THE MYTH OF THE BLACK MALE BEAST IN POSTCLASSICAL AMERICAN CINEMA: ‘FORGING’ STEREOYTPES AND DISCOVERING BLACK MASCULINITIES BY MARTIN LUTHER PATRICK A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham For the degree of M.Phil Department of American and Canadian Studies The University of Birmingham September 2009 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Full name (surname first): Patrick, Martin Luther School/Department: Historical Studies/American and Canadian Studies Full title of thesis/dissertation: The myth of the Black male beast in postclassical American Cinema: ‘Forging’ stereotypes and discovering Black masculinities Degree: M.Phil. Date of submission: September 2009 Date of award of degree : December 2009 Abstract : The thesis examines how postclassical American film invent s Black male characters. It uses Levi-St rauss and B arthes’ methods of analyzing myth and critiques heg emonic authorship throug h Jung ’s work on archetypes in the collective unconscious and the ‘shadow’. Using Othello as a prototype character, I examine how he became an archetype that manifests two perceptions of B lack characters in the collective unconscious. I define one as Othellophobia; a threat to the White supremacist Eg o that imag ines re/enslavement by Islamic/B lacks and enslavement by African/Americans. I define the other as Othellophilia; whereby the Black character is inscribed throug h a humanist perception of Othello and the racial equality of B lack men whose racial heritag e and religion is respected. Four films: Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, 1971, A Soldier’s Story, 1984, Brother to Brother, 2004 and Collateral 2004, are studied and critiqued to contests the myth of the ‘Savage Mind’, ‘Savage Body’, the ‘Object of Desire’, and the ‘Clash of Wills’. Through the additional application of B lack sexual politics and B lack cultural theory I consider how B lack progressive masculinities, Black gay identity politics and Afrocentric ‘ways of being ’ are currently determining multifarious B lack masculinities and reclaiming the Black mind and body in postclassical film. Dedication As a boy, without the words and wisdom from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I might have been brainwashed by white America. Dr. King has been my life long inspiration This is dedicated to Daisy Brown the most loving Lady in my life D.W. Leach, for the love I thought I’d never know: 1974-1994 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Sherry Burton. You are so wonderful to me, I truly appreciate all the things you are. Gurmukh my Godson, you’ve stuck by me all the way through this, thanks guy. You know my joys and pain and I love you… God bless your wife and sons. To Mark Bunkle, Class of 1997. A constant friend- thanks for everything Bunky To Raymond Prior. Fantastic is the word that belongs to you because you are as smart as you are wise. Johnn Deen: Fourteen years of friendship means the world to me- thank for everything. To my supervisor, Dr Michele Aaron, thank you for everything. To Dr Helen Laville. Thank you for your help and consideration, especially in 2007 when I was burgled and had the Thesis stolen and had to start all over again. To the staff in Arts and Media at Buckinghamshire New University that have wished me well and supported my research: Dr Drawmer and Dr Tedman To Rashad Mohamed. Thank you for coming to my aide at the close of this journey. I am so lucky to have found you because you are super! Hackney Central Library for the texts on gender, race and class and audio facilities. Special thanks to the most helpful and supportive staff I’ve met in national library services. I am especially pleased to say Hackney library is my local. The myth of the Black male beast in post-classical American Cinema: ‘Forging stereotypes and Discovering Black masculinities‘ Title Page Dedication Acknowledgements Content Listings List of Illustrations Introduction: Claude Lévi-Strauss 1 Roland Barthes 6 Othellophobia 9 Carl Jung 11 Joel Kovel 13 The Four Films 16 Chapter One: Literature review 21 1.1 Film criticism 21 1.2 Black Sexual Politics 27 1.3 Historical Reading of Blackness 33 1.4 Construction of Othello 39 Chapter Two: Othellophobia and Othellophilia 42 2.1 What is Othellophobia? 44 2.2 What is Othellophilia? 