Emotion across Modes in Bol: A Multimodal SFL Analysis of English Subtitles

Abstract

This study deals with an analysis of both text and images of the BOL movie (2011) by applying a multimodal discourse analysis approach proposed by Kress and Van Leeuwen’s theory (2006), as well as a systemic functional linguistic analysis approach, drawing from the theory of Halliday & Matthiessen (2014). The core objective of this study is to explore how text and images are integrated to convey interactional meanings within movies and to investigate how these elements together highlight the interpersonal meaning conveyed through textual content. The entire movie on YouTube was watched, and then screenshots of powerful, emotive scenes, along with their subtitles, were captured as data. The analysis examines five powerful emotive scenes to explore how emotions are constructed across visual and verbal modes in the Pakistani movie Bol (2011). These scenes are emotionally intense, showing the themes of domestic violence, patriarchy, gender differences, and female resistance. Each scene is analyzed based on its mood structures, visual features (gaze, angle, distance, modality, and participants), and interplay between text and images. The findings of this study unveil that the Bol movie not only conveys emotions through verbal language but also camera angles, directions, silence, and gaze. In conclusion, verbal and nonverbal language in this movie enhances the emotional intensity of the movie.