One movie franchise that I cannot stand anymore are Marvel movies. When they first started, I was mildly interested and tried to stay engaged in the plots and storylines. This was partly so I could keep up with conversations about the movies and have some social capital. But I have long since stopped caring. After reading Adorno and Horkheimer, I wonder if part of this is because the movies all started feeling the same. Adorno and Horkheimer argue in The Culture Industry:Enlightenment as Mass Deception that pop culture is formulaic. The Marvel movies certainly feel that way to me. They all have some sort of hero’s journey and lots of fighting. They don’t feel original anymore or even that funny. The one exception to me is the Guardians of the Galaxy series because they make me laugh.
On the other hand, there are movies that flip the formula on its head by making fun of it. Growing up, my brothers and my dad loved watching the movie Airplane! My mom and I would roll our eyes every time they watched it, but would ultimately end up watching the film with them. This 1980 movie was a spoof on disaster movies made in the 1970s, and that is part of what made it appealing to watch—because we as the viewing public recognized the disaster movie tropes that they were making fun of. One could argue that the idea that the public can understand when something is being spoofed—and enjoy it—fits with the Birmingham School of thought because it shows that it's possible for the public to understand that they are being fed and consuming a formula, such as the formulas found in disaster movies. Making fun of that formula is then entertaining. What is slightly ironic is that the parody itself then becomes part of pop culture.
Could parodies be a form of awareness and resistance to pop culture?
Hey Janet,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the formula of particular movie franchises is perhaps too predictable, which makes me feel like society is getting complacent, because those movies sell tickets. But, like you, I doubt that most of the masses realize just how comfortable they are with formulaic films.
I love the idea that parody films are fun because we know they are mocking a formula. I think that parodies are absolutely a form of awareness and resistance to pop culture. If a parody movie of the Marvel franchise were made, I believe that people with your mindset about Marvel would definitely watch it. What do you think?