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Essay / The Advantage of Using Postmodern Characteristics in Stranger Than Fiction
There is no absolute truth! Postmodernism asserts that there is no real truth because everyone sees and identifies the truth based on their own knowledge and beliefs. The film, Stranger Than Fiction, belongs to a recent cycle of postmodern films with a philosophical scope that explore important questions in our lives. The accurately shown postmodern characteristics help the viewer understand the overall message, especially that destiny cannot be controlled. Some people would say that these elements prevent the discovery of the overall message; However, fragmentation, asking questions without giving answers, and genre conventions are used as powerful tools in the film to prove otherwise. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayFirst of all, Harold Crack is the protagonist of the film who lives his life in order, counts his brushstrokes, the number of steps to reach the bus stops, his work stops and all of this is timed with his wristwatch. It seems that the man is content to follow the watch's instructions and act as its servant. The main conflict is that Harold lets time dictate his individuality. The character struggles against a daily routine for twelve years in order to find comfort and purpose in life. The routine is depicted using physical fragmentation that grabs the audience's attention through the use of graphics, obscure camera angles, split screen, and rotating shots. These methods allow us to better understand Harold's personality and make the film more interesting. Fragmentation gradually moves to another element of postmodernism, like asking questions without providing answers. It is important to note that this postmodern element causes the audience to think about the true meaning of human life. The fundamental questions of the film are: is the narrator's life real and is Harold's life fiction? Is Harold just an imaginary character from the book Death and Taxes, and are all the events shown in the film written and assumed by Karen Eiffel? However, the viewer unfortunately has many opportunities to ask further philosophical questions without receiving answers. Additionally, the personification of the wristwatch made everyone wonder: does time control us? This question provides a huge lesson about the need to use time wisely and not get lost in routine like the main character in the film did. Asking questions without giving answers also refers to another, no less important feature called genre conventions. Most of the time, films have a clearly defined genre, for example comedy, drama, tragedy, horror, romance, thriller, etc. Stranger than Fiction doesn't exactly give one, leaving people to decide which genre is most appropriate. The film does not present its characters' lives as comic or tragic, but rather asks the audience whether or not their lives are a comedy or a tragedy. When the audience knows that the protagonist must die, everyone expects to see the sad ending, considering the film and book Death and Taxes to be a tragedy. However, Harold unexpectedly encounters true love who guides him to change his lifestyle in hopes of avoiding imminent death. That person is Anna Pascal, the girl who refuses to pay taxes and whose goal is to realize her passions by having the freedom to do whatever she wants. Knowing his own death is soon approaching,.