Revy and Dutch rampage through the enemy ship, slaughtering the neo Nazis. However Revy gets carried away and has to be reined in by “Big Boss” Dutch. It turns out their employer is also the neo Nazi patron, a former SS officer who wants to the painting to be recovered because it contains the final piece of a puzzle. The neo Nazi leader realizes that he’s been used as the former SS officer is merely after wealth and no intention of reviving the Third Reich [edit after watching subs: considers that the American neo-Nazis have failed their test of admission into the Nazi inner circles. Alfred and Dutch have frank exchange of views before] Dutch tells the ex-Gestapo to go to hell before smashing the phone; he and Revy then blow the neo Nazi chief away. As they await their pickup by Benny and Rock, Revy tells Dutch that she doesn’t hate Rock but that she can’t, afterall, partner with him.
There was plenty of action but two scenes in the ship battle really stretched my suspension of disbelief to the point it made me grumpy about the whole episode. But I didn’t feel so cross the second time round especially since Ep 7 has really raised my impression of this series. Over 30 large screencaps and specific scene comments follow:
Revy is still unhappy with Rock and Dutch notices.
Hitler loved Wagner’s long, tortuous operas. Loved the way a BBC listener summarised the entire Ring cycle, which took days to perform, along lines of “Everyone fights over this gold ring and dies in the end.”
Revy fighting with her hair down rather than the usual ponytail.
Again, what gorgeous shoulders. From the previous ep, we now know she gets that definition from swimming.
This is the first scene that grated with me. Blood on a metal deck floor is very slippery but the scene made a lot of play on Revy’s bloody footprints. If anything, she should have slide and landed on her face/arse. Well, Revy is so cool and bouncy that I’ve gotten over it.
The idiot from the submersible tries to go Rambo but dies ingloriously. His grenade should have set the whole armoury off though. And what kind of idiots keep their weapons in the same room as their ammunition?
This is the second scene that caused problems for me. It’s five to one at short range, without cover and Dutch comes off victorious with his slower rate of fire shotgun. I know that he’s a hero and the neo Nazis are scum but the only way to explain this is that none of them actually have any real firearms training. Maybe they were too busy learning neo Nazi anthems and Wagner opera.
Well, Dutch is really cool so I’ve gotten over it.
More evidence of a lack of firearms training. That table isn’t going to block jackshit. And if you have the advantage of numbers, fire and movement - not static defence - is the best defence.
Sometimes Revy really is like a spoilt but very deadly child thus getting lectures from Rock and now Dutch.
John Woo!
Of course, enemies arrive for them to take out their frustration on them instead of each other.
‘Allo ‘Allo?
STFU!
Even better than that scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Did you really think I’d give you a loaded gun? LOL
Time to go meet your Fuhrer in hell!
Ah, a relaxing smoke after a murder spree. Oh wait, it’s ok cause neo Nazis are lower than scum.
Rock is cramping my style. He’s got something called a conscience.
I think it was obvious that the studio attempts to portray the neo-nazis as a group of idealistic idiots who believe in external appearance and ceremony rather than actual military discipline. They have shining uniforms and state-of-the-art weapons, but only because of the good funding.
It’s likely that Revy and Co decided a raid against them would be feasible only after taking that into account. The neo-nazis were not really soldiers, and that’s why they went down by the dozen.
Perhaps the floors were layered with anti-slip material?
Just kidding. More realistically, Revy has a pair of boots with really good traction. I have worked in kitchens before( part-time), and the tiled-floor was constantly slick with oil. If you tried walking on it with normal sport shoes, you would go skidding. It was a constant source of amusement to us watching newcomers unused to the environment. Everybody wore black boots( not army boots! Army boots have horrendous traction) to work, because these boots have out-of-this-world traction.
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As for the Neo-Nazis’ subpar combat, some mitigating factors.
..) It is most likely that most of them have never actually experienced real combat before. Count the number of seconds it took Dutch to blow the five Neo-Nazis away. About four seconds, normal human reaction time. As in, it takes about four seconds for an unhoned soldier to react to a sudden life or death situation. Remember, they were not expecting an immediate encounter.
..) A lot of them were drunk. Self-explanatory.
..) The element of surprise. Soldiers are usually trained to follow orders, and given the nature of this invasion, they would be disoriented and in a state of panic. With no coherent leadership, the soldiers were not fighting as a unit, but as scattered individuals.
For an easy comparison, see how they fought in episode 05, compared to this episode.
Bear in mind also that these are Neo-Nazis, so it is not unexpected that they would be brainwashed more than usual.
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I found it interesting when Dutch mentioned that Revy also went ‘Whitman-mode’ when Benny first arrived. It is almost as though Revy is trying to make a point to newcomers that she is nothing more than a killing machine who only loves power and money.
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One of my favourite scenes was at the end.
The bet that Revy made with Dutch. I was in the dark over what they meant by ‘Black’, until the Commander pointed the gun at Dutch and went ‘click-click’. Oh man, my lightbulb went on and I nearly rolled out of my chair. ^o^
Another scene that got me,
Benny and Rock having their discussion in the boat. Rock asking Benny what is it that they should be doing at times like this, and Benny replying that they are similar in that they cannot shoot other human beings easily.
Cheers.
About blood on the floor, I visited a few abbatoirs in my time and even with the custom boots and anti-slip flooring, it was still slippery as hell. (;^_^)
Now that I’ve seen the sub, I’m much less peeved about the neo-Nazi incompetence. Dutch and Alfred both make telling comments about the extremely poor quality of their training and thus combat abilities. The teleconversation btw Dutch and Alfred was also fascinating at how cool and collected both were but the meaning of their words conveyed so much depisement.
Thanks for highlighting the ‘black’ bet - I was wondering about that for quite a while. So I guess if he pointed the gun at Revy, it would be “Yellow” and if at himself, then “White”? :P Looks like this isn’t the first time they’ve pressed their opponent to the point of suicide.
Indeed. A fine example of black humour. ;)
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What brand were the boots? I really wish I still had my black boots. They got thrown away about four years ago, and for the life of me, I cannot remember the brandname. :( Not too sure… but I think the brand was ‘King something’ or just ‘King’s’.
???? Hmm… ????
Sorry, I can’t remember and they weren’t personal - were provided by the abbatoirs instead.