Description
Book SynopsisWhite Masculinity in Crisis in Hollywood's Fin de Millennium Cinema claims that Hollywood cinema had a significant relationship with the millennial crisis of masculinity. From Fight Club (Fincher, 1999) and American Psycho (Harron, 2000), to Office Space (Judge, 1999), The Matrix (Wachowski's, 1999) and American Beauty (Mendes, 1999), Pete Deakin attests that alongside the emergent crisis came a definitive body of some twenty-five Hollywood crisis titles; each film with a representational concern for the apparent masculine malaise. Asking whether Hollywood helped create, propel or sooth the very notion of the crisis-of-masculinity at this time, Deakin engages with some important cultural questions: how discursiveor even authenticwas it, and more vitally, whose actual crisis was this? To this end, scholars of film studies, media studies, gender studies, history, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.
Trade ReviewFilm historians recognize 1999 as an exceptional year in American cinema. Deakin (Univ. of Salford) argues that 1999 was also the year in which contemporary anxiety over American masculinity exploded on the screen. Deakin takes 25 American films made from early 1999 to mid 2000 and discusses how they contributed to the dialogue about masculinity. The main focus is on Fight Club, American Beauty, American Psycho, The Matrix, and Office Space. Deakin explores how this body of film interacted with popular nonfiction of the era, e.g., Susan Faludi’s Stiffed (1999) and Robert Bly’s Iron John (1990). He describes the films as “fin de millennium white masculinity-in-crisis cinema” and argues that they capitalize on contemporary anxiety, “mourning the death of the so-called ‘traditional’ masculine figure” while still trying to sell a product—the masculine figure of the film and its ancillary materials (p.119). The men in these films are aesthetes and anti-capitalists, yet they need money and material possessions to reclaim their supposed natural manhood. Deakin delivers a fascinating. . . analysis. Perhaps the best critique is that of American Psycho, which problematizes the relationship between American manhood and consumer culture at its extreme. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.
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Near century’s end, society was abuzz with the crisis of masculinity. For film critics, the curtain was falling on the tough guys of the silver screen—no more Dirty Harrys, Raging Bulls, or Officers and Gentlemen. Pete Deakin deftly shows how Hollywood navigated the 1999 box office by selling nostalgia, stoicism, and conservativism. Read this book to understand more about politics, media, culture, and the relationship between “real men” and “reel men.” -- Matthew Hughey, The University of Connecticut
A readable and timely book well grounded in screen studies and masculinity theory. -- Julian Wood, The University of Sydney
Table of ContentsPreface: White Masculinity in Crisis in Hollywood’s fin de millennium Cinema
Chapter 1: On the Road to Crisis
Chapter 2: Crisis, Work, and Consumption
Chapter 3: Crisis and Violence
Chapter 4: Crisis, Sex, and Sexuality
