatrix Kiddo.
Four years into her recovery, she wants revenge on the rest of the mostly-disbanded squad that killed her husband and put her in a coma for months: O-Ren Ishii, a.k.a. Cottonmouth (Lucy Liu), who has taken over Japan's organized crime organization, the Yakuza; Vernita Green, a.k.a. Copperhead (Vivica. A. Fox), now a housewife with a young daughter; Elle Driver, a.k.a. California Mountain Snake (Daryl Hannah), whom Bill left Beatrix for, and had lost an eye while killing the martial arts master who had trained the Vipers, including Bill; and Budd, a.k.a. Sidewinder (Michael Madsen), Bill's brother and right-hand man, now a strip club bouncer.
Beatrix goes to see Hattori Hanzō, a former swordsmith, who has retired to become a chef. The character, played by Japanese film legend Sonny Chiba, was named for a famous 16th Century samurai. At first, he refuses her request for a special sword, until she tells him she wants to use it to kill Bill. Apparently, Hanzō and Bill had a falling-out. Hanzō crafts her the sword.
Beatrix kills Vernita, but her young daughter, Nikki Bell (Ambrosia Kelley), sees it. Beatrix tells her that, while her mother deserved to die, the girl didn't deserve to see it, and that, when she's old enough, if Beatrix is still alive, she will allow her a shot at revenge.
To get to O-Ren, a formidable adversary in her own right, Beatrix has to get through her personal army, the Crazy 88. And the hardest one is O-Ren's personal bodyguard: A 17-year-old schoolgirl named Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama). Getting through her, Beatrix and O-Ren have a brutal swordfight, and Beatrix wins. Beatrix leaves Sofie Fatale (Julie Dreyfus), O-Ren's French lawyer, confidante, majordomo, best friend and second lieutenant, alive, to send a message to Bill.
This proves to be a mistake: Forewarned, Budd, who admits to Bill that they all deserve to die for what they've done, ambushes her, renders her unconscious, and buries her alive. He takes her sword, and gives it to Elle, but she kills him, and tells Bill that she killed Beatrix. Except Beatrix breaks out, finds Elle, takes her other eye, and locks her in Budd's trailer with the snake -- appropriately, a black mamba -- that Elle had used to kill Budd. But there is no definitive showing that Elle dies.
Beatrix finally finds Bill in Mexico -- and discovers that their child not only survived, and was born during her coma, but has been raised by Bill, as "B.B." Not having the sword she had intended to use to kill him, she uses the "Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique," which takes a couple of minutes to take effect, and Bill dies. Beatrix leaves with B.B.
When Volume 2 was released, Tarantino told Entertainment Weekly that he intended to make a Kill Bill sequel, at least 15 years after the 2nd film. He planned that the character of Nikki would seek revenge on the Bride for killing her mother, Vernita Green, in Volume 1. At the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con, he said that, after the completion of Grindhouse, he wanted to make two anime Kill Bill films: An origin story about Bill and his mentors, and another origin starring The Bride. At the 2009 Morelia International Film Festival, he said he wanted 10 years to pass to give her and the Bride and her daughter a period of peace.
Ever since, though, he has given conflicting answers about whether there will ever be a Kill Bill: Volume 3. He had hoped that Uma and her daughter, Maya Hawke (whose father is actor Ethan Hawke, and she has gone into acting), would play Beatrix and a grown B.B. But Uma has said that she won't work with Tarantino again.
One more thing: Bill's monologue about superheroes, which seems so odd because he's an incredibly rotten villain, includes a comment that Superman uses Clark Kent as the mask, and Batman doesn't use Bruce Wayne as one. That's not just wrong, it's the other way around.
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October 10, 2003 was a Friday. Game 3 of the National League Championship Series was played at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Chicago Cubs beat the Florida Marlins, 6-5. Doug Glanville tripled Kenny Lofton home with the winning run in the top of the 11th inning. But the Marlins would win the series in Game 7.
The American League Championship Series was on a travel day between Games 2 and 3. The New York Yankees would beat the Boston Red Sox in 7 games.
There were 2 games played in college football, both involving ranked teams. In the rivalry known as the Little Brown Jug, Number 20 Michigan beat Number 17, 38-35 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. And Number 18 Texas Christian University beat the University of South Florida: TCU 13, USF 10 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
In New Jersey high school football, my Alma Mater, East Brunswick, lost to Woodbridge, 25-21 at Jay Doyle Field in East Brunswick.
The NBA season began 18 days later. There were 5 games played in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers lost to the Minnesota Wild, 5-3 at the Xcel Energy Center (now the Grand Casino Arena) in St. Paul, Minnesota.
* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Boston Bruins, 5-1 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.
* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-0 at the Mellon Arena (as the Civic Arena was then known) in Pittsburgh.
* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-0 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.
* And the Phoenix Coyotes beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix. David Tanabe scored the winning goal with 22 seconds left in overtime.
