2003 Nebraska Football

We all know what happened in the 2003 football season, or better yet, what happened AFTER the 2003 season. Frank Solich was let go and Husker fans were left wondering whether or not that was the right move.

In terms of what happened during the 2003 season, it was about average for what Nebraska fans have seen over the past two decades. Nebraska began the season with a conference win over Oklahoma State. I don’t think we’ve seen a season start with a conference opponent since then, but I could be wrong. It’s going to be interesting to start the season in 2020 against Purdue.

The team finished 10-3 with losses at Missouri, Texas and at home against Kansas State. The three losses in conference play caused the Huskers to miss out on the Big 12 Championship. Shortly after the regular season was over Athletic Director Steve Pederson fired Solich on November, 29 2003. This lead Bo Pelini to take over as interim head coach for the Alamo Bowl against Michigan State.

I don’t remember 2003, but I have heard some Husker fans say they wanted Pelini in 2004. In all reality, Solich shouldn’t have been fired after the 2003 season. It doesn’t matter if he wasn't the right man for the job in the long term. He won over 75 percent of his games as a head coach at Nebraska. It was great to see Scott Frost want to honor Solich after he accepted the Nebraska job.

Patrick: Kill Bill is Quentin Tarantino trying to hard to put everything he ever wanted into one movie (technically two movies...).

Nate M: One day a group of us went to the theater and half of us watched one movie and the other half went and watched Kill Bill Vol.1. Our movie got out early and we walked into their movie and watched the rest of it until the end.

All I saw was terrible blood effect and unnecessary excessive violence. I’m not against violence in movies, but like most things if they are in the movie just for their own sake then I think it downgrades the movie. Same goes for nudity and sex scenes. Before you think I’m a prude (maybe I am), again I’m not against them but if there’s a sex scene in the middle of Hoosiers or Air Bud then I’m not going to be a big fan.

Which brings me to Tarantino. The only movies of his I have enjoyed are Inglorious Basterds and to an extent Django Unchained.

So if somebody wants to enlighten me about the greatness of Pulp Fiction or in this case Kill Bill, then go ahead I’ll read in the comments!

Jon:

I’m never sure what to think of Quentin Tarantino. I take his films one at a time. “Pulp Fiction” was very good, while I’ve never finished “Inglorious Basterds” because I found it incredibly boring. When it came to watching “Kill Bill”, I found myself bored all over again. The Tarantino influences – 70s spaghetti Westerns and Kung Fu Theater - aren’t new, aren’t particularly novel; the movie hasn’t aged very well.

I understand Tarantino’s love of Kung Fu theater. I regularly watched on Saturdays growing up in Western Nebraska where we only had three TV channels. I loved the silliness of the stories, the dubbed voices and the the overacting of the martial arts characters. I loved David Carradine in the 70s TV series “Kung Fu”.

Tarantino loves his violence and “Kill Bill” has its big fight scene which makes the movie. It’s so big it’s ridiculous but laugh out loud hilarious. I realized I enjoyed waiting to see that all over again. Uma Thurman is wonderful.

I still love martial arts movies. My kids make fun of me for watching them. “IP Man” is one of my favorites.

Taken from a different perspective, martial arts films are an incredibly beautiful form of dance. Compare that scene from 70s “Kung Fu” above to Donnie Yen in “IP Man” and you can see how the complexity of that dance has progressed, much like sports, since the 70s. Yen, Jing Wu, Tony Jaa, Jet Li. All masters.

Such beautiful dancing.

And finally, insane people from Thailand in “Bangkok Knockout”.

Andy: This movie (along with its sequel Vol. 2) is one of my favorite ballets of blood of all time. Although David Carradine does almost all of his work in the sequel, it’s a jealous Bill who puts events in motion by having the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad murder every member of The Bride’s wedding party including her fiancé, while is left in a coma for four years. Oh yeah - she was pregnant by the way. With Bill’s kid. When she wakes up, it’s time for her to do a Scott Pilgrim vs. The World on steroids with extra blood, brains and intestines.

I don’t know that I’ve ever been more happily exhausted watching Uma Thurman’s three-part battle against:

1. Young Gogo Yubari and chain and razor-mace (which might have been the most challenging of the three.
2. All 88 members of the Crazy 88’s (I always wondered why at least a few didn’t run for the doors when her kill total reached - I don’t know - 50?)
3. O-Ren Ishii wonderfully played by Lucy Liu who I was almost sad to see go after watching her calmly behead a Japanese crime lord who rudely mocked her gender and mixed ethnicity. Their fight took place in a snowy Japanese garden outside the second floor of the nightclub. Because you have to have a snowy Japanese garden.

But my favorite scene by far is the one where The Bride goes to legendary swordsmith, Hittori Honzo, played by 70’s martial arts star Sonny Chiba, for a samurai sword and Honzo and his assistant begin arguing and screaming at one another:

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The Bride: [English] Oh, yes, a bottle of warm sake please.

Hattori Hanzo: [English] Warm sake? VERY GOOD.

Hattori Hanzo: [Japanese] One warm sake.

Sushi Bar Assistant: [Japanese] Sake? In the middle of the day?

Hattori Hanzo: [Japanese] Day, night, afternoon, who gives a damn? Get the sake!

Sushi Bar Assistant: [Japanese] How come I always have to get the sake? You listen well... for thirty years, you make the fish, I get the sake. If this were the military, I’d be General by now!

Hattori Hanzo: [Japanese] Oh, so you’d be General, huh? If you were General, I’d be Emperor, and you’d STILL get the sake! So shut up and get the sake!

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Kill Bill is a just a visual joy. Well. If you’re idea of visual joy is a ballet of fists, guns and blades with enough blood spilled to fill a hotel swimming pool. John Wick 3, anyone?

Evan W: I LOVE Quentin Tarantino, but this movie just doesn’t do it for me. Maybe it’s because I grew up and saw better special effects than others, but man the blood in this movie looked awful. Seriously some of the worst effects I’ve ever seen.

Another problem I had with this movie was the third chapter. I don’t like anime. I have a bunch of friends who enjoy it, but that part of the movie killed the vibe for me. I watched this movie at like 2:00 a.m. and I found myself drifting off to sleep during that chapter.

Another part that was irritating was the final battle sequence. It took way too long, and I did end up falling asleep during this part. Don’t get me wrong, the story was unique and very interesting in my opinion. This was just a poorly executed movie in my opinion.

Next week we’ll be reviewing “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Let us know your thoughts about “Kill Bill Vol. 1” in the comments section.