Advanced Portfolio (Dystopia) Luke Whitehouse

Dystopian Films A typical dystopian film is one which is often, but not always, set in the future, in a society where the government is corrupt or ineffectual. The world within the film often has nightmare-like qualities, though it also usually includes elements of contemporary society. Often, dystopian films function as a warning against some element of contemporary society.

Genre Theory Themes: Dystopian worlds: an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. The opposite of Utopia. Dystopia explores Postmodern themes through the challenging narrative themes; offering a hyperrealism of an uneasy futuristic nightmare and using pastiche to offer hybrid genres. Narratives take place in the aftermath of a disaster: typically nuclear holocaust, war, plague, alien invasion, disaster. Most post-apocalyptic disasters have a man-made cause. Relate to real-time fears in society: Cold war, technology, medical advances, environmental change, economic crash etc. Agrarian societies often develop: return to pre-industrialised society. The possibility of human demise: survivors struggle for existence These films create the sense of finality and in some instances a new beginning.

Sub-Genre Science Fiction – a sense of ‘science gone wrong’ where the future is controlled by a big brother scenario, relating to fears in society. E.g. Metropolis (1927), Blade Runner (1982), The Terminator (1984), The Matrix (1999) Post-Apocalyptic – end of the world scenario with limited survivors. It includes the idea of Darwinism which reflects the notion of survival noting that it is the rugged individual who proves capable of adapting to a new environment who will survive and eventually advance the new order and new society. E.g. Planet of the Apes (1968), Mad Max (1981), The Road (2009). Horror – Presenting a chaotic world of mutants or Zombies created from human genetic research. Dawn of the Dead (1978), 28 Days Later (2002), I am Legend (2007), World War Z (2013).

Trailer Conventions Key Conventions – Short key clips/moments/action from the film, teasing the audience without giving away crucial details. Genre – genre is clearly established to entice the target audience. Narrative – reveals hints of the plot and main characters. Often in a 3 act structure: Part 1 establishes the storyline, Part 2 shows the dramatic developments and Part 3 hints at the climax. Voice-over – anchors the key points of the film. Often using a powerful, dramatic tone. Music – sets the mood and may compliment the soundtrack. Cast – prominent stars usually feature early in the trailer helping the audience decide how appealing it is. Director/studio – usually mentioned if considered an ‘auteur’ or successful. ‘From the makers of..’ helps promotion followed by logo. Title/onscreen text – Title usually appears at the end to stick in the memory.

Postmodern Theory Narratives that question whether modern progress is for the good of society. A critique of mass production. E.g. Blade Runner. Narratives themes that challenge conventional film narratives. (Anti Heroes, unclear representations) E.g. Pulp Fiction. Non-Linear narratives – challenge the 3 act conventions by disrupting the chronology of the narrative sequence. E.g. Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill. Anti-Narratives – Disruption of the narrative. E.g. Freeze frame in Sherlock Holmes. Also Meta –referencing Meta-reference – when the audience is made aware they are watching a film. I.e. talking to the camera. (Being John Malkovich)

Postmodern, Genre and Styles Mixing/blurring the genres of Film to create new hybrids/new versions. E.g. Kill Bill Intertextuality – making references to other media texts for effect, for pleasure or as an homage, to show respect. Makes the audience interact with the text. E.g. Kill Bill. Also used in ‘parody’ or ‘satire’ of other texts. E.g. Simpsons and Family Guy. Bricolage – almost stealing images/objects from different styles, usually high art to create new meanings. E.g. The Yellow Jumpsuit in Kill Bill. Or ‘Pastiche’ a straight copy of another text. E.g. Remake of Shaft /Get Carter/Oceans 11/Sherlock Holmes. ‘High Art’ styles – film techniques that challenge conventional ideas. (Art House films) E.g. ‘The square’ in Pulp Fiction. Anime in Kill Bill. Simulacra or hyperreality – where the audience is aware of an artificial rather than a ‘real’ mise en scene. Allows challenging themes and representations to be explored. E.g. Anime in Kill Bill.

The Matrix The sub-theme of utopias versus dystopias is very important to the visions of the future theme presented in The Matrix. The imagined world of the Matrix is neither an ideal utopia nor an horrific dystopia, but a familiar world made strange. It is therefore conceivable that humanity could accept it in place of the dystopic reality of the future, as Agent Smith specifically states while he tortures Morpheus. Agent Smith recounts that people need the balance of misery and sorrow with happiness in order to accept their reality. The film therefore suggests that utopias are impossible, as human beings always require a degree of suffering in order to make sense of the world. The dystopic world, represented in the film as the real world, acts as a warning to the audience through depicting the outcome of rapid, yet reckless, technological development. The humans of this future world did not conceive that Artificial Intelligence could exceed their own and take their place in the evolutionary hierarchy. The film therefore challenges the audience to consider the consequences of making technology so powerful, self-sustaining and dominant in their lives.

Robocop Robocop conveys an intense awareness of new postmodern condition. It articulates the fear of a completely alienated, rationalized, mechanical world where human beings and their body parts are technologically processed, where emotions are lacking, where the ego is in ruins, where personal identity is absent, and where simulation approaches perfection. The fear in Robocop is two-fold: that human beings will be replaced by machines, and that human beings are becoming machines spiritually and emotionally lifeless rationalists, technologically processed and simulated beings. Both developments augur the end of the life world in its implosion with cybernetic systems. This grisly fusion is vividly portrayed in the homecoming scene. As Robocop walks through the door of his former existence, he confronts not the living warmth of his family, but the cold technological presence of an automated salesman to guide him through the designer environment. The images and sounds of his past life, already technologically processed, merge with the pre-recorded video salespitch. Bereft and metaphysically estranged, the lonely cyborg smashes his fist through the television screen in an act of rebellion against the reified object world of which he is inalterably a part. Importantly, Robocop not only dramatizes the dehumanization of untrammelled technological development, it resists the postmodern fatalism of someone like Baudrillard who concludes that the Subject has lost its battle with the Object and so should surrender and embrace fatal strategies. While Robocop depicts a cyberblitzed, post-catastrophic, hyperreal, technified world, it also suggests that technology cannot achieve its goal of a perfectly enclosed, self-referential entombment, that simulation strategies do not necessarily succeed, and that the human subject is not so easily erased. Robocop's struggle to understand what has happened to him and who he is, his identification with his former human self irrevocably entrapped within a steel body, his rebellion against bureaucracy and his corporate creators, and the forging of his own will against a technological determination, constitute this film's undeniably utopian moments. Robocop dramatizes the resilience of a subject, albeit a cyborg, amidst the most incredibly reified and subjugating conditions, and allegorizes its attempts to find meaning and value within a corrupt and decadent postmodern world. The film preserves a moment of struggle and refusal that is now threatened with extinction. Thus, the dystopic projection of a hyper-alienated future coincides with a utopic hope for spiritual survival, salvation, and redemption.

Blade Runner The dystopian themes explored in Blade Runner are an early example of cyberpunk concepts expanding into film. Eyes are a recurring motif, as are manipulated images, calling into question reality and our ability to accurately perceive and remember it. These thematic elements provide an atmosphere of uncertainty for Blade Runner's central theme of examining humanity. In order to discover replicants, an empathy test is used, with a number of its questions focused on the treatment of animals seemingly an essential indicator of someone's humanity. The replicants appear to show compassion and concern for one another and are juxtaposed against human characters who lack empathy while the mass of humanity on the streets is cold and impersonal. The film goes so far as to put in doubt whether Deckard is human, and forces the audience to re-evaluate what it means to be human.