|
|
|
|
I OLD MYTHS IN NEW VESSELS (Myths - old and new - in SF cinema) A) The new frontierThis article will first explore the genre's contribution to the shaping of areas of contemporary culture and myths through the study of two dominant SF themes - space travel and invasion from outer space. I will try to draw a parallel between the cinematic treatment of myths and their evolution in America from the 1950s to the current era, both from a historical and a dialectic perspective. My aim in doing so is to highlight the fluidity of interactions between SF cinema and contemporary American society. Then, through a brief study of Independence Day, the 1996 blockbuster, I will concentrate on the ideological potential lurking behind the self-proclaimed innocence of such filmic representations of myths.
I - OLD MYTHS IN NEW VESSELS
II - WE WANT TO BELIEVE
III - ID4 : A HIT AND MYTH AFFAIR ?
Like the space-travel adventures of the 1930s - which were little more than star-hopping westerns - many SF films of the 1950s, reflecting the optimistic mood of the times, openly stated their faith in technological progress and the future, and the conquest of space was a privileged theme. Space was seen as the new frontier and its infinite horizons as the ideal stage for the highest dreams and achievements of mankind. The sense of wonder which permeated the early films found its expression through visually optimistic representations of cities and spaceships of the future, which celebrated the undisputed triumph of technology. In filmmakers' - and their audiences' - imagination, space had been "conquered and domesticated" (Vivian Sobchack, Screening Space : The American Science Fiction Film, Ungar, New York, 1987, p.75).
Although fewer space operas and space conquest stories were made in the 1950s, 2001 - A Space Odyssey (MGM, Stanley Kubrik), released in 1968, the year before man first stepped on the moon, revolutionized the genre - both aesthetically and thematically. From then on, the conventional sterilized imagery of gleaming chrome surfaces and sleek aerodynamic machines gave way to a new aesthetics. State-of-the-art special effects and big budgets became the norm. More than ever, film images of breathtaking beauty, images of planets and alien suns induced wonder in spectators, who for the first time were truly given "the visual scope of a god" (Sobchack, 101). For the first time - with perhaps the notable exception of Forbidden Planet, the 1956 classic - filmmakers were able to translate onto the screen through effective, convincing iconography some of the wonders described in SF literature.
Moreover, the science of 2001 was more realistic. As Phil Hardy puts it, "the film literally changed our conception of space and spaceships. Where before the pencil-shaped rocketships of Destination Moon formed the grid of our assumptions about the look of the spaceship, henceforth the building blocks of spaceships would be more akin to the angularity of Lego pieces and their size more commensurate with the vastness of deep space, as in the scene where the Discovery slowly crosses the cinema screen for what seems an eternity." (Phil Hardy, ed., The Aurum Film Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Aurum Press, London, 1995, p. 279). Due to the combined effects of new cinematic technologies and the greater credibility of diegetic science, later films were thus to gain in verisimilitude. At the same time, though, 2001 heralded the end of the boundless na‹ve optimism which had so far characterized space exploration films. Many space stories of later years were to give a much more sinister slant to the myth of the new frontier. This was linked to the identity crisis which swept through American society in the late 1950s and the 1970s, to growing concern about technology, pollution, and to the mounting mistrust that was felt towards technology and the political and economic institutions.
It was often in stories set in outer space, and particularly on space colonies, those outposts of Mankind among the stars, that the darkest representations of modern capitalism were to be found, and that contemporary society's fears and anxieties found their loudest echoes. In such films as Total Recall, Outland (1981), the Alien films and, as late as 1996, Screamers, the space colony under the yoke of multiplanetary capitalism offers a stark image of social and individual alienation and provides a powerful counterpoint to the myth of the new frontier as it had been depicted by John Kennedy. Far from allowing Man to fulfil his highest and most noble dreams, the space colony actually embodies the worst aspects of post-industrial society.
