American Beauty (Blog Assignment #1)

In A Pervert’s Guide to Idealogy, Žižek supports a modernist viewpoint that includes normative dominant ideologies such as master narratives of history, culture, national identity, the nuclear family, realism, structure, the pursuit of success, and the attainment of wealth, mass culture, broadcast media, and the dichotomy of high and low culture. The film American Beauty, critiques the modernist viewpoint and displays the collapse of what is “normal” within monotonous suburban society (simulated world). The film utilizes characters that fall into modernists, postmodernists, and neutral categories. They constantly interact with each other and affect each others lives, in both a positive and negative way, using their own ideology in order to support their choices. In the film American Beauty, a specific modernist ideology that is challenged is the nuclear family. The Burnham family which consist of Lester, Carolyn, and Jane represents the collapse of the nuclear family in more ways than one. Their relationship displays the fragility of the family structure. In order to prove my point I will use Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) as an example.

Lester represents a postmodernist, and some may argue that he goes from being a modernist to becoming a postmodernist as the movie progresses. I believe that Lester has always been a postmodernist who displays modernists attributes in public due to a sense of obligation (metatheatricality). This is why he has depression, a mid-life crisis, and begins to use drugs. This signifies a conflicting identity which is a dominantly postmodernist attribute. Lester challenges the structure the nuclear family. I believe that he is merely a physical and visual depiction used in order to portray the Burnhams as a nuclear family. He displays selfish behavior, irresponsibility, and inappropriate desires.

Lester is emotionally, and socially unavailable to both his wife and daughter. He is physically unavailable to his wife, forcing her to seek physical gratification through means of an affair. His daughter needs Ricky in her life in order to give a her a sense of confidence that her Father was not able to provide. Lester also regresses to a state of a teenager in order to cope with his dissatisfaction with his own life. Lastly he begins buying weed from Ricky who is teenager and quits his job, that helps to support his family financially, in order to work at a fast food restaurant. These are all very selfish and self-serving acts.

Lester is also very irresponsible. For some reason his feelings, wants, and desire become more important than the well-being of his family. We all struggle with modern and postmodern attributes in the way we regard family. While I don’t totally agree with Carolyn’s “act” in order to portray success at all times, I think that as people who are part of a family, we are responsible to conduct ourselves in a certain way. Member of families represent each other, and out of respect must work together in order to attain goals, maintain a strong foundation within the family structure, and maintain  healthy family relationships. Lester goes from a job in the media to a fast food restaurant, when his wife has a job that relies on her image, and her daughter is struggling with her image. This puts both Carolyn and Jane is an odd place socially, when their reputation/image is what is what their survival depends on.

In addition to being selfish and irresponsible, Lester has very inappropriate lustful fantasies towards a sixteen year old girl. Lester clearly demonstrates Žižek’s idea that, “Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn’t give you what you desire – but tells you how [what] to desire.” Additionally Žižek explains that fantasies are easy ways to cope with life, rather than confronting reality. Lester has daydreams of his teenage daughter’s friend Angela, where she is naked and covered by rose petals that continue to rain down on her. The rose petals (saturated image) act as a motive that reappears every time he begins to fantasize about Angela. Lester’s daydreams begin to distract and influence his everyday life (hyperreality). He begins to work out in order to make himself appear more attractive, hoping to make his fantasy a reality. Lester has a sixteen year old daughter and does not consider how he would feel if an older man felt the same way about his her. This situation represents manifestation of desire, chase, and the inability to achieve the dream. It also shows Lester as a poor example of the Father role within a nuclear family.

Django Unchained

(2012, directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Leonardo DiCaprio)

“I wanted to explore slavery…give black American males a hero…and revenge. ” – Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino is know for his distinct directorial style that features various Tarantino trademarks. These identifiable components include extreme and excessive usage of violence often accompanied by pulsating music, satire, a strong female lead, use of a select group of actors (ex. Uma Thurman and Samuel Jackson), and a cameo appearance within the film. The film Django Unchained, was released in 2012, and contains a few of these signature trademarks such as violence, pulsating music, satire, Samuel Jackson, and a cameo appearance. Tarantino created this film with the purpose of creating a film that provided a form of catharsis for African American men.

The movie explored the American Slave Trade and the idea of what would occur if a character similar to that of Shaft, existed back then. What qualities would the ideal black superhero of that time period possess and look like ?

… Enter Django the African American, gun slinging, sharp shooting, cowboy.

The film is the center of controversy due to its portrayal of slavery, use of the derogatory word “nigger”, extreme levels of violence, and how the content was satirized.

Portrayal of Slavery

• Life on the plantation was depicted as relaxed in some cases. On the plantation belonging to Spencer “Big Daddy” Bennett, a select group of slave women were shown wearing nice dresses, chattering among themselves, and enjoying a sunny afternoon on swings while other slaves toiled in cotton fields. I believe that this contrast existed in order to educate the audience about types of slave, for example house and field slaves.

• As slave owners both Bennett and Calvin Candie seemed way too “familiar” with the slaves. In the film both of these slave owners were regarded as wealthy and ruthless but other than their wealth, they seemed very relaxed. The acted as if they were simply victims of societal norms of the time (slavery and white dominance) and were simply following the rules. If it was not for slavery, perhaps everyone would be friends.

