I am going to be analysing the self-acclaimed fourth film by Quentin Tarantino, Kill Bill. I will consider the media language, plot and how Tarantino directs the film.
The opening sequence of Kill Bill is very 1960’s. The picture is in black and white and showing a bride lying on the floor looking up towards the sky or roof. The bride on the floor has just taken a severe spaghetti western style gang beating. Her face is brutally wounded with blood streaming from her face. The high contrast of black and white turning the red blood into black shows us that it was is in the past.
We hear her in distress while we hear heavy footsteps walking towards her getting louder and louder. In Kill Bill I don’t think Tzvetan Todorov theory is used. I don’t think the equilbrium is used as there is no establishing shot which shows us that the film could be set anywhere in the world. The characters are not introduced. We see somebody’s feet walking down a corridor, which is a symbolic code, as we want to know who this person is.
Subsequent to this we see a handkerchief with the name Bill on it. We see the eyes of fear in the brides face while he wipes the blood away from her face, which could be showing signs of affection. These signs of affection are a paradox as we think he wants to kill her. We then see the bride’s eyes open extremely wide, which shows us that Bill, is about to do something. He then shoots her to the head with a loud gunfire sound. This is a very brutal and disturbing scene.
Sonny Chiba is very successful martial arts actor and he appears in the title sequence. He uses martial arts are very multicultural which may appeal to a larger audience. If the audience sees that this famous actor is in the film then it might prove to be more successful. In this film there is a non-liner narrative, which is not a straight story from beginning to end.
There are no heroes in this film, they are nearly all anti-heroes. Gradually we see a silhouette, which appears. It is in obscured vision but as the light is getting lighter it could symbolise coming back into consciousness. We see a window, which is used symbolically.
Read an essay about “ The Step Not Taken” The film is episodic, which is separated into lots of mini episodes. The film begins with many disruptions. In the opening title sequence the colour used is green. This represents envy.
Later on in the film she’s wakes up in hospital and eventually leaves by killing one of the hospital staff and drives off. She eventually ends up In residential estate and pulls up outside a house. The mise en scene in this house is with a lot of toys on the floor and is very large with nice furniture. This tells us that the owner of this house may have a child and is wealthy. She goes into the house and meets the owner, which is a woman. They start to fight very aggressively but act as if they are having a chat when the child comes into the room.
When the child gets told to leave and they start to fight yet again but this time they both pull out knifes and starting using them like swords. This is an enigma code as swords are used frequently later on the film. After she has killed the woman in the house we see that she has a death list and we realise she is going to kill the rest of them later on in the film. This shows us that the bride has no morale values Kill Bill is portrayed as a very violent film.
There are many scenes which show fighting. It isn’t just a violent film though. It has a hybrid genre which shows the feelings of the main woman played by Uma Thurman. The film also doesn’t show a typical representation in society.
It is stereotyped in that Uma Thurman wins every one of her fights including taking on over thirty people in one of them, which is not a fair representation of a real human being. I think that the audience would be amazed by how she stays alive and the journey she takes to kill the people on her list. Kill Bill is a certificate eighteen due to its extreme violence and language. This has cut off a niche part of an available audience but it still offers a wide range of genres for adults. Tarantino’s passion and obsession with the genre is evident in every frame of Kill Bill. Tarantino’s no-holds-barred action and blood reigns throughout his film and the director seems to be having a lot of fun showing how much he loves what he is filming.
People who are looking for a gory, violent film then this is definitely is the film for them as it has strong references to all of these. If you’re also a fan of martial arts then you would be interested in the film as it has many scenes using various martial arts. It also has a romantic side to the film where you can see Uma Thurman’s feelings. Quentin Tarantino does this to open up to a wider audience. The film could be a victim of the hypodermic needle theory as it contains strong violence.
This could cause the audience to go out and try some of the thing shown in the film. Due to the films non-episodic theme, the two-step flow could also be introduced as the audience can actively share opinions about their views on the film and influence one another and this can alter individual opinions. The audience are using this film to entertain them selves so Quentin Tarantino needs to keep the audience interested with a lot of action. One way of Quentin Tarantino doing this is by using multiple narrative strands, which are woven together. The film is also non-digetic which means dialogue is used very sparsely, instead music is used very effectively. Quentin Tarantino has made Kill Bill very similar to Pulp Fiction.
They are both postmodern and they both mix different genres. The pleasure of watching the films is because they are both intertextual. There are many links that Quentin Tarantino makes to Pulp Fiction such as, Uma Thurman’s character “ The Bride” explains revenge as getting “ square” and then traces a square in the air with her index fingers references Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, in which Thurman’s character Mia Wallace tells John Travolta’s character not to be a “ square”, punctuated by her similarly tracing the shape. Certain parts of the film were filmed in anime. Chaperter three was completely filmed in anime.
It is unusual to get part of the film in anime and parts in normal filming. I personally feel that the film is excellent piece footage. I think it is a revolution in film as it uses a different approach to telling the story. I enjoyed it very much I ill be going to see any of Quentin Tarantino’s films that he makes in the future.