What is Appropriation?

Appropriation is the act of borrowing elements from previously published texts and using them in new ways like changing the context or narrative. Similar to the act of cutting out paragraphs from books and pasting them in a different order. Famous examples of appropriation appear in Led Zeppelin's use of lyrics and musical riffs from other blues musicians. Or the way in which comedy musician "Weird Al" Yankovic appropriates the music from popular contemporary songs and changes the lyrics (usually about Pop culture) for comedic effect. Films have used this technique a lot in recent times as well- For example, Star Wars uses the classic character archetypes from classical mythology and storytelling techniques from westerns (the gun battles) and Kurosawa samurai films (the sword fights); Indiana Jones appropriates various situations and action scenes from the B movies and saturday matinee serials of the 1930s & 40s (e.g. the truck chase in the first film was appropriated from the 1944 film "Zorro's Fighting Legion").
[Continued in Comments Section]
-Ben

Ben's Archive Choice

I've thought a lot about which would be my favourite choice of film to archive. So many of my favourite films are brilliant examples of appropriation from 'Star Wars' to 'Indiana Jones'; but I have decided to choose a more recent text as a perfect example of Appropriation-'Kill Bill'. This is an interesting example because the film appropriates from many different films from many different genres. From 'Executioners from Shaolin' to 'Death Rides a Horse'. From Martial Arts to Westerns (seemingly poles apart,). Yet in Kill Bill, many of the genre conventions, cinematic techniques, choreography, props, costumes, mise-en-scene and characters are appropriated affectionately and brilliantly. With so many appropriations, part of the fun from 'Kill Bill' comes from finding out what the appropriation is and from which text is the appropriation referencing and paying homage to.
-Ben Dillon

I think that the Robot chicken start wars and family guy star wars should be archived.
I feel that they are a perfect representation of appropriation. Using scene after scen from the original startwars films and changing it to a comedy spoof.
These maybe more important thaan most examples as starwars is a work of appropriation.
 making these films an appropriation of appropriation.
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(Tom Bishop)

Appropriation In Film

We have finally came up with a theme for our group presentation project, and this is appropriation in film. And we shall post updates on our project as they develop.