It should be noted that, if broader socio-economic concerns from the early 1970s onwards have contributed towards tarnishing the myth of the new frontier - both in society at large and on cinema screens - such major setbacks as the 1967 Apollo 1 tragedy, or the 1986 Challenger disaster, two deeply traumatic events, also caused many questions to be raised about the space programme. And yet, all along, technological achievements such as the Apollo missions to the moon, the 1976 Viking 1 Mars mission, or the launch of the Voyager space probes in 1977 were continuing to fuel popular imagination. More recently, events like the much publicized landing of the Mars space probe - though it was unmanned - have breathed new life into space exploration fantasies, and it would appear that positive representations of the myth have been gaining the upper hand again in Hollywood, with films like Apollo XIII, Independence Day, Deep Impact and Armageddon. Thus, there seems to be a constant feedback between historical developments and the social concerns they give rise to on the one hand, and filmic representations of the myth on the other.
If space can be penetrated and conquered by mankind, the reverse is also true : alien invasion and/or visitation stories have gone hand in hand with space exploration films since the early days of science fiction.
B
) Alien visitationOver the past fifty years, cinema screens have played host to an untold number of visitors from outer space. Alien movies of the 1950s were overwhelmingly pessimistic and paranoid, which more than counterbalanced the optimistic thrust of the space exploration movies. Films like The Thing (1951), War of the Worlds, Invaders from Mars (1953), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Earth vs. Flying Saucers (1956), The Day of the Triffids (1962), portrayed alien invasions in the guise of either full-scale military invasion or more covert infiltrations of human society by alien creatures which assumed the shapes and identities of their human victims, thus secretly spreading contamination throughout America. Post-Hiroshima, cold war America certainly offered a fertile ground for the proliferation of such apocalyptic visions and paranoid fantasies. Films then reflected - and even encouraged the general fear of a nuclear holocaust and the collective hysteria caused by rumours of a communist fifth column hell-bent on destroying America from within. According to Barthes, aliens were the embodiment of a collective guilt complex : Martians had come to Earth to pass judgment on mankind's self-destructive folly ("Martiens", in Mythologies, Editions du Seuil, 1957, pp.42-44). This is in fact the main theme of the 1950 classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Alien invasion movies became less frequent in the next decade and, just like space exploration movies, practically disappeared from cinema screens in the 1970s. This was largely due to the emergence of the new, earth-bound domestic concerns previously mentioned. It is worth noting that the American space programme was also virtually abandoned in the same period.
And, when aliens returned to Earth in the late 1970s, it was in the guise of benevolent, godlike creatures in the immensely successful Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), followed in 1982 by E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Starman and Brother from Another Planet in 1984. Certainly the malevolent nature of alien beings continued to be featured in some films, but in the new mood of optimism of the Reagan era, Hollywood did not want to jeopardise commercial success with pessimistic films. Besides the American public expected positive films which would exorcise the evils of the past decades. Pessimistic films with a progressive ideological content, like They Live (Carpenter, 1988), were generally shunned by mass audiences.
Aliens were thus presented as modern Messiahs, divine saviours come to Earth to offer "fallen" mankind the chance of redemption. They brought a message of love and tolerance, a message of hope to a society that had fallen prey to a deep sense of gloom. Final images of ascension to heaven were pregnant with a highly symbolic meaning, as were the frequent scenes of resurrection.
In the past few years there has been renewed interest for alien films of apocalyptic dimensions. Yet, although films like Independence Day (ID4) borrow heavily from their 1950s counterparts, the cold war is over and there is now a totally different slant. I think that the new enthusiasm for alien invasion movies - or disaster movies for that matter - is due to different reasons : first, such films are ideal vehicles for the display of the latest special-effects technologies. Also, the coming Millenium has reawakened ancient eschatological fears and Hollywood has naturally lost no time in exploiting this current fashion. But more important, I think, is the ufomania which has been sweeping round the globe in recent years, and which has brought new fuel to the U.F.O. myth. Before studying ID4 more closely, it is worth reviewing this and related myths, and considering the implications as far as social-psychological representations of the modern world are concerned.
 ID4 : A shadow over Manhattan |
 Mars Attacks : A wave of saucers |
II WE WANT TO BELIEVE (UFO-related myths and social/psychological representations of reality).
