'Postmodern Media Manipulates Time and Space' - to what extent does this definition apply to texts you have studied

'Postmodern Media Manipulates Time and Space' - to what extent does this definition apply to texts you have studied

Post-modern media generally tends to reject the traditional nature of reality, and embeds a huge emphasis on hyper-real, fictional elements. The idea that post-modern media manipulates time and space can be supported through the many films considered as 'Post-modern', and the element of hyper realism that they all possess. A film that I have recently watched and studied is 'Drive' directed by Nicolas Refn, and can also be classed as a 'hyper real' film. The film is almost dream-like, there is a definite surreal element to the it, due to the fact that there are not many people within the usually very busy Hollywood area of Los Angeles, which is strange considering how famous the area is and how many people live there, the situations that The Driver (Ryan Gosling) gets himself into usually results in a mass amount of police being involved - there are hardly any throughout the film. The Driver seems to have an absent concept of time, unless when doing his job- being a getaway driver. We see him driving around and doing things with a very absent minded look on his face, he himself seems to be living in a dream world. The film has a similar concept to that of the popular video game Grand Theft Auto, where you are in control of one driver, driving around, committing crimes and getting away with it, something which in real life, would never happen. The film does manipulate time, as there is no concept of it throughout, there are scenes which are hazy and that happen in slow motion, which rule out any concept of time, like it has stopped. These scenes have a yellowy, golden haze which create an almost emptiness. The fact that the film feels like a dream, it finishes with The Driver driving away, after being stabbed in the stomach, this allows the audience to construct their own meaning and leave the ending to their own imagination.

In comparison with Drive, another film which is similar in the way it looks to be/is based in a dream world is Inception. Inception is a film about dream worlds, and people who venture into the human mind through dream invasion, a concept which can only be done using very prestigious technology. In the film we see characters dreams, cities which have barely any people (similar to Drive) and surreal situations which as an audience we don’t know if they are dreams or not, throughout the film and particularly towards the end, the main character is confused about whether he is in his dream world or if he is in reality, he carries an object which he spins to find out which world he is in, if it keeps spinning he is still in his dream world, and if it stops, he is in reality, at the very end of the film, we see him spin this object, but never find out if it stops or not, so which world is he in?

'Each member of an audience have different readings, all of which are correct and the intended meaning by the producer is no longer significant'. This is Barthes 'Death of the Author' theory. Postmodernists do not construct texts for one meaning, they place more impact on how a text looks, rather than the meaning of it. This is a theory which can be applied to all texts, again ‘Drive’ conforms to this theory, the main character played by Ryan Gosling, aptly named ‘The Driver’ comes across as a very courteous, caring man when we see him with Irene (the woman he loves) and her son, yet he commits some unforgiveable and gruesome crimes, we see two sides of his personality, he is the hero of the story, but also the villain, and every person who has watched the film will have a different perspective of how he is perceived.