American Cinema of the 1980s: Themes and Variations

1989. Movies and the American Dream

1989 Movies and the American Dream JENNIFER HOLT By the end of the decade, mainstream American cinema was redefining the upper limits of profitability for the global entertainment industry. Hollywood was realizing record levels of financial success and business was growing in all directions as the blockbuster phenomenon reached staggering heights by the last summer of the eighties. Yet, even as the big budget events continued to define the quality and character of American film, the spectrum of production was expanding far beyond the usual dramas, action-adventure spectacles, and traditional genre-oriented blockbuster fare. Instead, a new independent cinema was born—one that was immensely lucrative and attractive to filmgoers, critics, and industry executives alike. This year’s newly commercial “indie revolution” began redesigning much of conventional wisdom about how to find success in the film business and what that success might look like once up on the big screen. Many films of this year, whether they were big budget spectaculars or small, interpersonal dramas, were notable for the way that they began to question the American institutions or various dimensions of the American Dream that had been celebrated throughout the decade, mythologized by politics, and embraced by the dominant culture and social discourse. While Hollywood films are by nature quite conservative and often worked to reaf firm much of the ideology that had been prevalent throughout the Reagan era, there were indeed many prominent films of this year that were quite productively and articulately questioning mainstream values and core beliefs. Healthy images of family, community, a multicultural society, a strong national identity, the belief in capitalism, individualism, and freedom —all crucial to the construction of the American collective consciousness and the vision of the American Dream that thrived throughout the 1980s—were embattled on the screen throughout the year in productions big and small. Even the television premieres of “The Simpsons” and “Seinfeld ” contributed to the overall send-up of traditional American values and 210 images of family. Ironically, as the business of entertainment was realizing unprecedented financial windfalls and the lifestyles of its biggest players offered proof that this elusive American Dream can indeed come true, Hollywood’s product was actively interrogating the essential elements and building blocks of that dream as it was circulating throughout the culture at large. In January, America inaugurated President George H.W. Bush, who vowed to continue the conservative agenda of the departing president, Ronald Reagan, while also promising a “kinder, gentler America.” That America was quite hard to find on film in the year that followed; the urban jungles, war zones, interpersonal crises, and treacherous landscapes of all varieties far outnumbered the mythical cornfields in Iowa where dreams did come true. In fact, based on what was available at the multiplex, it appeared that America—in its present, past, and hope for the future—was full of intense chaos, confusion, and cultural struggle. The retreat to fantasy worlds became quite prevalent as the country’s reality proved to be less appealing as a backdrop for entertainment. The reality in this year’s films was driven by a nation going through fundamental change. In fact, the entire world was experiencing dramatic geopolitical and economic changes that had implications that reverberated far beyond national borders. Previously unthinkable transformation took over Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War after forty bitter, long years. The last Soviet tanks pulled out of Afghanistan, and the Eastern Bloc and its communist empire came apart amid the fall of the Berlin Wall. Chinese students tried desperately to bring democracy to their country in June, staging a pro-democracy demonstration in Tiananmen Square, but the world watched in horror as it turned bloody on live television when government troops violently crushed the rally and killed hundreds of innocent young people. International politics were anything but business as usual for President Bush as he took office, and the uncertainty in the new world order filtered down into American culture. However, the national crisis as it symbolically played out on celluloid was great for business. This was the best year Hollywood had ever seen in terms of box office returns. The industry was already coming off an all-time high from 1988 and had been on an upswing for the latter half of the decade. Nevertheless, this year, and particularly this summer, would send the decade out with an unforgettable bang that would resonate into the next millennium. With over $5...