The genesis of the flying saucer myth - which in the 1950s snowballed into one of the loudest cultural stereotypes to have emerged from that period - can be traced back to the pulp magazines of the 1920s. But it was really in 1947 that the myth was truly born - and that the term U.F.O. was coined. That year the Roswell myth was also born : allegedly, a U.F.O. crash-landed in the Nevada desert in 1947 and has since been kept hidden in a secret military base. Up to the present day, a multitude of U.F.O. sightings and alien abductions have been reported worldwide, while the myth has been fuelled by countless photographs and mystifying publications often aspiring to the status of scientific works.
1993 saw the birth of the "X Files" phenomenon, which took the world by storm and is probably responsible for the massive return of E.T.s in Hollywood. The themes and motifs found in In this TV series, which has won over millions of fans - if not addicts - all over the planet, belong to both the fantasy and the SF genres : paranormal activity, the supernatural, the unexplained, and of course aliens and UFOs. The main theme is that of a plot by the American government, intended to cover up the existence of extra-terrestrial visitors. Naturally the series has incorporated the Roswell myth, thus reinforcing both the mistrust felt by American people towards their political institutions and their tendency to believe in mystical happenings.
According to a survey published in "Newsweek" (8th July 1996), 48% of Americans believe that UFOs are real and that the government is trying to hide the truth from them. The number of people reporting UFO sightings, and even kidnappings by aliens, has risen astronomically, so much so that State Route 375 in Nevada, where many sightings have been reported, has been officially renamed "Extra-terrestrial Highway". Three men were recently arrested for plotting the murder of local politicians whom they suspected of covering up a UFO landing. Alien abduction insurance is currently a thriving concern. In the same "Newsweek" survey, 40% of respondents admit that they believe in paranormal and supernatural activity. This is a general phenomenon which concerns all social classes, including the Establishment.
Why have this mysticism, this credulous neo-spiritualism, become so widespread in the past few years? I think this phenomenon is to be linked with the failure of traditional social and moral values, and of the ideal of technological progress. For Carl Jung, the beings riding the flying saucers are "technological angels", and correspond to a modern mythology associating science and salvation. For Jung the saucer vogue was due to deep-rooted fears engendered by the atom bomb and the cold war, and a corresponding desire to be rescued by a modern version of the heavenly saviours of old. Nowadays magic and the unexplained seem to function in a similar manner as substitute religions for people who no longer have anything to believe in, but who need desperately to believe in something at the dawn of the third millenium. "I want to believe" seems to be the movement's mantra. This sentence is actually printed on a poster behind agent Mulder's desk in X Files. So, the UFO myth would appear to be nothing but classic religious eschatology revamped to meet the fears and dreams of the modern world. In Contact (Robert Zemeckis, 1997), Ellie Arroway, a radioastronomer played by Jodie Foster, is sent to the other end of the universe in a machine built according to a blueprint sent by godlike aliens. At the Cape Kennedy launch site, where a huge crowd has gathered, the camera's panning motion reveals a baffling assortment of end-of-the-world mystics, New Age preachers, sellers of alien abduction insurance and alien lovers, including a person with a sign that says : "Jesus was an alien". As in Independence Day, aliens are thus seen concurrently as humanity's saviours and as heralds of the Apocalypse, and this I think is also emblematic of the dual feelings of attraction and fear that the figure of the alien inspires in human beings, pointing to the ambivalent nature of the myth of the Unknown, the Other - whether it finds its embodiment in stories set in outer space or in tales staging extra-terrestrial visitors.
Ufology may be a wild goose chase, but the current enthusiasm for films featuring alien visitations - either benign or hostile - can certainly be attributed to this phenomenon, and to Hollywood's desire to exploit its golden eggs. All this I think shows that interactions between cultural representations and the collective psyche are extremely fluid, and that such filmic representations of myths as have been explored today are not only symptomatic of general social-psychological hopes and anxieties; they also indirectly generate such hopes and fears, or at least act as an echo chamber which both transforms and amplifies them.
