We went for something a little different for our March Honorary Oakley, in the form of anti-hero 'Six' from Battlestar Galactica. Despite the character essentially being responsible for wiping out most of a planets innocent population, it was well received. So this month we're looking at another anti heroine, though this one isn't to blame for the arbitrary extermination of a species, this one just wants revenge. This month we're taking a peek at the heroine of the Kill Bill movies 'The Bride' aka Beatrix Kiddo / codename 'Black Mamba'.

Love, Honor and Cherish...
Uma Thurman plays Beatrix Kiddo, "The Bride". Once a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, she now seeks revenge on the other members of the squad, for their ruthless slaying of her wedding party when they gate-crashed her wedding rehearsal. This includes her former mentor and lover Bill, who administers the killing stroke to Beatrix in the form of a bullet to the head, only for her to survive. When The Bride comes to, she makes a list of those responsible for the wedding massacre and goes about seeing them off one by one, all with style one might add.

Strength of Character...
The Bride has had other things to get over, terrible abuse in the hospital whilst in a coma and the obvious betrayal by her colleagues, as well as the loss of her child.

I won't delve further into the Kill Bill story, on the offchance you're reading this and have not seen it. We will instead take a peek at the reasons The Bride was chosen for the Honorary Oakley and also take a brief look at the woman who plays her onscreen, actress Uma Thurman.

Uma.. Buddhist Beliefs and Bloodshed…
Uma Thurman is a bit of a strange one when it comes to personal philosophies. A lot of people believe she's Jewish, but she aligns herself far more closely to the religion of Buddhism, than that of Judaism. Her father is a famed Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies and he gave his children, including Uma, a Buddhist upbringing. She is named after a Hindu goddess and the Dalai Lama would visit their home when she was growing up.. how surreal.

So how on Earth does a woman with this background end up munching people down with a samurai sword? Well it's acting, so let's not go down that road of hypocrisy, I'm sure she's heard it a lot of times. Uma is actually one of those stars who you may not give much thought to, but she's in a lot of great films, all with many and varied parts.

(A personal favourite is The Truth About Cats and Dogs)

Even Violence Can Tell a Story…
Why are we honoring the character of The Bride? Well, she's kick ass, do we need another reason? She's strong of character and will, she's highly skilled and just a really cool female movie character. It isn't often a woman gets a macho lead and it works, sometimes even a cool female lead character will mean a film won't get the marketing it deserves and will therefore suffer at the box office as a result (see The Long Kiss Goodnight - Charlie Baltimore as example). Kill Bill doesn't fail, not only because it had the Tarantino name attached to it, which obviously helped, but also because the character of Beatrix Kiddo is such a cool female character. Those two things are what we look for in the Oakley and that's why Beatrix Kiddo aka The Bride from the Kill Bill films is our Honorary Oakley for the month of April 2006.

"If, on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut."