The Making of a Man in British Films How Masculinity is Constructed in the Editing Room Wieland Schwanebeck (TU Dresden)

Introduction often only comes together in the editing room, where the film finds its rhythm: n order to define what distinguishes think of the precisely choreographed Icinema as an art-form, one probably fight sequences in the films of Matthew thinks of the elementary techniques that Vaughn or Guy Ritchie, or the way in are at its disposal: the mobile camera which Danny Boyle will pace his scenes that records images, the combination according to the music he has chosen. of image and sound, and, of course, the cut, which arranges individual shots ut editing was not always the to build a sequence over time. Some Bundisputed essence of cinematic theorists go so far as to say that editing storytelling, particularly not in Great is the soul of cinema and that it is in the Britain, which for many years failed editing room that a film is truly created. to catch up with the international This means that the creative control of competition and thus earned a horrid the director should extend all the way reputation in the early 20th century. into the editing room. In fact, some of Critics would later quip that the British the most celebrated auteurs working in were genetically unable to produce great cinema today (like Alfonso Cuarón, a cinema, with François Truffaut going so multiple Oscar winner and one of today’s far as to say that the terms ‘cinema’ and most inventive mainstream directors) ‘Britain’ were incompatible, something edit their films themselves, while others that he blamed on stereotypical are known to collaborate extensively signifiers of Britishness like “the English with their editors. Either way, the countryside, the subdued way of life”, characteristic syntax of their story-telling and “the weather” (Truffaut 124). When

Page 32 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) Wieland Schwanebeck it came to exploring the possibilities of Michael Balcon later commented that the medium in the early decades of the early British filmmakers were “mentally 20th century, some British filmmakers ‘stagebound’” (qtd. in Ryall 69). in fact were content to record theatre performances and otherwise left it to the ot only British cinema has come Americans to conquer the British market. Nvery far since that time, and few people today would voice the idea that he British discussion surrounding editing destroys man (neither in the Tthe cinema and especially the universal nor in the gendered sense). benefits of editing was frequently Quite the contrary, the history of cinema dominated by high-minded intellectuals suggests that montage techniques have who felt blasé about what they saw as often contributed to the making of yet another Vaudeville attraction for the a man on screen – in fact, what is the labouring classes, and who thought that famous Kuleshov experiment if not anyone seeking a career in the world of the first successful demonstration that the Keystone cops and Mickey Mouse editing, rather than performance, is the was a sell-out, not an artist. The same most effective tool when it comes to intellectuals continued to compare displaying male emotion on screen? Lev cinema unfavourably to the theatre and Kuleshov, a contemporary of Eisenstein, were opposed to the very idea of editing. famously placed the same image of a Sergei Eisenstein, for one, remembers man looking straight ahead next to a that the first montage experiments series of other images (a plate of soup, came under fire for allegedly destroying a dead child, a beautiful woman), each the very idea of man by reducing him time asking his audience to rate the to a fragmented appearance. Looking actor’s performance. In each case, the back at the early days of filmmaking, audience confirmed that the actor had Eisenstein remembers that too many shown the appropriate reaction, and they filmmakers insisted on presenting man interpreted his blank expression as hunger, “only in long uncut dramatic scenes” mourning, and sexual desire, depending (59). In 1926, the year after Eisenstein’s on the respective context (fig. 1). groundbreaking filmBattleship Potemkin premiered in Moscow, English film critic n the basis of the Kuleshov Iris Barry took the nation’s filmmakers Oexperiment, filmmakers would to task over this issue, accusing them argue that editing (rather than the of “using the screen as though it were a performance itself) was the key to stage with exits left and right” (qtd. in conveying emotion and to triggering Barr 11); on a similar note, the producer audience responses. In a wider sense, editing, and montage sequences in

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The Kuleshov effect particular, are instrumental when it comes individual shots into a sequence), to constructing masculinity on screen. montage is more specifically a sequence that condenses a longer event into a What He Needs Is a Montage short time span, usually without words. It is a somewhat controversial technique, ne of the most well-known uses of because it runs the risk of alienating editing in narrative cinema is the O the viewer, deviating (as it does) from training or sports montage that occurs the rest of the film in terms of pacing in war and films, the sports and continuity. A montage amounts to film, or the adventure film. I am using cinema saying, “Look! I’m cinema!”, the term montage not synonymously and this contradicts the traditional with editing here, though this is done paradigm of Hollywood-style narrative in some textbook introductions to film editing, which tries to be as invisible studies. Unlike the very general concept and unobtrusive as possible in order to of editing (meaning the assembly of immerse the viewers in the story. Karel

