Week 3 - [Reading Notes] Form, Thematics & Politics of New Hollywood Blockbusters

Form, Thematics & Politics of New Hollywood Blockbusters

Reading 1: Wood, Robin (1986) Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 162-188.

The Lucas-Spielberg Syndrome

What makes a Lucas-Spielberg so popular amongst its audiences across the world, even if their films are aimed at younger audiences? How do these blockbusters of the time reduce adults to child viewing habits and, why this is politically problematic in the context of Reagan’s America? The films cater to the desire for regression to infantilism, the doublethink phenomenon of pure fantasy.

1. Childishness

- The success of the films is only comprehensible when one assumes a widespread desire for regression to infantilism, a populace who wants to be constructed as mock children. Crucial here, no doubt, is the urge to evade responsibility - responsibility for actions, decisions, thought, responsibility for changing things: children do not have to be responsible, there are older people to look after them. That is one reason why these films must be intellectually undemanding. 

(p. 165)

- It is not exactly that one doesn't have to think to enjoy Star Wars, but rather that thought is strictly limited to the most superficial narrative channels: "What will happen? How will they get out of this?".

(p. 165)

2. Special Effects

- These represent the essence of Wonderland Today (Alice never needed reassurance about technology) and the one really significant way in which the films differ from the old serials.

(p. 166)

- One must assume a kind of automatic doublethink in audience response: we both know and don't know that we are watching speck]! effects, technological fakery. Only thus can we respond simultaneously:" to the two levels of "magic": the diegetic wonders within the narrative and the extra-diegetic magic of Hollywood.

- Spectacle - the sense of reckless, prodigal extravagance, no expense spared is essential in these blockbusters.

(p. 166)

3. Imagination/Originality

- "Of course it's pure fantasy - but what imagination!" - the flattering sense of one's own sophistication depends on the ability to juggle such attitudes, an ability the films constantly nurture.

(p. 166)

- Imagination is a force that strives to grasp and transform the world, not restore "the good old values." What we can justly credit Lucas and the production team with its facility of invention, especially on the level of special effects and makeup and the creation of a range of cute or sinister or grotesque fauna (human and non-human).

(p. 167)

- The "originality" of the films goes very precisely with their "imagination": window dressing to conceal - but not entirely - the extreme familiarity of plot, characterization, situation, and character relations.

(p. 167)

- Consider also the exotic adventure movie: our white heroes, plus comic relief, encounter a potentially hostile tribe; but the natives turn out to be harmless, childlike, innocent-they have never seen a white man before, and they promptly worship our heroes as gods. You can't do that anymore: such movies (mostly despised "B" movies anyway) don't get shown now, and if we saw one on late-night television we would have to laugh at it.

(p. 167)

4. Nuclear Anxiety

- The fear of nuclear war is certainly one of the main sources of our desire to be constructed as children, to be reassured, to evade responsibility and thought. 

(p. 168)

- In terms of cinema, one side of this fear is the contemporary horror film, centered on the unkillable and ultimately inexplicable monster, the mysterious and terrible destructive force we can neither destroy, nor communicate with, nor understand. E.g. Darth Vader. The other side is the series of fantasy films centered on the struggle for possession of an ultimate weapon or power: the Ark of the Covenant of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Genesis project of Star Trek II, "the Force" of Star Wars.

(p. 168)

- The pervasive, if surreptitious, implications of the fantasy films is that nuclear power is positive and justified as long as it is in the right hands.

(p. 168)

- The question has been raised as to whether the Star Wars films really fit this pattern: if they contain a fantasy embodiment of nuclear power it is surely not the Force but the Death Star, which the Force, primarily signified in terms of moral rectitude and discipline rather than physical or technological power, is used to destroy.

(p. 169)

5. Fear of Facism

- The most positively interesting aspect of the Star Wars films seems to me their dramatization of this dilemma. There is the ambiguity of the Force itself, with its powerful, and powerfully seductive, dark side to which the all-American hero may succumb: the Force, Obi One informs Luke, "has a strong influence on the weak-minded," as had Nazism. There is also the question of Luke's parentage: is the father of our hero really the prototypical Fascist beast Darth Vader? By the end of the third film the dilemma has developed quasi-philosophical dimensions: as Darth Vader represents rule-by-force, if Luke resorts to force (the Force) to defeat him, doesn't he become Darth Vader? 

