8/19/2019 Explain how certain types of media can be defined as
postmodern
1/2
Charlotte Hull
Explain how certain types of media can be dened as
postmodern
Postmodern texts deliberately play with meaning and will often
exhibit many traits of
intertextuality. They encourage oppositional reading to what is
presented through looking
at the past, often through bricolage in the use of other texts,
the presence, using an A-
list cast and the future, creating a new piece of work from the
sources that hae not
before been classed within the same genre. Through postmodernism
! hae looked at"#ango $nchained %&'(&) by *uentin
Tarantino, "rie %&'(() by +icolas inding-efn
and the work of ana "el ey. ei-/trauss suggests there are four
aspects to a
postmodern 0lm, addition, deletion, substitution and
transposition which ! hae explored
and inestigated within the media ! hae looked at. 1or example,
"#ango $nchained is a
western, cowboy 0lm yet there are not actual cowboys showing
deletion. /imilarly, the
two main characters are the expected noble gun0ghter who shapes
the young rookie into
a lethal killing machine but they are a 2erman and a black man,
two outsiders-showing
substitution.
3ne of the most common ways a text becomes de0ned as postmodern
is through
intertextual references as explained by 2enette as 45uotations6.
This brings the past intothe text either through bricolage, homage,
pastiche, or parody. "#ango $nchained uses
bricolage to transposition the 5uotations from other texts into
the context for this 0lm7
for example, the title "#ango $nchained was inspired by the (899
0lm "#ango with the
lead actor 1ranco +ero who also features in "#ango $nchained
during a scene where he
asks how "#ango, as played by :amie 1oxx, is spelt only to reply
;! know< referencing his
past 0lm. !t further uses intertextualisation within the names
in "#ango $nchained 0rstly
through "r. =ing /chult> whose name is taken from the song
;His name was =ing< which
plays during his entry in part of the 0lm and secondly with the
name ?roomhilda @on
/haft which references the (8( ?laxploitation 0lm ;/haft
8/19/2019 Explain how certain types of media can be defined as
postmodern
2/2
Charlotte Hull
de0ne it as postmodern. The one scene that comes close is set in
an eleator but again,
this is self-reFexie rather than focusing on the relationship.
This scene reminds the
audience that they are watching a 0lm through the change in
lighting and si>e of the
eleator, un-natural for the space and position the camera would
be, the slow-motion
eEect and the return to reality that follows the kiss to
transition into the 0ght scene. The
golden light that appears here as well as earlier in the 0lm
during a drie with the couple
portrays their relationship as a fairy tale as though no-one
else is around to interrupttheir perfect moment. The idea of a
fairy tale, 0rst suggested by the director, is also seen
at the end of the eleator scene where the drier is hunched oer
the man he has #ust
ruthlessly murdered and turns back to look at his loe who he
knows he has #ust lost.
This act appears as though he has #ust changed from beast
to man, as often seen within
fairy tales, as his childlike expression portrays he does not
know what he has #ust done
as though it was a diEerent ersion of him. This scene acts as a
moement in time where
the enironment goes from present day to hyper reality as
proposed by ?audrillard back
to present day where he realises his mistakes.
The futuristic part that de0nes a 0lm as postmodern is
mostly brought in through the
music used. !n the postmodern 0lms ! hae studied ! hae found
that the music oftendoes not 0t with what is expected from the
genre and the time set which shows either a
transposition, where the expected is replaced by the
un-expected, or the music is based
on a future approalGexpectation. !n "rie, the music mostly
sounds like an '
