I will explore the
possibility of film ‘speaking’ of national identity, and will investigate two
separate national films, one from America and one from Japan. The two examples
chosen to be analysed are American director Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left (1972) and Japanese director Fukasaku
Kinji’s Millennium film Battle Royale
(2000). Explanations will be given about different aspects of political and
civil anxieties felt throughout the nation and the way these anxieties are
dealt with in the film. Both films are very violent and have both been
critically slated and reviewed as disgusting and unwatchable. This essay will
determine the national identity crisis in both films and explain the reasons
for the points made.
Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left (1972) represents the violence and inhumane
acts that dominated much of the 1960s and 1970s, when the Vietnam War
traumatized Americans. ‘‘Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left (1972) […]
played on the films notoriety’’ (Chibnall and Petley, 2002, pg 146). This was a
national crisis as America was split politically and whether it is right wing or
left wing, for war or against the war, black or white, straight or gay, old or
young, working class versus middle class and as Adam Lowenstein (2005) also
states the bourgeois culture versus the counterculture and even patriarchy
versus feminism. These oppositions moved further apart and grew stronger
individually, during the Vietnam War. So this shows the ‘‘historical trauma of
these years’’ (Lowenstein, 2005, pg 112) Lowenstein also quotes Rogin as he
states that ‘’political demonology’’, was part of traditional American
politics. He suggests that the idea of political demonology is manifest through
the replacement of true historical moments with ‘’visionary myth’’ and Last House on the Left works both with
and against this idea. The characters on both sides, both good and evil, show
the monstrous yet realistic monsters of political demonology, and as Lowenstein
states ‘’Last House can confront he
divisive historical trauma of the Vietnam era along the axes of political
demonology that constitute it.’’ (Lowenstein, 2005, pg 113)
Last House on the Left shows a representation of the real in a rape- revenge
narrative form. Moral messages are shown in the film, ‘’what Brooks refers to
as the ‘moral occult’.’’ (Nicholas, 2009. Pg 1) which it finds in the
socio-political circumstances in post-1960s United States during the disturbing
Vietnam War. Last House on the Left makes
the audience visualise the reality of sexual assault that happens in everyday
life. The film depicts the good versus evil, showing the corruption of innocent
young women. The rape-revenge narrative is not the main interest in the film
though. The setting for the Last House on
the Left is the United States of America, in which the Vietnam war was
affecting the daily life of everyone therefore ‘’For Adam Lowenstein, the film
responds to an ‘extraordinary national crisis in the late 1960s and early
1970s’.’’ (Nicholas, 2009, pg 6) Last
House on the Left asserts the sequences of the brutal acts of violence and
habitual everyday life. According to Nicholas ‘’the moral occult in Last House on the Left also suggests
that revenge is a futile, hollow act, [...] violence only begets more
violence.’’ (Nicholas, 2009, pg 7). This social warning to young women is not
only an anxiety for Americans but for the rest of the world too. Teenage girls
are extremely vulnerable and every parent is terrified of it happening to their
daughter.
When Last House on the Left was
made it caused a lot controversy due to the violence and vengeful acts that are
depicted onscreen and are seen as private crimes that should not be publicised.
The main plot is two teenage girls travelling to New York to see a rock band.
They are kidnapped by a group of escaped criminals who rape, torture then
murder the teenagers. The criminals then stay the night at one of the girl’s
parents claiming that they need shelter for the night. The parent find out who
the convicts are and what they have done and decide to enact revenge on the
gang of criminals that ‘’mirrors the violence visited on their daughter.’’
(Lowenstein, 2009, pg 113), and the film shows the monstrous in both good and
evil. Showing that even the most placid and moral people, can become monsters
if the right triggers are activated. The advertising campaign for Last House on the Left, was a picture of
a girl with long dark hair, her arms stretched out in despair and a look of
absolute horror and distress on her face. The campaign mimics and resembles a
photograph taken by photographer John Filo, that shows the events at Kent State
University on 4th May 1970, when a student anti-war protester had
been shot when the National Guardsmen shot at the students that were
demonstrating their anguish.