(p. 170)

- The trilogy's simple but absolutely systematic code of accents extends this theme in the wider terms of the American heritage. All the older generation Jedi knights, both good and evil, and their immediate underlings, e.g. Peter Cushing, have British accents, in marked contrast to the American accents of the young heroes.

(p. 170)

- Britain itself has of course markedly contradictory connotations-a democracy as well as an imperialist power ("the Empire"), which America inherited. Therefore, it is fitting that both Obi One and Darth Vader should be clearly signified as British, and that doubt should exist as to which of them is Luke Skywalker's father, whether literal or moral/political.

(p. 170)

6. Restoration of the Father

- The woman's main function is to be rescued by the men, involving her reduction to helplessness and dependency. Although Princess Leia is ultimately revealed to be Luke Skywalker's sister, there is never any suggestion that she might inherit the Force, or have the privilege of being trained and instructed by Obi One and Yoda.

(p. 173)

- Nowhere do the films invite us to take any interest in Princess Leia's parentage. They play continually on the necessity for Luke to confirm his allegiance to the "good father" (Obi One) and repudiate the "bad father" (Darth Vader), even if the latter proves to be his real father. With this setup and developed in the first two films, Return of the Jedi manages to cap it triumphantly with the redemption of Darth Vader. The trilogy can then culminate in a veritable Fourth of July of 'Fathericity': a grandiose firework display to celebrate Luke's coming through, as he stands backed by the ghostly figures of Obi One, Darth and Yoda, all smiling benevolently. The mother, here, is so superfluous that she doesn't figure in the narrative at all.

(p. 174)

- If the Star Wars films - like the overwhelming majority of 80s Hollywood movies - put women back where they belong (subordinate or nowhere), they do the same, in a casual, incidental way, for blacks and gays.Thus the project of the Star Wars films and related works is to put everyone back in his/her place, reconstruct us as dependent children, and reassure us that it will all come right in the end: trust Father.

(p. 174)

Spielberg and E.T.

- If the Spielberg films are in some ways more interesting than the Star Wars trilogy, it is because the personal investment has as its corollary, or perhaps its source, a certain disturbance; the sincerity seems in large part the need to cover over that disturbance, a personal need for reassurance (which the Star Wars films peddle as a commodity), the desire to "believe."

(p. 175)

- The attitude to the patriarchal family implicit in Spielberg's films is somewhat curious. The first part of E. T. quite vividly depicts the oppressiveness of life in the nuclear family: incessant bickering, mean-mindedness, one-upmanship. This state of affairs is the result of the father's defection, perhaps: the boys have no one to imitate. Yet Spielberg seems quite incapable of thinking beyond this: all he can do is reassert the "essential" goodness of family life in the face of all the evidence he himself provides. Hence the end of E. T. surreptitiously reconstructs the image of the nuclear family.

(p. 176)

- It follows that the position of women in Spielberg's work is fairly ignominious. Largely denied any sexual presence, they function exclusively as wives and mothers (especially mothers), with no suggestion that they might reasonably want anything beyond that. 

(p. 177)

- The film's central theme is clearly the acceptance of Otherness by Elliott, initially, then by his siblings, eventually by his mother, by the benevolent scientist, by the schoolboys. On the surface level - "E.T." as an alien - this seems quite negligible, a nonissue. This is not to assert that there are no such things as extraterrestrials, but simply that, as yet, they haven't constituted a serious social problem. 

(p. 178)

Blade Runner

- Blade Runner was released in the United States Simultaneously with E. T. and for one week was its serious contender at the box office; then receipts for Blade Runner dropped disastrously while those for E. T. soared. The North American critical establishment was generally ecstatic about E. T. and cool or ambivalent about Blade Runner. E. T. was nominated for a great many Academy Awards and won a few; Blade Runner was nominated for a few and won none. 

(p. 182)

- Blade Runner is not really an adaptation: rather, the film is built upon certain ideas and motifs selected from the novel. Its aim, argument and tone are so different that it is best to regard it as an autonomous work. 

(p. 182)

_______________________________________________________

Reading 2: Krämer, Peter (1998) “Would you take your child to see this film? The cultural and social work of the family-adventure movie”, in Steve Neale and Murray Smith (eds.) Contemporary Hollywood Cinema. London: Routledge. pp. 294-311.

This reading takes a different approach and sees some positive value in the ‘family adventure movie’. Try to think not just about the different opinions here but also the methodology – how do their approaches differ? What different kind of theories and evidence do they use?