It is now time to turn to one of the biggest SF blockbusters to date - namely ID4.
III INDEPENDENCE DAY : a hit and myth affair (the ideological function of myths)The plot of this alien invasion movie is not very different from War fo the Worlds : the aliens have come to exterminate mankind and take over the Earth to consume all its natural resources before moving on, in locust-like fashion. The first shots are highly symbolic : we are shown the surface of the moon, with the American flag and the memorial left there by Neil Armstrong and, in the foreground, the astronauts' footprints in the lunar dust. Suddenly, a moving shadow takes over the screen, accompanied by a deep rumbling vibration which scatters the dust away, erasing the footprints. The camera pans upwards to a blue sphere framed in the darkness of space. Without a doubt that sphere is a target. Over the next twenty minutes, the scenes that establish the diegesis are punctuated with shots of emblematic American monuments, edited in between blinding flashes of light. We will later witness the destruction of all these symbols.
If aliens can sometimes be described as technological angels, these are certainly not of the benevolent kind, they are exterminating angels, and the movement of their spaceships in the earth's atmosphere is strongly evocative : we are reminded of the Bible's fiery skies and riders of the Apocalypse.
The film provides a veritable "pot-pourri" of U.S. mythic lore. One of the two main heroes, Stephen Hiller, a black U.S. airforce Captain, dreams of becoming a space shuttle pilot. Military resistance is organised from the Roswell military base, complete with its alien spacecraft and the preserved bodies of three aliens. The myth is thus shown to be entrenched in reality after all, despite all the past denials on the part of the U.S. government (note : the President himself however was kept in ignorance of its existence, which neatly exonerates him of all responsibility). There are many half-veiled references to X Files, Roswell, and U.F.O. mythology. For instance, Russell Case, the old alcoholic whose final self-sacrifice allows humans to find the fault in the aliens' defence system, has been consistently railed for claiming to be a former alien abductee. There are also many self-reflexive or tongue-in-cheek allusions to other SF films : E.T., Close Encounters, 2001, The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Certainly, it may be thought that the film's main motive is just the commercial exploitation of current social trends and fads; certainly, there is an underlying jocular vein and, despite the subject's potential for scenes of carnage, horror and devastatation - there have been billions of casualties after all - the wrecked cities are singularly empty of corpses. According to Roland Emmerich - the director - the film is not to be taken seriously and its main purpose is to entertain audiences. But is it really so ? What about its ideological content ? And what about the way in which such popular myths can be exploited for ideological purposes?
First, while appealing to social consensus, national pride and patriotism, ID4 reasserts "lost" American myths and values - the myths of freedom, the superman, the presidency, the new frontier, marriage, the family, etc. There are numerous iconographic signs which are as many symbols of the above : what is at stake is made quite clear by the film.
In fact, ID4 can be seen as an attempt to defuse the identity crisis - moral, social, political, military...- that America has been going through, and to reestablish faith and confidence in U.S. institutions. The fact that the President is a former Gulf War hero - who will incidentally lead the final, victorious assault - enables the film to kill two birds with one stone : restore the prestige of the presidency and cast the Gulf War as a war fought for a just cause, thus justifying and glorifying America's military interventionism and leadership - clearly the years of self-doubt and defeatism that came in the wake of the Vietnam war are now a thing of the past.
At the same time the film articulates the refusal to abandon hope and to yield to the terror of the apocalypse, calling for union and consensus in order to avoid the eradication of mankind. It is the whole planet - under American leadership naturally - which unites against the threat from the skies. In the President's patriotic, morale-raising speech towards the end, the film openly proclaims humanistic values : all men are basically good, nations and races must unite to lead the cosmic fight against evil. All ethnic and social groups are represented in the film, from strippers to gays to alcoholics. It is a black and a Jew who will lead humanity to victory and enable David to defeat Goliath. The film's appeal to international and domestic consensus, to peace on Earth, to inter-racial harmony, evokes both the millenarist hopes of the Bible and American patriotic millenarism based on the fight for freedom, which emerged in America in the 18th century.
