Donnie Darko Post Modernism

Copy of Donnie Darko- Post modernism on Prezi

In what ways can Inglourious Basterds be considered postmodern?

In many ways Inglorious Basterds can be considered postmodern for many reasons, Quentin Tarentino self-consciously rejected the past and focused more on the future, in Tarentino's retelling of the Inglorious Basterds he changes the ending and makes the ‘Basterds’ kill Hitler, this could be considered a postmodern element because it portrays a more utopian view of society because they Kill Hitler and effectively change reality and save millions of lives.

Quentin Tarentino uses a lot of Intertexuality in Inglorious Basterds as he uses many elements form the spaghetti Western Genre, Tarentino focuses on the use of western music by composers like Enrico Morricane, these pieces of music are used in parts that shouldn't have worked but do work, for example in the scene in chapter 2 when Brad Pitt is first introduced as Aldo Raine, where the use of spaghetti western music comes into play when we are introduced to the ‘Basterds’, we also get to see another element of Post modernism which is breaking the forth wall which is applied to anything that breaks the convention of a film being a film, for example addressing the audience, Aldo’s Raine American accent is really strong and over the top, it is almost to strong and addresses the fact Aldo Raine is a Character and not a real person.
Other elements of Intertexuality that Tarentino uses in Inglorious Basterds is the way he takes elements from different genres. In the Forrest scene the framing is taken from The Good the Bad and the Ugly as we get the classic standoff where the camera jumps from close-ups from one character to the other, this is used because it shows the tension between Aldo and the German officer, this is also where another postmodern element is introduced, as there is a kind of black humour when ‘The Bear Jew’ starts to beat the German officer, the brutality does kind of break the fourth wall.

Inglorious Basterds can be considered post modern because of the use of Tarentino’s Yellow text, its an elements he tries to use in ever film that he makes, for example it links in with Kill Bill Vol1 and 2, also there is a link of intertexuality as yellow can considered to be Tarentino’s favourite colour as he uses it so often, for example the Bride’s yellow jump suit in Kill Bill and the colour of the van that she steals after the hospital sequence. The yellow texts then also used in introducing characters in the film, which is very post modern because normally a film lets you try and work out the character or the film’s narrative explains who the character is but Tarentino just posts names next to important people so the narrative can flow faster, for example in the cinema scene we see different German officers and then some name tags appear and display them as Goering and Goebbels, this convention is said to break the fourth wall as it brings back the idea that we are watching a film.

Another way in which Inglorious Basterds in considered being post modern is the way it breaks the convention of the fourth wall in chapter 1 for example we get  instead of a view outside of the window we get a painted backdrop, also in the scene where the ‘Jew Hunter’ is interrogating the French Farmer we get a shot that goes through the rafters and down below the house to the cellar where the Jews are hiding, but there was no cut the camera just seemingly went through the ‘set’ so we can get dragged back to the reality that Inglorious Basterds is just a film, this could be a way that Tarentino address some more controversial issues in his film.

We also in chapter 1 get a link to the Sound Of Music via the screening of chapter 1, especially where we can see the countryside and all the hills it is a reference to ‘the hills are alive with the sound of music’ this could be considered to be making use of Genette’s theory of Hypotextuality where the sound of music has been referenced through a pastiche through Tarentino’s use of the camera angles in chapter 1.

Secondly the title of the Film Inglorious Basterds is a reference to the older film Inglorious bastards although it has more intertexual links to ‘Where Eagles Dare’ and the ‘Dirty Dozen’, for example the suicide squad of Jews if a reference to the Dirty Dozen which follows a similar storyline, though it can be argued that the title is a reference to fairy tale stories  as much of the films are in a stereotypical setting for a fairy tale but also the way that it end happily ever after with Hitler dead and Aldo escaping unscathed but it presents a more hyper real view of war films, but this can be viewed as Post Modern because there isn’t a really utopian view of  the world because yes they Killed Hitler and The ‘Jew Hunter’  changes sides but Aldo still carves a swastika into his forehead.

Another way in which you could argue that Inglorious Basterds is Post Modern is the Use of Bricolage in the selection of Music as Bricolage is essentially taking elements from different texts and combining them to make something  that works, as Tarentino uses a strange selection of music for a supposed World war 2 film, he uses songs like ‘Slaughter’ by Billy Preston and ‘Cat People’ by David Bowie, both of these would not be considered a good choice of music for a war film but it seems to work and this is also another one of Tarentino’s use of intertexuality as he always creates his own soundtrack by selecting tracks from a archive of music that he has been collecting since he was a boy.

There are a variety of post Modern elements in Chapter 2 as well, for example when we are introduced to Hugo Stieglitz we get the classic yellow text and Blaxploitation music, the Guitar riff fro Slaughter by Billy Preston,   this is also a reference to ‘Shaft’ as it uses the same kind of camera angles and music when Shaft is introduced in ‘Shaft’. This is followed quickly by the use of a OK Carrol reference to the stand off between the Basterds and the German officers via the camera angles and the use of Spaghetti western Music, and the way that Aldo raine makes the men scalp the German soldier another intertexual link to spaghetti western films and native Americans or ‘Injun’s’.

Chapter 2 also introduces us to Hitler, who we can see is immediately parodied as he is being painted for extremely large portrait behind him, but the man in the painting bares no resemblance to the actual character, as with Aldo raine the acting for Hitler is very overdone, this almost adds to the element of hyprerreality as we see a man that isn’t real what we expected, he is portrayed as pathetic and petty. We also get to see the British characters that are extremely stereotypical as they are very posh and talk with an almost painful English accent ‘speaking the kings’. The Character Archie Hitchcox played by Fassbender is very much Aldo Raines Binary opposite as the American character are portrayed via British stereotypes for Americans, as the British Characters are presented via the American stereotype, this allows the film to break through the forth wall as it provides examples of stereotypes that are pushed to the extremes, pushed to almost hyperreality as it is so fake that it kind of becomes real.