- Many of today's action-adventure movies are, in fact, family films. At the same time, the traditional children's or family film has been upgraded with a heavy injection of spectacular adventure to appeal to teenagers and young adults as well as children and their parents. These two developments have resulted in a group of films which I would like to call family-adventure movies. It is my contention that family-adventure movies are the most successful production trend in American cinema since the late 1970s. 

(p. 295)

- The cultural work that the films' narratives perform to reconcile family members with each other on the screen translates into a kind of social work performed by the films on the familial units in the auditorium, creating shared experiences and opening up channels of communication.

(p. 295)

Fathers and sons in contemporary Hollywood criticism

- The male spectator is invited to adopt the position of the young male hero, regressing to childhood and submitting to the power of the father in the story at the same time as he submits to the power of the spectacle and narrative drive of the film itself, 'totally passive, ready to be taken by the hand and led step by step through the narrative to participate emotionally in its reassuringly reactionary conclusion'.

(p. 295/6)

- Today's movie audience is largely made up of adults in search of regressive pleasures, implying that actual children constitute a negligible segment of this audience. The audience is dominated by men who are 'all too ready to accept the films' invitation to infantile regression', whereas women are easily alienated from the experience on offer due to the films' patriarchal agenda. Thus, while men 'generally love E.I, women generally don't'. 

(p. 296)

Parents, Children and Critics at the Movies

- The Jungle Book is very much a story of separation and loss, told from a child's point of view, as is The Lion King for a substantial part of its duration. The onscreen representation of childhood, like the off-screen memories of childhood which are being evoked, is by no means idealized. Far from being depicted as a paradisical state, characterized by endless pleasure, straightforward wish fulfilment and irresponsibility, childhood emerges as a difficult phase indeed.

(p. 297)

- According to Wood the appeal of contemporary Hollywood's regressive fantasies is 'the urge to evade responsibility - responsibility for actions; decisions, thought, responsibility for changing things: children do not have to be responsible, there are older people to look after them. The Lion King, however, shows exactly the reverse.

(p. 297)

- Furthermore, while all students freely admit to having wept when they first saw the film as children (often during one of their first ever visits to the cinema students who saw E.T. and/or The Lion King), they are somewhat surprised and puzzled by the fact that the film still has the power to move them. Thus, students' responses and reflections are influenced by their assumptions about what is, or is not, an appropriate emotional response in terms of both sex and age, rather than by the force of same-sex identification with screen characters. 

(p. 299)

- When asked about the significance of the protagonists' sex, students suggested that the fact that Elliott is male, and E.T. appears to be male as well, adds to the drama. They argued that females are much more open to intimate friendships and shared emotional experiences; whereas boys have to work much harder at them. The intimate bond which is being established between Elliott and E.T., and Elliott's extreme expressions of grief and jubilation, especially in the scene in which the alien first dies and then comes back to life, are all the more dramatic and effective for the difficulties usually encountered by boys in handling their emotions.

(p. 299)

- Films like E.T. are in effect working to 'feminize' both their young male protagonists and their male audiences; that is, to allow them to experience and freely express emotions (in the darkness and anonymity of the movie theater) in a way which is usually considered to be typically female." At the same time, it is true that female spectators are encouraged to identify with the young male hero rather than with the film's female characters.

(p. 299)

- By transcending culturally encoded dualities of sex and age, the child figure in E.T. and The Lion King is turned into an idealized point of identification for both males and females, children and adults.

(p. 300)

- The final farewell in E.T. results in a return to reality after the excitement of fantastic adventure, which allowed both Elliott and the audience to deal with issues and emotions that are part and parcel of everyday life yet are difficult to deal with there. The film's focus on the problematic relationship between children and adults is closely connected to the immediate concerns of the familial units of parents and children making up a large proportion of the audience.

(p. 300)

- In both films the central male child is integrated into a group of people of different sex and age who share many of his experiences and, to a greater or lesser extent, participate in his heroic action, also joining him in the film's concluding scene.

(p. 300)

- Star Wars is a striking example. Marketing research before the film's release in May 1977 showed that on the basis of the film's title and a brief description of its story and main attractions, interest in Star Wars was highest among young men, whereas women and older people (including parents) were put off by the film's generic classification,science-fiction, which was associated with technology and the lack of a human dimension. 

(p. 301)

- Given all the similarities with children's films such as The LionKina and E.T., it is not surprising to find out that, despite the initial marketing focus on teenagers and young adults. In the long run, Star Wars has been recognized as a film for the whole family. In an interview on the occasion of the enormously successful release of the Star Wars special edition in February 1997, Twentieth Century Fox chairman Tom Sherak cited surveys which showed that one-third of the audience for this latest re-release were families.

