Hyperreality in Postmodern Hollywood

Karoglan, Marijan. (2012). Hyperreality in Postmodern Hollywood. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of English Language and Literature. [mentor Cvek, Sven and Gilić, Nikica].

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Abstract

War movies, and the war itself, on the other hand, tend to lose touch with reality, getting lost in simulations, media spectacles, news reporting simulacra and games. There is a sense that all that is left from modern war are toys, video games and movies.U.S. troops grow up playing commercial video games that were created by the military as training simulators, they are recruited through video games, and once in the army, they pilot vehicles using devices resembling video game controllers (Turse 140).The war is no longer fought in the trenches. The modern day battlefield is electronic cyberspace. Or, as Baudrillard noticed, Americans fight with two weapons:they ”bomb“ the world with information, with news programmes and movies and they bomb their enemies physicallywith their air power. The first weapon is in its essence hyperrealistic while the second is on the way to completely move into hyperrealism. There is virtually no difference today between piloting a virtual vehicle in a video game or training simulation or piloting a real one. It is becoming increasingly difficult to tell where the videogame stops and the ”real“ war begins. The war has become a slave to technology. Warriors of this day and age are briefing room managers and pilots/gamers. The war increasingly resembles a video game, it is more and more moving into the realm of hyperreality. The lived experience is replaced by simulations. That is why it is becoming increasingly harder for the military to deliver the promise of the opportunity to kill – that cathartic experience that will supposedly, to paraphrase West, make you more of a man than you are.

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