Topic One: Backlash Cinema Dr. Richard Nowell Department of Film Studies & Audiovisual Culture, Masaryk University ¨Structure: 6 2-hour sessions [26.9; 03.10; 24.10; 07.11; 14.11; 5.12] ¨ ¨Methods: Integrated seminar discussions and framing lecturettes ¨ ¨Preparation: 2 x screenings & 1 x reading with preparatory questions ¨ ¨Organization: All screenings and readings will be discussed in depth ¨ ¨Slides: Uploaded to MS TEAMS and SIS after each session ¨ ¨Assessment: 1 x 1500-2000-word essay (choice of six prompts) ¨ ¨Feedback: One-page grade explanation emailed soon after receipt ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨Topic: American Cinema of the 1980s (mainly “mainstream” Hollywood) ¨ ¨Methods: Conceptual, textual, industrial, and social ¨ ¨Aim: Reexamine the key topics constituting histories of 1980s Hollywood ¨ ¨Approach I: Spotlight the general understandings of these topics ¨ ¨Approach 2: Challenge these general understandings (in various ways) ¨ ¨Outcome: To garner new understandings of 1980s American cinema dressed-to-kill-movie-poster12.jpg ¨ ¨To develop a demonstrable understanding of: ¨ ¨1. The feminist critique of Hollywood ¨ ¨2. The hallmarks of Backlash Cinema ¨ ¨3. Backlash Cinema as pro-feminist cinema ¨ dressed-to-kill-movie-poster12.jpg ¨As we will see across this course, 1980s American cinema has been reduced – sometimes unhelpfully – to a right-wing cinema ¨ ¨Depictions of gender relations on the screen have represented a key – albeit possibly misunderstood – instance of such practice ¨ ¨Critics and historians often see this decade’s cinema as one that exemplified a broader cultural reaction against feminist ¨ ¨The feminist journalist Susan Faludi characterized this supposed epochal development in her bestselling book as “The Backlash” ¨ ¨She argued that the Backlash celebrated traditional gender roles, promoting stoic masculinity and critiquing female autonomy ¨ ¨ ¨ Bcklash.jpg Faludi Backlash.jpg ¨Faludi’s work cemented, mainstreamed, and ultimately shaped feminist understandings of the “postfeminist” cultural-politics of 1980s America ¨ ¨Central to her thesis was the notion that various stakeholders posited second-wave feminism of the 1970s was essentially over and done with ¨ ¨The Backlash suggested feminism was no longer needed, claiming feminists had achieved their goals, but had badly damaging US society ¨ ¨It critiqued working women, suggesting they made men, women, and children miserable; instead emphasizing motherhood and homemaking ¨ ¨It also promoted a traditional stoic masculinity harking back to a 1950s-vision of tough, bread-winning, head-of-the-table manhood ¨The most intense US critical attention on Backlash Culture came in the early 1980s, focusing on films about maniacs harassing female targets ¨ ¨The reception of such films represented one of the most prominent controversies provoked by Hollywood output of the late-20th century ¨ ¨These films fell into two categories: teen slasher films for and about young people, and women-in-danger films for and about older adults ¨ ¨The charges levelled at both groups of films were quite similar however, resulting in them being routinely conflated with one another ¨ ¨Advanced by journalists, and then later by academics, condemnation of these films originated in feminist activist circles of the late 1970s ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ eyes_of_a_stranger.jpg lipstick.jpg he_knows_youre_alone.jpg visiting_hours.jpg fan.jpg windows.jpg when_a_stranger_calls.jpg seduction.jpg night_school.jpg ¨The most prominent controversy over women-in-danger films was directed at the big-budget, glossy thriller Dressed to Kill (1980) ¨ ¨It is perhaps best summarized by Lyons as part of the 1980s Culture Wars ¨ ¨ ¨What does Lyons suggest were the ¨main concerns of the feminists ¨protesting Dressed to Kill and others? ¨ ¨ dressed to kill flier violence not sexy.jpg ¨Feminist activists saw films like DTK as masculinist call-to-arms promoting violent suppression of female autonomy ¨ ¨They felt these films trivialized violence-against-women, as Hollywood had a long history of misogyny (Haskell) ¨ ¨They felt the films commodified violence-against-women, by seeking to profit from their violent misogyny (Haskell) ¨ ¨They felt the films sexualized violence-against-women, as part of a broader blurring of porno and violence (Williams) ¨ ¨And they felt the films promoted violence-against-women, as the FBI framed serial murder as “femicide” (Jenkins) ¨ ¨ Second Wave Feminism.jpg ted-bundy-pic.jpg fay wrey.jpg ¨In 1976, these discourses converged in a very public way around cinema, due to controversies about film marketing ¨ ¨That year, two films were marketed in ways that overtly implicated the media industries in violence against women ¨ ¨1. A female distributor mis-marketed Snuff as featuring filmmakers actually murdering an actress on the screen ¨ ¨2. Paramount promoted its glossy revenge thriller Lipstick was as a film about a photographer raping a model ¨ ¨They aligned media industries to sadistic misogynists, not their female targets, without folks needing to see the films ¨ ¨ 1. lipstick.jpg snuff.jpg ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨What