“Fifteen Million Merits is not a postmodern text”.
From my research into the drama ‘Fifteen Million Merits’, I understand the film itself may be modern. Very straight to the point, with linear narrative, and hints of reality. What is however interesting, is that it includes postmodern text, with a futuristic version of ‘X - Factor’, but renamed ‘Hot Shot’. The film also uses other pastiches, such as the ‘Wii’ avatar, and the ability to buy clothes and props for your virtual character. The film stresses the point of technological dominance, by locking the doors for commercials, and forcing you to watch the TV.
This sense of non-reality and dominance reflects and most probably pastiches The Wachowski brothers’ ‘The Matrix’ where the characters again are ‘plugged into’ a virtual world that all the others believe to be reality, and the only world. In ‘The Matrix’, the characters are actually plugged into the machine, whereas ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ is more of a hint of being plugged into the system.
We also learn as the film progresses that in ‘Fifteen Million Merits’, a character’s life is “A lifetime of Fame’ or ‘back to the bikes’, which shows either they get famous, or they are forced to work the ‘bikes’ to generate electricity for the modern world they live in. Another film that would refer to this make or break theme, would be the ‘Hunger Games’, as ‘Katniss Everdeen’ and ‘Peeta Mellark’ to name a few are forced by the ‘Capitol’ to fight for themselves, and either die or survive; this following a theme of another well known film ‘Predator’.
In all of these films, the moral is faith. If you have faith and believe in yourself, you can rise up out of the system. In ‘The Matrix’ Neo becomes a computer hacker, and as the world is computerised all around him, he tries to gain control of ‘The Matrix’; fighting the computer programme ‘’Agent Smith’. In the same kind of way, Bing in ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ fights the system of Judges ‘Hope’ ‘Wraith’ and ‘[empty content]’. With the ‘Hunger Games’ Katniss and Peeta are supposed to fight each other, but find a way through by defying the rules of the ‘Capitol’ in order to take control. Predator has this idea as well, as a group of people have to fight against the alien ‘Predators’ in another fight to the death, by outsmarting the enemy and defying the rules of defeat.
Evolving from the simulated ideas of ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ and ‘The Matrix’ comes films such as ‘Inception’ and ‘The Source Code’. These films all fit into the ‘parallel world’ genre, with Leonardo Di Caprio playing a mastermind who can hack and live people’s dreams, in another plain of existence. This would closely replicate ‘The Source Code’ as ‘Colter Stevens’ wakes up in a realistic simulation, only to find he is trapped in a computer program, and has to find out vital information in ‘the last 8 seconds’ of someone who was actually traveling on a commuter train, before it blows up. Colter Stevens also defies the laws of ‘The Source Code’ by finding love and arguing with the programmers that with one last chance he could live in the source code. Films such as ‘Tron’ and ‘Total Rekall’ also follow these conventions; a quest to find the truth whilst living in a simulated reality.
So is ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ a postmodern text or not?
Well, arguably, it is, because it uses a lot of conventions of post-modern theory; pastiches, hyper-reality, and a pointer to Hegemony. However, unlike ‘Pulp Fiction’ it is understandable, and runs to an obvious conclusion. To an extent, it even uses the ‘Hero’s Journey’ theory by Jean Francis Lyotard, his theory of ‘outmoded myths’.
‘Call to adventure’ would be Bing finding Abi, and saying her voice is ‘the realest thing I’ve heard’. He aids her by buying her an entry ticket to ‘Hot Shot’, hence the name ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ as he has just got this sum of merits, and it costs this to enter. For the challenge, Abi sings the song Bing had heard her sing. She then agrees to Wraith to partake in ‘Wraith Babes’, this creating the Abyss, the death of Bing’s dreams. Bing tries to kill himself as he has run out of merits and is forced by the technological dominance to watch Abi on ‘Wraith Babes’. Bing then works hard each day, on a mission to save up his 15,000,000 Merits, as the rebirth of the hero, he goes through the transformation when he buys the ticket. For Atonement, he says his piece about the world being ‘nothing but shit’ saying, you buy ‘shit’ and ‘confetti stuff’ in front of the judges. But that’s where the journey ends, as he is snapped up into the fame of the simulated world, creating broadcasts about the world being ‘shit’ and he could kill himself.
Therefore, based on this journey, the film is mostly modern, but the modern doesn’t quite add up, and there is a horrible twist at the end. For the journey to complete, the judges would have either given in, or Bing would go on to rebel against the system. Consequently, the film appears to be post-modern, as it contains elements of both, and we can’t strictly tell if it is one or the other. Whatever the intention of Charlie Brooker, the outcome of the film is still enjoyable, and quite forceful and emotive, attacking our emotions near the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment