IT'S ALL COMING BACK TO YOU: 1980s RETRO FILM CULTURE AND THE MASCULINITY OF CULT Ryan Collins Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2017 APPROVED: Harry Benshoff, Committee Chair Kevin Heffernan, Committee Member James Martin, Committee Member Eugene Martin, Chair of the Department of Media Arts David Holdeman, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Victor Prybutok, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Collins, Ryan. It's All Coming Back to You: 1980s Retro Film Culture and the Masculinity of Cult. Master of Arts (Media Industry and Critical Studies), August 2017, 130 pp., bibliography, 214 titles. The 1980s is a formative decade in American history. America sought to reestablish itself as a global power and to reassert the dominant ideology of white, patriarchal capitalism. Likewise, media producers in the 1980s sought to reassert the dominance of the white, male, muscled body in filmic representations. The identity politics of the 1980s and the depictions of the white, muscled body once prominent in the 1980s have been the site of conservative nostalgia for a young, male-dominated, cult audience that is a subset of a larger cultural trend known as retro film culture. This thesis provides historical context behind the populist 1980s B- action films from Cannon Group, Inc that celebrate violent masculinity in filmic representations with white, male action heroes. Equally important is the revival of VHS collecting and how this 1980s-inspired subculture reinforces white, patriarchal capitalism through the cult films they valorize and their capitalistic trading practices despite their claims of oppositionality against mainstream taste and Hollywood films. Lastly, this thesis reveals how a new cycle of contemporary films primarily produced outside of Hollywood reasserts and celebrates the dominance of the white, male, muscled body in filmic representations despite a postmodern and hyperconscious exterior. Overall, I argue how these areas of nostalgia are distinct, yet not unrelated, because they reassert white, patriarchal capitalism through the revival of conservative nostalgia for the 1980s. Copyright 2017 by Ryan Collins ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2. CANNON FILMS, B-MOVIES, AND HYPERMASCULINITY .........................22 CHAPTER 3. NEGOTIATING MASCULINITY IN VHS COLLECTING CULTURE .............57 CHAPTER 4. REPRESENTING MASCULINITY IN RETROSPLOITATION FILMS ............85 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION: 1980s NOSTALGIA AND BEYOND ......................................108 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................111 iii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In most academic essays or proposals, an author would introduce a deeply profound quote that briefly lays out the theme of the intended project. A VHS collector named “Putrid” in the VHS-themed documentary Adjust your Tracking (Kinem and Peretic 2013) provides a quote that initially sounds crass, however, it does exemplify concepts I want to explore. Surrounded by a wall of VHS tapes, Putrid expresses his boisterous feelings about the VHS format exclaiming “VHS has always been just like, fucking, my balls! That’s just manhood right there!” Despite this vulgarity, Putrid’s enthusiastic feelings about the VHS format presents an intriguing correlation between VHS collectors and the subcultural construction of masculinity in retro film cultures. My thesis builds on the research of previous scholars of subcultures and gender studies including Joan Hollows and Jacinda Read. Their research was drawn from the previous scholarly work done by Sarah Thorton, Angela McRobbie and Jenny Garber that analyzed the gendered construction of gendered language and values in subcultures (Mathijis and Sexton 108). The consensus drawn was that the term “subculture is given a masculine identity of adventurous, resistance, and heroism, and the mainstream is regarded as passive, homely, and feminine” (Mathijis and Sexton 109). In addition to the construction of masculinity in subcultures, Hollows wrote in the article “The Masculinity of Cult” that she “does not intend to suggest that cult movies constitute a ‘men’s genre’ nor that the films elected to cultdom are inherently masculine. Instead, my aim is to examine the fan practices that produce cult and the ways in which they privilege masculine 1 competencies and dispositions” (39). She further writes that “cult has been culturally constructed as masculine” which suggests that cult texts are not inherently masculine, but the reception of cult texts by specific audiences dictates their place in cultural discourse. The main argument that I am