Dominant Tendencies of 80S Hollywood Revisited Thirty Years

Back to the Future independent, personal cinema, itself a reflection of the rarely making that same list. It is not that personal films prior decade’s counterculture. The triumph of Hollywood have ceased to be exhibited on the theatrical circuit (or on blockbusters, such as Jaws (1975) and Star Wars (1977), in one of the many other platforms that now exist); rather, the the 1970s and of political conservatism and neoliberalism, divide has grown between blockbusters and other films. embodied in US Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton, in These oftentimes special effect, action movies, including the 1980s and 1990s, increasingly erased the personal for such franchises as Transformers and The Avengers, know- the corporate and rewrote history in the name of patriar- ingly for comic effect reiterate patriarchal images but also chal capitalism. Nevertheless, while these films as well as more insistently, perniciously, promote an acceptance of others, such as Rocky (1976), Grease (1978) and Moonraker the view that we are in the last stage of development and (1979), enjoyed during the late 1970s the highest worldwide that no cultural alternatives exist. box office returns,Taxi Driver (1976), Annie Hall (1977), Ironically, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have Coming Home (1978) and The Deer Hunter/Dawn of the Dead not merely aged out but have become, in effect, servants (1979) at least appeared among the top rankings. By 1985, of this new world order that they “birthed” into creation. however, Back to the Future led the box office, and oppo- Thus, where, for example, Spielberg through his earlier sitional films had all but disappeared from that ranking. films had mythologized American cultural concerns in Indeed, Back to the Future underscored the ascension of a his overt fantasies, such as Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of film culture in the service of an increasingly conservative the Third Kind (1977), and ET (1982), today he simplifies politics. In response to its fleeting depiction of a movie history through his supposedly “personal” films, such as marquee for Cattle Queen of Montana, a 1954 movie in Lincoln (2012) and Bridge of Spies (2015), thereby enter- which B-actor Ronald Reagan had appeared as an under- taining his audiences even as he recreates and freezes cover federal agent, and the its history. Likewise, George expression of disbelief by its Doc Lucas conceived of and directed Brown (Christopher Lloyd) that The films of Reaganite America in 1977 the first “episode” in Reagan had been elected pres- the Star Wars franchise (and, ident in 1985, Reagan happily surely seemed at the time the not incidentally, obtained the acknowledged these knowing, “emptiest” given the historical merchandising rights for that congratulatory references. In franchise) and later directed the context of his 1986 State of context in which they appeared, several other episodes of the the Union Address in which he namely the recent passing of 1970s franchise, namely the first presented to Congress a budget trilogy of films,Phantom Menace Dominant Tendencies of 80s Hollywood that emphasized tax cuts and independent, personal cinema, itself (1999), The Attack of the Clones increased military spending, a reflection of the prior decade’s (2002), and Revenge of the Sith Revisited Thirty Years Later he famously quoted Back to the (2005). In 2013, however, he Future, “Where we’re going, counterculture. sold his property rights (along we don’t need roads.”2 If Marty with other properties, such McFly (Michael J. Fox) could as the Indiana Jones franchise by Robert Alpert male “master-tendency,” the “‘coming to manhood’ of the remake history by intervening for which Spielberg had often future father,” and the assignment of women to the “only in the sexually defining moment of his parents’ lives so acted as director) to the Walt Disney Company for over possible roles … Mother and Wife.” The other three char- as to reestablish the potency of his father, then Reagan $4 billion. The director of such global, commercially obin Wood in the first issue ofCineAction! percep- acteristics—“nuclear anxiety”, “the construction of the could reassure his audience by announcing a free-market successful, but impersonal movies, as Star Trek (2009), tively defined the ideology of 1980s Hollywood spectator as child,” and “getting laid/getting slayed”—are economy without government regulation, resulting in a Mission: Impossible III (2006), and Star Trek Into Darkness Rfilms by his observation that the small group of no less sexually based, though less obviously. For example, robust corporate world without restraints. (2013), J. J. Abrams, not Lucas, thereupon directed the films that had received extensive publicity but had failed Woods notes that “getting laid/getting