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1984. Movies and Battles over Reaganite Conservatism
- Rutgers University Press
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1984 Movies and Battles over Reaganite Conservatism RHONDA HAMMER AND DOUGLAS KELLNER In November Ronald Reagan was reelected as president of the United States in a landslide. It was perhaps the high point of Reaganite conservatism, and many popular films of the period articulated conservative discourses associated with Reaganism. The former Hollywood movie actor frequently used film phrases and quotations to promote his conservative agenda, as when he called the Soviet Union “the Evil Empire.” Further, his spaced-based missile defense program was popularly referred to as “Star Wars,” drawing on discourse from George Lucas’s immensely popular films. Reagan also would directly quote Dirty Harry’s famous phrase, “Make my day,” to threaten a veto against Democrats in Congress in 1985. He later used allusions to Rambo to justify his aggressive foreign policy, and in 1983 claimed “the Force is with us,” appealing both to Hollywood movie fans and his conservative Christian base. Ninety-eighty four is the title year of George Orwell’s famous novel, leading to speculation in academia and the popular press as to whether Orwell’s prophesies had been correct.1 Appropriately, one may detect in U.S. films of the year, across a diversity of genres, Orwellian and dystopic visions of totalitarianism, technological surveillance and domination, social conformity, escalation of government repression, and suppression of human rights and democracy. At the same time, Reaganism was strongly contested in both the political and cultural spheres. The films of the year contain much opposition to Reaganism and conservatism, and Hollywood films were a contested terrain between conservatives, liberals, and radicals represented in cinematic culture. It was an unusually rich year for U.S. film culture, exhibiting an eclectic mix and diverse breadth. A partial list of films represents the work of some of the most accomplished and respected auteurs of the era, including Amadeus, Milos Forman’s portrayal of the Mozart-Salieri rivalry; A Passage to India, David Lean’s epic presentation of E. M. Forster’s novel; The Killing 107 Fields, Roland Joffé’s portrayal of the Cambodian tragedy during the early 1970s; Ismail Merchant and James Ivory’s adaptation of Henry James’s novel The Bostonians; Sergio Leone’s masterful epic Once Upon a Time in America; Francis Ford Coppola’s impressive reworking of the gangster film in The Cotton Club; Norman Jewison’s serious examination of U.S. race relations in the military circa World War II in A Soldier’s Story; Woody Allen’s homage to the New York entertainment industry in Broadway Danny Rose; Wim Wenders’s disconcerting Paris, Texas; Barry Levinson’s interrogation of baseball and sexual politics in The Natural; Robert Zemeckis’s high adventure Romancing the Stone; and Robert Altman’s critical dissection of Richard Nixon’s disintegrating psyche in Secret Honor. These films indicate the global nature of contemporary cinematic culture , drawing on major directors, actors, and talent from throughout the world. The year was also especially rich for independent film in the United States, including John Sayles’s critical version of the science fiction film Brother from Another Planet; Rob Reiner’s clever deconstruction of the rock music genre This Is Spinal Tap; Jim Jarmusch’s fiercely independent Stranger Than Paradise; Alex Cox’s searing look at the American underclass, Repo Man, a reworking of the codes of youth film and science fiction film; and Gregory Nava’s multicultural epic El Norte. It was also a good year for documentaries , with Robert Epstein’s probing The Times of Harvey Milk winning an Academy Award and much praise bestowed on John Scagliotti and Greta Schiller’s Before Stonewall and Martin Bell’s Streetwise, both featuring riveting portraits of groups (gays and homeless street kids) not usually visible in Reagan’s America. Throughout Hollywood productions of the period, there are a number of recurring themes in major and minor films that articulate the key events and sociopolitical and economic relations of the time. Indeed, many of these films resonate, and can be reread, within the history of major political conflicts of their period. In general, films can display social realities of the time in documentary and realist fashion, directly representing events and phenomena of an epoch. But films can also provide symbolic-allegorical representations that interpret, comment on, and indirectly portray realities of an era, as well as its dreams and nightmares. Finally, there is an aesthetic and anticipatory dimension to films in which they provide artistic visions of the world that might transcend the social context...