Starving sons and hungry daughters: A Post-Jungian Analysis of Fatherhood in Contemporary Cinema Toby Nicholas Reynolds Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Art, Media and American Studies University of East Anglia January 2018 © This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. Abstract To date, the onscreen father is a relatively under-explored area of cinematic masculinities. Adding to the existing literature on this (e.g. Bruzzi 2005, Hamad 2014), the thesis seeks to explore and analyse the presence and importance of the filmic father. It approaches this by examining the concept of ‘father hunger’, a term popularised by the mytho-poetic men’s movement from the early 1990s that posits that fathers are considered a vital link to the masculine continuum. By using a post-Jungian methodology in analysing how two auteur directors (Sam Mendes and Paul Thomas Anderson) symbolically mediate onscreen representations of father figures and ‘father hunger’ within their films, the thesis offers a new perspective on this area of cinematic masculinities. Auteur film theory was chosen for the project as one of the functions of the auteur, as held by Staiger (2003), is to act as a conscious analyser of historical and cultural citations; in other words the auteur can present and analyse perspectives on gender, in this case, masculinities and fathers. The auteur also performs a stylistic and signatorial function which meshes with the symbolism analysed by the chosen methodology. By utilising a post-Jungian methodology as a different but equally fruitful psychological perspective, the concepts of archetypes and symbols, via close textual analysis of the films, are found to reveal the depths, complexities and nuances of Mendes and Anderson’s depictions of fathers and of masculinities. The thesis concludes that by virtue of Anderson and Mendes’ depictions of multi-faceted and polysemous father figures throughout their oeuvres, the auteur is shown to act not only as a conscious analyser, but also as a symbolic mediator of historical and cultural gender citations, in this case of masculinities and masculine identities. P a g e 2 | 278 _________________________________ Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 List of Figures 6 Acknowledgements 25 Introduction: Fathers and the masculine continuum 26 Gender, post-Jungian thought, and the auteur 27 Case studies, method and structure 32 ONE: The Realm of the Father: mapping the territory 38 Men, Film, and Culture 38 Fathers, Film, and Culture 41 Men, society, politics, and gender studies 44 Bly and the Mytho-Poetic Movement 44 Socio-political Men’s Studies 47 Social sciences and masculinity 48 Society and politics 49 Jungian and Post-Jungian Textual Landscapes 53 Jungian and post-Jungian approaches to cinema 57 Jung, post-Jungian, the masculine, and fathers 61 American Fathers and the Cultural Complex 63 Dreams , Fantasies and Film 63 The Filmic American Father 64 Auteurs and Authorship 66 P a g e 3 | 278 The emergence of the auteur 67 Auteur-structuralism and historical materialism 69 Post-structuralism: the functions of the auteur 71 TWO: The Rule of the Father: Ideas and methodology 74 Gender theory 74 Father hunger and the child 77 Continuing the masculine 81 Post-Jungian theory and cinema 83 Archetypes and other ideas 84 The importance of the image 87 Signs and symbols 91 Auteur theory 93 THREE: The Father and the Child Son: Beginning the Masculine Journey 103 Road to Perdition: The criminal father’s journey into light 106 Dangerous spaces, dark journeys 108 Water, death, spirit and the unconscious 117 Gunned down: the dangerous phallus 122 Magnolia and the exploitative father: What kids do know 125 American Beauty: Hidden desires of the dark father 130 There Will Be Blood: Black oil and a dark soul 134 FOUR: The Father and the Adult Son: Maturation of the Masculine 141 Surrogate fathers and the family 142 Boogie Nights: the father as pimp 146 The phallus on film 148 The father, sex, and the shadow 157 The shadow journey of Dirk Diggler 159 Keeping symbolic incest in the family 162 P a g e 4 | 278 Magnolia: the power and presence of the dying father 166 Hard Eight: Taking a gamble on the replacement father 175 FIVE: The Father and the Daughter: Daddy’s Girl(s) 180 Daughters and Paternal ‘Otherness’ 180 Daughters and the father’s body 183 The Erotic Paternal 187 Archetypes and the daughter 188 American Beauty: the anima and the inadequate paternal 192 Magnolia: Jimmy Gator: the unredeemed father 210 SIX: The Father and Society: The Paternal Cultural Complex 216 The cultural unconscious and the cultural complex 217 Initiation and the archetypes 222 Revolutionary Road: the trapped father 225 American Beauty: the rebellious father 233 Jarhead and The Master: subcultures and the father 239 Jarhead: Welcome to the suck 240 The Master: False fathers and rogue sons 246 SEVEN: Conclusion – The Future of the Father 251 Post-Jungian sensitivities 251 The Auteur 254 Away We Go: the balanced father? 