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The Rebel Hero and Social Anxieties in Selected Cinematic Representations of the Twenty-First Century Hollywood Dystopian and Science Fiction Imaginary

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The Rebel Hero and Social Anxieties in Selected Cinematic Representations of the Twenty-First Century Hollywood Dystopian and Science Fiction Imaginary The Rebel Hero and Social Anxieties in Selected Cinematic Representations of the Twenty-first Century Hollywood Dystopian and Science Fiction Imaginary Samiksha Laltha Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (English Studies), in the Graduate Programme in the School of Arts at the University of KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. November 2017 Supervisor: Professor Cheryl Stobie Declaration I, Samiksha Laltha, declare that: 1. The research reported in this thesis, except where otherwise indicated, is my original research. 2. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. 3. This thesis does not contain other persons’ data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. 4. This thesis does not contain other persons’ writing, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: a. Their words have been re-written but the general information attributed to them has been referenced. b. Where their exact words have been used, the writing has been placed inside quotation marks or shown as an indented quotation, and referenced. 5. This thesis does not contain texts, graphics, or tables copied and pasted from the Internet, unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed in the thesis and in the references sections. ____________________ Student Name ____________________ Student Signature ____________________ Date ____________________ Name of Supervisor ____________________ Signature ___________________ Date I Acknowledgments My heartfelt appreciation to my supervisor, Professor Cheryl Stobie. Thank you for your time, expertise and profound insights. It has been an honour to be under your supervision over the past years. I am eternally grateful for all the skills that you have imparted to me. I would also like to acknowledge and express my gratitude to Professor M.Z. Malaba for his unfailing support and encouragement. My deepest appreciation to my beloved parents; thank you for nurturing my dreams and aspirations. To my mother, thank you for your prayers, guidance and encouragement in all my academic efforts. To my father, thank you for supporting my ambitions, and never failing to provide me with the necessary tools required to get the job done. All praises to The Mother for bestowing me with the strength and ability to achieve my heart’s desires. To my paternal and maternal grandparents, thank you for your immense and profound love. A special thank you to my brother, Milesh, for the technical assistance and constant supply of inspiration. Finally, to Mr and Mrs Pillay, thank you for being my guiding light. The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF. II Table of Contents Page Declaration…………………………………………………………………………………….I Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………………II Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………….…..III-V Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………...VI 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..1 1.1 Preliminary Considerations...............................................................................…...1 1.2 Methodology………………………………………………………………………5 1.3 The Literary Origins of Utopia………………………………………………….....7 1.4 The Literary Origins of Science Fiction….............................................................14 1.5 Science Fiction from a South African Perspective………………………….…....16 1.6 The Relationship between Utopia and Science Fiction………………………......18 1.7 Aims of the Thesis and the Approach of Reading against the Grain…….............23 1.8 Science Fiction Film………………………………………..…………………….24 1.9 Special Effects (SFX) and Visual Effects (VFX) in Film………………….....….33 1.10 The Utopian Film………………………………………………………….…....34 1.11 Heroism………………………………………………………………………....39 1.12 Trauma Studies and Blackness through the Lens of Hollywood…………….....43 1.13 Acknowledging Pervious Research……………………………………………..49 1.14 Summary of Chapters……………………………………………………..…….49 1.15 Conclusion…………………………………………………………….......…….52 2. Chapter One: Equilibrium (2002): Emotions, Elixir and Extremism……………...….53 2.1 Introduction…………………………………………………..……………….….53 2.2 Setting of the Film and Berlin (Nazi Germany)……………………………….....54 2.3 Preston and the Action Sequence of the Gun Katas………………..…….………56 2.4 The Cinematic Relationship between The Matrix and Equilibrium………..….…58 2.5 The Mona Lisa as a Representation of History, Memory and Trauma…………..59 2.6 The Perpetuation of Propaganda………………………………………………....62 2.7 The Cinematic use of Metafiction in Equilibrium……………………......