Ryerson University Digital Commons @ Ryerson Theses and dissertations 1-1-2012 the Remasculation Film: Themes and Variations Adam Patrick Miller Ryerson University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.ryerson.ca/dissertations Part of the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons Recommended Citation Miller, Adam Patrick, "the Remasculation Film: Themes and Variations" (2012). Theses and dissertations. Paper 1360. This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Ryerson. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Ryerson. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE REMASCULATION FILM: THEMES AND VARIATIONS by Adam Patrick Miller M.A. University of Windsor 2006 H.B.A. University of Toronto 2004 A Dissertation presented to York and Ryerson Universities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the program of Communication and Culture Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2012 © Adam Patrick Miller 2012 AUTHOR'S DECLARATION FOR ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF A DISSERTATION I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this dissertation. This is a true copy of the dissertation, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this dissertation to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this dissertation by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my dissertation may be made electronically available to the public. ii THE REMASCULATION FILM: THEMES AND VARIATIONS Doctor of Philosophy 2012 Adam Patrick Miller Communication and Culture: York and Ryerson Universities Abstract: During the late 1980s and early 1990s, a discourse of masculinity crisis precipitated the appearance of a number of what Susan Jeffords describes as “rearticulations of screen masculinity,” which influenced the production of a group films whose narrative diegeses reaffirmed the heteronormative, hypermasculine façade onscreen. These films are identified and defined in this dissertation as remasculation pictures, or narratives that showcase the hero’s oscillation between two oppositional expressions of screen masculinity. In the rhetoric of the remasculation film, the protagonist’s emasculation initiates a quest to remasculate by reaffirming the dominance and authority of the hypermasculine archetype. Further, in a few key performances (Red River [1948], The Searchers [1956], The Wings of Eagles [1957]), John Wayne exemplifies the ultra-conservative values, imposing physicality, staunch heterosexuality, and capability of this heteronormative, hypermasculine archetype. However, Wayne’s image has been employed only as an exemplification of this façade, since this project does not suggest that the remasculation hero’s victory marks iii his appropriation of Wayne’s masculinity, only the archetype with which many of his performances have been associated. The remasculation picture is part of a film cluster, and not a genre because films of this category are primarily linked by similarities in narrative structure and their glorification of this hypermasculine figure. Further, to illustrate some of the themes of the remasculation picture, this dissertation features three chapters that focus on as many distinct expressions of the remasculation formula. The first of these chapters draws on Unforgiven (1992) and Law Abiding Citizen (2010) to furnish a discussion of judicial emasculation and remasculatory vigilantism. The second case study chapter looks at remasculation through pugilism with an examination of Payback (1999) and Get Carter (2000), while the final section focuses only on The Company Men (2010) to illustrate emasculative redundancy and the reacquisition of purpose as the final variation discussed in this project. While films of the remasculation cluster glorify the hypermasculine image, one cannot assume that the filmmakers responsible for their production aim to either disseminate ultra-conservative values or impose them on the audience. Similarly, the relative popularity of remasculation films does not necessarily indicate the presence of an audience seeking narrative diegeses showcasing the reaffirming triumph of the hypermasculine man. The continued production of the remasculation picture signifies only the iv appearance of a trend in contemporary film that is attributable to the destabilization of the normative masculine image at the end of the twentieth century. v Acknowledgements I would like to thank Murray Pomerance for his patience with the gradual evolution of this project. By taking an interest in both my life and work, Murray helped me develop this topic from a very basic idea to what it has become. Dr. Lester Friedman, Dr. Irene Gammel, Dr. Maria Gurevich, and Dr. Paul Moore have also provided invaluable advice and extremely helpful feedback in this process, and I am indebted to each of them for their participation on my dissertation committee. In addition, I would also like to thank Jo Ann Mackie for her creative administrative help and steady guidance over these six years. I would also like to express my appreciation for the love and support of my family over the years; their patience, understanding, and interest in my topic has quite literally made this project possible. Specifically, I would like to thank my mother for reading, editing, and discussing almost every section of this manuscript, and my father for contributing so many innovative ideas that facilitated the development of this dissertation’s main argument. While they might both suggest that, “this is what parents are for,” I would argue that this kind of dedication is evidence of a much higher standard. Lastly, I owe a special thanks to Chelsea Leggat, who was there from the first version to the last and has tolerated innumerable sleepless nights and both the highs and lows vi of what has been a difficult, but enlightening process. I hope to one day repay your support as you pursue achievements that will likely dwarf my own. vii Table of Contents Abstract:…………………………………………………………………..….iii Acknowledgements……………………………………………...………...…vi Chapter 1: Introduction……...…………………...……………………….…..1 Chapter 2: Masculinity, Remasculation, and Film Performance.……….….….12 Chapter 3: Susan Jeffords and Beyond: Positioning the Remasculation Film...38 Chapter 4: Defining Hypo and Hypermasculinity……………………………61 Chapter 5: Situating the Remasculation Film ………………………...….…...85 Chapter 6: Judicial Emasculation and Remasculatory Vigilantism...….……...107 Chapter 7: Remasculation and the Hard-Bodied Hero.…………….….….....140 Chapter 8: Emasculative Redundancy and the Reacquisition of Purpose…...165 Chapter 9: The Significance of the Remasculation Film…………………….192 Filmography……………………………………………………….……….199 Works Cited…………………………………………………………..……207 viii Chapter One: Introduction In Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior (2011), Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton) slouches in the principal’s office at North Hills Senior High School just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Despite the large contused cheekbone and pronounced swelling around his eye, Conlon still manages a sheepish expression as Principal Zito reprimands him for the very incident that caused his injury. As a man in his late thirties, Conlon is not a student but the school’s physics teacher, and he has just been suspended for his participation in a mixed marshal arts tournament. With two young daughters, a wife, and a mortgage, Conlon’s job as a teacher cannot keep the bank from taking his home given the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008. As a result, he must revert to his pugilistic roots in order to supplement his income; humiliated by an insensitive loan officer at the bank in an earlier scene, Conlon maintains that bankruptcy is “not how he does things.” In a tender parallel scene, Conlon’s wife Tess (Jennifer Morrison) assures him that she would rather live in an affordable apartment than see her husband in the back of an ambulance, to which Conlon defiantly responds: “We’re not giving up our house. That’s our home. We’re not going backwards.” Though Conlon is disciplined in the principal’s office like one of his own students, this tattered hero appears neither humiliated nor disempowered, but instead quite the opposite. “You’re a god-damned teacher, you got no business in the ring with those animals,” Principal Zito exhorts. In 1 one moment, Conlon is transformed from a shamed child to a stern, confident- looking man, his expression and posture befitting his response: “Actually, I used to be one of those animals.” Despite his precarious financial situation, the impending loss of his job, and the concern of his family, Conlon has found power, authority, control and, most importantly, his masculine identity within a framework of pugilism. In a word, Conlon is remasculated in this scene. Since the genesis of Hollywood cinema, representations of masculinity onscreen have existed in a state of constant change. In his book Iron John: A Book About Men, author Robert Bly presents a history of masculine constructions in the United States and cites the 1950s as a nodal point in this evolution. According to Bly, the fifties male “got to work early, labored responsibly, supported his wife and children, and admired discipline… [H]e was supposed to like football,