Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
This thesis considers how the depictions of masculinity in the films of Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn function as a critique of mainstream Hollywood cinema’s perpetuation of the notion that violent male behavior represents a heroic ideal for men to emulate. In films such as Pusher, Bronson, Valhalla Rising, and Drive, Refn constructs and presents his male characters by drawing upon recurring archetypal figures such as the gangster, the gangsta, the gunslinger, and the samurai. These figures recur throughout popular culture and across genres, and they perpetuate and reinforce a specific version of masculinity that emphasizes individualism, stoicism, and violence. Mainstream Hollywood films in general and male action cinema in particular often present this narrow and rigid vision of masculinity as a heroic manly ideal, and this, in turn, can inform how male viewers construct their own masculine personae. The male characters in Refn’s films serve to critique and destabilize this ideal by demonstrating how an insistence on appropriating or conforming to this sort of violent masculinity results in negative consequences for both the individual and the society around him. For more, please see my complete thesis, which can be viewed here: http://via.library.depaul.edu/cmnt/25/
Citation preview
Gangstas, Thugs, Vikings,
and Drivers
Cinematic Masculine Archetypes and
the Demythologization of Violence in
the Films of Nicolas Winding Refn
Christopher John Olson
DePaul University
September 2014
Introduction
Violence in film
Nicolas Winding Refn
Archetypes
Carl Jung◦ Universal patterns
and images
◦ Recur across cultural and historical contexts
◦ Actualized via representation
Robert N. Bellah◦ Individual
unconscious
◦ Developed via interaction with environment
◦ Similarities in socialization process
Cinematic archetypes
Media images reflect cultural values/attitudes
Connect contemporary experience with primordial figures
Screen characters reflect prevailing sociocultural notions of gender
Masculine archetypes
Man with No Name
Samurai Gangster
Gunslinger
The Male Action Hero
Characteristics of archetypes
Stoicism◦ Verbal and
emotional reticence
Individualism◦ Loners who shun
society
Violence◦ Action speaks
louder
Archetypal male figures
The Stoic Man◦ Ex: Man With No Name
(Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” Trilogy)
The Tough Guy◦ Ex: “Little Caesar”
Bandello (Little Caesar)
The Beast in Me◦ Ex: The Incredible Hulk
(The Avengers)
The Greek God◦ Achilles (Troy)
Refn and the archetypes
Alignment with archetypes◦ Stoic tough guys
◦ Rugged individuals
◦ Violent men
Masculinity as performance◦ Tensions between front
and reality
Negative consequences◦ Refusal to abandon
performance
Aligning with the archetypes Pusher
◦ Gangster/Gangsta
◦ Tough Guy
Bronson
◦ Tough Guy
◦ Beast in Me
◦ Greek God
Valhalla Rising
◦ Stoic Man
◦ Greek God
Drive
◦ Stoic Man
◦ Greek God
Archetypes vs. reality
Vs.
Vs.
Vs.
Vs.
Consequences of archetypal
masculinity Isolation
Incarceration
Injury
Death
Conclusion
So what?
Limitations of study
Future directions
