Kill Bill was an iconic film produced in 2003 by Tarantino
to be his highly anticipated 4
th film. Due to its structure, Kill Bill is viewed by many as a culmination of various
genres, how I found it
interesting in the way the Tarantino had chosen to produce the film and represent
the story.
Film Language:
The first area I shall be analysing is the Film Language. In
this sequence for instance,
mise-en-scene is a key factor in drawing the audience’s
attention towards the film. Firstly, we begin by seeing a woman lying on the
floor who we are yet to know, but nonetheless she is covered in blood, which
initially suggests
pain and suffering. The
next section of mise-en-scene is
costume, where we see this woman is dressed in
a Brides gown furthermore creating questions in the mind of the viewer, and as
well as this
non-verbal language is another main point I wish to address. The audience
are shown this woman through a
CU which enables Tarantino to represent the
female as
fearful and distressed as the audience can see detailed emotion furthermore
reinforce via non-verbal language such as
heavy, deep breathing, as well as
shivering.
In the sequence, although only two shots are used, the
audience build up a vast representation through other techniques however the
two used both CU, the first being the shot of the woman’s head so that the
audience can be position with her as well as give her prevalence over any other
character, but is also used to show her emotion. The second is also a CU on a
pair of walking boots; this enables the identity of ‘Bill’ to remain hidden yet
the audience already understand who the culprit is. And lastly, both shots show
who in this sequence has power and control as the audience are positioned above
the female character, but below the male character.
The next area that is vital is sound for instance when we
see bills footsteps, we hear them throughout the sound as deep thuds which
suggest both power and authority. As well as this, the is evident use of a sound bridge from which
we see the woman’s reaction however we hear the dialogue of thee man thus his identity
remains hidden. And through this dialogue which he states “Do you find me sadistic?”
which suggest to the audience that as he is asking questions about himself, he
look very highly upon himself and that he may be rather arrogant or aggressive,
which is common in films such as The Godfather (Cappola, 1972) or Analyze This (Ramis,
1999) both featuring mafia type characters.
Finally, Tarantino has chose to film the opening sequence in
black and white which is iconic of film noir for which it was common for
identities to remain hidden through the use of low key lighting or silhouettes.
Institutional Context:
Kill Bill uses some well known actors such as Uma Thurman, ‘The
Bride’, for whom she has been cast in many dramas previously, as well as another
well known actress Lucy Liu, ‘O-Ren Ishii’, who has featured in such films as
Charlie’s Angels (McGinty Nichol, 2000), Lucky Number Slevin (McGuigan, 2006)
and Kung Fu Panda(Osborne, 2008).
The studio behind Kill Bill was A Band Apart and was
distributed by Miramax films. A Band Apart was founded by both Tarantino and
Lawrence Bender in 1991 and operated until 2006. As a result, Kill Bill is an industrial
production on a budget of $55 million because at the time of production,
Miramax was owned by Walt Disney, one of the six majors. Miramax had a lot of faith in the film and
therefore as the internet was growing, they put large sums into the interactive
portion of the marketing campaign. The majority
of the marketing had been handed over to an external company, Deep Focus, a
digital marketing company founded in 2002.
