Postmodernism can help in our understanding of 'popular' film - Essay Example

? Discuss how Postmodernism can help in our understanding of 'popular' film Introduction Postmodern art is a form of artistic trend that is related to art that was portrayed after the era of modern art. Post modern art is characterized by aspects such as installation art that is carried out in space, multimedia that includes the use of text, audio and video and the conceptual art that is focused on images or objects (“What Is Postmodern Art”). Lyotard Jean-Francois came up with the theory that was based on the view of postmodern art as a connection between meta-narratives and generality. He strongly rejected the theories that were put forward by Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. According to Trainer (2010) Karl Marx theory was based on Marxism where he described that humans were driven my material aspects such as survival in the world that they were living in. He went ahead to describe that this ideology of survival of humans was linked to as capitalism. Marxism described capitalism as a notion where there existed labour division among people and class separation was existence in the manner that where was a significant difference in power and wealth. As a result, Marxism theory was based on capitalism and he linked this aspect to explain how the society works in a cyclic manner. According to Birchall (2008) when Karl Marx theory of capitalism was related to art, capitalism sought to create a value of any object in terms of money, so art was no exception. With that, art was also reduced to consequent value such that, even if the piece of art was regarded as high art, according to the capitalist theory by Karl Marx , the art definitely had a price value that was attached to it. According to Freeland (2001) Sigmund Freud spoke about art as a way to express “unconscious feelings” that the artist may even lack (p. 157). He explained that, “[The artist] is urged on by instinctual needs...; he longs to attain honour, power, riches, fame and the love of women; but he lacks the means of achieving these gratifications. So like any other with an unsatisfied longing, he turns away from reality and transfers all his interest, and all his libido, on to the creation of his wishes in the life of fantasy, from which the way might readily lead to neurosis” (p. 157). This can be elaborated to mean that Sigmund viewed art as a matter that was related to an urge to produce art and get wealthy and famous but not as a means to express to the society. Discuss how Postmodernism can help in our understanding of 'popular' film Postmodernism in the film “The Matrix Trilogy” Baudrillard Jean was a philosopher who came up with theories related to postmodernism in art and the impact that this art had. Some of his works revealed aspects such as "Simulacra and Simulations". According to Baudrillard (1994), "the simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true” (p. 1). He talked about the presence and use of simulation and simulacra in art such that it would relate to reality. He described it as the “generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyper real”. He went ahead to describe that a lot of models have been created and simulated in a manner that would look real without doubt whereas “the real is produced from miniaturized cells, matrices, and memory banks, models of control-and it can be reproduced an infinite number of times from these” (p.2). When Baudrillard Jean stated this, he meant that simulation could be produced from aspects such as matrices and the output could also be manipulated and repeated over and over again until the abstraction of the real object has been produced by the simulation vector. As a result, no clear distinction could be made between the real object or image and the false one as they both appeared inspiringly similar. When this methodology of "Simulacra and Simulations" was translated to the film, “The Matrix”, it could be noted that the film during its production utilized a lot of theories that Baudrillard Jean has talked about. The film had a lot of simulations that looked real when in the real sense they are abstractions of the real images and objects. This in return created the concept that Baudrillard referred to as hyper reality. Hyper reality can be described as a methodology where the output of an image and the abstraction of the same image look alike. The resultant feature is that there is no clear distinction between what is real and the false. Thus both look similar in an artistic manner. In his book, Baudrillard talks of “Precision of Simulacra” where he describes the three phases of simulacra. These include image reality that is related to mapping, the second is the lack of distinction between the reality and the illusion and the third is related to hyper reality. This form of post modernism can help us understand the film “The matrix” because it explains aspects such as mapping, the lack of distinction between reality and illusion and finally hyper reality, in the form that Baudrillard Jean described. It can be said that the film follows Baudrillard theory based on simulation and Simulacra. In the film, images and objects are given another look that an individual may not be able to clearly distinguish them. This is because; the film is entirely based on the manipulation of space and objects with the use of a computer so as to produce an image environment that can be termed as the virtual environment. Even with a brief