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Reisz, one of the pioneers of the British least in mainstream genre films. After New Wave and the director of films like all, the sports training derives much of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning its pleasure from an extended look at (1960) and The French Lieutenant’s aestheticized male torsos. Laura Mulvey Woman (1981), strongly warns against famously wrote about the ‘male gaze’ montage in his own introduction to film that is at work in classic Hollywood editing. He argues that montage disrupts filmmaking, and its essential set-up the cinematic “harmony of form and is potentially threatened when a male content” by drawing attention to itself (rather than a female) body is objectified, (Reisz & Millar 122). But this has not which means that the training montage stopped montage from becoming a constantly has to work (in the most popular staple in male-dominated film literal sense of the word) against the stain genres that rely on a certain notion of effeminacy. It does so by subjecting of muscular, monolithic masculinity. the protagonist(s) to hard labour and suffering. As sweating male bodies are uch montages depict the customary seen to endure all kinds of exertion and, Sbuild-up of masculinity, as the hero in some cases, outright martyrdom, the prepares for the climactic battle and viewer gets to witness how isolated (and, gets into shape, often to the sound of in some cases, disenfranchised) men an emotionally charged, rousing theme are transformed into resilient fighting tune. Rocky (1976), Sylvester Stallone’s machines and outright alpha-males. The quintessential underdog tale, was an montage frequently plays out as a non- important film in that respect, providing verbal event that both fragments the a template that genre films (not just body (so that the viewers do not indulge Rocky’s very own sequels, all of which in too much uninterrupted gazing feature increasingly iconic and campy at particular anatomic details) and, training montages) would continue to paradoxically, makes it whole at the same riff on for years. Montage sequences in time. This is because montage is always the tradition of Rocky are used to restore more than just the sum of its parts and or even produce a particular type conveys an overall impression to the of normative masculinity within the viewers, even if this means manipulating confines of narrative cinema, speeding them. To quote a famous example, the up a strenuous, time-consuming process. audience is convinced that they see Janet Moreover, they draw attention to the Leigh’s body be mutilated in the shower spectacular sight of the muscular male montage in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho body while at the same time having (1960) but in fact, the knife only touches to keep homoerotic subtexts at bay, at the body for a split second. In the case of

Page 35 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) The Making of a Man in British Films the training montage, they come away (Skyfall, 2012), and it is also an integral thinking that they have witnessed the part of the ‘male underdog’ comedy, hard work necessary to build masculinity which is brimming with intersectional up from scratch, even though they have and culture-specific themes. The Full actually only been shown a small excerpt Monty (1997) is a case in point: a hit from the actual training regime with a comedy about six unemployed men from few token beads of sweat. It is also worth Sheffield who decide to put on a striptease stressing that the use of montage in the show, the film has its protagonists try to context of ‘making men’ highlights that come to terms with self-consciousness, masculinity is not naturally given but homophobia, and male anxiety in the must be achieved by way of a strenuous face of what Mulvey calls “to-be-looked- labour process, one that cinema continues at-ness” (62), usually thought of as a to accelerate and manipulate at will. female anxiety. The Full Monty’s training montages dedicate as much time to t might be because of British cinema’s dancing as to male-bonding rites like Ibelated discovery of the cut that playing football or tussling, and it is training montages do not feature as much to the film’s credit that it does not often as in American genre cinema, but succumb to homophobic bouts of ‘gay this does not mean they are completely panic’ in these scenes but pokes gentle absent from it. The training montage fun at them. In one training scene, the

The Full Monty © Fox Searchlight Pictures/20th Century Fox has a place in the James Bond universe guys calm down their male angst by when 007 has to be resurrected from the pretending that they are merely acting out dead and struggles to regain his stamina “the Arsenal offside trap” on stage, which