55 2.3 Synchronic and Diachronic myth 60 2.4 How mythemes of the Black beast function in narrative drama 76 Chapter Three Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (Melvin Van Peebles, 1971, USA) 89 3.1 The Collective Unconscious and Hollywood’s Hegemonic Authorship 90 3.2 Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (Melvin Van Peebles, 1971, USA) Synopsis 102 3.3 Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song- critical concerns 103 3.4 The myth of the Black phallic body 112 Chapter Four A Soldier’s Story: The myth of the savage mind 149 4.1 A Soldier’s Story (Norman Jewison, 1984, USA) Synopsis 153 4.2 A Soldier’s Story Context 156 4.3 A Soldier’s Story- mythemes reconfigured 173 4.4 Overturning diachronic stories and synchronic themes 190 4.5 The myth of the Black male beast: The savage mind mytheme 206 Chapter Five: Brother to Brother: The myth of ‘Object of Desire’ 216 5.1 Brother to Brother (Rodney Evans, 2004, USA): Synopsis 219 5.2 Brother to Brother- Signs and meanings 221 5.3 Resisting heterosexist myth in cinema 229 5.4 The circularity of interracial desire 245 5.5 Unconscious desires in Brother to Brother 259 5.6 Black ‘Queer’ film politics 272 Chapter Six: Collateral (Michael Mann, 2002, USA) Overturning the four paradigms 280 6.1 Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004, USA) Synopsis 281 6.2 ‘The Clash of Wills’ 283 6.3 The dominant antihero in action cinema 289 6.4 The ‘Clash of Wills’ Civilisation vs. Savagery 301 6.5 ‘Black beast’ figure battles with the dominant White ‘heroic’ male figure 310 6.6 Hegemonic masculinity overturned 318 Conclusion 330 Bibliography 336 List of Illustrations Figure #1: Paris Match Black Soldier P06 Figure #2: King Kong (1933) P47 Figure #3: Poster from Othello (1995) in Race the Floating Signifier DVD P74 Figure #4: Othello (2007), DVD Globe Theatre P83 Figure #5: Othello (2007), DVD Globe Theatre P84 Figure #6: Othello (2007), DVD Globe Theatre P84 Figure #7: Othello (2007), DVD Globe Theatre P85 Figure #8: Othello (1981), DVD BBC TV P85 Figure #9: Jungian diagram - Anthony Stevens, 2001, p49 P90 Figure #10 Sweetback’s/Song DVD screenshot P103 Figure #11 Sweetback’s/Song DVD screenshot P104 Figure #12 Sweetback’s/Song DVD screenshot P105 Figure #13 Sweetback’s/Song DVD screenshot P121 Figure #14 Sweetback’s/Song DVD screenshot P122 Figure #15 Sweetback’s/Song DVD screenshot P122 Figure #16 Sweetback’s/Song DVD screenshot P123 Figure #17 Sweetback’s/Song DVD screenshot P123 Figure #18 Dreamboys 4 P128 Figure #19 Dreamboys 4 P128 Figure #20 Dreamboys 4 P128 Figure #21 Sweetback’s/Song DVD screenshot P130 Figure #22 Traffic (2001) DVD screenshot p132 Figure #23 Traffic (2001) DVD screenshot P132 List of Illustrations Figure #24 Traffic 2001 DVD screenshot P132 Figure #25 Traffic 2001 DVD screenshot P132 Figure #26 Baby Boy (2001) DVD screenshot P137 Figure #27 Carmen Jones (1954) DVD screenshot P139 Figure #28 Carmen Jones (1954) DVD screenshot P139 Figure #29 Carmen Jones (1954) DVD screenshot P139 Figure #30 Black Caesar (1973) DVD screenshot P141 Figure #31 Shaft in Africa (1973) DVD screenshot P141 Figure #32 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P160 Figure #33 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P160 Figure #34 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P160 Figure #35 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P161 Figure #36 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P161 Figure #37 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P161 Figure #38 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P162 Figure #39 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P162 Figure #40 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P162 Figure #41 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P163 Figure #42 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P177 Figure #43 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P178 Figure #44 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P178 Figure #45 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P178 Figure #46 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P179 List of Illustrations Figure #47 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P180 Figure #48 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P180 Figure #49 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P181 Figure #50 O.J. Simpson, football star 1978 P186 Figure #51 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P189 Figure #52 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P191 Figure #53 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot p192 Figure #54 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P192 Figure #55 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P193 Figure #56 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P195 Figure #57 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P197 Figure #58 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P197 Figure #59 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P198 Figure #60 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P199 Figure #61 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot P199 Figure #62 A Soldier’s Story (1984) DVD screenshot