Neoliberalism with a Human Face? Critical Perspectives on Hollywood
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY NEOLIBERALISM WITH A HUMAN FACE? CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON HOLLYWOOD SCIENCE FICTION STEPHEN TRINDER A dissertation in fulfilment of the requirements of Anglia Ruskin University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Submitted: April 2018 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my wife Hyunjoo, as well as all of my family and close friends for the moral support and encouragement they have given me throughout the course of my studies. Also thank you to Professor Guido Rings and Dr. Tanya Horeck for pointing me in the right direction throughout and constantly providing beneficial advice and constructive feedback. i ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ARTS, LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ABSTRACT NEOLIBERALISM WITH A HUMAN FACE? CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON HOLLYWOOD SCIENCE FICTION STEPHEN TRINDER April 2018 This paper explores the contemporary portrayal of US neoliberalism in Hollywood science fiction cinema to investigate in how far and in which form it addresses an increasing loss of confidence in the system. Analysing James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 (2009) and Elysium (2013), Len Wiseman’s Total Recall (2012) and the Wachowskis’ and Tykwer’s Cloud Atlas (2012) as prime examples of movies that encapsulate science fiction’s continued focus on neoliberal stakeholders, this thesis examines motifs in each feature film vis-à-vis their relationship to evidence of discernible self-doubt in the idea that US-led neoliberalism is superior. By combining critical discourse (Foucault 1966, 1969, 1978, 1980) with literary analyses of postcolonial (Said 1978, Shohat and Stam 1994, Hardt and Negri 2000, Kapur and Wagner 2013) and cinematic (Cornea 2007, Geraghty 2009, Ryan and Lenos 2012) works, this investigation explores these films as cases that may genuinely destabilise neoliberalism. Each of the five selected films demonstrate a certain unease with the notion that neoliberalism can achieve global stability to varying degrees – suggesting a re- evaluation of the parameters of US neoliberal identity. However, while neoliberal failings are considered in these hugely successful sci-fi films, each example simultaneously endorses key aspects of (neo)colonialism and neoliberalism. There remains a general propensity to promote US neoliberal values of individualism and rationality as superior contrary to stereotypical portrayals of the Other as feminine, irrational and inferior. Key words: neoliberalism, discourse, postcolonialism, Hollywood cinema, Hollywood science fiction. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………...………………………………….……………(i) Abstract……………………………………...………………………………..…………....(ii) List of Figures..…..…….………………………..…………….…………………...………(vi) Copyright Declaration…………………………………………………………………….(vii) Introduction ……………………………………...…..............................................................1 1. Neoliberalism and Contemporary Hollywood Science Fiction 1.1 Preliminary Remarks…………………………………………………………………..…10 1.2 Neoliberalism in a Colonial Milieu.……………….………..……………………………19 1.3 Neoliberalism in a Postcolonial Context…………………………………………………28 1.4 Neoliberal Patterns in Hollywood Science Fiction.…………………………………...…39 1.5 Neoliberal Continuities in Hollywood Science Fiction………………..…………………53 2. James Cameron’s Avatar 2.1 Preliminary Remarks……………………………………………………………..………65 2.2 A Critical Interrogation of Corporate Militarism in Avatar……………...………………67 2.3 Restoring a Loss of Faith in Neoliberal Identity?…...…………………………………...75 2.4 Neoliberal Continuities in Avatar...……………………………...……………………….80 2.5 Concluding Remarks……………………………………………….………………….…90 iii 3. Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 3.1 Preliminary Remarks…………………………………………………………………..…97 3.2 Revenge Fantasy in District 9?………………………………………………………....101 3.3 Spatial Boundaries in a Neoliberal Context……………….…………………………....108 3.4 Locating the Other ……………………………………………………………………...116 3.5 Concluding Remarks……………………………………………………………..……..120 4. Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium 4.1 Preliminary Remarks……………………………………………………………………128 4.2 Spatial Delineation in Elysium?……….…….……………………………………….…132 4.3 Neoliberalism with a Human Face in Elysium?.....……..………………………....……142 4.4 Max Da Costa and Neoliberal Continuities?………………………………....…………145 4.5 Concluding Remarks……………………………………………………………………154 5. The Wachowskis’ and Tykwer’s Cloud Atlas 5.1 Preliminary Remarks……………………………………………………….…………...161 5.2 A Liberal World in Cloud Atlas?…….…………… …………………………..……….165 5.3 Hae-joo Chang as a Figure of Anti-neoliberalism?…..……………………………...…175 5.4 Colonial Mentalities in Cloud Atlas……………………..……………...………………179 5.5 Concluding Remarks……………………………………………………………………186 iv 6. Len Wiseman’s Total Recall 6.1 Preliminary Remarks…………………………………………….