American cinema of the 1980s

SESSION 1 BACKLASH CINEMA

Hollywood cinema of the 1980s was at the center of a series of culture wars. So much so, that it is often characterized as a masculinist cinema whose most extreme manifestations represented a backlash against the feminist movements of the period. Students will consider the terms under which this backlash was said to have been played out on the screen, while asking whether some of these films might have actually offered more constructive perspectives on gender relations of the day

Learning Outcomes

A sound understanding of:

• The feminist critique of Hollywood

• The hallmarks of Backlash Cinema

• Backlash Cinema as pro-feminist cinema

Preparation

Reading: Lyons, 53-80.

Questions:

1. Why did feminist groups protest against Dressed to Kill and similar films?

2. What did they assume about the film’s audiences and how they consumed the films?

Home Screening I: Dressed to Kill (1980)

Home Screening II: Tootsie (1982)