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From Peter Pan to Hannibal Lecter : The various faces of masculinity in popular cinema. GREGORY, Dianne. Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19726/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19726/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. FROM PETER PAN TO HANNIBAL LECTER. THE VARIOUS FACES OF MASCULINITY IN POPULAR CINEMA. DIANNE GREGORY A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Master of Philosophy. September 1997 ProQuest Number: 10697028 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10697028 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT The object of this enquiry is to investigate how mass appeal within a popular media is possible given the cultural diversity of modem society. My hypothesis is that as well as differences between ethnographic groups there is probably similarities. As patriarchy is an aspect of our culture that crosses class, racial and religious boundaries I intend to investigate the possibility that patriarchy can provide a common understanding of pleasure that can temporarily exscribe other potentially divisive issues. Therefore I will examine how a particular mass media form addresses a masculine subject position. The investigation will take the form of a textual analysis of six films that have already achieved U.K box-office success. Film has been selected because it requires a relatively large commitment on the part of the audiences, i.e. travelling to a cinema and paying an entrance fee which could concievably militate against mass appeal. Also most producers of popular film are engaged in a capitalist enterprise, the circumstances of which require the attraction of a mass audience. I have selected the three top grossing U.K box office hits of two consecutive years to ensure that I am examining those films that have proved to be popular rather than films I assume are aimed at a popular audience; to allow for a variety of films to be popular in any one year and to allow for year to year differences in the kind of films that achieve popularity. I am presenting a textual analysis because I am testing whether there is a common element in those films that have proven to be popular that addresses the needs of a masculine subject position. The work will be presented in five sections or chapters beginning with an elaboration of the theoretical basis of the hypothesis. The textual analysis will be divided into three sections; genre, stars and narrative as these three elements have been identified as reasons why individuals choose to visit the cinema. The final section will be the conclusion. From this research I aim to contribute to our understanding in three areas. Firstly our understanding of current hegemonic masculinity. Secondly I aim to gain a greater understanding of the concept of pleasure from an examination of how the medium of film is enjoyed. Finally I aim to extend our understanding of how mass appeal is possible in a diverse culture. CHAPTERS PAGE INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 PATRIARCHY AND POPULAR CULTURE ................................. 7 Multiple subjectivities.......................................................................................... 7 Negotiation, Relevance And Pleasure............................................................... 8 Hegemony And Masculinity............................................................................... 11 The Experience Of Hegemonic Masculinity................................................... 13 Conclusions........................................................................................................... 19 GENRE ............................................................................................................... 21 Action/Adventure................................................................................................ 23 Science Fiction...................................................................................................... 25 Film Noir................................................................................................................ 28 Detective/Thriller.................................................................................................. 32 Melodrama............................................................................................................ 35 Comedy................................................................................................................... 37 Children’s............................................................................................................... 39 In Conclusion........................................................................................................ 42 STARS.................................................................................................................. 44 Arnold Schwarzenegger................................................................................... 45 Kevin Costner............................................................. ......................................... 50 Mel Gibson............................................................................................................ 52 Micheal Douglas................................................................................................... 55 Robin Williams..................................................................................................... 58 Jodi Foster.............................................................................................................. 61 In Conclusion........................................................................................................ 64 NARRATIVE ................................................................................................... 66 Complicit Masculinity? Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.......................................................................... 67 Some trouble with maintaining a masculine identity. Lethal Weapon 3 and Basic Instinct................................................................ 76 The Wrongs And Wrongs Of Masculinity. Hook and The Silence Of The Lambs................................................................................ 87 In Conclusion........................................................................................................ 94 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 96 FOOTNOTES....................................................................................................... 102 FILMOGRAPHY................................................................................................. 105 FIGURES BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES INTRODUCTION In this dissertation I will be examining how mass appeal is possible in the field of cultural commodities given the cultural diversity of modem industrial society. The work done by Hall & Morley ( 1980 ) on encoding and decoding draws attention to the issue of cultural diversity by showing that any media message can be decoded in a variety of ways according to the situational ideology of the reader. This suggests that mass appeal is possible partly because the reader can take the message and use it in ways not necessarily intended by the encoder. Does the possible polysemy of the media message mean that the media producer need not consciously try to appeal to popular tastes because whatever is produced will be interpreted in the way that is most useful to the reader ? ( I am not suggesting that Hall’s work is supporting such a statement). Hall points out that the polysemy of the message is not unlimited. The patterns of selective perception exhibit significant clusterings around particular ethnographic groups. In some situations it is possible for the producer of a media message to acknowledge the increased fragmentation of the potential audience and address particular demographic sections.(l) I am interested in those situations where the achievement of mass appeal across diverse ethnographic groups becomes an economic imperative and consequently cultural diversity would appear to be a barrier to the goal of the media producer. What I am suggesting is that any cross section of the population will not only exhibit differences but also similarities. By addressing one such similarity in the time it takes to consume a cultural commodity any problems in addressing