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368 THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN

reward for manly men. Similarly, too many witches in a given Hollywood sea­ son can send the ancifeminist message that there are too many bitches (think of Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct).

Repetition with a Difference

Just as movies frequently repeat ancient archetypal character and plot types, they also may refer to other movies and modern cultural artifacts in what is referred to as a postmodern manner. Postmodernism is, in effect, both a historical period and an attitude. As a historical period, postmodernism refers to the culture that has emerged in the wake of the advent of mass media, one obsessed with electronic imagery and the products of mass culture. As an attitude, postmodernism rejects the values of the past, not in favor of new values but instead co ironize value systems as such. Thus, in the postmod­ ern worldview, our traditional hierarchical distinctions valuing high culture over low culture, say. or creativity over imitation, tend to get flattened out. What was once viewed in terms of an oppositional hierarchy (origination is opposed co emulation and is superior to it) is reconceived and deconstructed. Postmodern artists, accordingly, tend co reproduce, with an ironic or parodic twi:;t. already existing cultural images in their work, especially if they can be drawn from mass culture and mass society-as Roy Lichtenstein ·s cartoon canvasses parody popular cartoon books and Andy Warhol's tomato soup cans repeat the familiar labels of the Campbell Soup Company-thus mixing high culture and mass culture in a new. nonoppositional. relation.

To put this another way, the postmodern worldview holds that it is no longer possible or desirable to create new images; rather, one surveys the vast range of available images chat mass culture has to offer, and repeats them. but with a difference. Postmodern filmmakers accordingly allude to existing films in their work, as in the final scene of Tim Burton's Batman. which directly alludes to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. or Oliver Scone's and Quentin Toranti­ no ·s Natural Born Killers, which recalls Bonnie and Clyde. Such allusions to, and repetitions of. existing cultural images in postmodern cinema are called

Exploring the Signs of Film

In your journal, list your favorite movies. Then consider your list: What does it say about you? What cultural myths do the movies tend to reflect, and why do you think those myths appeal to you? What signs particularly appeal to your emotions? What sort of stories about human life do you most respond to?

The Culture of American Film 369

double-coding, because of the way that the postmodern artifact simultane­ ously refers to existing cultural codes and recasts them in new contexts . The conclusion of Batman. for example, while echoing Vertigo's climactic scene, differs dramatically in its significance, turning from Hitchcock's tragedy to Burton's quasi-farce.

Movies as Metaphors

Sometimes movies can also be seen as metaphors for larger cultural con­ cerns. Consider the grade-B horror flicks of the 1950s. such as the original Godzilla. If we study only its plot, we would see little more than a cheesy horror story featuring a reptilian monster that is an archetypal kin of the dragons in medieval literature. But Godzilla was no mere dragon transported to the modern world. The dragons that populated the world of medieval sto­ rytelling were themselves often used as metaphors for the satanic serpent in the Garden of Eden, but Godzilla was a wholly different sort of metaphor. Created by Japanese filmmakers, Godzilla was originally a metaphor for the nuclear era. A female mutant creation of nuclear poisoning, Godzilla rose over her Japanese audiences like a mushroom cloud. symbolizing the poten­ tjal for future mushroom clouds both in Japan and around the world in the Cold War era.

For their pare, American filmmakers in the 1950s had their own meta­ phors for the nuclear era. Whenever some "blob" threatened to consume New York or some especially toxic slime escaped from a laboratory. the suggestion that science- especially nuclear science - was threatening to destroy the world filled the theater along with the popcorn fumes. And if it wasn't science that was the threat. Cold War filmmakers could scare us with Communists. as films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers metaphorically suggested through its

Reading Film on the Net

Most major films now released In the United States receive their own Web sites. You can fmd them listed in print ads for the film (check your local newspaper). Select a current film, find the Web address, log on, and analyze the film's site semiotically. What images are used to attract your interest in the film? What interactive strategies, if any, are used to increase your commitment to the film? If you've seen the movie, how does the Net presentation of it compare with your experi­ ence viewing it either in a theater or on video? Alternatively, analyze the posters designed to attract attention to a particular film; a useful resource is the Movie Poster Page {www.musicman.com/mp/mp.html).

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