presenting in this thesis is that 1980s retro film subcultures that value their non-conformity and oppositionality against technological change and popular taste prioritize cult films (mainly horror and action films) that reflect the dominant ideologies of white, patriarchal capitalism that harkens back to the 1980s. 1980s “B” movies from Cannon Films, VHS collectors, and contemporary cult films that invoke the 1980s decade are examples of texts and subcultures driven by the ironic and genuine celebration of conservative nostalgia from the 1980s. Through the ironic and genuine celebration and reassertion of white, muscled action heroes, cult fans knowingly and unknowingly engage in conservative nostalgia that reasserts the identity politics of the 1980s to create a subcultural identity of adventurism, resistance, and heroism that seeks to oppose mainstream culture. Despite attempts to defy mainstream taste and content, cult fans are “largely middle-class and male, and their oppositionality often works to reaffirm rather than challenge bourgeois taste and masculine dispositions” (Jancovich, Defining Cult Movies 2). To discuss and explore the resurgence of 1980s retro film culture, there is a need to place retro film culture within the contextual framework of cult cinema and subcultures due to the viewership and the types of films that conflicts with mainstream viewership and taste. Additionally, the exploitative nature associated with some of the films are intertwined with nostalgia and a sense of pastness. Cult cinema is a difficult term to define, but for the purposes of this thesis, cult cinema will be defined as: 2 A kind of cinema identified by remarkably unusual audience receptions that stress the phenomenal component of the viewing experience, that upset traditional viewing strategies, that are situated at the margin of the mainstream, and that display reception tactics that have become a synonym for an attitude of minority resistance and niche celebration within mass culture. (Mathijs and Sexton 8) The act of researching cult cinema and subcultures are not always confined to the films or the subcultures themselves, rather it is their relationship to existing dominant ideologies (I.e. white, patriarchal capitalism). Retro film subcultures are occasionally theorized as fans and audiences who reject mainstream film culture (I.e. Hollywood) and consider themselves “alternative, oppositional, and authentic” (“Cult Fictions” 150), however, they are still situated in dominant ideologies in Western culture. Retro film subcultures are in continual hegemonic negotiation with dominant ideologies resulting in a unique subcultural identity. Mark Jancovich writes that: Indeed, subcultural ideologies are fundamental to fan cultures because without them fans cannot create the sense of distinction which separates themselves as ‘fans’ from what Fiske has rather tellingly referred to as ‘more normal’ popular audiences (Fiske, 1992). In other words, in fan cultures, to be a fan is to be interesting and different, not simply a ‘normal’ cultural consumer. (“Cult Fictions” 150) Although cult audiences may embrace a sense of belonging with people in their subculture because of their niche tastes, Othering is still practiced in cult audiences in order to create distinctions that are specific to their subculture. 3 The Post-War Context Behind Retro and Nostalgia There is a need to expand and explore the historical and ideological meanings associated with the terms “retro” and “nostalgia” because of the problematic nature of memory. The meaning behind the term “retro” has French and Latin origins denoting an association with the past, past times, or the way things once were. The meaning originated from prefix occurring in Latin meaning “backward” or “retrograde” (Merriam-Webster). The term’s usage has had a revival in post-war years, most notably retro acquired its current connections in the early 1970s” (Guffey 9). The period after the post-war years has major significance because retro implies a fascination with the post-war years rather than nostalgia for over a century ago, which would imply antiquity. Design Historian Elizabeth E. Guffey wrote extensively in her book Retro: Culture of Revival about the origins of retro and the implications behind the cultural and ideological meaning(s) of retro in art, architecture and culture. Even though the term retro can be used to advertise something that is old, “retro carries a pervasive, if somewhat imprecise, meaning; gradually creeping into daily usage over the past thirty years, there have been few attempts to define it” (9). According to Guffey, retro is not confined to a single definition. Firstly, retro can simply be thought of as