Case Study: Pulp Fiction.

I have never been one of those civil libertarians who said violence in art makes no difference; this is tantamount to say art makes no difference. But Kill Bill goes to enormous and entertaining lengths to demonstrate that it exists in a movie world - there is no comparison with such life-sucking drivel as TX chainsaw. The world it forms is beyond stylish, vritually CGI free, by the way (QT said that if he wanted computer graphiucs he'd go home and stick his dick in the Nintendo), and needless to say, one watches Uma Thurman committing the violence.

Pulp Fiction's considerable and shocking violence, really far more disturbing than Kill Bill, was ameliorated by this same technique: black and white rear-screen projection, "Red Apple" cigarettes. It's sort of a purification of this idea, extending to the dialogue-light script - like I tell my students, it helps to see what happens when you give up what you're good at.

What this movie does is carefull distill and perfect what is fasicnating and entertaining about Gung-Fu movies. I learned yesterday, by the way, that Bruce Lee used to lecture in philosphy at Berkeley.