How is Blue Harvest postmodern

1. POSTMODERN
ASPECTS

2. Background Information:
 ‘Blue Harvest’ is the hour-long premiere of
the 6th season of animated comedy Family
Guy
 Aired September 23rd 2007
 Episode retells and parodies the 1977
blockbuster ‘Star Wars Episode IV: A New
Hope’
 The plot follows Peter Griffin retell the story
as there is a power cut in their house
 Director Dominic Polcino
 Writer Alec Sulkin

4. Film Title reference
 Film title: Blue Harvest was a fake
working title used to hide the production
of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the
Jedi in 1982 and is a reference to this

6. Cultural Referencing
 One of the Star Destroyer’s has a
Bush/Cheney bumper sticker referring to
George Bush and Dick Cheney’s 2004 election
campaign - John Fiske’s development of
Barthes’ semic code could be applied here
as the audience has cultural knowledge of
American politics to decode this.
 Another is when Leia is captured by Darth
Vader he asks her where she has hidden the
death star plans, responding that it is in 1 of
20 briefcases – referring to Deal or No Deal.
This example of bricolage complies with
Levi Strauss’ concept that the ‘debris’ from
other texts are constructed by substitution.

7.  Luke breaks the ‘fourth wall’ when he
introduces the London Symphony
Orchestra and composer John
Williams. This could be considered
postmodern as it creates disjuncture
and doesn’t follow the conventions of
a modernist narrative.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O
CrcDG5b86Q)
 This also creates an idea of
hyperreality as the audience then
make the connection of reality from
fantasy which immediately strikes us
as abrupt and unusual, and we
become conscious that the cartoon
isn’t real.

8. Mixture of Genres
 Obi-Wan sings a rendition of ‘(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life’ the title song from
1987 romance film Dirty Dancing in case he never sees Luke again. This mixture of
genres, romance and comedy as well as the action of Star Wars, could be
considered postmodernist as it deliberately plays with the meaning of the film.
This could argue against Jacques
Derrida’s proposal that texts cannot
be genre-less. In this case, the
mixture of genre goes against the
modernist thinking that only
conventional grand narratives
feature genres of love, war, death
etc.
This is also an example of
intertextuality as it makes direct
reference to the iconic film scene.
This also breaks the boundaries of
limits in certain genres.

9. Lyotard’s Postmodernist Theory
 This introduction to the film
complies with Lyotard’s
Postmodernist theory,
rejecting the “grand
narratives” This rejects the
idea that as history moves
forward in time, so does
humanity. This state of
being in the episode has not
progressed in time or moved
backwards, suggesting that
the narrative can go in any
direction, supporting
Lyotard’s theory.

10. Paraody
 Han Solo refers to himself as
“Captain as the Millenium
Falcon and the only actor
who’s career isn’t destroyed
by this movie.” when he meets
Luke and Obi-Wan in the
cantina.
 This form of self-reflexivity
involves a component of self-
consciousness which can be
considered postmodern as even
the character has become
aware that the film is entirely
fictional and even his role.
 This also applies cultural
knowledge to the audience as it
becomes a subjective thought
about the real actors within the
original movie and their own
careers outside of that.
 Again, this creates an awareness
of hyperreality as the audience
know that it is a parody with the
characters playing other
characters from a different text.