Inglorious Basterds can be considered post modern as it is constructed out of socially recognisable ‘debris’ from other texts, this is Levi Strauss’ Theory of Bricolage again but another theory by Strauss can also be applied to in Inglorious Basterds as he said that texts in this case Tarentino’s film construct itself by the process of Addition, Deletion, Substitution and Transposition. The elements that Tarentino added (addition) was the pastiche of the battleship Potemkin scene where someone is shot through the eye, Tarentino copies this in his film within film, ‘Nations’ Pride’   Frederick Zoller’s film , also the addition of a public information film on the type of nitrate film used to burn down the cinema. Tarentino’s also uses many elements of deletion in Inglorious Basterds as he takes out classic war film elements like the fear, Major battle and the journey into Germany, this adds a certain post modern element of breaking the fourth wall as we want to know how they got there but it isn’t vital for the film to show as its not real life. The most obvious substitution element that Tarentino uses is how he substitutes the ‘A’ for an ‘E’ in the title, but there are other elements of substitution as well, he substitutes the normal war music for his Bricolage mash of alternative tracks. The Last element Transposition can be applied to the way that Tarentino uses spaghetti western elements, for example the framing, also when Tarentino changes the end of the war another element of hyper reality links back to how the film is post modern.

I believe that you could class Inglorious Basterds as a post modern war film instead of a normal war film, and came to this conclusion by applying Fiske’s theory of a semic code, for example we can only understand elements from Inglorious Basterds by judging it against other texts, to make sense of The character of Hitler we think back to the film Downfall which set the bar for the portrayal of Hitler in a film we then judge that in comparison Tarentino’s Hitler is a Parody and therefore can be Genette’s theory of Hypotexuality, Tarentino has done this on purpose as he has to ‘Encode’ the film and have to use other texts to decode it, without Tarentino’s Bricolage the film would make little to no sense.

Creativity Quotes

• Explain in your own words what you think each quote means. Commenton whether you agree/disagree with it.
• Choose 2 quotes you agree with and apply them to any of your ownpieces of coursework.
• Choose 2 quotes you disagree with and explain why, using your owncoursework to support your views.

"A process needed for problem solving...not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people" (Jones 1993)

This comment is referring to creativity being in everybody's reach, but only few choose cultivate it.

Basically the quotes describes everyone as having the ability to creative its not just a gift that only a few people have.

"The making of the new and the re arranging of the old" (Bentley 1997)

This quote could be viewed as making new things through being inspired by taking old elements and 're-arranging' them, basically drawing inspiration from the past and using it to create new  idea's.

"Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation." (Csikszentmihalyi 1996)

"There is no absolute judgement [on creativity] All judgements are comparisons of one thing with another." (Donald Larning)

This quote basically describes the only way that you can judge something creative is if you judge it against something else, because if you had nothing to judge something by how could you justify it as a good or bad thing?

"Technology has taken all the creativity out of media production"

  This quote is basically describing how the use of technology doesn't make make anything creative, but the manipulation of images and effects that you can design and create on different software's enables a person to be very creative.

"A project that is too well planned lacks opportunities for spontaneity and creativity."

I think this quote means that creativity comes from the process of being spontaneous, the fact is that the process of planning stops your idea's from being instantaneous you have to stick to a plan, though I think that planning wouldn't completely stop the ability of the person to be creative during the project

"Media producers can learn nothing from studying the conventions of old texts"
I believe that this theory is not true, because the fact that 'nothing is original' now can be applied to this theory as you can only draw from past experiences to move forward.

"The creation of bringing something new into existence -this particular understanding  of creativity involves the physical making of something, leading to some form of communication, expression or revelation".

(David Gauntlett)

 

I believe that quote means that the creation of some form of creativity allows the person to gain a form of expression or revelation that can only be gained from the physical creation of something.

 

'If creativity is not inherent in human mental powers and is, in fact, social and situational, then technological developments may well be linked to advances in the creativity of individual users. (Banaji, Burn and Buckingham, 2006)'

I think in some ways people can only be creative by themselves and not through the help of technology, but I think some people need a technological input to allow them to channel some form of creativity into there lives.

 

Creativity during As and A2

Originality, imagination, inspiration, ingenuity, inventiveness, resourcefulness, creativeness, vision and innovation.

Originality

·         During the AS media project I had to create an interview with a fake artist, so it was original because I wrote it myself.

Imagination

·         Using a post-apocalyptic theme in our joint A2 music video

Inspiration

·         During the planning process for the music video, I listed and reviewed different Inspirational music video.

·         I also listed musical inspirational in the form of a playlist on the side of the blog.

Ingenuity

·         We used different landscapes and camera’s to get the most out of different light sources and certain times of days.

Inventiveness

·         We used a lamp for a microphone in the A2 music video.

·         Created false identities for people in my AS media magazine

Resourcefulness

·         We used all of our own equipment in the process of creating and editing the a2 music video.

·         I used my own cs3 Photoshop at home to create my final designs

·         We borrowed a couple of HD cameras from different friends.

·         We had access to a lithographic printer, which we used to design some t shirts that we wore in our Music Videos.

Creativeness

·         The fact we managed to create an entire music video constitutes as creative.

·         When  we had to create our magazine covers and digipack it took a degree of creativity

Vision

·         We had vision hen we planned what we wanted our video to look like, we then displayed this ‘Vision’ through the planning post and post-apocalyptic inspiration post.

Innovation

·         The fact that we incorporated the use of our own equipment, software and editing skills allowed us to be innovative.

Creativity Activity

The task was to create a cd cover out of random pictures and text we got off certain websites.