Postmodernism In Film

The Truman Show



This movie revolves around a man that is trapped in a real life reality show and he is unaware of it. Reality shows are very popular today and feature many of things that happen in the Truman Show movie. For example, there is product placement, hidden cameras and unscripted scripts. According to our text, "Practices of Looking", postmodernism inspires artists to create products that allow them to examine their own position in the work that they create. A director is a type of artist and in The Truman Show, the director plays a very significant role over the everyday details of Truman's life. All actors in the show have a headset and the director is often show giving them cues and direction, including the instructions to successfully use product placement. This movie is written in a way that forces the audience to question whether directors really have the best intentions for the art they are producing and also question the commercialization of movies today.

Back to the Future, III



In Back to the Future III Marty McFly goes back in time to save his friend, the Doc, from being shot by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. In order to save Doc from dying, Marty has to work with the Doc's 1955 self. There are so many postmodern aspects of postmodernism in time travel movies and this one is a classic. One of the best parts of the movie that gives a slap in the face to time travel is when the Doc is actually slapped in the face by Clara, the woman he is seeing. He tells her that he is a time traveler and she doesn't believe him. She slaps him in the face and says that he is just saying that so he can get out of seeing her. In a lot of movies about time travel, the fact that it exists is just accepted. But in this film, it is not. Clara has a reaction that people would have in real life. In addition, there are tons of pop culture references because Marty is always trying to be clever in the movie and the people he encounters don't know what he's talking about. There is one scene that occurs in a "western" setting and Marty is doing the Moonwalk. That is a very good example of postmodernism in a film.

Pulp Fiction



Pulp Fiction is a good example of a movie that uses a lot of pop culture references and a lot of over the top antics to alert you to the fact that the movie is indeed a movie. The things that happen in the movie are so unrealistic to the genre of the film - Jerry Seinfield makes a cameo appearance, a girl's dress is blown by a gust of wind in the middle of a bar - that it is clear the writers are making fun of the genre that they participate in. So while the movie makes fun of gangster crime movies, they are meanwhile creating one. And Pulp Fiction becomes one of the most celebrated movies of its time.

Borat

The Trailer

The plot of Borat is that a man from a village in Kazakhstan goes on a trip to America to report on "the greatest country in the world" for a TV show in his home country. The star of the show, Sacha Baron Cohen, is British and throughout the movie he makes fun of stereotypes about everything from small countries to the "greatest country in the world", America. Postmodern is expressed in this movie by the actor making very outlandish statements, performing ridiculous stunts and there are numerous "gross out" moments. Obviously, all of these moments makes the audience aware that this is a movie and that it's not serious, yet the statements that are made do poke fun at things people actually believe about the countries Borat visits. This is one way for Cohen to force people to reflect on society, which is the goal of postmodern art.