Page 36 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) Wieland Schwanebeck makes it okay to “wave our arms around A Celebration of Group Strength: The like a fairy” and to perform their carefully Wild Geese choreographed dance moves (fig. 2) ylvester Stallones’s Rocky franchise atirical uses of the training montage Shad heralded the return of the sports Shave been around for much longer film in the United States; his subsequent than this, of course. In Woody Allen’s Rambo franchise, on the other hand, satirical comedies of the early 1970s, popularised ‘men on a mission’ narratives like Bananas (1971) or Love and Death in the United States again in a series (1974), frail anti-heroes fail at military of films that attempted to address the training, particularly when it comes to Vietnam trauma. Mercenary films of this handling phallic weapons – the gun falls sort had already returned to European apart, and the sabre gets stuck in the cinemas with a string of hits in the sheath. Mel Brooks’s Robin Hood spoof spirit of The Dirty Dozen (1967). British (Robin Hood: Men in Tights, 1993) has producer , who specialised in the protagonist call out to his merry men these, would cast renowned, aging British to “grab [their] uniform and equipment actors who had proven their box-office and prepare for the training sequence”, credentials in the previous decades, and while Team America: World Police (2004), send them on various suicide missions all a send-up of the mercenary film made by over the globe. The most well-known and the creators of South Park, features a song successful of these was , an called “Montage” that directly comments African-set adventure starring Richard on the protagonist’s predicament: “The Burton, , and Roger hours approaching to give it your best, Moore. The history of British ‘courage / And you’ve got to reach your prime. under fire’ pictures certainly does not / That’s when you need to put yourself start with The Wild Geese – nostalgic to the test / And show us a passage of tales of British military excellence were time. / We’re gonna need a montage!” extremely popular during World War II and afterwards; look no further than n order to demonstrate how the The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Itraining montage not only constructs or The Guns of Navarone (1961). Yet masculinity but also contributes to the The Wild Geese was instrumental in masculinisation of formulaic movie updating the format for the hard-boiled narratives, I would like to discuss 1980s, merging its tropes with the The Wild Geese (1978), one of the trademark vigilantism and body-count most iconic British mercenary films. that would attract a younger audience.

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he Wild Geese sees a group of retired speechifying (delivered by one of the TBritish soldiers recruited for one final great Shakespearean actors of the 20th mission, in order to extract an African century), as Faulkner settles the score politician from prison in the fictional with his corrupt employer: “I had a speech country of Zembala. The Geese’s ultra- prepared for you. I’ve been rehearsing it masculine Colonel Faulkner (played by for three months, it was pretty good, as with trademark gravelly a matter of fact. All about the betrayals machismo) leads them into what looks of dead friends, kind of a passionate like an easy job, but the group is betrayed requiem. And naturally, what a filthy and by their employer, a shady banker, with cold-blooded monster you are, et cetera, the result that only a handful of them et cetera. That part was very eloquent. survive. Though often dismissed for its It even went into the philosophical (neo-)colonial politics and its borderline- implications of the relationships fascist disregard for human life, the between a mercenary and his employer. mercenary film is at the same time You would have been impressed. But characterised by a pronounced scepticism right now, face to face with you, I don’t regarding ideology and traditional really want to go through all that”. master narratives of political thought, and The Wild Geese is no exception. he film’s politics are similarly This is why the growing disillusionment Tambiguous: a surface appeal for a of the co-exists with their communal spirit that even overcomes nostalgic yearning for the ‘good old days’ segregation is rather on-the-nose and of fighting for an allegedly justified cause at the same time is undercut by the and British camaraderie. Most mercenary mercenaries’ careless disposal of faceless films emblematise this attitude in a African soldiers. The protagonists are in customary ‘Band of Brothers’ moment in it for the money, their code of honour is the spirit of Henry V’s St. Crispin’s Day revealed to be obsolete, and their failed speech, with the team leader urging his heroism turns The Wild Geese into a men to exhibit courage when the odds kind of mournful of the post- appear to be stacked against them.1 In colonial era; one that laments the ‘loss The Wild Geese, such a moment occurs of a continent’ instead of celebrating halfway through the film when Faulkner the ‘birth of a nation’ (Ritzer 85- promises to take care of the “fifty good 88). Fittingly, the film was directed men” whose “lives are my responsibility”, by Andrew V. McLaglen, a British- but his final speech is much more born director who had specialised in disillusioned and cynical. Effectively, it Westerns starring James Stewart or is a monologue that rejects the idea of John Wayne throughout the 1960s.