slayed” describes The sad ending to this tale of cultural appropria- latest episode in the franchise, The Force Awakens (2015). commercially, such as Heaven’s Gate (1980), Raging Bull the low-budget, exploitation films reflective of “capital- tion by political conservatism is that just as Marty McFly This event movie, often compared to Gone with the Wind (1980), Blow Out (1981), King of Comedy (1982), and Blade ism’s systematic commodification of sex” whereby teens successfully intervened, saving his father from both emas- (1939) with its pre-sold audience, readily broke worldwide Runner (1982), “deny their audiences the easy satisfactions are “punished for having sex” and women are “punished culation and a lower middle class future, so, too, Reaganite revenue records with Lucas playing no part and instead of reassurance and the restoration of the ‘good old values’ for being [liberated] women.” Led by the films of Spielberg America has increasingly secured a world without roads, comparing The Disney Company to “white slavers” who of patriarchal capitalism.”1 Each characteristic in his list and Lucas with their mainstream narratives that embrace both enveloping within its ideology nearly all other coun- had purchased his children (sic) and complaining that the describing mainstream Hollywood films of the 1980s is capitalism’s definitions of masculinity and of the nuclear tries and making that world efficient for corporations— film was too “retro”. As many critics have noted, however, gender-focused and reinforces that dominant ideology of family, Wood, not surprisingly, concludes that “Reaganite or corporate “persons”.3 Thirty years ago, lower budget, Abrams’ commercial success resulted from his resuscitation patriarchal capitalism, though from different perspectives America” “is proving to be the most impoverished, the personal movies, such as those of Martin Scorsese, Woody of the nostalgic story telling of Lucas’s original Star Wars: that “are really inseparable, all interacting.” Three of these most cynical, the most reactionary, the emptiest, in the Allen and George Romero, trailed the big budget movies A New Hope. Lucas had envisioned his film as a nostalgic characteristics—“the resurrection of the father,” “the entire history of Hollywood.” of US directors George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and their evocation of his own childhood love of movies, with its Oedipal trajectory” and the “expulsion of the mother [and] The films of Reaganite America surely seemed at progeny; today worldwide grosses for Hollywood films fleeting references to Flash Gordon, Laurel and Hardy, the subordination of the wife”—directly identify the sexual the time the “emptiest” given the historical context in are largely derived from non-US markets, and impersonal Hepburn and Tracy, The Searchers, and The Triumph of the basis for the values espoused in these films, namely the which they appeared, namely the recent passing of 1970s franchises repeatedly top the list with personal productions Will. The Disney Company, through Abrams, embalms 6 cineaction cineaction 7 Star Wars: The Force Awakens RoboCop 2014 that mythologizing of childhood, a mythologizing once cultural mythologies. Contemporary global capitalism removed insofar as Abrams himself was only 11 when with its primary focus upon developing new markets and Lucas released his original. In fact, Star Wars: The Force financial returns is necessarily less concerned with gender Awakens is a thinly disguised remake of Star Wars: A New differences, except to the extent that such differences may Hope. Both begin with the plot device of documents hidden further its profit. The death of the father and the much worldwide revenue that far surpassed the original (though which Murphy/RoboCop bemoans how OCP will “fix” the in a drone and the introduction of the story’s hero, Luke remarked upon elevation of female and black characters to with a far larger budget). The primary villains in the orig- severely wounded Lewis, since “they fix everything,” the Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in the original and Rey (Daisy central roles in The Force Awakens by its neoliberal director inal RoboCop (one of whom is humorously named “Dick” superhero RoboCop of 2014 informs Dr. Norton that he’s Ridley) in The Force Awakens, living on a deserted planet underscore that shift. It is not that patriarchal capitalism Jones) successfully kill Bob Morton, the competitive “ready”, accepting his mechanical body as the steel doors and unaware of his/her destiny, and end with the destruc- has disappeared but rather that it has become embedded but inept corporate creator of RoboCop, while the “old close upon the image of a reunited family. In contrast to tion by the rebels of the death star in the original and by within an increasingly

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