Rest in peace, Grasshopper

June 9, 2009 ·

Rest in peace, Grasshopper

“We have all been in rooms/We cannot die in” “Adultery,” James Dickey

In Tarantino’s Kill Bill 2, David Carradine (Bill) [also called “Grasshopper” by his master in the TV series “Kung Fu”] meets his end at the hands of Uma Thurman (Beatrix Kiddo), whom Bill had tried to kill for leaving him. Beatrix has learned the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique from the master Bill sent her to for her apprenticeship; when she strikes his chest in their final fight, he knows death is only seconds away. He stands up, straightens his shirt, and begins to walk away, and takes only a few steps before he falls down dead. The picture-perfect ending. Kung Fu, complicated love, and death from a technique known only to an inner elite.

As Shakespeare might have put it, “Nothing in his life/Became him like the leaving it.” (Macbeth Act 1, scene 4, 1–8)

That isn’t the way it happened, of course, leaving us to reflect upon the shadow that a stained blue dress or a private act gone awry can cast over a great career.

As in the putative quote from Catherine the Great:

“You can be a murderous tyrant and the world will remember you fondly, but fuck one horse and you will be a horse fucker for eternity.”