Postmodernism: The Telephone Music Video by Lady GaGa ft. Beyonce

The 2010 music video for the song "Telephone" by Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce is something that I think can be considered very postmodern. The stylized 10 minute music video shows Gaga being bailed out from a women's prison by Beyonce. They then go out to a diner where they proceed to poison everyone before making their escape. The first thing that may come to someone's mind when they watch the video are themes of Bonnie and Clyde, but this video actually references films that are much more recent than Bonnie and Clyde's heists of the 1930s.

Two women on the run from the law across a desert-like landscape recalls the 1991 movie "Thelma and Louise."

The diner scene where Gaga and Beyonce kill everyone eating and then dance around reminded me of the opening scene of "Natural Born Killers." A lot of the effects and over-stylized production was similar to the movie "Natural Born Killers" as well, including once again the desert landscape.

The most obvious film the music video references is "Kill Bill." Beyonce and Gaga are seen driving "The Pussy Wagon", which is a big yellow car that Uma Thurman drives in the 2003 movie.

 Lady Gaga said that it's actually the exact same car that was used in the movie. It's interesting because all the movies that Gaga references in this music video are all very postmodern themselves. "Thelma and Louise" is a female buddy version of Bonnie and Clyde, "Natural Born Killer" mocks sitcoms and the public's obsession with serial killers at the same time, and "Kill Bill" is a martial arts western revenge story. I think that would make this music video post-postmodern, or whatever the term for that is. Also this is just going off the films that I've seen that the music video reminded me of, there could be a lot more inspirations that I just don't know about.