Modernism is all about moving forward and postmodern texts came after this and focus on the borrowing of things from the past and intertextual references. In some ways it manipulates time in terms of developing and moving forward and by instead reinforcing the past. This is significantly noticeable in the typical postmodern labelled films such as Inglorious Basterds, where Tarantino tends to demonstrate postmodernism throughout each of his films. Postmodernism tends to display self reflexivity, irony and disputes the boundaries between genres. Due to the intertextual references, postmodern texts are mainly designed to be read by a literate audience who will notice the ‘borrowings’ and be able to identify the similarities from other texts that highlight the fictionality of the text.
In Inglorious Basterds, there are many postmodern elements that can identified to manipulate time and space. This involves how the film almost plays with reality such as in the beginning scene where one overhead camera shot shows no ceiling, but it then switches to a low angle shot which appears to show that the ceiling is there. This clearly challenges the idea of reality; however postmodernism focuses on reminding the audience that a text is fictional which juxtaposes the approaches of many other films that aim to create an element of reality to connect with the audience. When considering Fiske, an audience may recognize Inglorious Basterds as being a war film because of their cultural knowledge of the concept war film that they have gained from watching others. Because of this, we then wouldn’t find it necessary to look at the intertextual references. However the fact that Inglorious Basterds includes such obvious fictional elements reminds us indeed, that it’s not real.
To some extent the quote ‘Postmodern media manipulates time and space’ can be applied to Inglorious Basterds due to the extensive and diverse borrowings it has within the film. The film manipulates time by using texts from the past in a modern day film which is perhaps what the audience wouldn’t expect due to the constant pressure to move forward in society. In the film ‘The Searchers’ released in 1956, the rememberable ending has been referenced to in Inglorious Basterds at the end of the first chapter. This scene is where a character is framed in a door way and then walks away, which creates a dramatic effect. In some ways this links directly with Inglorious Basterds; however the film manipulated this by stripping the effectiveness created in The Searchers which could perhaps effect our views on that original film.
In the ‘Projection box’ scene in Inglorious Basterds there are also war elements in terms of the music. The music suggests that something dramatic is going to happen as Frederick walks towards the room that Shosanna is in, allowing the audience to foreshadow. The type of music sounds like it’s from a war film and portrays that some sort of action will follow however in this scene, when Shosanna opens the door the music stops. Then when something does happen, there is no music. Clearly this manipulates ‘normal’ conventions and it decreases the ‘dramatic impact’ usually created which may confuse an audience. In a traditional war film there is normally less music and more sound effects, i.e. the shooting of guns. However a Tarantino element is that there is extreme violence but much of it is suggested off-screen. Also when Shosanna gets shot, her death seems less brutal and more peaceful which may suggest a romantic element. In some ways her death may seem sad to an audience as she was such a key character, therefore an audience may choose to see her death as romantic or that her ‘mission’ has been completed and she’s at peace. They choose to see it as this is because it is what they want to believe, rather than believing her ‘mission’ had failed. The romantic music in the death scene is an example of contrapuntal music as the means are against the point. The slow motion also emphasises how she was a main character from the beginning therefore it is a ‘tragic’ death and this convention is common in most films. However in a typical film where a character gets pay back, they usually survive to see their revenge. Tarantino is almost challenging the audiences stereotypical views and perspectives and putting it in reality for them that no films are real. The hyperreal elements in the film portrays that the film is not real. We learn very little about the characters even though the film is character led rather than mission led. In some ways this disconnects the audience with the characters as they are not able to connect with the characters and therefore emotion such as sympathy isn’t created.
In terms of Levi-Strauss One of the most important ‘deletion’ in the film is history. The film rewrites history as Hitler dies differently. Comparing it closely to other war films there are obvious contrasts in elements, for example the film ‘Where Eagles Dare’. Also fear has been taken out for example the scene where Shosanna gets shot juxtaposes the usual elements of a ‘typical’ scene like this as there is romantic music playing. It could be argued that because the film is challenging and questioning an audiences typical views, postmodern media does manipulate time and space because it’s beginning to control how the audience should see the film, instead of making as something they can relate with a lot of open questions. Although an audience is able to freely choose the way they see a film, postmodernism focuses on getting across certain elements to ensure that the audience doesn’t see it as something real. In the future it is obvious that with the rapid expansion of media, postmodern media in particular, will perhaps come to have more control over society. Lyotard's argument of 'the collapse of the grand narratives' suggests that traditional views held by traditional movement is now disappearing. Postmodernism often opposes ideas of Good vs Evil. For example there's fear in the film 'Saving Private Ryan'; however in 'Inglorious Basterds' there's no fear in anything they do. Clearly the quote ‘Postmodern media manipulates time and space’ can be applied to an extent in Inglorious Basterds in terms of the borrowing; however postmodern media cannot be critised alone for manipulating time and space as no texts can be redeemed original in some aspects due to the creator using or being inspired from already existing ideas. In terms of films, each film has a genre and this is a shared genre. Each film has the ability to portray the past, present and future and each film is able to control how an audience may view a film, in terms of feelings, sympathy created etc. This can further be applied to music where Jonathan Kramar media theorist states one of sixteen characteristics ‘does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present’. I feel that the quote highlights the little limitations postmodernism has and the ability it has to expand through using borrowings from other texts and manipulating the audience. It’s recreating what we perhaps redeem is normal and is able to change what society has become comfortable in believing in, to something new. Although that seems arguable when postmodernism involves borrowing things from the past.
Postmodern texts offer the viewer a different perspective. In a postmodern world the media audience will view a postmodern text differently to other texts as they are picking up on the familiarization's and the intertextual references, which indeed indicate the fictional aspect of the text. This can be applied to the film ‘The Matrix’ which focuses on challenging to audience to define ‘reality’. However the intertextuality references such as those ‘Wizard of Oz’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland’ highlight the that the film is fictional and these references are easily recognisable. A non literate audience may perhaps try to relate a text to reality which is where phrases such as ‘it was like a movie’ come from. The realization that media is beginning to become closely related to being ‘the reality’ to some people is overpowering and postmodernism perhaps brings the audience ‘back to reality’ through the impact of fictional elements. With postmodernism expanding it suggests that this ‘made up from a movie’ society will then be able to realise what is real and what is not. I feel the media industries operate differently in a postmodern world as they are trying to create and achieve a different, yet strangely, ‘unoriginal’ effect as to those other media industries that focus on moving forward. Postmodernists know what their trying to achieve which is why postmodern elements in films are easily picked out, just like in Inglorious Basterds.
No comments:
Post a Comment