Deconstruction: Difference between revisions

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Mighty Joe Young]]'' (at least the 1998 version) deconstructs ''[[King Kong]]'', which is rather ironic because it originally inspired King Kong. The ape isn't an island-dwelling monster, but an otherwise normal African gorilla with extreme giantism. The female lead has more in common with Dian Fossey then the screaming damsel in distress of ''Kong''. And when Joe finally does go on his "rampage" it's because he's confronted with the poacher that killed his mother.

* ''[[Scanners]]'' sets up a fairly standard [[Hero's Journey]], as [[The Hero|Cameron Vale]], blessed with [[Psychic Powers]], is sent by wise old [[Mentor|Dr. Paul Ruth]] to defeat Ruth's former pupil, [[Big Bad|Darryl Revok]], who also has [[Psychic Powers]]. Vale befriends a [[White-Haired Pretty Girl]], Kim Obrist, who can help him infiltrate Revok's organization. Not unsurprisingly, it is revealed that both Cameron and Darryl are the two sons of Paul. With us so far? And then Darryl [[Lampshade Hanging|points out]] what kind of father would abandon his sons like that, and weaponize one against the other, and, indeed, [[Guinea Pig Family|would test a potentially dangerous new drug on his pregnant wife]], thus making Cameron and Darryl psychic in the first place. "[[Calling the Old Man Out|That was Daddy.]]" Also, the psychic stuff is [[Blessed with Suck|disgusting and creepy]]: scanning is presented not as a graceful and mystical power, but as a painful and unpleasant "[[Body Horror|merging of two nervous systems]]". The process is as unpleasant for the the person being scanned (who suffer from headaches and nosebleeds at best, and can have their hearts stopped and heads exploded at worst) and the scanners themselves who suffer severe social and psychological side effects from hearing other peoples thoughts (the main character starts the movie homeless, and another scanner murdered his family when he was a child). Ruth's dream of a scanner utopia turn out to be [[Not So Different]] from Revok's scanner-supremacy idea, as observed by Vale. Meanwhile, Cam and Kim never fall in love, as would be expected, because they're too scared for their lives.

* The Milla Jovovich version of ''[[Joan of Arc]]'' plays out the way the true story went until she is captured by the English, at which point it deconstructs the entire mythology surrounding Joan of Arc. In prison, she meets {{spoiler|(or better said, ''hallucinates'')}} a character (played by Dustin Hoffman) whose only function seems to be to question her calling from God.

* ''[[Saturday Night Fever]]'' harshly deconstructs America's hedonistic take on life in [[The Seventies]]. Sure, there were beautiful clothes, music, and lots of dancing, but there was a dark side to the life led by people like Tony and his friends. For example, Tony, who turns to hedonism as a way to cope with his own life as a low-class Brooklyn guy with a ''really'' [[Dysfunctional Family]], has no thought for the future (and the culture as a whole didn't either), and his friends are involved with [[Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll|drugs, drinking, and casual sex]] which does cause them huge problems.

 

== Literature ==