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Consumerism in Wayne's World

发布时间:2017-03-28
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Consumerism in Wayne's World

Consumerism is a belief that personal wellbeing and happiness largely depends on personal consumption, particularly on purchase and consumption of materialistic goods. A consumerist society is one where people devote a great deal of their time, energy, resources and thought processes to “consuming”.

The United States can be considered an excellent example of the way a hyper consumerist society behaves and exists. People here are constantly bombarded with advertisements that compel them into buying the goods. These advertisements are not created in a way to promote the specific product. They go on to promote good life. It takes an advertisement for people in the consumerist society to realize what they are actually missing out on. It’s not the just advertisements, but also the point of sales that provide the consumers with a vision of a good and pampered life. For the consumerist society, shopping is a recreational activity. One can see a lot of people belonging to the society in debt all because of the fantasy of a good life which consists of a LED television, a good car and a grand house. Materialistic needs are at the core of such a society.

Wayne's Worldmade a virtue of the drama-free comedy (Schrodt). Behold the workings of postmodern corporate movie product, the entertainment that shaped my youth, Wayne’s World. This entertainment product came at a time when the world was entering the postmodernism era. This film is a satire played on the corporate ideology depicted in the present times. One can say it incorporates the emotions of the audience’s dependence on popular culture.

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Wayne’s Worldexemplifies postmodern movie product not only because it plays up its own role as a commodity in the pop culture marketplace in order to diffuse the seriousness of the responsibilities that complement such a role, but also because its creators don’t even attempt to conceal that commodity status. Wayne’s World can be depicted as a big billboard that talks about itself as a product as well as the late capitalist society it is converging into. The major issue facing this generation that has constantly been pried by such advances, is to fight off the charm and unlearn the directives thus challenging the mass culture.

Wayne’s Worlduncannily reflects the tensions that exist between- the dueling rock ‘n’ roll ideologies, between the different stances of corporate promoted entertainment products, between attitudes of sincerity and irony gripping the society and also between allegiance towards the existing scope of TV and the cinema. This movie came at a time when American popular culture was undergoing a phenomenal change. In fact, Wayne’s World served a key point in the changing dynamics of the culture. No wonder it was loved by many young consumers, most of who were rebelling the existing nature of consumerism.

Around the early nineties, a major identity crisis existed among the young adolescents of the American culture. This can be attributed to the changing nature of entertainment within this country. This film beautifully captures this changing movement of American consumer culture. Wayne's World follows public access hosts and wannabe rockers Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) as they prepare to bring their show to network television (Common Sense Media Inc.).

As a corporate product basing its appeal in part on opposite poles of the music subculture, one compliant with the system and one unsuccessfully resistant, Wayne’s Worldbetrays a burgeoning awareness of and disgust at its own doubly schizophrenic existence, expressed in an attitude typical of postmodern comedy: self-deprecating self-reflexivity.Wayne’s World temporarily resolves the identity crisis of post-studio system, conglomerate-controlled Hollywood filmmaking, by utilizing a basic tactic of the hip underground, the one responsible for such ironies.

Wayne's World was an unexpected runaway hit (Meriah). This film takes a dig at the existing culture, and its changing dynamics in a humorous stance. One of the most daring scenes in the film though humorous, has brought out the hypocrisy that binds the society as of today, out in the open. This film has blatantly spoken, and shown how corporate sponsorship can lay out potential pressures on a product. In fact, the product placements that have been carried out within this movie can be seen as a satire of product placements. A classic example of this would be Tia Carrere’s presence as Wayne’s love interest, which it seems was a deal between Reprise Records and Paramount Pictures, prior to the release of the soundtrack. The deal was that if a potential star from the records group could be placed in the movie, it would act as a promotional vehicle for both. Like most mainstream, corporate owned product of the post-New Hollywood age, the very elements that compriseWayne’s Worldare designed according to corporate strategy.The best part of Wayne’s World can be called the consciousness that mounts it. For some reason, the makers are aware of the forces that have molded it in a certain way, and the popularity of the film is inseparable from this self consciousness in a way. As the show's popularity grows, it is sponsored by a large arcade chain (“Wayne's World Movie Review Summary”).

The question that arises is which of Wayne and Garth’s values, apart from humor, did the viewers relate to? The film’s overt overtures to the metal subculture and inconspicuous nods to an emerging pride in “indie” slackerdom are so pandering that they cancel each other out as believable representations. This leaves only one virtue, that relate audiences to Wayne and Garth, and that would be the new America cultural consumer. The new American cultural consumer is a jaded, media savvy youngster, with a slight cynicism embodying him. They do belong to the lineage of brain dead fantasies of eternal adolescent bliss.

Wayne’s World emerged from TV and moved onto becoming a major movie. Yet, the film finds itself claiming a distance from its television roots as it is believed that TV is more unsophisticated than the corporate mode of a movie. But these things weren’t supposed to matter to the youth who lovedWayne’s Worldin 1992. Most comedies watching which me and the others belonging to my generation grew up, include absurd and ironic sensibilities like the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker classics. Wayne’s World provided the much needed excuse to move away from them into a world of well executed hilarity. This comedy differs from others in its league as it has carved a niche for itself through humor and wit.

In pointing out the evolved, insidious corporate dynamics of a film likeWayne’s WorldI’ve mostly neglected to mention the film’s substantial wit. It would certainly have been more impressive to the person I was fourteen years ago, still the wit needs admiration. Wit is what lured the audiences towards this movie. This is probably why the people of my generation accept the corporate culture depicted in the movie as a given. This is also the reason why we haven’t made a big deal of the corporate propaganda infiltrating the world of visual media. The fact is that we grew up in this generation. Our generation constituted of this world, and we have become these aware and sophisticated thanks to the ever growing nature of the visual media.

The film and media critics who belonged to my generation were quite superficial with their comments on the movie. They laid their criticisms based on the level of content and the available consumer choices for entertainment at that time. They failed to dig deeper into corporate marketing and the actual reason for making such content.

It’s not enough to sayWayne’s Worldavoid corporate culpability because they’ve made a self-satiric admittance of it. Enjoyment has nothing to do with analysis, and we can definitely enjoy a film and have a serious dissection performed on the film at the same time. The criticism needs to be conducted in a way defining the period of making and the consumerism that existed. Wayne and Garth deflected responsibility of their alliance with corporate media in an ironic manner

Works Cited

Schrodt, Paul. “Wayne's World: The Anniversary.” Hearst Communications, Inc. 14 February

2012. Web. 11 July 2014.

Common Sense Media Inc. “Wayne's World.” commonsensemedia.org. 14 October 2003. Web.

11 July 2014.

“Wayne's World Movie Review Summary” allreaders.com. Web. 11 July 2014.

Meriah. “‘Wayne’s World’ Cast Reunites More Than 20 Years Later”. Movie Talk. 24 April

2013. Web. 11 July 2014.

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