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s < i y ;-t Heroes on the Home Front: Heroism and Virtue in Post-9/11 American Cinema Joy Poliquin, Interdisciplinary MA in Popular Culture Department of Communications, Popular Culture and Film Submitted in partial fulfdment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Popular Culture Faculty of Social Sciences, Brock University © Joy Poliquin, October 2007 Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: A Review of Related Literature 9 Chapter Two: The Male US Film Hero as American Surrogate 25 Chapter Three: Re-sculpting the Heroic Image 37 Chapter Four: Reclaiming the Past: Hollywood Revisits Past Wars 46 Chapter Five: Justified Revenge - The Renegade Warrior 91 Conclusion: You're Either With Us or Against Us 131 Filmography 148 Bibliography 152 Appendix A: September 20, 2001 Address to a Joint Session of Congress 164 Appendix B: January 29, 2002 State of the Union Address 172 Appendix C: September 14, 2001 National Day of Prayer Speech... 181 Poliquin ii Abstract This thesis is intended to contribute to critical discussion of the American male hero in mainstream American war and action films post September 11, 2001 . The thesis investigates how these heroes' behaviour echoes a patriotic, conservative construction of the modern American as created through speeches given by George W. Bush in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001 . The thesis examines the hero in six primary sources: the war films We Were Soldiers, Behind Enemy Lines and The Great Raid and the action films Collateral Damage, Man on Fire and The Punisher. By analyzing the ideological subtext, political content, visual strategies and generic implications of the films, as well as the binary constructions of a selection of Bush speeches, and by reviewing historical representations of American male heroes on film produced in the wake of political events, the thesis concludes that the six films mobilize the USA's conservative viewpoint towards war and military action, and in concert with the speeches, contribute to an ongoing militarization of visual culture. Both systems echo a dangerous ideological fantasy of American history, life and patriotism. Poliquin iii Acknowledgem ents A huge thank you to my thesis advisor, Dr. Darrell Varga, for his time and for his patience as I slowly chipped away on this project, and especially for staying on as my advisor after moving on from Brock University. Thank you to my parents for their support and encouragement, to Claire and John for their interest, and to my husband Matthew who put up with me through three years of insanity and weekends in front of the computer. 1 Poliquin 1 Introduction Although six and a half years have passed since the Twin Towers fell in New th York, the events of the 1 of September 2001 ' remain at the forefront of the American consciousness. This is achieved in part through consistent news reports about the event itself, including retrospectives on American intelligence, government actions and new developments in the "war against terror". Print, radio and television news is also a constant reminder of the current war in Iraq as well as the presence of troops in Afghanistan. While these news sources maintain a level of public awareness about 11 September, the events of that morning in 200 1 are not limited to the public information sphere. The effects have saturated the artistic consciousness of America. A sample of cultural products related to the events of 1 1 September include a comic book called Heroes that was released in 2002 and focused on everyday citizens who participated in the relief effort; The Guys, a play about a fire chief who loses eight of his men in the tragedy that met with rave reviews when it premiered in New York a year after the event; and the film Ladder 49 (Dir. Jay Russell, 2004) starring John Travolta, which was released in 2004 as an homage to New York firefighters. While not directly addressing the events of 1 1 September 2001, the film clearly celebrated the sacrifices and passion of firefighters who live, work, and love in New York City. On the literary front, Lisa Beamer, wife of Flight 93 passenger Tom Beamer whose last known words "let's roll" have become immortalized in the lexicon of 11 1 Since the thesis investigates how cultural products distributed after the events of September 1 1 may act as a form of ideological propaganda, terms like "September 11," "9/1 1" and "War on Terror" will be replaced " with 1 1 September." This is done in an attempt to distance the paper from the propagandist^ use of the event. 1 Poliquin 2 September 2001, has published a book in memory of her husband, titled Let's Roll: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage. Neil Young released a song by the same title, which includes the words "no one has the answer but one thing is true, you got to turn on evil when it's coming after you... let's roll for freedom, let's roll for love, going after Satan on the wings of a dove, let's roll for justice, let's roll for truth, lets not let our children grow up fearful in their youth." Country musician Toby Keith wrote a less subtle tribute to the victims of 1 1 September 2001 with his song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)," with lines like "Hey Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list, and the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist, and the eagle will fly, and there's gonna be Hell, when you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell! Oh, Justice will be served and the battle will rage, this big dog will fight when you rattle his cage, you'll be sorry that you messed with the US of A 'Cuz we'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way." While the medium of expression differs, the messages in these mainstream media echo specific notions of right and wrong, and tend to associate the ideals of freedom, truth and justice with the USA. This is reflective of the surge of patriotism that swept the US in the weeks, months and years following the event. President Bush dealt specifically with 11 September in many of his 2001- and 2002 speeches, often highlighting the firefighters and police of New York City as heroes, and suggesting that the USA deserved to exact swift justice upon the perpetuators of the attacks. After his re-election in 2004, Bush continued to allude to the event as a qualifying motive for the USA's presence in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and the news media have been equally helpful in maintaining focus on the notion of the heroic, noble American. The actual players of 1 Poliquin 3 September have been immortalized as national heroes, but it is not enough to stop here in a cultural analysis of 1 1 September as the previously mentioned works can be categorized as a nation's way of mourning. What is potentially useful, however, is to examine the cultural narratives created or distributed in the wake of the tragedy, as well as the heroes featured in these narratives. Breaking down the behaviour of the hero, his treatment of other characters, as well as the ideological communities that house these heroes in post 11 September America will help to understand the USA's involvement in world politics as well as the country's perception of other nations. Creative narratives are abundant, however, so a specific form must be identified. Since film is a widely promoted and readily available medium of creative expression, it seems like a promising starting point when considering how the hero is constructed. More so than songs, television programs, news, theatre or print media, film offers entire hero narratives that are not fragmented by serial form. Further, the length of time and number of contributors involved in the development of a mainstream feature film results in more deliberately crafted product. Within film, it is possible to analyze the hero within a restricted environment, as well as to track the hero's narrative progression from an established start and end point. Within the wide selection of films released post 1 1 September 2006, 1 will direct attention towards films that feature male heroes, since the majority of heroes celebrated directly in relation to the events of that day have also been male. Male firefighters, policemen and plane passengers have all been highlighted for their American bravery, so it is fitting to direct critical attention towards the analysis of male heroes in film, and to understand how the women in these narratives are presented in relation to the male • Poliquin 4 heroes. In fact, the absence of major women characters in these films (or the appearance of "evil" women in narratives where women play a larger role) reveals much about the male characters and the larger American myth. In order to glean analysis from a variety of narratives, my interest therefore lies in investigating the representations of the American male hero by the mainstream Hollywood industry. My goal is to identify how the constructions of the heroic male reveal a militant American consciousness. My interest in examining this perspective has been fueled by observations made after the events of September 1 1 and during the lead-up to the US invasion of Iraq. During this time period the Hollywood film industry focused on two variations of the active male hero; first, with a return to the heroes of past wars in films like Behind Enemy Lines (Dir. John Moore, 2001), We Were Soldiers (Dir.