Daily Dialogue — April 16, 2013
Bill: As you know, l’m quite keen on comic books. Especially the ones about superheroes. I find the whole mythology surrounding superheroes fascinating. Take my favorite superhero, Superman. Not a great comic book. Not particularly well-drawn. But the mythology… The mythology is not only great, it’s unique.
The Bride: [who still has a needle in her leg] How long does this shit take to go into effect?
Bill: About two minutes, just long enough for me to finish my point. Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is, there’s the superhero and there’s the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he’s Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn’t become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he’s Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red “S”, that’s the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears — the glasses, the business suit — that’s the costume. That’s the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent. He’s weak… he’s unsure of himself… he’s a coward. Clark Kent is Superman’s critique on the whole human race. Sorta like Beatrix Kiddo and Mrs. Tommy Plimpton.
The Bride: Aso. The point emerges.
Bill: You would’ve worn the costume of Arlene Plimpton. But you were born Beatrix Kiddo. And every morning when you woke up, you’d still be Beatrix Kiddo. Oh, you can take the needle out.
The Bride: [does so] Are you calling me a superhero?
Bill: I’m calling you a killer. A natural born killer. You always have been, and you always will be. Moving to El Paso, working in a used record store, goin’ to the movies with Tommy, clipping coupons. That’s you, trying to disguise yourself as a worker bee That’s you tryin’ to blend in with the hive. But you’re not a worker bee. You’re a renegade killer bee. And no matter how much beer you drank or barbecue you ate or how fat your ass got, nothing in the world would ever change that.
— Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), written by Quentin Tarantino
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is fan boy/girl conversations, suggeted by plinytheelder. Today’s suggestion by Jeff Messerman.
Trivia: Bill’s speech about Superman was in part inspired by “The Great Comic Book Heroes” a book by Jules Feiffer.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary from Jeff: “This, along with his playful, caring paternal inclinations towards BB, humanizes Bill…no longer just a one dimensional ‘big bad guy.’ Bill is one of us. And I guess that’s what Tarantino does best, has been doing since Reservoir Dogs. He takes these larger than life characters and brings them down to our level. We recognize pieces of ourselves in them.
I must add, when my third daughter was born, my wife specifically requested this film in the delivery room DVD player. I think The Bride fueled the fire of her maternal instincts! (of course a few of the nurses were somewhat horrified when The Bride plucked Elle’s eye out and squished it between her toes…)”
Let me add this: When I talk about a character’s Core Essence, you may think of this speech as a paradigmatic example of what I mean. There’s Beatrix, trying to live her life one way, but at her core, she is a killer. There lies her path to Unity: to get in touch with and embrace her Core Essence.