After leaving class on Tuesday, I couldn't help but think what the hell did I just watch? Cars, aliens, drugs - I was very confused. However, I didn't totally hate the movie and after reading the articles and the discussions on Thursday all helped me to understand it more. The first thing I want to talk about is the youth culture. I thought it was interesting that we compared it to the Wild Ones. I also thought that the movie Wild Ones was less violent then Repo Man. There was definitely more shootings and deaths in this movie. I also thought that Wild Ones considered themselves as 'badasses' with little respect to anyone or anything, whereas in Repo Man, even though mainstream society might call them badasses, the kids themselves didn't think of themselves like that. It seemed that they didn't want to or care to be known as anything. They were who they were and no one was going to change that. Even though they didn't consider themselves anything, they didn't want to be part of the mainstream 80's society. In doing so however, there were so many of them who felt this way that it actually became part of the mainstream society. It was normal in the 80's to be part of this 'punk' crowd now. I thought it was also different how in this movie, no one had any sympathy for anyone in the movie. The characters really didn't even seem to care about what happened to them. Otto, would take on these cars who had owners that were bad guys or would carry guns around and walk into the situation like nothhing. Even when people are being shot and dying, there still is no sympathy for anyone.
There were so many times throughout the movie where I either just had no idea where it was going or thought I knew and it went in a completely different direction. I kept thinking that it was going to get more into the drug scene, or more about Otto growing up with this new job. Then when we meet the girl, I automatically thought that they would hit it off into a somewhat love story. Fail. Not only did they not even close to fall in love but she's working for the government I think and what's even worse is she's the one who is electricuting him. Would never have seen any of that coming, let alone to end the movie with a flying car.
It was clear to me that a lot of the movie was driven by consumerism. Basically the entire 'plot' of the movie is everyone is out to get this Malibu that is worth $20,000. It seems that this is the only thing anyone really does care about and no one really cares what they have to do to get there. Selling out friends, killing people, it's all about the car which equals the money. There are also numerous parts of this movie that are seen as satirical. One would of course be when the one kid is dying and blaming society - obviously funny. One part that goes along with consumerism though that I thought was funny, was the fact that in one scene that had just taken a car and were driving down the highway. Otto had found presents in the back seat and starts to throw them out the window. What they don't know is that the packages were filled with cash. Which is very funny and satirical seeing that this movie is largly about consumerism. It was also interesting that the alien sub plot didn't seem to faze anyone at all. In past decades, people would be running for the hills hiding out, but not here. They couldn't have cared less about the aliens or have given them a second though, it was all about the car and the money.
Moving on to the articles - postmodernism is definitly seen in this movie. There is a complete collapse of distinction between almost everything. They have no values, no meaning, no prpose, but is all somehow satirical. This is all seen here by the characters lack of care for anyone else and who have no values. No one cares what happens or how it happens - as long as they get he car. Also, with the scene where the kid is dying (which in its self is funny) is going on and on with his last dying breath about how society is to blame and how society shaped him into the life that he had. This was just laughable. He was just looking for a way out - someone to put the blame on because of course it wasn't his fault. No one wanted responsibility and would look anywhere to blame - even society.
Reagan. It was interesting what he did for that time. It seemed that now the 50's were deemed the 'golden years' - the amazing years where everyone was happy and the times that they wanted to get back to. With this, he also brought back the fear of bombs and communism. Only now, the bombs were more high tech, and could kill people but leave buildings perfectly unharmed. However, the fears were not taken seriously. Everything was a big joke and no one cared that something serious could actually happen. They now didn't have one main enemy where everyone could come together to fight.
These are some of the main things that defined the 80's, other then of course, the million and a half teen high school movies. Even though I couldn't relate to any part of the movie, somehow I didn't hate it at all, and thought it was a good way to show postmodernism.