assumptions underpin the feminists denunciation of Dressed to Kill? ¨ ¨ dressed to kill flier violence not sexy.jpg ¨Such conditions made feminist outrage understandable, but as critical analysts we should note it also hinged on several dubious assumptions: ¨ ¨1. About the Film’s Intended and Actual Audiences: ¨ That the films were primarily made for and then consumed by men ¨ ¨2. About the Characters With Whom Male Viewers Sympathized ¨That men were hostile, rather than sympathetic, to the female targets ¨ ¨3. About How Male Viewers Evaluated the Conduct of the Killer ¨That men rooted for the killers, rather than being outraged by them ¨ ¨4. About the Agenda of the Films’ Makers ¨That the films promoted rather than condemned the violence therein ¨ ¨ ¨An exception was the critic and scholar Robin Wood, who argued this film critiqued misogyny ¨ ¨He argued it invited identification with women, by depicting its female characters sympathetically ¨ ¨He argued it condemned a misogynistic culture, wherein the killer was an extreme manifestation ¨ ¨Regardless, Wood upheld the received wisdom that this trend as a whole was deeply misogynistic ¨ ¨He did this by casting EOAS as the exception that made the rule. The question is: was it really? ¨ eyes_stranger2.jpg eyes-of-a-stranger-1981-awesome-killing-a-slash-above_std_original.jpg eyes4sq7.jpg ¨ ¨ ¨1. How does this film depict women? ¨ ¨2. How does it depict men? ¨ ¨3. Is this movie misogynistic? ¨ ¨ dressed-to-kill-movie-poster12.jpg ¨Focusing on women’s emotions, frustrations, and fears, the film marks them as identification figures ¨ ¨By contrast, it casts men as bullish, violent, and untrustworthy; misogyny as a pervasive problem ¨ ¨It does suggest hope may exist for males albeit in the next generation, as represented by Kate’s son ¨ ¨It even uses this character to position filmmaking as a way of countering violence-against-women ¨ ¨The final scenes even suggest only the insane could sadistically enjoy male-on-female violence Dressed-to-Kill-1980-UK-BD_03.png dressed-to-kill-1980-dennis-franz-keith-gordon-pic-3.jpg dtk.png dtk 2.jpg ¨Hollywood’s women-in-danger films fitted into broader industrial and cultural patterns of making films about gender relations in the 1980s ¨ ¨While other films did not provoke activist protests, they were also seen to exemplify and advance the right-wing Backlash culture of the decade ¨ ¨Such positions echoed those progressives levelled at the women-in-danger films: of putting women firmly back in their (domestic) place ¨ ¨As they were entwined with women-in-danger films, we should also focus on these non-horror films better to understand Backlash Culture ¨ ¨Such films may also have been more nuanced in their depictions of the sexes; more sensitive to women, and critical of men than we may think ¨ ¨ ¨1. How does this film depict women? ¨ ¨2. How does it depict men? ¨ ¨3. Is this movie misogynistic? ¨ ¨ ¨Some feminists saw Tootsie exemplifying backlash culture, arguing it posited there was no role men could not fill ¨ ¨Yet, this is perhaps a superficial understanding of a film that offers a more progressive stance on misogynistic culture ¨ ¨It literally places a man in a women’s shoes; he learns of the challenges women face in their private and professional lives ¨ ¨He (and the mixed-sex audience) are invited to consider how women must endure discrimination, infantilization, and abuse ¨ ¨Setting this story in the media industry producing the film itself highlighted Hollywood sexism on and behind the screen ¨The notion of Backlash Cinema as a topical women’s cinema therefore reflects industry trends of the period ¨ ¨Hollywood courted women audiences with films about their interpersonal, emotional, and professional lives ¨ ¨These films usually assumed viewers who were familiar with feminism, so pictured men as a problem to women ¨ ¨In such films, Hollywood often sought to brand itself as pro-feminist by featuring heroines as media workers ¨ ¨This approach also updated the longstanding practice of aiming adult-centered horror and thrillers at women … ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ way_we_were.jpg china_syndrome_ver2.jpg rosemarys_baby.jpg shining_ver1.jpg ring_ver3.jpg ¨American cinema of the 1980s is said to be a masculinist cinema that reacted against second-wave feminism and self-determining women ¨ ¨This position suggested output often promoted traditional gender roles, by demonizing independent women and celebrating hypermasculinity ¨ ¨This purported “backlash” was said to manifest across a series of films that engaged with the supposed consequences of feminist politics ¨ ¨Women-in-danger films were seen as an extreme manifestation thereof, due to trivializing, sexualizing, and promoting male-on-female violence ¨ ¨But such films can be seen to critique misogyny, commodifying the very female-oriented concerns spotlighted by the feminists themselves ¨We will reconsider Hollywood’s most sustained engagement with geopolitics of the 1980s … ¨ ¨Topic 2: Cold War Cinema ¨ ¨Reading: Prince “Brave Homelands & Evil Empires” ¨ ¨Home Screenings: Rocky IV (1985) ¨ Russkies (1987) ¨ ¨[Preparatory Questions on MS TEAMS and in the Syllabus] ¨ ¨Meeting: Thursday 03 October ¨