Traditional beliefs began to be challenged in the late 19th century and early 20th century, such as Nietzsche claiming 'God is Dead' in 1882. Post modernism enjoys the absence of such beliefs and finds this loss liberating and exciting. Post modernists will enjoy visiting past with irony. A post modern text will be lively, upbeat, ironic and includes jokes that the audience which is referred to as intertextuality. Its playful attitude has a optimistic view of the world while it celebrates the chaos of its content.
Post modern texts choose style over substance. It invites us to admire the stylishness of the text instead of the story line. While modernism views itself s a high format of art and for the elite, post modernism rejects this distinction between high culture and low culture and is intended for the masses who have equal worthiness. Also a post modern text tends to break generic rules and mixes genres in the film.
Recent post modern texts include:
- Romeo and Juliet
- Minority Report
- Moulan Rouge
- Pulp Fiction
We have now viewed and analysed some clips from Pulp Fiction while answering some questions set for us by our course teacher:
How post modern is ‘Pulp Fiction’?
Does Pulp Fiction refer to other films?
Before the shooting of this film, John Travolta’s best known roles see him dancing within the film, such as ‘Grease’, ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and ‘Staying Alive’. The character Vincent Vega is a hit-man and thus does not have much in common with Travolta’s previous characters. However the director still opted to include a scene in this film that had the role of Vincent dance and because it was Travolta in the role the scene is not out of place the way it may have been if another actor played the gangster role but with Travolta’s previous film history it makes sense. Without the scene of Travolta dancing the film will have been no less credible. Therefore this reference to John Travolta’s other films is ironic in this film and is a postmodern reference.
In the scene where Mia and Vincent are in the restaurant, their servers are iconic people of the past including Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. The character of Marilyn Monroe can be seen standing over a vent with the wind blowing whilst she holds her dress down. This is a reference to her film ‘The Seven Year Itch’ in which this is an iconic pose of hers. The irony of these characters being included is that the restaurant is presented to the audience as a fun, lively and enjoyable place to be. The postmodern irony of the scene including these characters is that today we usually view them in a dramatic way because of the tragic fate of their lives. Marilyn Monroe is said to have committed suicide, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash and Elvis Presley died of what is said to be a prescription drug overdose.
What different genres does Pulp Fiction play upon?
Pulp Fiction is a mix of genres. Part of it is a gangster film; two of the main characters are mobster hit men, whom work for a gangster whose wife is also featured as a main character. Blaxploitation can be seen within the film through the character of Jules. The film can also be seen as a boxer film: the gangster Marcellus Wallace pays an aging boxer to lose his next fight, however the boxer ends up killing his opponent. There is also elements of romance and crime in the film: Pumpkin and Honey Bunny are in a relationship but are also thieves who in the film we see decided to rob the restaurant their eating at. Some may also see the film to be partly in the genre of a musical as music from different eras plays throughout the film.
How does Pulp fiction mix elements of high and low culture?
The audience is shown Mia’s house, which is presented as high culture and gives an impression of the character. There is artwork throughout, her home is surrounded with security camera and she also has an intercom to speak to other people within the house. However, she chooses to go to a restaurant, which seems a ‘cheesy’, cheap place to eat. Vincent suggests going to a different place where they can get a steak. But Mia is adamant she likes this restaurant and he can get a steak here. This presents low culture within the film. She orders a burger and shake whilst Vincent chooses a steak and vanilla coke. Its ironic she orders the most expensive drink on the menu for $5, which seems to shock Vincent.
What is the effect of Mia magically drawing a square on the screen?
Names, places and brands are mentioned which the audience is more than likely already aware of such as Vanilla Coke, Elvis Presley, McDonald's etc. By Mia magically drawing the square on the screen it reminds us, the audience, that we are just watching a film. And whilst some elements are constructions of reality of what we would actually come across in daily lives and not consider unusual, the magically drawn box is there in effect to make us clearly understand what we see is not all actually true. If I were to draw a box in front of you now, you would not actually see white dots come out of the fingers and create the image of a box.
What is the effect of giving such a number of characters equal screen time?
The different characters have their own main story line within the film. The characters do not seem connected but their stories create a series incidents creating the over all story line of the film. By giving the characters equal screen time, it does not specify that one characters story is more important than another’s and thus presents each character as equal in making up the overall story.
In what ways are the narrative and the sense of location and era fragmented and/or disorientated?
The narrative of Pulp Fiction is not like an ordinary films narrative. The stories are intertwined and thus to the audience the story may be confusing as they do not know what is happening to who when. There is not really a sense of chronological order to the story, what is happening at the opening of the film, continues at the end which is a fragmented story and may disorientate the audience.
From this task, we feel we have grasped the concept of what post modernism is. However we do not feel it is an appropriate theory to apply to our product.
Our trailer does not mix genres. It is a horror genre and we agree it does not spill over into any other genre enough to comment that it is mixed. Also, our product does not have elements of high or low culture for us to regard the product as post modern in this sense.
The product can be seen as fragmented, but this is because the product is trailer. Its not an intentional choice to give a disorientated narrative in what may be consider a post modern way, it is only because the product is a trailer thus we narrate a proportion of the plot and not the whole actual story line.
You appear to have a good understanding o postmodernism - however need to say how you can apply postmodernism to your text - let me know if you need help and I can support you with this.
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