Session Six Geriaction Department of Film Studies & Audiovisual Culture, Masaryk University Dr. Richard Nowell ¨ ¨ ¨To develop a sound understanding of: ¨ ¨1. Geriaction as a supposedly reactionary format ¨ ¨2. Geriaction as Comfort Viewing ¨ ¨3. The economics of cultivating older viewers ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨So far we have seen how the concept of Comfort Viewing provides us with a new lens through which to enrich our understandings of media ¨ ¨As well as industry and cultural history, character-types, and formats, the Comfort Viewing Mode enables us to rethink the politics of media ¨ ¨This returns us to the phenomenon driving the agenda of this course: to underscore the extent to which joy exists within a tense media culture ¨ ¨Much of the negativity traversing audiovisual culture derives from dissatisfaction at output and the assumed conduct of those behind it ¨ ¨However, such positions often derive from questionable readings of the politics or ideology of media texts by folks with little media education ¨Following a recent cultural rehabilitation of some horror as progressive, action-centered media represent perhaps the most disreputable format ¨ ¨Given its general cartoonishness, criticism angled at action media has tended to derive from claims about its politics, less than its violence ¨ ¨For a media elite that either holds or affects left-liberal values, action media has historically been devalued as incendiary right-wing hate ¨ ¨Such positions read the action hero as a punitive figure symbolically policing a racist, sexist, homophobic status quo from outside “threats” ¨ ¨They connect supposedly reactionary content to supposedly reactionary filmmakers and ultimately supposedly reactionary fantasies of viewers ¨The most high-profile recent incarnation to draw the condemnation of media elites has been tales of aging men embarking on violent missions ¨ ¨An exemplary piece of scholarship on this topic comes in the form of Gregory Frame’s essay on what he calls “Geriaction Vigilante Films” ¨ ¨ ¨1. How does Frame read the politics of Geriaction? ¨ ¨2. How does this reading characterize the films prime target audience? ¨ ¨3. How does the concept of Comfort Viewing challenge Frame’s ideas about Geriaction? ¨ ¨Frame argues that these films respond to feelings of cultural erasure among aging, white, blue-collar conservative men ¨ ¨He suggests they transpose onto the action cinema format Alt-right discourses Trump used to court these folks as voters ¨ ¨He argues such feelings derive from a dystopian vision of a U.S. devasted by liberalism, immigration, and Post-Fordism ¨ ¨Hence he argues these films depict a social order wrecked by criminal immigrants and a weak criminal justice system ¨ ¨Personal and political merge here, as aging patriarchs rise to protect their families (the US) through violent individualism ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ Trump keeps on holding rallies even as Covid-19 cases surge - Vox Veteran Rockers Release Ode To Blue Collar America To Benefit Mom & Pop Stores – Music Existence NYPD officer is stabbed in neck, 2 others injured in ambush; suspect is shot | Honolulu Star-Advertiser ¨Frame’s paper itself reads as hateful, and dismissive, about how aging blue-collar men may feel when thinking the world has left them behind ¨ ¨This reads as elitist and ageist, given it comes from a younger man of intellect and privilege, born into a time of relative safety and prosperity ¨ ¨It also risks caricaturing American political perspectives, by reducing anything right of hard-left to a rabid masculinist Alt-right/Neo-Nazism ¨ ¨This pathologizes viewers as a dangerous rabble roused, when such media is perhaps just offering supportive fantasies to unhappy people ¨ ¨Maybe geriaction uses the Comfort Viewing Mode in order to offer support to men who feel left behind culturally in a fast changing world ¨ ¨ ¨1. What challenges does the aging male protagonist of this film face? ¨ ¨2. How does the film suggest this demographic might adapt to social changes? ¨ ¨3. Is this film as hateful as Frame’s work suggests? ¨ ¨Nobody reframes Geriaction from a rightwing call-to-arms to a chance for men to reflect on aging, gender, and fantasy ¨ ¨It suggests aging causes emotional and existential issues for men, whose sense of waning usefulness deserves sympathy ¨ ¨It counters charges that geriaction racializes crime, by showing desperation driving crime; and a mixed-race family ¨ ¨Its intertextuality de-topicalizes recent geriaction, locating it in a long history of media that speaks to older-male concerns ¨ ¨It posits men’s violent/protective impulses are best indulged as fantasies, as daydreams or by watching films like itself ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨Nobody is less a celebration of alt-right values than a reminder to aging men that action is an example of comforting viewing ¨ ¨The film suggests that aging men’s sincere fondness and indeed nostalgia for the media of the past can enrich their present lives ¨ ¨Hence the film’s takes place in a hyperreal present built on the conventions of earlier action