FTV30006 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Jon Voight, Masculinity, Amusement Park
Week 9
Action something something
The Vietnam Crisis
Vietnam forces a re-evaluation of American supremacy
Presents itself through the Vietnam films – Apocalypse Now, Coming Home, Who’ll Stop The
Rain, The Deer Hunter as weakned, reflective, lost
Ideological unease through a range of shifting symbols – a crisis in American identity
Almost a post-traumatic response that appears in cinema of the 70s
Change in the hero – from goal driven to lost, from belief to skepticim
Impact of Watergate – discrediting the patriarch
A move from the individual representing the government, to the individual as sole agent, - a
significant idealogical shift
A move towards the truth of the experience, not the resolution of the narrative problem
The Soft Body Films
The soldier becomes emblematic of failure – and that failure beomes inscribed on their
bodies, and on their psyches.
Bodies are soft, broken, in need of repair
Mental states shift, goals are lost – images of frustration, random violence
Heroes die, disappear, go mad, suicide, are killed in random acts of violence.
Masculinity is no longer a locus for purpose, agency, success
The body operates during the 70s as representative of the loss of faith, the loss of
masculinity, the failure of America
Consider the Jon Voigt Role in Coming Home, or the hollow singing of God Bless America in
The Deer Hunter as representative of this collapse
The sign of masculinity that Hollywood has traditionally. Re-enforced – determined,
focused, manly has been replaced by one that connotes softness and failure
Reaganite Cinema
So whilst we might have an emphasis on the unmotivated hero, the drifting or broken body,
the goalless, confused protagonist, the 80s deliver a reinvigoration of that weakness.
The ahrd body films of that era seek to restore the father to the country – it is, as Susan
Jeffords suggests, a ‘remasculinisation of America’
‘Hard body’ cinema of the 80s a symbol of a change in outlook, of ideology – leaving behind
the soft body of Carter and moving towards the decisive image of Reagan.
Bodies carry a connotative function 0 heorism, aggression, determination – inthese 80s films
Enemises now become clearer, they become either entirely faceless, or ‘othered’ through
accents (often Eastern European)
Cinema moves onto a direct demonstration of power and masculine determination, as well
as a culture of display – wealth, power and strength ll are presented in an often
uncomploicated manner – what wecharacterise as ‘Reaganite entertainment’
Restoration of the father and patriarchal control
Document Summary
Presents itself through the vietnam films apocalypse now, coming home, who"ll stop the. Rain, the deer hunter as weakned, reflective, lost. Ideological unease through a range of shifting symbols a crisis in american identity. Almost a post-traumatic response that appears in cinema of the 70s. Change in the hero from goal driven to lost, from belief to skepticim. A move from the individual representing the government, to the individual as sole agent, - a significant idealogical shift. A move towards the truth of the experience, not the resolution of the narrative problem. The soldier becomes emblematic of failure and that failure beomes inscribed on their bodies, and on their psyches. Bodies are soft, broken, in need of repair. Mental states shift, goals are lost images of frustration, random violence. Heroes die, disappear, go mad, suicide, are killed in random acts of violence. Masculinity is no longer a locus for purpose, agency, success.
