Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to War genre audience theories
More from isuqhsu jqiwdjidwj
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
War genre audience theories
- 1. War Genre – Audience Theories Throughoutthis essay I will look at the various different audience theories, which can be applied the war genre. The war genre is a male orientation ruled genre, with the majority of the movies being predominately made by men. The primary audience for the war genre is 15 onwards, depending on when the story is set it could go up to the elder audiences that may have an interest in it. The audience for war films mostcommonly tends to be male because of the either history or justthe style of story only interests the male audience. No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work. • Discrimination The work as a whole must not endorsediscriminatory languageor behaviour. • Drugs Drug taking may be shown but the film as a wholemust not promote or encouragedrug misuse. The misuseof easily accessibleand highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable. • Horror Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised. • Imitable behaviour Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised. Language. There may be frequent use of strong language. The strongest terms may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressiveor repeated useof the strongestlanguageis unlikely to be acceptable. Propaganda played a huge role in firstand second world war, fromthis time onwards, ithasn't really changed in terms of how it plays in the films. The phenomenon of the propaganda war moviehas someprecedent, and Hollywood has always had closeties with the American government. Nevertheless, the trend has picked up markedly over the pastdecade, coinciding with the escalation of American militarism that has taken place after the fall of the Soviet Union. Past films like Rules of Engagement, Rising Sun and True Lies were striking in the extent
- 2. to which they carried chauvinism, racismand vulgar patriotism into mainstream mass entertainment. The Green Berets is the definition of insidious propaganda. The film was brought into being specifically because John Wayne was bothered by the anti-war sentiment within the country in 1968. With the Pentagon's backing and President Lyndon Johnson's approval, thefilm was made with the specific intention of countering existing opinions about the war. At the startof the film, a journalistwho is skeptical of the war is given a lecture by an American Special Forces soldier who paints the conflict in Vietnam in starkly simplistic terms as being a fight for freedomagainst Communistforces. Later, the journalisttravels to Vietnam wherehe witnesses the American forces participating in humanitarian acts, while the enemy engages in brutal violence, as if the Americans never participated in brutal acts of violence againstcivilians. Ultimately, the journalistrealizes his ideological errors and reverses his previous opposition to the conflict. To sum it all up, in the film, there's no mention of the millions of dead Vietnamese or Agent Orangeor the firebombing of civilian villages. War as a genre is morepopularly known for being involved in or having the hypodermic needle model as it somewhatworks like propaganda. This means that the audience of the war genre are a passiveaudience, they can be easily manipulated and the media text affects their thoughts and behaviour. This is an out dated model that essentially suggests and works around theidea of the “copycat” theory, which is to say that the audience will copy and justify whatthey see on the screen.
- 3. A great example of this is American Sniper. Majority of the audience took their opinions outside the sceneand shared their views on the internet. Surprisingly the comments were not about the movie itself but about the cultural differences between the US and middle eastern people. American Sniper showcased them as blood thirsty beasts and killing machines wherein reality they were simply defending their country fromthe US army invasion. Unfortunately people took the 'bait' and believed in this propaganda which lead to serious chaos especially in twitter where the eastern community got flooded with hateful comments from the around the world that had absolutely nothing to do with reality. With that said, of coursethere are cases of suicide bombing and beheading by the ISIS however neither ISIS and terroristattacks werementioned in the film, so the audience comments were not necessary and far fromtruth. A movie Lone Survivor on the other hand can be can be viewed exactly as a American Sniper, however whatmakes it different and special fromit, is the ending. Whenever the US squad gets pushed to the nearest village by the Arabian rebels to a viewers surprisethey'rewelcomed there despite the fact that the villagers know who they are and what their aim is. The villagers provideshelter, food, aid kits, clothes not becausethey were forced to but becausethe religion they believe tells them to. By hiding the US army, the villagers risk getting killed and bombed by the Arabian rebels. In the final stages of the film not only the villagers provide extra guns for the US army but they also fight for them against the rebels. The intention here was to do completely opposite of whatthe American Sniper did. The film wanted to show that there are still cases in which human beings behave like actual human beings, not cold blooded murderers.
- 4. However the issuewith saying that the war genre goes under the hypodermic needle model is that it proposethat all viewers of the movies are uninvolved, that they have no through and through freedomand it doesn'tconsider an individual's ethical compass. Yes certain viewers will fall under this model however not all. The Uses and Gratifications hypothesis can likewise be utilized to portray the audience of the war genre. This hypothesis takes a look at an active viewers, which will intervene and measure what they see, they will comprehend that a film is simply moving pictures compensated for stimulation purposes, this audience of viewers won'tduplicate what they see on the wide screen. This hypothesis likewise recommends that audience makedynamic useof their media in order to justify and fulfil specific needs.. Escapism/Entertainment. A type of getaway from ordinary and everyday pressureand life. A sourceof enjoymentand entertainment. Information/Surveillance. A type of discovering data on what's happening all through the world. PersonalIdentity. Contrasting ones own existence with that of characters and circumstances portrayed, which explores individual problems and viewes. Social Interaction. Sociability through examination aboutTV and Film with companions. Numerous viewers that watch movies of the war genre do so for educational and historical reasons, this is because the human race has become infatuated with gore and grime. Individuals consider it to be a getaway fromtheir own particular issues or they consider it to be a path for social communication, this permits us to examine the film or TV show with our associates, which in turn allows us to forget our own particular issues and problems for a brief time span. If welook at the war genre in-depth we can see that it has had a widespreading popularity with audiences worldwideresulting in classic war films being adapted into television series such as company of brothers, as to reach a wider audience and possibly peek the interest of those who do not like the war genre as film.
- 5. A great use of this hypothesis would be a film called Tinkley Tailor - Soldier Spy. The story is about a double agent in the cold war based on the popular book by John Le Carreand the remake of the BBC adaptation. Though the film has a two Oscar winners and an all star British cast it is very much a niche market film. Audiences are often skeptical about remakes Especially from a very popular original movie and book. However getting an all star British cast, gratify's Their curiousity and intrigues them. Produced by a smaller distributor as StudioCanal is a sortof testament to its credentials so for uses is a pacifier is hard to please audience base. As the audience majority will be this British gratify there's a senseof pride. In comparison to The Rum Diaries, which is another film thats based on Gratification hypothesis , this film is a gritty realistic look into the world of cold war spies. Audiences are going to see this movie for escapisminto another time and somebody else's life. Where the Rum Diaries transportthe audience to a sunny island, Tinker Tailor takes them to the gray and dark world of cold war espionage. These two films are very different and use and gratify the audience for different means. Lastly, the bestsynergy that goes along with war genre is gaming. Whether it's Call of Duty or Battlefield, they're games where you interact with the world using the gun in your hand. This makes for an often exciting, adrenaline-pumping experience, but it also glosses over how war influences anyoneofther than soldier. Both Call of Duty and Battlefield can offer a joy of becoming a virtualsoldier but they simply cannot re-create the real war environment. Sure its fun to 'run and gun' and kill people in virtual game but these games are not realistic as some people may assume. For instance you can knife someonein the foot and they instantly die and yet headshot someonewith a pistol and they still survive. In other example you always haveammo counter somwherein the region of your virtual screen. In reality of war you'd have no idea how many bullets you'd have left in a magazine. The little things make the game pretty unrealistic thereforeit doesn't exress the realism and reality of war.