…………...…………193 6.2 Fantasies of Resistance?………………………………………………...…………..…197 6.3 (Left-)Liberalism in Total Recall?…………………..……………….…………………204 6.4 Neoliberal Continuities? Revisiting ‘the Colony’….…………………………………..208 6.5 Concluding Remarks……………………………………………………………………217 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….……………224 Bibliography.…………………………………………………………...……………..……239 v List of Figures 1.4.1: Grey-green screen tinting in The Matrix…………...…………………………………..46 1.4.2: Fantasy escape in The Island………………………………………………..………….48 1.4.3: Natural harmony versus urban decay in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes……..………52 1.5.1: Signified blackness in the Predator monster…………………………………………..59 1.5.2: Implied Otherness in Prometheus’ ‘Engineers’…………………………………….….62 2.2.1: Selfridge sitting reflectively in his office chair…………………………………….…..71 2.4.1: Sully’s demi-god status confirmed among the Na’vi…………………………………..83 2.4.2: The Omaticaya tribe acknowledge Sully’s superiority……………………………..…86 3.2.1: Comparison of bio-lab scene in District 9 with Abu Ghraib………………..……….106 3.3.1: Shot of a border dividing the District 9 slum from Johannesburg……………..…….109 3.4.1: Nigerian gangsters practicing witchcraft…………………………………….……….117 4.2.1: Spatial binary between Earth and the Elysian habitat………………………..……….133 4.2.2: Wide shot of Max’s dilapidated house……………………………………….……….140 4.4.1: Da Costa and Kruger fighting in the Elysium core……………………………..……..152 5.2.1: Comparison between Papa Song’s and McDonald’s restaurants…………………..…172 5.3.1: Shot of Chang blowing up the Unanimity ship………………………………..………178 5.4.1: Cloud Atlas’s slave plantations on the Chatham Islands………..…………………….181 6.2.1: The final fight scene in Total Recall…………………………………………………201 6.4.1: Establishing shot of the Colony from behind Quaid………………………….……….210 6.4.2: Orientalisation of the ‘Rekall’ brand………………………………………………….211 vi Copyright Declaration I declare that this work is my own and that the material contained herein has not been substantially used in any other submission for an academic award. This work may (i) be made available for consultation within the University Library or (ii) be lent to other libraries for the purpose of consultation or (iii) may be photocopied for such purposes. Signed: Dated: 30 April 2018 vii NEOLIBERALISM WITH A HUMAN FACE? CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON HOLLYWOOD SCIENCE FICTION Introduction The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism across the former Soviet Union were widely regarded as important events that led to a decisive victory for US neoliberalism as a global socio-economic ideal.1 According to a popular neoliberal narrative (see Wilson 2002, Varoufakis 2018), an ongoing, decades-long struggle between US-led democratic capitalism and authoritarian socialism ended in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall. However, despite such claims of victory (see Fukuyama 1992), which have been allegorised in popular films like Besson’s The Fifth Element (1997),2 Zemeckis’ Cast Away (2000) (see Weaver-Hightower 2006, 2007, Rings 2011) and Padilha’s Robocop (2014), a number of events – most notably the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the global recession of 2008 – have served to severely contest popular assumptions that US neoliberalism is a superior socio- economic model. Concerning the Iraq War in particular, Doran writes that: A decade after the 9/11 attack that launched the War on Terror and the subsequent Iraq invasion that fundamentally changed the course of US history, there is still a shortage of creditable explanations…what has resulted is a decade of soul-searching, and a deep divide between left and right, progressive and conservative (2012: 3f.).3 Drawing upon linkages between these two events, like much of postcolonial literature, this study proposes that the term ‘neoliberal’ is as much a cultural phenomenon as it is an 1 See Fukuyama (1992), Bartolovich and Lazarus (2002) and Mishra (2014). 2 See Hurley (2008). 3 Petras comments that the Iraq War has ‘depleted the [US] economy, deprived American corporations of oil wealth, and reduced the living standards of US citizens’ (2014: 54) – not to mention ruined the political reputation of former president George W. Bush. In addition to a distrust of political elites challenging the notion of US hegemonic domination, Birch and Mykhnenko claim that on top of this, the 2008 financial crisis once and for all ‘exposed fault lines in the neoliberal economic order that has been dominant for three decades’ (2014: 1); further supposing that the event has laid bare the ‘conceit at the heart of neoliberal thought’ (ibid.: 3). The combination of these two epoch-defining events and the effect that its resulting governmental policies have had on the general public has been seized upon by opportunistic right-wing political parties across the world, culminating in the election of Donald Trump as US president.