Friday, May 20, 2011

Journal #44

Well, I'm not really sure which movie to choose. There are a lot of movies that fall into the post-modernism category, and I'm really bad at making decisions. However, I think I am going to choose Inception because it seems most relatable to post-modernism.

I think the biggest aspect of Post-Modernism found in Inception is the aspect of multiple worlds. As the movie title says, the plot is about Inception of the mind. I'm sure you've seen this movie and know what I am talking about? A dream within a dream... within a dream? All those dreams are separate dimensions, or worlds. The whole movie revolves around different dreams that take place in different worlds. This leads me into my next aspect, which is crossing fiction with nonfiction. Obviously, this movie is fiction. People going into dreams can not happen. The situations and characters could be real, though. Leonardo DiCaprio may actually have two children that he has been forbidden to see. That nice Asian man who bought that whole airplane line could be real, too, but once they start delving into dreams, it is fairly obvious that the movie is fictional.

The next big aspect of Post-Modernism in Inception is fear. Throughout the entire movie there is a constant fear because once you enter someone else's dream, you immediately become a target for the people in the dream, or the figments of their mind. So basically, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page run around with a constant fear that they are going to be caught by the imaginary persons in the dream, then killed (but not really). This lasts for the whole movie since they are always in a dream.

Assimilation is also used in Inception. The imaginary people in the dream are all the same, and when real people enter the dream, they try to kill them because they are different. The imaginary persons want everything to be balanced.

Inception is a great example of a contemporary movie with Post-Modernism aspects.