definition, matrix means something that takes the shapes of another object. Thus this film can be equitably related to not being a reality since it is based on the aspect of a virtual world that is under the control from a central location. There also exists a real world that includes characters such as Morpheus, Trinity, Neo, Agent Smith and other significant characters. At one point in the film, Agent smith said, “The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization”. This clearly points out that hyper reality has been implemented in the film such that they try to manipulate what the real world out to be in their minds by stating that the world we live in may just be a dream that we are in, and the mind, that is our “primitive cerebrum” has always tried to wake up from but has never. The film tries to bring out an aspect that the reality may just be an illusion that we are living in. And that is the reason why Morpheus believes that the existent humans as in a dream that they are trying to wake up from. An important aspect that comes in next is how the postmodernism theory can help us understand the matrix application of the simulation and simulacra theories by Baudrillard. A recap on this aspect is that the matrix implemented the "Simulacra and Simulations" theory by Baudrillard where the reality may just be another illusion based on simulation and it is based on the assumption that the reality is what an individual makes out of it. The support of this is evidenced when Morpheus explains to Neo that, “These people are dependent on the world”. In this instance Morpheus was totally for the idea that humans were living in an illusion world. Simulacra on the other hand relate to the aspect that something is unreal with regard to how it looks like. The matrix portrayed postmodernism in this manner based on how their world looked like. It was unreal with no life whatsoever despite its appearance to the people that were living in it. This is depicted when the character, Morpheus was explaining to Neo what the matrix was and he stated that, “Trinity was looking for me, just as I have been looking for you.” In this instance Morpheus knew that there was something beyond the world that they were in but he did know what exactly it was. In addition to that, there also exists the aspect of Artificial Intelligence where objects are replicated to as to produce a continuous form of images. This was evidenced by the fact that there were robots in the films that were replicated so as to form a complete implementation of Artificial intelligence in the movie. In conclusion, “The Matrix” developed the idea that reality was close to a simulation by the fact that Neo was hiding some computer documents that could have been the key to understand or prove that what he thought was real and it meant that he had realised that the world that they were living in was an illusion but he did not have any solid proof to evidence that idea. A second idea was projected to the woman in Trinity when she was running away from the people with suits and before they got hold of her, they tried to smash a truck towards her but she did not exist, sort of she disappeared. The aspect of them throwing the truck at her made it seem to her that they were humans with natural abilities. Later in the film, the notion to come out of the hyper realistic world was related to a phone call. With answering the phone call just like the woman almost did, that was believed to be the key that would awake the realistic world of an individual that was in the virtual world on “The Matrix”. The existed a boy in the movie who had the ability to bend a spoon without his hands. In the film, this depicted the capability of the illusion world to come up with unique capabilities to trigger the brain. The film portrayed that the mind was the most powerful aspect of a human. The last aspect of hyper reality was based on the scene where there was a plane crush that was not really a plane crush. This is because when the plane was almost crashing into the building it ceased to exist, thus it was an illusion of the real aspect of a plane crush. With these experiences, the characters in the film believed that they were living in a virtual world. So what does “The Matrix” have in all of this? The answer is that is sought to implement both the postmodern theory of art based on multimedia and hyper reality and the Simulation and simulacra theory and there came the existence of “The Matrix”. Thus the idea of the reality being simulated throughout the film has been adequately developed. Postmodernism in the film “Pulp Fiction” The film “Pulp Fiction” was based on the stories of gangsters, boxers and robbers. It was produced so as to bring an aspect of media art. In the film, there exists a lot of reversed narration as well as inter textual references. “Pulp Fiction” implemented these aspects in the following ways; first there exists a series of splits in the movie. These include; "Vincent and Marcellus Wife", "The Gold Watch" and "The Bonnie Situation" that involved the disposing of Marvin’s dead body. According to Lyotard's theory, the film can be determined as one that implemented postmodernism by the use of mini narratives and simulations. Lyotard (2005) described that “language games” was also another form of post modern art (p.10). With that the film “Pulp Fiction” also implemented the aspect of “language games” that led to loss of reality in the characters that were involved. For example, when Jules plays the character