A Semiotic Analysis of Once Upon A Time in Hollywood Film by Quentin Tarantino

Abstract

This research examined the signs found in the film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino. This research is conducted by applying Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotic theory as the framework of the analysis. This research focused only on analyzing the icon, index, and symbol, which are the signs classified based on their relationship with the object. The aims of this research are to identify the signs that are presented in the film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and to explain the meaning of those signs. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative method, in specifically content analysis. The data of this research are the signs that were screenshotted and collected from the film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The results of this research found that there are 22 signs in the film, consisting of three icons, twelve indexes, and seven symbols. This research also showed that the meaning of the signs can be explained by applying Peirce’s semiosis process, which includes three elements, namely representamen, object, and interpretant (the clarified meaning of the signs). Therefore, it can be concluded that this film used signs to convey certain messages to the audience, and the meaning of these signs is explained in the interpretant, which resulted from the relationship between the representamen and the object in Peirce’s semiosis process.