(p. 302)

- By foregrounding the cinematic spectacle of special effects and precisely choreographed action, and by constantly referring to their own status as cinematic entertainment for a captive audience, these films offer themselves as a temporary relief from the real-life problems which their stories focus on but can never solve. 

(p. 303)

- In terms of their marketing and their critical reception, the films are widely understood as familial experiences, and they are best enjoyed as part of a family outing, or as an occasion to contemplate one's own place in familial networks, past and present. Yet, although they tend to ignore or marginalize romantic love and courtship, two of the most important concerns of the cinema's primary audience of teenagers and young adults, the films are able to please this constituency with their spectacle and emotional impact.

(p. 304/5)

The Family-Adventure Movie and the Family Audience at the Box Office

- Family-adventure movies are intended, and manage, to appeal to all age groups, especially children and their parents, by combining spectacular, often fantastic or magical action with a highly emotional concern with familial relationships, and also by offering two distinct points of entry into the cinematic experiences they provide (childish delight and absorption on the one hand, adult self-awareness and nostalgia on the other hand). Family-adventure movies are central both to the economics of the American film industry and to the moviegoing experiences of the American public.

(p. 305)

_______________________________________________________

Reading 3: Schauer, Bradley (2007) “Critics, Clones and Narrative in the Franchise Blockbuster”, New Review of Film and Television Studies, 5:2, pp. 191-210.

- Blockbusters are often studied only for their cultural or political significance—if they have any aesthetic appeal at all, it is on a visceral level alone. This argument is perpetuated with references to ‘the eye candy of image culture’ (Sharrett 2001, p. 320) or new directors for whom film's ‘nothing more than an unmodulated stream of visual shocks’ (Jones 2004, p. 194).

(p. 192)

- For many, the Star Wars series has come to signify the epitome of the post-classical cinema, and George Lucas’s 2002 film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones has come to signify the epitome of the post-classical cinema, and this fifth installment is highly characteristic of the contemporary blockbuster: it is unabashedly juvenile, full of elaborate special effects and heavily marketed. It was also blasted by critics who accused the film of allowing technology to overwhelm humanity, repeating the ‘style over substance, spectacle over narrative’ refrain of post-classical theory.

(p. 193)

- The franchise blockbuster is a big-budget genre epic with a narrative that elaborately ties into multimedia ancillaries such as books, video games and television. The narrative of the franchise blockbuster is constructed in order to appeal simultaneously to two distinct audiences: the general public and also a smaller, more discriminating fan audience that is familiar with the intricacies of that particular narrative world. Successful franchise blockbusters, such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, are hits with both popular and fan audiences. Other films fail to strike a chord with the mass public, which finds their labyrinthine plots and daunting mythologies campy or simply dull. 
(p. 193)



The Death of the Classical Narrative?
- In the classical text, elements of style serve the narrative, which is constructed causally around the goals and motivations of the central character. Spectacle and action have a role in the classical cinema, but it is one that is either subservient to the plot (the action is structured around the protagonist’s goals and has a causal impact upon the rest of the film) or part of a generic tradition that allows for the momentary eschewal of narrative dominance (like the elaborate musical sequences in Busby Berkeley’s films, which can function independently of the plot) (Bordwell et al. 1985, p. 20). 
(p. 194)

- In contrast, contemporary films are accused of being constructed not to provoke thought or even generate an emotional connection between the characters and audience, but to jolt and arouse the spectator like a roller coaster (an oft-cited metaphor for the New Hollywood). The plot, as it is, exists only to connect one epic action sequence to another. For some, the visceral spectacle of the action film has completely overrun Hollywood.
(p. 194)

- Narrative in contemporary Hollywood stems from the increasing self-consciousness and overt nature of film style. Extremely fast cutting, increasing use of handheld cinematography and an emphasis on tight close-ups are only the most visible signs of the new aesthetic, which David Bordwell labels ‘intensified continuity’ (2006, pp. 121–138).
The need for films (and filmmakers) to differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace is another possible source for the rise of a film aesthetic that asserts its presence much more forcefully than the ‘invisible’ camerawork and editing of classical Hollywood. A flashy, attention-grabbing style and innovative special effects may allow a particular film to rise above its competition and attract a large audience. Likewise, filmmakers may indulge in these film practices in order to make a name for themselves as virtuosos within the industry.
(p. 194)