………63 III 2.8 Partridge and Intertextuality (W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot)………………..……….64 2.9 Partnerships and Race in Equilibrium………………………………………….....70 2.10 The Elixir 2.11 Prozium…………………………………………………………71 2.11 Character Formation and the Anti-hero………………………………………….74 2.12 War and the Anxiety of Trauma……………………………………………...….75 2.13 The Female Protagonist as a Catalyst for the Emergence of the Rebel Hero……78 2.14 The Stripping Away of the Illusion through Dreaming……………………….…79 2.15 The Rebel Hero, Remembering, Beethoven’s Music and the Puppy………….....80 2.16 Questioning the Authority………………………………………………….……83 2.17 Phallogocentrism and the Father-Son Dynamic………………………………....85 2.18 Evocation of the Nazi Regime and Trauma…………………………………..….88 2.19 Equilibrium, film noir, neo noir and the Rebel Hero…………………………...89 2.20 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………93 3. Chapter Two: “The island awaits you”: Iconoclasm, Illusion and Identity in Michael Bay’s The Island (2005)…………………………………………………………………......97 3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………....97 3.2 The Compound and Foucault’s Notion of “Biopower”………………......………98 3.3 The Revelation and the Illusory Eutopia…………………..……………………100 3.4 The Infantile State and Oppression…………………………..…………………101 3.5 The Introduction of the First Rebel Hero…………………………………….....102 3.6 The Social Anxiety of Pain and the Emergence of the Rebel Hero………….....105 3.7 Capitalism and Cloning………………………………………………………….108 3.8 The Moth, Metamorphosis and the Rebel Hero..............................................…...112 3.9 The Dream Sequence as Trauma for the Rebel Hero……………………..…….114 3.10 The Camera Techniques of Dream-Mode and Reverse On-screen Motion…...116 3.11 The Social Anxiety of Biotechnology (Human Genetic Engineering)………...118 3.12 The First Rebel Hero as the Iconoclast………………………………………..121 3.13 Technology, the Garden of Eden and the Creation of a Living God………..…122 3.14 The Figure of the Clone (Doppelganger) in Science Fiction Film…………….125 3.15 The Rebel Hero and Anxieties about Organ Trafficking............................…...127 3.16 Trauma, Slavery and the Second Rebel Hero……………………………….….129 IV 3.17 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..134 4. Chapter Three: Paternal Presence, Murder and Memory in Phillip Noyce’s The Giver (2014)…………………………………………………………………………………….....138 4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………......138 4.2 The Opening of the Film and the Introduction of the Rebel Hero……………...139 4.3 The Ceremony for Advancement, Spectacle and Tyranny…………..………….141 4.4 The Giver, his Rebellion and Progressive Paternalism………………………....144 4.5 Trauma through Memory, and Digital Film…………………………………......147 4.6 The Rebellion of the Hero, the Gifted, and the Necessity of Memory……………149 4.7 Gabriel and the Father-son Relationship, and the Notion of the Gift…..……….154 4.8 Monochromatic Technique in Colour Film and Selective Colorisation……..….158 4.9 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….…...161 5. Chapter Four: The Female Rebel Hero, Anxieties, Aliens and the Android in Prometheus (2012)………………………………………………………………………….164 5.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………..……164 5.2 The Opening of the Film, the Significance of the Film’s Title and Microcinematography ……………………………………………………………...167 5.3 Trauma and the Rebel Hero……………………….………………….….………170 5.4 The Rebel Hero as Father’s Daughter………………………………………...….171 5.5 The Unnatural Creation of Life, Science and Technology……………………….173 5.6 The Anxiety Embodied by the Android……………………………………….....174 5.7 Feminism, the Pregnant Mother and the Anxiety of Disease….............................180 5.8 The Rebel Hero and Mythology………………………………………………....185 5.9 The Alien Anxiety: The Trilobite as the Phallic Mother………………………....187 5.10 The Female Gaze………………………………………………………………191 5.11 Evolutionary Theory, Religion and Science in the Science Fiction Text….……193 5.12 The End of the Narrative………………………………………….....................196 5.14 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..…197 6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….200 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………….206 V Abstract This thesis focuses on the rebel hero located within four twenty-first century Hollywood films. These films are Equilibrium (2002, dir. Kurt Wimmer), The Island (2005, dir. Michael Bay), The Giver (2014, dir. Phillip Noyce) and Ridley Scott’s science fiction film Prometheus (2012). Drawing from a cultural studies perspective, this analysis focuses on heroism through rebellion, by discussing the psychological journey of the hero within each film text. The first three films focus on the male rebel hero. By contrast, Scott’s film offers an analysis of the female hero (and female alien) through my employment of a feminist lens. More broadly, this thesis explores
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