Research On The Image Of Sci-fi Movie Opponents Since New Hollywood

Long before the rise of modern narratology,the concept of “opponent” has arised in the book named Morphology of the Folktale(1928)written by Propp.But the narrative function of his “opponent” is related to the “crime”, so this is to say it is more inclined to the moral concept of “villain”.In the Structural Semantics written by Greimas, there is a pair of actants composed by “opponent” and “helper”,in order to be the contrast between inhibiting hope and contributing to hope.The narrative principle of the “opponent” in sci-fi films derived from new Hollywood lies in that :the conflict between the two sides in the story can be classified as Positive Action and Opposed Action firstly,and the “opponent” is the carrier of the Opposed Action.Secondly,there are a lot of cases that the Opposed Actions win the audience' sympathy even the ultimate victory in the Hollywood sci-fi films.According to the role of opponent when creating emotional atmosphere,the sci-fi film is divided into confrontational and fused model.The confrontational model refers to that the hero occupies the commanding heights of the moral and power,and the audience has known that “opponent” should be destroyed at the beginning of the film.Along with the completion of the Positive Action,the atmosphere of plots is rising, and the audience will get a sense of security.On the contrary,audience's perception to “opponent” will produce shifting and they will lose a sense of security in the fused model.As far as the types of sci-fi opponent's image to be concerned,In terms of vision shape,the opponent derived from new Hollywood in sci-fi films roots in early science literature and the literary description out of the framework of science and technology in the 20 th century.When the opponents turn into the role with narrative function,they are impersonal character and personal character.Through the combination between the two aspects,Hollywood opponents in sci-fi films gain not only the richness of the image but also the depth of the ideology.At the same time, the excitement will be created because of the space-time occupied by the opponent.First of all,all the space-time in the movies always can be decomposed into two dimensions including closed space and limited time.The opponent captures the two dimensions and makes the Opposed Action looking very wonderful. The mad imagination can be achieved in the “transcendent wonder” made by “multi-level space” and “temporal distortion”.The Hollywood sci-fi “opponent” includes cultural meaning. In the viewpoint of diachronism,we can distinguish the Soviet union during the cold war,its own image in the counter culture and the image of marginal man in the anti-terrorism age.Under the vision of the Neo-conservatism,you can also find some of the same “stuff” on them:the image of science and technology under the man-machine order,the image of woman under the gender order and the image of non-White person under racial order(the Blacks and the Middle Eastern Ethnicity).By the law when shaping the “opponent” used by Hollywood,we can provide insight into the social psychology,social consciousness and social anxiety outside of the movies.Hollywood sci-fi film seems very lively,but it is not so simple as you think.It always subtly influences or changes the audience--this is what I emphasized in the epilogue.