American Film Satire in the 1990s

American Film Satire in the 1990s

American Film Satire in the 1990s Hollywood Subversion Johan Nilsson

AMERICAN FILM SATIRE IN THE 1990S Copyright Johan Nilsson, 2013. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-30098-0 All rights reserved. First published in 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the World, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-45334-4 DOI 10.1057/9781137300997 ISBN 978-1-137-30099-7 (ebook) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Integra Software Services First edition: May 2013 10987654321

For my grandfather

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Preface ix xi xiii Introduction 1 1 The 1990s 25 2 Satire and Politics 33 3 Satire and the Media 61 4 Satire and History 87 5 American Film Satire 107 Notes 119 Works Cited 151 Index 169

Illustrations 4.1 Forrest meets JFK, Forrest Gump 97 4.2 Forrest moons LBJ, Forrest Gump 98 4.3 A moon landing without an audience, Forrest Gump 101

Acknowledgments As in most cases, this book is a collective effort. I could not have written it were it not for my colleagues in the department of Media and Communication Studies at Örebro University, all of whom have offered much-needed comments and shown their support in various ways over the years. I have also benefited greatly from my fellow scholars in the Swedish Association for American Studies. A few people deserve more particular and heartfelt thanks due to their invaluable help in writing this book: Mats Jönsson and Mats Ekström, my supervisors during the course of my Ph.D.; Cecilia Mörner, Erlend Lavik, Olof Hedling, and Erik Hedling, all of whom have given me discerning comments during different stages of the writing process (Erik, in particular, has influenced this version of the book); Samantha Hasey at Palgrave Macmillan, who was the first to reach out to me about publishing this book; my editor at Palgrave Macmillan, Robyn Curtis, and her assistant Desiree Browne, both of whom have been very helpful and always quick to answer questions; and, finally, my family, whose patience with this obsession of mine is simply astounding.

Preface The book you are about to read began its life in 2006 and was finished (or so I believed) in the fall of 2011. It was my doctoral dissertation. However, the appeal (and, I hope, the relevance) of film satire seems to be such that its life will be further extended. Satire has a very long history, and while the written forms of satire have been thoroughly treated by scholars in comparative literature and language studies, research about audiovisual satire is only at the beginning of what will hopefully be a long journey into a lasting field. Today satire is heavily used in different media. You only have to look at political comedy shows such as The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, both of which have enjoyed tremendous success over the last few years, and not only as shows on television. They are on Twitter and on Facebook and they are both heavily featured on Comedy Central s YouTube channel. Now, this book is not about Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, but I would argue that they are two very relevant examples that show how satire is and can be used today. The subject for this book is American film satire during one decade in particular, the 1990s, and I argue (with other scholars) that this was the time when satire really began to emerge in the mainstream of American media culture. The reasons behind this occurrence are discussed in the book, but the primary interest lies in how satire works on stylistic and formal levels. That being said, however, satire cannot be fully understood without looking at contextual factors as well. The book you now hold in your hands is a slightly revised version of the original dissertation. First of all, for reasons of clarity and categorization, the title has been slightly changed, from Hollywood Subversion: American Film Satire in the 1990s to American Film Satire in the 1990s: Hollywood Subversion. Also, the structure of the introductory chapter has been changed to offer the reader a more fluid and continuous text and some clarifications have been made when it comes to certain theoretical concepts and methodological choices.

xiv Preface Whereas the chapter on the 1990s context stands relatively unchanged, the introductory sections (where the particular thematic contexts are explicated) to the three analytical chapters have been expanded upon. They now offer a fuller view of the backgrounds against which the films are understood. As for the analyses themselves, very little has been revised except in the case of Forrest Gump. That particular analysis, after having been particularly (but fairly) criticized, has been made clearer in terms of the position I have taken in relation to the film. I have tried to add some nuance to the argumentation, filled out some descriptions, and added a short section dealing with the film s musical score, which stands in relative contrast to what the film offers viewers on the visual level. Lastly, the concluding chapter has been looked over, but very little has been changed except for incorporating a discussion of the connections between the examined period and the 1960s and early 1970s. This connection is quite obvious in the material at hand and it is actively used for the actual satire, but it did not come out clearly enough in the former text. Örebro, Sweden October 31, 2012