We at Fandor love categorizing films by genre. Often it’s an easy task — The Searchers is definitely a Western, Singin’ in the Rain is the ultimate musical, and Double Indemnity is a classic example of noir.
But there are also films that oscillate between one genre and another. For example, what genre is Kill Bill invokes? The use of the plural here is very appropriate, since writer-director Quentin Tarantino plays with, dare we say it, a fistful of genres. The spirit of samurai movies, kung-fu flicks, and spaghetti Westerns permeates the Kill Bill genre— and yet, the film tips its hat to many other genres. In this video essay, we’ll take a look at all the genres that Tarantino uses throughout Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2— you know, the whole bloody affair.
Here at Fandor, we’ve got Quentin Tarantino content like Uma Thurman has samurai swords. Check out our interview with Pam Grier, and videos on Tarantino’s construction of tension, his depictions of food, how he uses close-ups, and his (very questionable) feminism.