of God, religion has been referenced to a “meta narrative” manner. Secondly is the scene where the waiters at the dinner party appear like they are celebrities and this can be referenced to Baudrillard theory of Simulacra and finally the scene where hyper reality is evidenced by the character Mia who after a drug overdose suddenly “rises” up. When compared to the real world, a drug overdose can even cause death. Hyper reality is also evidenced in the interior design of the bar where Mia goes with Vincent and to have dinner. The scene behind this is that it has the feel of a 50’s kind of set up. The space also had posters and pictures and the music that was being played was rock and roll making it the best setup that depicted the 50’s scene. During their diner conversation, there exists the art of a conversation that had gone out of context. That is, they were speaking of a foot massage thus the conversation at this point can be referred to as a “floating conversation” because it does not have any lead as to the theme of the film. Thus this is another form of postmodernism art in the form of a conversations or narrative. Another instance is when Jules thinks that a miracle happened to him. This is because of the escape he underwent where no bullets harmed him. This can be described as hyper reality where the real is made to look like an illusion and the illusion is made to look like it is real thus an individual cannot distinguish the two aspects. This scene also exhibits religious notion where he says that, “God came down from heaven and stopped the bullets”. According to Laist (2013) Jules managed to interchange the definition of reality and illusion since the bullets did not harm him he thought it was a super natural force. Thus the aspect of a supernatural power has also being depicted in this scene. When this is compared to the real world, the situation would definitely cause death of an individual. Thus hyper reality has been implemented in the film. The same dinner scene also reveals the aspect of fate. This is because, when the movie was almost ending, there was a dinner scene between Jules and Vincent, this was a conclusion that Jules was lucky to be alive thus he achieved immortality, however for Vincent that was not the case since in the film he was faced with death. This can be described as the “duality” of life and death thus hyper real post modernism. It can be concluded that the film, “Pulp Fiction” has implemented a lot of hyper reality based on the scenes that have been described. In addition to that the theories of Lyotard Jean and Baudrillard Jean have clearly distinguished and evidenced postmodernism vividly. A simulacrum aspect was also portrayed in the film in the scene when Mia apparently “rose” up from the dead after a drug overdose. Postmodernism in the film “Blade Runner” The film, “Blade Runner” is another instance of postmodernism art and film. The film was set up in 1982 and the story line is behind human cyborgs that were invented were now dangerous to the human population. The film includes the aspect of postmodern aesthetic, pastiche, hyper identities and identity crisis. Postmodern aesthetic can be described as the “emphasis of the figural over the discursive” (“postmodern aesthetics”). Hyper identities are referred to the means where the film implements the use of a blurred meaning with regard to the reference of humans and machines. As a result, depicting the aspect of humanity is difficult because the entities involved may lack emotion and feel like humans do. This is done best by the use of Artificial Intelligence and genetic engineering. The film was set to be in the future when technological advancements were full blown and could be implemented easily thus making machines seem like human. In addition to that, the film introduced the genetic engineering concept where machines were created to depict humans. Thus the Voit Komp (VK), technology was the only way that could be used to differentiate humans and machines, as it would measure emotional responses of an object. As a result no machine like human would pass the test as they were not able to incorporate emotion as a factor. Thus this can lead us to understand that despite the existence of artificial intelligence and other technological advancements that exist none can replicate nor recreate a human. Another aspect of hyper identities is also portrayed when the replicas of the humans are fed with memories that do not necessarily reflect reality. This is done in the form of using photographs. It should be noted that photographs represent reality, but in this instance there exists the use of reality to create a false identity. With the aspect of Artificial intelligence, the replicas are subjected to illusions of memories that seem true to them so as to develop the concept of feeling in the replicas. As a result, once they develop feelings they may have a chance of passing the VK test that distinguishes reality from an illusion based on the measure of emotion. When this is linked to the theory by Baudrillard (2003) that states that, “A possible definition of the real is: that for which it is possible to provide an equivalent representation”. The photographs have the impact of creating emotion in the replicas. The photographs also act like simulacra; this is because the events that happened in the pictures were those of events that had already happened in actual experiences in the past. When linked to hyper reality, these images acted like the truth to these replicas