From: gcf@panix.com (Gordon Fitch)
Subject: Re: The Bogeyman in Pop Movies
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 03:15:44 GMT
Organization: mydog in exile

As it's become the fashion to quote and requote articles in
full in alt.postmodern, I thought I'd do this one; it contains
an entertaining thought or two, which we might have fun with.
I've removed rec.arts.cinema from the newsgroups line.  No
bureaucracy for us. 

egnilges@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Ed Nilges) writes: 
| >Take, for example, the philosophy expressed in the films of George
| >Lucas and Steven Spielberg, films (including the Star Wars trilogy)
| >that pit apparently democratic, non-dogmatic characters like Luke
| >Skywalker against "evil" servants of dogmatic and tyrannical
| >"empires" like Darth Vader.  Although many members of my generation
| >view these films as inspiring celebrations of individual initiative
| >and condemnations of the implicitly dogmatic and racist Empire (an
| >Empire committed to believing in abstractions like "nation" and
| >"gender"), I was very uneasy when I saw my first Star Wars film.  At
| >first, I thought my unease was merely a product of my inability to
| >suspend disbelief when confronted by the physics of space battle, a
| >battlefield strangely devoid of any sort of Clausewitzian friction in
| >which the "fog of war" would render Luke Skywalker considerably less
| >than the all-knowing god he appears.
| >
| >However, Mark Crispin Miller (Miller 1990) crystallized my unease by
| >pointing out that Lucas, Spielberg and other popular filmmakers of
| >the 1980s were far from being the liberals that the populace believes
| >they are.  Spielberg, for example, voted for Reagan, and the Star
| >Wars trilogy, of course, gave its name to the Strategic Defence
| >Initiative.  I realized with a shock upon reading Miller that what I
| >uneasily witnessed in a San Jose multiplex in 1984 was Fascist
| >cinema, as Fascist in its own way as Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of
| >the Will or the countless "Fredericus Rex" movies that inspired
| >Hitler to emulate Frederick the Great.  Not only can it happen here,
| >it will happen here in its own way.  Since in America we are not
| >nearly as racially homogenous as Germany, the bridge of our space
| >battlecruiser shall be multicultural and multiconfessional, featuring
| >Han Solo, furry aliens, Ewoks et al.; but (and here is the key) no
| >member of any acceptable subgroup shall pretend to any crossover
| >solidarity with any other acceptable subgroup.  Ewoks must be
| >identifiable Ewoks; men may not express solidarity with feminism;
| >even BSD unix gurus shall form their own tribe and push out A T & T
| >unix.

thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
| David Lynch voted for Reagan; please reinterpret "Eraserhead" for me.
| 
| For that matter, do "Dances with Wolves," because Kevin Costner plays
| golf with George Bush.

I like Ed's idea.  The last scene of _Star_Wars_ is a dead
ringer for the Nuremburg Rallies.  I found it shocking the
first time I saw it, thinking that it had somehow slipped
past everyone.  But of course, they knew all about it.

_Eraserhead_ is a transcription of the Nativity, just as
_The_Night_of_the_Living_Dead_ is a reworking of the the
Day of Judgment.  These basic poles of our culture do not
escape the influence of a Christianity no longer visible
on the surface of things.  David Lynch voted for Reagan
knowing that Reagan was the first postmodern president, 
actually an anti- or pseudo-president, an important step
in annihilating the conceptual structure of the "Presi-
dency."  In other words, it was a weird, anarchic thing
to do, and he couldn't resist.

Kevin Costner and George Bush deserve one another, and 
both deserve golf.  May they play golf together forever.
-- 
Gordon Fitch | gcf@panix.com | uunet!cmcl2!panix!gcf 
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