255 Filmography 259 Bibliography 261 P a g e 5 | 278 List of Figures Introduction: Fathers and the masculine continuum Fig. 0.1 The seemingly benevolent patriarchal father figure of Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) in Anderson’s Boogie Nights (Lawrence Gordon Film Company/ Ghoulardi Film Company, 1997). 27 Fig. 0.2 In Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, despite being covered in oil (their livelihood), father (Daniel Day Lewis) and son (Dillon Freasier) share an intimate bond. (JoAnne Sellar Productions / Ghoulardi Film Company / Annapurna Pictures, 2007). 34 Fig. 0.3 Plainview’s shadowy inner psyche is clearly symbolically referenced in There Will Be Blood. (JoAnne Sellar Productions / Ghoulardi Film Company / Annapurna Pictures, 2007). 35 The Realm of the Father: Mapping the territory Fig 1.1 Upwardly mobile father (Will Smith) shares a tender moment with his son (Jaden Smith) in The Pursuit of Happyness (Relativity Media / Overbrook Entertainment / Escape Artists). 64 The Rule of the Father: Ideas and Methodologies Fig. 2.1 The father’s body (Kevin Spacey) becoming both masculinised and sexualised in Mendes’ American Beauty (Jinks/Cohen Company, 1999). 76 Fig. 2.2 The surrogate son’s (Mark Wahlberg) soon-to-be commodified flesh in Anderson’s Boogie Nights. (Lawrence Gordon Productions / Ghoulardi Film Company, 1997). 76 P a g e 6 | 278 List of Figures (Continued) Fig. 2.3 A number of archetypal themes (roses, nudity, water) collide to produce this dreamlike archetypal image from American Beauty involving Lester and Angela (Mena Suvari) (Jinks / Cohen Pictures, 1999). 89 Fig. 2.4 Not your average happy ending – American Beauty’s Lester Burnham and the end of his ‘stupid little life’ (Jinks / Cohen Company, 1999). 99 Fig. 2.5 The dying patriarch (Jason Robards) and the subverted deathbed scene in Magnolia (Ghoulardi Film Company / JoAnne Sellars Productions, 1999). 99 Fathers and the child son: Beginning the Masculine Journey Fig. 3.1 Michael Junior (Tyler Hoechlin) contemplating his life in Road to Perdition (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 109 Fig. 3.2 Michael Jnr returning to a safe domestic space in Road to Perdition (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 109 Fig. 3.3 The Sullivans at dinner, with the mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh), rather than the father (Tom Hanks) controlling this domestic space in Road to Perdition (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 110 Fig. 3.4 Road to Perdition’s Michael Jnr approaching his parents’ bedroom, an explicitly adult space (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 110 P a g e 7 | 278 List of Figures (Continued) Fig. 3.5 The first glimpse of the father’s symbolic power, via a gun, that catalyses Michael Jnr’s own masculine journey Road to Perdition (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 111 Fig. 3.6 Tensions begin to build in Road to Perdition…(The Zanuck Company, 2002). 112 Fig. 3.7 …until guns are drawn… (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 112 Fig. 3.8 …and Michael Jnr sees Connor (Daniel Craig) cold-bloodedly execute McGovern (Ciaran Hinds) (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 113 Fig. 3.9 In Road to Perdition, father and son begin to tentatively establish a bond in a safe space (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 114 Fig. 3.10 Surrogate father (Paul Newman) and son in church, about to confront unconscious and shadow aspects of their psyches within Road to Perdition (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 115 Fig. 3.11 In Road to Perdition both men are located beneath a symbolic space of redemption, replete with abandoned religious icons (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 115 Fig. 3.12 The bloodied and dying father at the end of Road to Perdition (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 116 Fig. 3.13 The son stands at a crossroads in Road to Perdition, about to become a killer himself (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 116 P a g e 8 | 278 List of Figures (Continued) Fig. 3.14 The father in Road to Perdition ensures that his son does not become like him (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 117 Figs. 3.15a & 3.15b - The coffin and ice – water standing in as symbols for spirit and mortality in Road to Perdition (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 118 Fig. 3.16 Innocent lives about to be taken – water again signifying death and spirit in Road to Perdition (The Zanuck Company, 2002). 119 Fig. 3.17 Towards the end of Road to Perdition, death is approaching for the dark patriarch after his gang is massacred (The Zanuck Company, 2002).