thus this was their real world and they knew that it was the only world that existed. For example, when Deckard and Rachael were having a conversation and he told Rachael that the memories that she had were implanted in her and they were not real, she did not believe what he said. As a result, she refocused on the past, which are the memories of the photographs that were used so as to create a past or an assumption of her past. This resulted in an identity crisis when she cried as a response to what Deckard has mentioned to her. Thus this portrayed hyper reality and identity and Rachael could not differentiate what to believe. Time and space is also related to postmodernism. This has been vividly expressed in the film. According to Harvey (1989b) the film “Blade Runner” has been used as a gateway to portray time and space in the manner that there exists the putative compression of time and space. Another reference is related to Scott’s vision of the future where the company disappeared and there was not information that was related to its existence. Identity crisis has also been portrayed in the film. This is evidenced in the fact that the movie was portraying a futuristic notion and all its characters are in the future, that is, in the city of Los Angeles, there lacks a geographical central location, there exists no past and also there lacks no history about the city. As a result, “there is an overarching and insipid postmodern identity crisis” in the entire film (“Blade Runner and the ‘postmodern condition’”). Pastiche is another form of post modernism that was included in the film. This was evidenced by the city of Los Angeles that was a city that just existed with no past and no history to look back to. However it can be said that despite the film being produced with a futuristic notion, it can be argued that at some point the plot was going back in time thus giving it the pastiche concept that cannot be truly figured when exactly the film was set. It can be concluded that the film, “Blade Runner” truly explored into post modernism and post moderns art with the instances of postmodern aesthetic, pastiche, hyper identities and identity crisis and the scenes described portray these aspects of postmodernist art. The conclusion of the film is that the audience was left to figure out what they could make out of the film idea. Throughout the film, identity has also been of keen interest in the characters especially Rick Deckard who brings the aspect of a hyper realistic society. This is done in the manner where the future can be seen through him and this brings confusion for the audience based on what is real and what is not. However, the audience of the film comes to the realisation that the only individual whom they tended to sympathise with was not human and this leaves the audience with the concept that they themselves may not be in the real sense human after all. Conclusion It can be concluded that the concept of “postmodernism” with the use of postmodern art can be used so as to help us understand 'popular' films that have implement the methodology. Postmodernism includes a lot of aspects such as installation art, multimedia and the conceptual art that is focused on images or objects. In review of the described movies, another additional aspect of the incorporation of postmodern art that includes the use of Artificial intelligence and engineering has also been used. With that, it can be noted that this art has taken centre fold to depict images and objects in ways that have never been thought of before. Thus this art has helped producers to portray the wildest methods of art that there can be, by the use on computer technology. In this way, postmodern art has been revolutionised to greater heights. Works cited Baudrillard, Jean. The Hyper-realism of Simulation. Art in Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Ed. Charles Harrison & Paul Wood. Malden: Blackwell, 2003. 1018-1020. Wisegeek. What Is Postmodern Art?. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-postmodern-art.htm Trainer, Ted. MARXIST THEORY; A brief Introduction. 2010. Web. Retrieved from: http://socialsciences.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/Marx.html Birchall, Ian. The philosophy of Art of Karl Marx. 2008. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/birchall/1974/02/artmarx.htmeland Freeland, Cynthia. But Is It Art?: An Introduction to Art Theory.UK: Oxford University Press, 2001.Print Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and simulation. USA: University of Michigan Press, 1994. Print Jean-Francois Lyotard. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Theory and History of Literature, Volume 10). University Of Minnesota Press; 1st edition (June 21, 1984), 2005. Laist, Randy. Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Baudrillard’s Perfect Crime. International journal of Baudrillard studies. Volume 10(1), 2013. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol-10_1/v10-1-laist.html Stlawu.edu. Postmodern aesthetics. Web. Retrieved from: http://it.stlawu.edu/~pomo/mike/aesthetic.html Media Studies G325. Film 1: Blade Runner. Web. Retrieved from: http://georgeblakeg325.blogspot.com/p/film-1-bladerunner.html Harvey, D. Time and space in the postmodern cinema. In The Condition of Post modernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989b. Thurlow, Crispin. Blade Runner and the 'postmodern condition'. Web. Retrieved from: http://faculty.washington.edu/thurlow/research/bladerunner.html Read More