cinema, e.g. Russian villains ¨ ¨The film allegorizes its psychosocial ambitions, showing aging isolated men building communities around cinematic violence ¨ ¨Uplift is therefore encouraged by inviting aging men to recall the importance of earlier action media, and reconnect therewith Nobody (2021) Film Locations - Global Film Locations In Nobody (2021) David Mansell (Christopher Lloyd) has the same tattoo as Hutch Mansell on his wrist. : r/MovieDetails Nobody (2021) – Often Off Topic ¨ ¨ ¨1. What challenges does the aging male protagonist of this film face? ¨ ¨2. How does the film suggest this demographic might adapt to social changes? ¨ ¨3. Is this film as hateful as Frame suggests? ¨This film also offers a mediation on the roles that action cinema can play to help support aging men in a changed world ¨ ¨It uses the Cruise/Maverick/Top Gun relationship to imagine a world in which the heroes of the past still have a role to play ¨ ¨Cruise/Maverick is presented as an anachronism, struggling to understand his role in a new world that sees him as a dinosaur ¨ ¨Maverick ultimately finds purpose through sincere connections in a supportive role; as teacher, as partner, as father, as friend ¨ ¨This casts the film in a supporting role for aging male viewers; assuring them they remain relevant if only to the film’s makers ¨ ¨Positioning Geriaction as reactionary trash for aging white-supremacists deeply misunderstands the US media market ¨ ¨The Alt-right represents a tiny market segment that is unable to support the profitability of expensive media products ¨ ¨Cultivating this segment also risks public backlashes and boycotts that jeopardize corporate reputations and profits ¨ ¨Thus, Disney dropped Fox when it bought 20th Century Fox to avoid unwanted associated with right-wing Fox News ¨ ¨Associating media with politically extreme positions risks losing the greatest untapped media audience alive today… ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ 20th Century Fox logo - Logok Not fair!': Man who put feet on desk in Pelosi's office has outburst at hearing for Capitol riot ¨Aging American men represent a large underserved, lucrative audience for whom Comfort Viewing is timely and even urgent ¨ ¨Baby Boomers and older gen-Xers comprise a sizable target market boasting significant free time and disposable income ¨ ¨This is also a group for whom loneliness and mental health concerns have been a long-standing and increasing problem ¨ ¨Older men are also a challenging media market alienated from modern culture, whose interest in heritage media can be nurtured ¨ ¨As younger people these individuals were the lifeblood of the American media industries who made action into blockbusters ¨The notion that at least some Geriaction media uses the Comfort Viewing Mode is supported by a genuinely insightful essay ¨ ¨Deborah Allison (2007) shows how the content and themes of the Dirty Harry sequels were recalibrated in the 1970s and 80s ¨ ¨Where these and similar fare was generally deemed right-wing trash, Allison shows they were tailored to dilute such positions ¨ ¨She argues that to minimize critique and maximize attendance, the films showed a once bigoted Harry defending inclusivity ¨ ¨Reflecting the general trajectory of Eastwood’s self-produced output, the series invited its aging male viewers to follow suit ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨As well as industry and cultural history, character-types, and formats, the Comfort Viewing Mode also allows us to reconsider media politics ¨ ¨One such case is represented by Geriaction, a format focusing on aging men seeking to reaffirm their waning authority through violent action ¨ ¨Scholarly and popular criticism has largely cast geriaction as a right-wing format that seeks to foster resentment in older conservative men ¨ ¨However, if we approach these films as comfort viewing for viewers seeking emotional support, a more optimistic politics typically emerges ¨ ¨Under these circumstances, it becomes apparent that geriaction often aims to help such viewers come to terms with progressive social changes ¨ ¨ ¨1. Beyond characterizing acts of consumer choice, Comfort Viewing is also a mode of media assembly, one that invokes connection, nostalgia, uplift, sincerity, and familiarity ¨ ¨2. The CVM enables us to enrich industry history, with the 1980s Feelgood of Amblin and ¨ others infusing emotionality into a period typically associated with cold rationality ¨ ¨3. The CVM enables us to enrich cultural history, suggesting Metamodernism represents a way of foreclosing cynicism at media output that is heavily reliant on textual recycling ¨ ¨4. The CVM enables us to enrich understandings of character-types, with the recent habilitation of the nerd used to recuperate lucrative high-investor media fandom ¨ ¨5. The CVM enables us to enrich understandings of media formats, with the tourist movie often reflexively promoting the benefits of comfort viewing over actual travel ¨ ¨6. The CVM enables to enrich understandings of media politics, with geriaction reading less as alt-right hate media than an effort to help older men adjust to progressive change