Mock Exam - rewrite

Question 2 – Mock exam rewrite

Postmodernism in the oxford dictionary is referred to as “a style and concept in the arts characterised by a distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions”. Postmodernists claim that in a media saturated world where we are constantly immersed in media the distinction between reality and media representation of it becomes blurred or even entirely invisible to us. In other words we no longer have any sense of the difference between real things and images of them or real experiences ad simulations of them. Others say that it is just a new way of thinking about media when really is has always been this way.

My first case study of postmodernism is film. I believe that many films highlight this postmodernism through the main concepts such as: pastiche, flattening of affect, hyper reality, time bending, altered states and more human than human. Pastiche is self-referential, tongue in cheek, rehashes of classic pop culture. This flattening of affect which is highlighted through the postmodern films involves technology, violence, drugs and the media lead to detached, emotionless, unauthentic lives. Hyper reality is described in relation to where technology creates realities which are original or more desirable then the real world. Finally time bending is used to connote the importance of time travel, as it relates to how time travel provides another way to shape reality. I will be using my film case studies in order to show how they are postmodern and will highlight the key aspects which make them postmodern. 

Two key examples of postmodern films are both Blade runner and Pulp Fiction. These are very popular exams of postmodernism in the film industry. Firstly Blade Runner is possibly the most popular postmodern film. Ridley Scott's 1982 film is about a future dystopia where "replicates" have been invented and are deemed dangerous enough to hunt down when they escape. The film highlights to be playing with time (the various types of clothes) and culture and genre by mixing them all together to create the world of the film. "The postmodern look of Blade Runner is therefore the result of recycling, fusion of levels, discontinuous signifiers, explosion of boundaries, and erosion. The disconnected temporality of the replicants and the pastiche of the city are all an effect of a postmodern, post-industrial condition: wearing out, waste." Moving on pulp fiction is another popular example of a postmodernist film. The film tells the interweaving stories of gangsters, a boxer, and robbers. The film breaks down chronological time and demonstrates a particular fascination with intertextuality: bringing in texts from both traditionally "high" and "low" realms of art. By focusing on intertextuality and the subjectivity of time, Pulp Fiction demonstrates the postmodern obsession with signs and subjective perspective as the exclusive location of anything resembling meaning.

The Lego movie produced by Warner brothers recently been released onto DVD is another key example of how postmodernity is used within the film industry. Post-Modernism both questions what is real, true, and absolute, as well as playing with inter-textually. The Lego movie is set in an animated world and is the heroic journey of regular-guy Emmett and his quest to stop Lord Business from destroying the world with his super weapon: The Kragle. On the other hand the boy is set in reality attempting to play with his dads Lego while his dad wants to maintain complete and absolute order, not giving in to the creativity that Legos can unleash. In many ways it can be seen that the Lego Movie is The Matrix with Emmet replacing Neo, the boy and Vitruvius combined to be Morpheus, Wild style as Trinity, and Lord Business as Agent Smith/The AI. There are layers of reality, and only the main hero is able to see both completely. Also, there are robots. Built within this multiple-layered-reality are iconic figures like Batman, Star Wars characters, as well as eclectic combinations such as Unikitty. Pastiche is highlighted to us throughout the film. It is never taken too seriously and the script reads like it has been written by a 9 year old, allowing the audience to relax and enjoy watching the film. Moreover intertextuality is displayed bringing characters in drawing iconic personalities that we already know. A prime example of this in the film is the character batman as we do not need any explanation of who batman is and why he does certain this as we already know this from previous experience. Flattening of affect is suggested through the character Emmit where he lives in a world of popular music, formulaic television, and people who always follow the instructions. At first it seems like an evil corporate plot, but when we pull back and see the father-son relationship in the framing narrative, we realize that this isn’t exactly the case.

Along with postmodernity in film, it is also clear to see this postmodern effect within music video. This is clear within the Jessie J music video, “who’s laughing now”. Hype conscience is shown in this video where the main performer Jessie J is playing multiple roles in the video and playing different characters as well as herself. The characters in which she’s playing are very over exaggerated implying that narcissism to their self-image. This is constantly reminding the viewer that what they are watching is not real and it is made up. A key feature of the postmodern music video is the intertextuality references which are constantly made. Two prime examples of this is the reference of mean girls and reference to bugs bunny. The reference to mean girls is clear to see when the four girls are dressed in pink and are walking in a line next to each other. They present themselves to be very stuck up and love themselves just like how the mean girls do in the film. Buys bunny is referenced in the lyrics when the girls are “bullying” Jessie. Here the lyrics say “Oh Jessica you so funny you’ve got teeth just like bugs bunny”. Baudrillard’s theory is incorporated into the music video. This is because the video appears to continually cut from Jessie as a school girl to Jessie grown up. This in my opinion depicts postmodernism as no distinction is made between them. This means the progression of time is conventional. This lack of effect confuses the audience and makes them question which part of the video is in real time. This creates postmodern irony because none of what we are watching is actually real.