Structure of Q.
Define Postmodernism.
Introduce your text. What is it? Why is it? - Intertextual references: Homage, Pastiche, Parody and Bricolage.
Criticisms of POMO. (Not a film, historical deafness, high and low culture)
High culture - Opera/Drama (Shakespeare).
Low - Popular culture.
Predict the future of POMO.
Sincere acknowledgement of previous texts. (Imitation of... Makes fun of... Collage/Mash up)
How can Django Unchained be viewed as a postmodern film?
Postmodern texts deliberately play with meaning. They are designed to be read by a literate audience and will exhibit many traits of intertextuality. Postmodernism represents a departure from modernism and is characterised by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, it mixes different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.
Django Unchained is a 2012 film directed by Quentin Tarantino which focuses on a bizarre partnership of a German bounty hunter and an African/American slave. They come together in a pursuit to save Django's slave wife from the sadistic slaver, Calvin Candy. The film combines the genres 'spaghetti western' (a low budget western which is filmed in Italy, it features an anti-hero and is referred to as 'spaghetti' due to it's Italian filming), 'western' (a film set in the wild west, cowboys are frequent and the 'hero' is a lone white ranger) and 'Blaxploitation' (a film that casts black actors in stereotypical roles of the black community). This collaboration of genres points towards the idea that it is a 'mash up' of three diverse themes that come together to make a relatively disparate postmodern film.
The title of the film makes reference to the 1959 Italian fantasy film 'Hercules Unchained', Tarantino also took the concept of the character from the 1966 western 'Django'. Therefore using these two titles he created the title of the film ' Django Unchained'. The film is frequently self referential, known as 'meta' in media terms, which is a frequent theme in post modern films. In the 1966 film 'Django', Franco Nero plays the lead role as a white cowboy in the wild west named Django. Tarantino's 'Django Unchained' features Nero in the scene where Candie is watching two slaves fighting to the death (Mandingo fighting), this scene is iconic as it shows the original Django coming face to face with the new. Jamie Foxx is at the bar with Franco Nero and responds to his name being asked by saying "Django, the D's silent" in which Franco Nero replies "I know". This scene shows an example of the film referring to itself as it has the two characters of Django meet, Tarantino was very clever to include Nero in the cast as it gives his film nostalgic value for anyone who watched the original 'Django' when it was released. Throughout the film different styles of acting are portrayed through the different actors, for example Steven (Samuel L. Jackson) acts very differently to the likes of Django (Jamie Foxx) and Schulz (Christoph Waltz) and this not just down to the fact that they are playing different characters. Steven adds to the comedy side of the film and creates humour through his acting whereas Django and Schulz act in a different manner and are never laughed at, the audience laugh with them. When Steven gets shot in the kneecaps at the end of the film the audience laugh due to his excessive swearing and use of the word 'Nigga', this a postmodern element as humans shouldn't laugh at other humans in pain however Tarantino makes it funny through the parodic nature of acting by Samuel L. Jackson. The film features a soundtrack which has no music of the time period that it is set, the soundtrack features hip-hop which is a genre of music that didn't come about until the 1970s, therefore creating another postmodern element to the film.
Frederic Jameson is an American critic and theorist who has a very strong view on postmodernism, he believes postmodernism is vacuous and trapped in circular references, he also believes that postmodern texts are nothing more than self referential jokes which have no deeper meaning or purpose. For Jameson, literary and cultural output is more purposeful than this and he therefore remains a modernist in a world increasingly dominated by postmodern culture. I think postmodernism will continue to do what it has been doing by rejecting grand narratives and making references to films that are related and ones that are not.
The title of the film makes reference to the 1959 Italian fantasy film 'Hercules Unchained', Tarantino also took the concept of the character from the 1966 western 'Django'. Therefore using these two titles he created the title of the film ' Django Unchained'. The film is frequently self referential, known as 'meta' in media terms, which is a frequent theme in post modern films. In the 1966 film 'Django', Franco Nero plays the lead role as a white cowboy in the wild west named Django. Tarantino's 'Django Unchained' features Nero in the scene where Candie is watching two slaves fighting to the death (Mandingo fighting), this scene is iconic as it shows the original Django coming face to face with the new. Jamie Foxx is at the bar with Franco Nero and responds to his name being asked by saying "Django, the D's silent" in which Franco Nero replies "I know". This scene shows an example of the film referring to itself as it has the two characters of Django meet, Tarantino was very clever to include Nero in the cast as it gives his film nostalgic value for anyone who watched the original 'Django' when it was released. Throughout the film different styles of acting are portrayed through the different actors, for example Steven (Samuel L. Jackson) acts very differently to the likes of Django (Jamie Foxx) and Schulz (Christoph Waltz) and this not just down to the fact that they are playing different characters. Steven adds to the comedy side of the film and creates humour through his acting whereas Django and Schulz act in a different manner and are never laughed at, the audience laugh with them. When Steven gets shot in the kneecaps at the end of the film the audience laugh due to his excessive swearing and use of the word 'Nigga', this a postmodern element as humans shouldn't laugh at other humans in pain however Tarantino makes it funny through the parodic nature of acting by Samuel L. Jackson. The film features a soundtrack which has no music of the time period that it is set, the soundtrack features hip-hop which is a genre of music that didn't come about until the 1970s, therefore creating another postmodern element to the film.
Frederic Jameson is an American critic and theorist who has a very strong view on postmodernism, he believes postmodernism is vacuous and trapped in circular references, he also believes that postmodern texts are nothing more than self referential jokes which have no deeper meaning or purpose. For Jameson, literary and cultural output is more purposeful than this and he therefore remains a modernist in a world increasingly dominated by postmodern culture. I think postmodernism will continue to do what it has been doing by rejecting grand narratives and making references to films that are related and ones that are not.
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