ID4 combines traditional conservative patriarchal rhetoric with political correctness. In its attempt to restore confidence in American values and to counter contemporary perceptions of a divided society based on inequalities, the film recuperates and makes its own the voices of protest which have increasingly been raised in American society, including those of the anti-nuclear and environmental lobbies. By insisting so much on social consensus, by presenting all protagonists - including smokers - positively, we can say that it articulates (in the Gramscian sense) anti-establishment values, that is, it integrates them and tries to defuse them at the same time, by diluting them in an ocean of political correctness. Whether this is motivated by prevailing commercial imperatives - the film must appeal to all types of audiences, to all sub-cultures - or by ideological intentions remains to be seen, but I think it is a question worth raising.
* We are the world and the world 'S U.S. :Moreover, ideological intoxication is not limited to domestic issues. The film actively proclaims America's Manifest Destiny to lead the world. Despite its appeal to international unity and equality, scenes showing other countries are rare and disappointingly short, and mostly feature third world countries or former American or British colonies. Resistance in the Middle East is organised from a UN air base in the Iraqi desert : the allied forces are still very much present and in control in that part of the world. Leaders from the world's greatest powers - Japan, Russia, France - defer to America for leadership. The whole world is awaiting instructions from the "voice of America" (oddly, though the aliens have taken over satellite communications, and despite the wholesale destruction of all major cities, land-based communications systems are still operational). The lesson to be drawn from this is clear : the only message of hope comes from the land of liberty and the world must accept America's military supremacy as unquestioningly as world leaders accepted its leadership during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq.
So, despite R. Emmerich's claims, ideology is very much present in the film, and its dangers exacerbated by modern film distribution patterns : Hollywood's audience is not confined to the American territory; it is the worldwide marketplace, so that, with the assistance of massive marketing and advertising campaigns, ID4, and American cinema in general, can be seen as the ideal medium for the dissemination of American values and myths : its ideological seeds, borne by the global commercial winds of the present era, can thus be thought to play a major role in the spreading of U.S. hegemony worldwide.
Even if ID4's ideological stance - and smugness - have met with much cynicism and criticism in the rest of the world - Europe anyway - the film's commercial impact cannot be denied : soon after its release, it became the biggest box office success ever. Like its aliens, ID4 took the world by storm, and though at the close of the film we are enjoined to celebrate July 4th as not just America's but the world's independence day, I personally do not see much cause for celebration here. The world's in-dependence day ? By equating America with the world, the film hammers home a message which has become painfully clear in recent years : the world is America's oyster and we should all rejoice in this.
Ideology works in insidious ways. According to Robin Wood (Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan, Columbia University Press, New York, 1986), SF films, by pandering to spectators' need for regression to infantile pleasures, by reassuring them about their anxieties, encourage them to do nothing, thus defusing social tensions and reaffirming "good old American values". "Thus", writes Wood, "the project of Star Wars films and related works is to put everyone back in his/her place, reconstruct us as dependent children, and reassure us that it will come out all right in the end : trust Father." (p.174) Or, in this case, trust America and its "democratic" capitalism, its myths of freedom, individual self-reliance and equality of opportunity. Trust America's moral leadership.
It remains to be seen what the real ideological impact has been, ie. what meanings have been ascribed to the film by spectators. Were they taken in by the ideological content and the soppy sentimentalism, or did they simply enjoy the euphoria, the rollercoaster ride provided by the film's pyrotechnic special effects ? Did escapism and the pleasure principle turn out to be more significant factors than ideological contamination ? Or does ideology take a long time seeping down through the strata of consciousness before it finally reaches the depths of the subconscious ? Obviously we cannot at this stage answer this question with any certainty, and an in-depth study of SF film audiences would be required.
For the time being we can conclude by hypothesizing that SF cinema, through its articulation of modern - and not so modern - myths, creates a sort of reverberating effect which amplifies them in society at large and, because its main area of investigation is the future of mankind, it is having a major impact on American and even worldwide socio-cultural representations at the dawn of the third millenium.