- The increasing importance of overseas markets over the last several decades has also led to a new emphasis on films and genres that foreground spectacular special effects and an aggressive style. Action films with archetypal characters and conventional storylines tend to perform better abroad than films that require more culturally specific knowledge, tastes or attitudes.
(p. 195)

In contrast to the point above...
- Kristin Thompson finds that contemporary Hollywood films are actually often as densely plotted as the most complex classical film, arguing that the same four-act structure she finds in most classic Hollywood films is also present in newer films like Alien (1979) and Groundhog Day (1993) (Thompson 1999).
(p. 195)

- Like most studio-era Hollywood films, Attack of the Clones features the dual storylines of work and romance, as Jedi apprentice Anakin Skywalker falls in love with Senator Padme Amidala as he attempts to uncover a political conspiracy that threatens the Galactic Republic. Like classic epics such as Ben-Hur (1959) or Dr. Zhivago (1965), Lucas’s film focuses on a small interpersonal drama occurring against the backdrop of large-scale political events of global (here, interstellar) proportions.
(p. 196)

- Although Attack of the Clones closely fits the classical story model, it also exemplifies some narrative characteristics of recent action cinema that might seem to depart from classicism. Geoff King and Warren Buckland have separately developed narrative models based around episodes of action or mini-climaxes that, strung together, compose the story structure of the modern blockbuster (Buckland 1998; King 2002, pp. 189–193)
(p. 197)



The Franchise Blockbuster
- Thomas Schatz sees the original Star Wars (1977) as a new kind of filmic narrative, one that is ‘plot-driven’, not character-driven (2003, p. 29). The film’s characters are mere plot functions, caught in a tidal wave of narrative that cares little for their goals and motivations. 
(p. 197)

- Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman were relative unknowns when cast in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, hired for their acting ability, star potential and affordability over their box-office draw. The marketing of many New Hollywood blockbusters foregrounds their high concept storylines and special effects just as much, if not more, than their actors.
(p. 198)

- Looking for ways to maximize profits across their multiple holdings, today’s conglomerates seek film franchises that can generate a variety of ancillary products while remaining commercially viable through the timed release of sequels. For example, there exists a series of 32 books licensed by Lucasfilm that traces Kenobi’s life from age 12 to beyond the events of Episode III. One reader writes, ‘I recommend that every serious Star Wars fan read each of these short books, as they flesh out key characters tremendously well’ (Ray 2002). 
(p. 199)

- However, spectators who are invested in the Star Wars universe will have more patience with the storyline than the average spectator. Indeed, much of the film’s appeal for fans lies in the complexity of the political plot and the way it ties into the other Star Wars films. Their experience of the films is often enhanced by a variety of extratextual sources, such as novels, comics and video games, which elaborate upon and complicate the master narrative of the film itself.
This phenomenon, which Henry Jenkins has labeled ‘transmedia storytelling’, may be the most significant way in which the narrative of the franchise blockbuster differs from the classical paradigm. In fact, the transmedia narrative has the potential to improve upon the standard film narrative:

In the ideal form of transmedia storytelling, each medium does what it does best—so that a story might be introduced in a film, expanded through television, novels, and comics, and its world might be explored and experienced through game play … Such a multilayered approach to storytelling will enable a more complex, more sophisticated, more rewarding mode of narrative to emerge within the constraints of commercial entertainment. 

(Jenkins 2003)

(p. 202) 



The Future of the Franchise Blockbuster
- The emergence of transmedia storytelling is one of the most important shifts in Hollywood narrative since the auteur experiments of the 1960s and 1970s. However, it must be noted that this storytelling technique is currently confined to blockbuster franchises like Star Wars and The Matrix, and is not in common use in the average Hollywood film.
(p. 206)

- As Jenkins explains, ‘Each franchise entry needs to be self-contained enough to enable autonomous consumption’ (2003). The entertainment industry may develop to a point where films are simply another part of an immense transmedia narrative. However, the day has not yet arrived when a majority of moviegoers consult an array of novels and comics before attempting to make sense of the most recent summer blockbuster.
(p. 206)

- Popular film critics cannot be blamed for failing to consider artistic factors beyond the immediate interests of their general readership. But film scholars have no such excuse; if we are to truly understand the Hollywood blockbuster, we must complement our industrial, cultural and political analyses with an approach that studies blockbusters as works of art.
(p. 207)