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aving dedicated the first section to Sergeant Major towers. The fact that he Hthe recruitment of the soldiers, the spits abuse at them and even fires a shot film employs a training montage in order next to the head of an exhausted soldier to evoke the idea of group strength and who claims to be “dead” tired is a crucial to prepare the viewer for a radical shift difference to other genre films: the scene, in tone, merging the idea of masculine set to a march composed by resilience with some final moments and edited by (who would of comic relief. Unlike more generic later direct five James Bond films), examples of the training montage, this is neither wordless nor without wit, one does not assemble material from which means it willingly runs the risk different exercises; it merely summarises of undercutting its surface celebration one unit of endurance training. The of male bravado and its hard-as-nails, sequence contains 39 shots in 119 seconds ‘no mercy’ rhetoric with moments of (Ø shot length: 3.1 seconds), constantly irony that look ahead to more playful, alternating between slowing-down and tongue-in-cheek uses of the trope, which speeding-up (to emulate the task of the is a particular virtue of British cinema. soldiers, who jog and spring around the courtyard), and cutting back and forth his quality was notably absent from between large-scale ensemble shots, TRocky, where the montage sequences medium close-ups of the film’s main did everything they could to camouflage players hitting dirt and getting up again, male anxiety and to hold effeminacy and two rather comic micro episodes that at bay. Unlike Rocky’s disarming what- single out two soldiers who have run out you-see-is-what-you-get gender politics, of steam (fig. 3). This interplay between The Wild Geese plays with duplicity and orchestrated shots of the group on the deceptive appearances. This applies to one hand and individualised episodes the team’s ruthless employer as much of suffering and recovery on the other as it does to some of the soldiers. The not only highlights the varying degrees unforgiving Sergeant Major tends to of fitness among the group, it is also his rose bushes; the trademark debonair indicative of The Wild Geese at large, as the quality of ’s performance film zooms in on the fates of about half as Fynn hides a sadistic streak; and even a dozen men among its 50-strong army, the film’s most homophobic caricature sketching out their reasons for going to of effeminacy, Kenneth Griffith’s medic Africa and whether or not they make Arthur Witty (a telling name if ever there it back home. Repeatedly, the montage was one), is subsequently revealed to be a adopts the point of view of individual skilled combatant. While the Hollywood soldiers above whom Jack Watson’s fierce Production Code ruled out the presence

Page 39 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) The Making of a Man in British Films of gay soldiers in traditional war films, combat film’s typical “repressed

The Wild Geese The Wild Geese features a gay character homosexual tension” (Sikov 65). This who not only takes pride in his sexuality, does not make The Wild Geese a very but who is also given the privilege of progressive film – it arguably remains quick repartee. This is another marked rather problematic in its depiction of race contrast to the traditional and completely relations and never fully cuts ties with non-verbal training montages, because the genre’s trademark nostalgic yearning it puts the virtue of eloquence on par for military glory – but it demonstrates with other skills that are emblematised that montage can exceed the dominant by the soldiers. As Witty manages to notion of masculinity. Like a lot of genre turn the Sergeant Major’s homophobic films – and one might consider some of taunt (“You screaming faggot, move it the examples that I have briefly alluded before I sew up your arsehole!”) into to in this text, including the James Bond a double entendre (“The Lord in His series and the British working-class infinite wisdom would never ordain comedy –, The Wild Geese looks back that!”), he not only wins the argument to retrograde notions of masculinity in but also queers the clichéd scenario and order to navigate male anxieties. In the effectively puts the ‘Camp’ into ‘training film’s coda, Faulkner approaches the camp’, releasing some of the Hollywood young son of his late comrade, Janders

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(Richard Harris), presumably to present Rekurrenz von ‘Minigenres’ am Beispiel him with a narration of his father’s des Söldnerfilms.”montage AV 23.1, 81- heroic deeds, which underlines the 99. instrumental role that story-telling plays in the reproduction of male stereotypes. Ryall, Tom (1996). Alfred Hitchcock and It is worth stressing, however, that the the British Cinema. London: Athlone. constructedness of this endeavour is very Sikov, Ed (1994). Study Guide for much highlighted by montage scenes, American Cinema. New York et al.: and that even a film as problematic and, McGraw-Hill. to an extent, reactionary as The Wild Geese does some tentative steps towards Truffaut, François (1985).Hitchcock . pluralising the idea of masculinity. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Works Cited Endnotes

Barr, Charles (1997). “Before 1 It is no coincidence that Laurence Blackmail: Silent British Cinema.” Olivier’s adaptation of the play (Henry V, The British Cinema Book. Ed. Robert 1944) was an instrumental film during Murphy. London: BFI Publishing, the Second World War – incidentally, 5-16. he films Henry’s big two-minute speech without a cut, thus maybe confirming Eisenstein, Sergei (1977). Film Form: the old stereotype about the theatre Essays in Film Theory.Ed. Jay Leyda. mentality of Britain’s leading directors. San Diego et al.: Harcourt Brace.

Mulvey, Laura (2012). “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” The Gender and Media Reader. Ed. Mary Celeste Kearney. London; New York: Routledge, 59-66.

Reisz, Karel, and Gavin Millar (1988). The Technique of Film Editing.London; Boston: Focal Press.

Ritzer, Ivo (2014). “Ein entbehrliches Genre? Aspekte der medienkulturellen

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