PM MEDIA

yasmin francis 'Postmodern media manipulates time and space.' To what extent does this apply to texts you have studied? Many postmodern media texts discard the concept of a metanarrative and, instead, create a fragmented product which combines genres and merges high and low culture. As a result, logic and rationality are often not necessities within postmodern media, which gives the texts creators freedom to manipulate time and space. The distortion of, what are generally considered to be universal truths is a prominent feature films such as Christopher Nolan s Inception and Quentin Tarantino s Inglorious Basterds . Before the rise of postmodern media, films intended to create a realistic view of what situations were like in order to entertain the viewer as well as making them feel as though they were being informed of events which had actuality happened in the past. One example of this is the war film Saving Private Ryan whereby the viewers felt as though they were watching an accurate version of a historical event when, in fact, it is a false version of the war which has been glorified to show the way in which the audience want to view the film. Postmodern media texts such as Inglorious Basterds reject this view and attempt to expose the idea that everything within the film has been structured to show a hyperreality which is achieved through the manipulation of time and space. Following from the idealistic view of war films, Inglorious Basterds is a war film which manipulates time and space in order to criticise pre-existing films as well as the general lack of or incorrect knowledge of the war amongst the audience. Tarantino s film contributes to society s incorrect historical knowledge as those who see the film may consider it to be the truth as suggested by Jacques Derrida which isn't the case. Tarantino took many actual truths from the war such as the violence and the beliefs of many characters, however exaggerated many things and ultimately re- wrote the ending of the war. Many members of the audience would be able to recognise this, however as the line between the knowledge of what is actually real as opposed to what is a perceived creation of reality becomes smaller, certain people may not realise what is the film and what is the reality of what happened. Tarantino s Inglorious Basterds uses the concept of bricolage to place the idea of a traditional war film into different contexts which ultimately creates a mashup of genres. Incorporating intertextual references from pre-existing war films, as well as films of other genres, including the first chapters exterior opening shots from The Sound of Music where a lone house sits on a hill (yet ends with a girl running through the hills) is used to r eference the idealistic fairytale lifestyle which, at the time when the film is set, is something which people living in the area would like, however is then contrasted with the following action where the family are massacred by the German force. The films opening to the chapter also begins Once Upon a Time, in Nazi-occupied Germany which references Sergio Leone s 1968 western Once Upon a Time in the West . This also reflects the idealistic fairytale- and fairytale genre which would have a younger intended audience to those watching the rated 18 Tarantino film- which is perceived to the audience in the opening chapter. Following the western theme, the music track for when Colonel Landa is approaching the house is typically spaghetti western music. The bricolage shows music which is associated with a genre of film which wasn't popular until the 1970 s and so seems extremely out of place in the film which is set in the 1930 s/40 s. It is clear that the manipulation of music and therefore time has been used to foreshadow the coming action and events where the family are killed. Spaghetti western films usually consisted of violence, shootings and stand-off s which is shown in the scene as there is a stand off between the French LaPadite/Dreyfus family and the German army which ends in shoot- out reminiscent if those which can be seen in typical spaghetti western films. Quentin Tarantino is renowned for doing this in his films, as in the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs when the track Stuck in the Middle with You - a very upbeat song- is played during a violent, torture scene where one character cuts another characters ear off. This convention of Tarantino s films continues to manipulate the audience to see that the film is not real and is a hyperreality as it is a trade mark of the director where he self-references himself- this is done through fonts which he uses in films as well as in his film Django Unchained where he stars as a role in the film.

PM MEDIA

Documents

Transcript of PM MEDIA