By Daniel Richardson


Analyzing Kill Bill
There are a number of reasons to why we can discover the genre of this particular film ‘Kill Bill – Volume 2’ by only observing the DVD cover. One reason is due to the image on the front of the DVD cover. In the image, a number of factors give away the genre of the film. Firstly, we see a sword in the hand of Uma Thurman which is the centre of the image. When thinking of swords, we immediately think of violence, it is an obvious relation to make. Hence, when thinking of violence, we can make a relation to action, which is indeed the films genre. The sword implies that the film will be an action movie because of the context we usually find swords in, an action sort of situation. Therefore the sword in the image tells us the films genre. Furthermore, also in the image, we see the actress Uma Thurman in an action shot stance. Just by been an action shot, this implies the films genre, but also her body language and position show she is in the middle of some sort of action sequence, holding the sword in a malicious manner towards the viewer of the cover, showing violence once again which we can again relate to action, but also the fact she is in an action shot shows a sub genre of a thriller, as she is obviously in a thrilling situation to be shown in such a manner, hence the image of Thurman in that particular position helps suggest the genre of the film. Similarly, on the back of the cover, the images are once again action shot, again showing swords, and also fighting sequences, all giving us an idea of the films genre to be an action/thriller/adventure movie.
Another reason why we can determine the genre of ‘Kill Bill – Volume 2’ by looking at the DVD cover is the selection of colours used on the cover. The colour that dominates is mainly red. This gives a number of different suggestions. Firstly the colour red implies violence and bloodshed, also danger. This tells us by looking at the cover that the film is going to feature these, hence giving us an idea that the genre is obviously going to be action and also thriller as violence and bloodshed wouldn’t come in say a comedy film, we can associate these with action and thriller.
Moreover, another reason why we can figure out the genre of ‘Kill Bill – Volume 2’ by looking at the DVD cover is the film certificate we see at the bottom right of the front cover. This immediately tells us, because of the film being an 18 certificate, that the film is going to feature material not found in say comedy’s or romance. The material is most probably going to be violent, and there are going to be disturbing and gruesome scenes. Therefore this tells us that the films genre could easily be action, as well as drama, as for these gruesome scenes to take place there obviously has to be some action going on.
Finally, the blurb on the back can give us an idea to what the genre of the film of ‘Kill Bill – Volume 2’ is. In the blurb, we see words such as ‘action, death, execution and assassin,’ these words all give us connotations and implications of action and violence, hence giving away the genre of the film just by reading the blurb.
Therefore, overall, we can identify the genre of ‘Kill Bill – Volume 2’ by the image, colours, certificate and blurb that are all featured on the DVD cover.