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MASCULINITY AND THE MIDLIFE CRISIS IN AMERICAN CINEMA A Thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Arts In Cinema Studies by Andrew Warren Clark San Francisco, California Summer 2018 Copyright by Andrew Warren Clark 2018 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read Masculinity and the Midlife Crisis in American Cinema by Andrew Warren Clark, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in Cinema Studies at San Francisco State University. RL Rutsky Associate Professor of Cinema MASCULINITY AND THE MIDLIFE CRISIS IN AMERICAN CINEMA Andrew Warren Clark San Francisco, California 2018 The term Midlife Crisis, coined by psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques in 1965, is typically attributed to white middleclass men who have reached a critical impasse, a point at which they believe their lives have passed them by. This condition generally reflects middleclass anxieties associated with work, money and marriage, three things that have grown to define white American men in the 20th century. Along with the feminist movement and the more reactionary men’s movement, there is an obvious clash of ideals that creates a conflict that contributes to the Midlife Crisis. American cinema engages with this critical impasse, and whether it passively addresses it with humor, or engages with it more intimately, these films are nevertheless a response to these rigid societal institutions. In this paper, I explore how these issues are addressed in film. From Cassavetes’ Husbands (1970) to Bill Murray’s various incarnations, the cinematic representation of Midlife Crises has become increasingly common, questioning, if not rejecting standard heteronormative institutions altogether. I certify that the Abstract is a correct representation of the content of this Thesis l ___________ 7 /2^//^ Chair, Thesis Committee Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I’d like to thank the San Francisco State Cinema department who provided a firm foundation of knowledge and support, as well as a wealth of opportunities for education and growth. This project would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of my committee, particularly my Thesis Chair, RL Rutsky. I want to thank my cohort who welcomed me into their arms, challenged me academically and gave me the home away from home I didn’t know I needed. Lastly, I want to thank my partner Danielle Macdonald whose loving support in the midst of my own Midlife Crisis encouraged me to see this project through to its completion. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction............................................................................................................................... 1 The Midlife Crisis and its Suburban Roots............................................................................. 9 Tales of Suburban Madness: Midlife Crisis and the Suburban Asylum.............................13 The Long Way Home.............................................................................................................. 18 Reflections on Masculinity in the Late 20th Century..........................................................27 Subjugated Masculinity: A Return to the Fam ily............................................................... 30 Bad Dads and Broken Homes: The Next Generation of Crises......................................... 34 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................. 40 Bibliography.......................................................................................................................... 44 vi FIGURES 1. Figure 1 ...............................................................................................................6 2. Figure 2 ................................................................................................................ 15 3. Figure 3 ................................................................................................................20 4. Figure 4 ................................................................................................................ 22 5. Figure 5................................................................................................................ 35 6. Figure 6 .................................................................................................................39 7. Figure 7 .................................................................................................................44 viii Introduction The Midlife Crisis is arguably one of the most well known psychological conditions in American culture. It speaks to a period of restlessness often experienced at middle age, a restlessness that often leads to youthful regressions and transgressions. Elliott Jaques is the first to coin the phrase, and it wasn’t until his groundbreaking article “Death and the Midlife Crisis,” published in 1965, that the condition received critical attention. Jaques’ article gives weight and definition to this period at midlife, dissecting the mechanisms that inspire it. The individual has stopped growing up and begun to grow old. A new set of external circumstances has to be met. The first phase of adult life has been lived. Family and occupation have become established... parents have grown old, and children are at the threshold of adulthood. Youth and childhood are past and gone, and demand to be mourned... The paradox is that of entering the prime of life, the stage of fulfillment, but at the same time the prime and fulfillment are dated (Jaques: 506). In short, Jaques is speaking of a psychological impasse, a moment where an adult reaches a particular crest in life where the most monumental and influential achievements are behind them. For Jaques, youth and all of its exuberance, trials, successes and failures, 2 rest on one side of the fence. On the other side lie the hard truths of lost dreams that coincide with the realities of aging and death. Though Jaques chose to study artists, the more extreme examples of this condition, his findings provided definition to a psychological condition affecting modern every day citizens. The Midlife Crisis enters into the cultural lexicon because of Jaques, but without the technological innovations of the 20th Century, there would simply be no time or energy to have a Midlife Crisis. Walter Pitkin, author of Life Begins at Forty, observes that the modern innovations of the industrial revolution simplified hard labor and extended the lives of both men and women. Pitkin extolls the virtues of machine labor and a thirty- hour workweek where, “men and women alike turn from the ancient task of making a living to the strange new task of living” (Pitkin, 7). With machines carrying the burdens of labor for men and women alike, naturally lifespans increased. Pamela Druckerman notes: By the time Elliott Jaques published “Death and the Midlife Crisis” in 1965, the average life expectancy in Western countries had climbed to about 70. It made sense to change your life in your 30s or 40s because you could expect to live long enough to enjoy your new career or your new spouse. (Druckerman: 2018) The luxury of time and energy enables this experimentation that Druckerman speaks of, and there’s no doubt that it’s because of this that the Midlife Crisis is exclusive to more 3 Westernized, affluent cultures. Without time - and money - there’s no energy or outlet for the trivial luxuries of the Midlife Crisis. Jaques never expected how much influence his article would have. Jaques’ research inspired Gail Sheehy’s groundbreaking book “Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life”. Published in 1977, Sheehy picks up where Jaques left off pealing back the layers of defining moments of adulthood. When investigating the Midlife Crisis in regards to the American Male, the sociological and cultural developments following World War II are an important departure point. It reflects a growing dilemma of discontented white American men returning from war. This shift from the battlefield to the suburbs inspires a flurry of literature, most notably Sloan Wilson’s “The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit” in 1955 and Richard Yates’ “Revolutionary Road” in 1961, both exploring ideas around conformity in the 1950s and the discontented male. For John Updike’s Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, the titular character in his five part Rabbit series, this discontent breeds restlessness, excess and infidelity, demonstrating many of the hallmarks of what grow to define the modern-day Midlife Crisis. More than anything, the Midlife Crisis points to a crisis of the American family. It destabilizes these normative institutions and jeopardizes the traditional American values that become such a large part of the American narrative following World War II. Unstable families plant the seeds for the decay of the traditional American family where absent fathers, broken homes and dual-income families leave a generation without guidance. What starts as male discontent splinters and manifests into the existential 4 malaise of Generation X and Y. I only touch on the Quarter-Life Crisis briefly relating how the Midlife Crisis as a cultural moment has had a significant impact in shaping the way a new generation relates with the world. This next generation of Crises is wide open for investigation and includes a myriad of angles for exploration like gender, race

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