• The relationship between Calvin and Stephen and between Dr. Shultz and Django are fairly similar. In the relationship between Calvin and Stephen, it is Stephen who is ultimately in control. He says whatever he pleases, challenges and mocks Calvin’s “authority”, manages the other slaves, assumes a position of authority that Calvin acknowledges, and is treated as an equal among the other white characters on Calvin’s plantation. In the relationship between Dr. Shultz and Django, it is Django who openly challenges Dr. Shultz, maintains his own sense of self regardless of any suggestions made, and contributes his opinions towards important decisions that must be made. In both cases there is a dynamic where both of the black characters are leading their white counterparts, to believe that they are fully in charge. They boost their egos, and submit themselves to the social laws of the time period but in truth it is truly them (the black men) who are in charge.

• There was a point made during the class discussion where a student spoke of the relationship between Django and Shultz , as a slave and master relationship. Shultz was referred to as the “white savior”. I saw the relationship as an objective business transaction. Shultz and Django both wanted something and needed each other in order to get it. They used the guise of slavery, and race in order to calculatingly achieve their own desires.

The “n” Word

• This film is criticized for the repetitive usage of the word nigger (110 times). During slavery the “n” word and various other words were used in order to reinforce and ingrain feelings of sub-humanness within the slaves. Passages from the bible were also read in order to justify slavery and to condemn them as a people, by attempting to prove that they were rejected by God.The idea that God the Father in heaven, did not love them, created them to be slaves, thought of them as he did animals, and made them to be disadvantaged is heart breaking. I believe that the usage of the “n” word is very appropriate for the time period that the movie is attempting to portray. It is a very small verbal device that was used to mentally ensnare the slaves along with the great injustices and cruelty that was inflicted upon them. In no way was Tarantino attempting to recreate the film entitled Roots (1977, directed by Alex Haley). The “n” word displayed a very small part of the overall injustice. This is why it was played up and used within this film along with a variety of other aspects to create a well put together pastiche art form.

Extreme Levels of Violence

• Within this movie there are extreme levels and excessive usage of violence. As pointed out during the class discussion that immediately followed the film, the white characters died in over the top circumstances, Django was able to defeat large groups without sustaining any injuries (the slave masters are very unskilled with guns), and the victims often lost large amounts of blood that gushed everywhere. The black characters died in more realistic but grotesquely cruel ways. In death,Tarantino portrayed slaves as human, who bled and died as humans do while the white overseers were sub-human, with ketchup red blood bursting from their veins.

Awkward Satirical Moments

• I felt very strange laughing during the scene that displayed the early stages of the creation of the KKK. My laughter came from a place that coincided with Tarantino’s overall intention for this film but for myself (a woman). As of now, I feel that comedy being used in order to introduce the KKK in the film is very strange. I have conflicting feelings towards that scene.

A Pervert’s Guide to Ideology

(2012, directed by Sophie Fiennes, written and presented by Slavoj Žižek)

In this documentary film, philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek presents various ideologies such as modernism, postmodernism, Marxism, fascism, communism, consumerism, capitalism, and religion. He critically examines periods throughout history that reflect these ideologies in order to demonstrate the strengths, weaknesses, intentions, and vulnerability of our social, economic, and political fabric. Innovation, acceptance, change, revolts, and opposition towards a particular ideology resulted in great wars, famines, genocides, the rise and fall of the economy, industrialization, urbanization, and the distinctions within the social class. The result of these defining moments still linger within the world of today.

Žižek was able to demonstrate how these ideologies are subtly or overtly perpetuated, reflected, satirized, or challenged within films. He used various films,dating as far back as 1935 and slowly made his way towards films of the 21st century, in order to isolate scenes that supported his argument. While he discussed ideology as a foundation, he also discussed themes as pillars. Some themes included forbidden love between the higher and lower class, the “mask”  worn in order to appease others, and the justification of lies in the case that the truth is too strong. The movies used to portray these themes were A Brief Encounter (1945), Titanic (1997), and The Dark Knight (2008).

While I was shocked by many of the vague, general, harsh, or at times racist remarks made in the film, there are three main concepts that I was able to take away from viewing this documentary.

There is always a crisis…

Towards the end of the film, Žižek stated that the world is in a constant crisis. This idea is supported by the media; newspaper, news, and radio. There is always a disharmonious issue for example a political disagreement, a tragic death,war, natural disaster, job loss, and fluctuation within the stock market. Whether these issues are local, regional, provincial, or international, there is always an issue somewhere. With this in mind he always spoke of the idea of an ongoing cycle that includes circulation, reproduction, and accumulation. According to Žižek anything can be sacrificed in order to comply with the above mentioned cycle. The idea was interesting to me because is demonstrated that the earth is a self preserving force, the world/society continues with or without us, and that as people, we are resilient.

Starbucks…

The concept of consumerism was discussed by using  the popular Starbucks Chain as an example. Starbucks consumers pay higher prices for organic fair trade certified coffee, premium tea, pastries, and other delectable products. The higher price allows for a small portion of money from every purchase to contribute towards the purchase of the organic coffee. The organic coffee comes from various coffee plantations around the world, for example Mexico, Costa Rica and Rwanda. Coffee plantations and the fair trade initiative enables environmental sustainability, job security, and economic opportunities for farmers in impoverished areas. Starbucks consumers can proudly boast that their money contributes towards a greater cause and has a global impact. This is a win-win situation for both the supplier and the consumer.

Conscious and unconscious viewing (brain washing)…

The idea that as viewer we do not realize that while we watch film in order to be entertained, we are being exposed to various symbols, advertisement, themes, and ideologies. Some of these images go unnoticed because they simply reinforce what we believe or what we expect. Some images may challenge our beliefs and teach, disgust, or offend us. In some cases we may also be desensitized by certain images. It is important to be aware of what and why, we are watching.