This campaign and the word ‘left’ in the title of
the film suggests that this was around the time when the left wing and right
wing oppositions warred and the anti-war movement were informed that President
Nixon was to invade Cambodia and if you disagreed they would shoot you. ‘’What
the ad’s disclaimer refers to as ‘’the senseless violence and inhuman cruelty
that has become so much a part of the times in which we live.’’ (Lowenstein,
2005, pg 115). This was a concern of the nation as a whole and the brutal
scenes in Last House on the Left
caused outrage and it is stated that
The ordeal begins with Phyllis’s
offscreen rape, and continues with the graphic depiction of Phyllis forced to
urinate on herself, Mari and Phyllis coerced to make love to each other, Mari
scarred by Krug’s carving of his name in her skin, Phyllis stabbed and
disembowelled, and finally Mari raped and shot to death.
(Lowenstein, 2005, pg
118)
These scenes of the criminal gang Krug, Weasel, Junior and
Sadie-otherwise known as the Stillo’s, are like hippies in the sense that they
smoke drugs and do not adhere to ‘bourgeois’ family values, and they have no
morals when it comes to sexual activity and the law in general.
One of Craven’s trademarks is the
‘’elaborately schemed and painstakingly executed... variety show of
vengeance,’’ Consisting of imagery including ‘’murderous hammers, chainsaws,
short circuits etc.
(Schneider and Williams, 2005, pg 297)
The murders done with objects that would be used for one
thing or another when living in the country or suburban town. The Stillo’s
represent a real country family that America was scared of - a countercultural
family of murderers the Manson family. There is also a class divide in this
film showing the divide in class throughout America in the 1960s and 1970s. The
Parent’s- the Collingwood’s, mocked their daughter for being friends with a
working-class girl. Not only does it go the other way, but the Stillo’s mimic
the Collingwood’s mannerisms and speech at the dinner table to try and fit in
but they fail due to taking advantage of their hospitality and this is evidence
to show the two opposing sides in the film; the bourgeois middle-class culture,
and the working-class counterculture. The news and the reporters made the
Americans look like the ‘good side’ throughout the Vietnam war but Last House on the Left wanted to show
how life really was during the Vietnam war for Americans and wanted to inform
people that ‘ordinary’ people are monsters too, no matter which class, age, or
gender they are. Last House on the Left
was made around the Hollywood Renaissance between the 1960s and 1970s when many
Directors made ‘’risk’’ films. Another horror film that speaks of national
identity is a Japanese film made by the director Fukasaku kinji. Battle Royale (2000) is portrayed and
spoke about as a disgusting violent film, but the underlying message is
actually anti-violence. It is “Conscious of the Columbine Syndrome,’’ (McRoy,
2005, pg 130) the fear of violent boys and their actions when they are placed
under immense pressure. Tony Williams (2005) states that Battle Royale acts like a mirror reflecting back all of the society’s
problems that Japans faces or has faced in the past. Battle Royale also shows problems that are also relevant to the
rest of western society. This film shows what post-capitalism entails, and
evidence of a ‘return of the repressed’ problem which will result in violent
apocalyptic acts, that could be embraced by other nations.
Battle Royale shows how after the
nineteenth century military development, schools had become like the military,
and they were there not for the students benefit and education, but for the
‘’good of the country.’’ (McRoy, 2005, pg 131) Williams states in McRoy that
‘’Elementary school teachers were trained like military recruits, with
student-teachers housed in barracks and subject to harsh discipline and
indoctrination’.’’ (McRoy, 2005, pg 132) the film shows how the teacher
Hayashida, of the class that has been picked for The Battle Royale, is murdered
by the military for protesting against his class being taken. He also speaks to
the students as if they are equals and it seems that he does not have an
isolated teacher-student authority, like the military trains. Kitano on the
other hand is ruthless, cruel and completely estrange from the students, as
Kitano states ‘’Hayashida is ‘a no good adult’, and he urges his prospective
Battle Royale competitors ‘to work hard not to become like [Hayashida]’. (McRoy,
2005, pg 132).
The Japanese education system had been culturally conditioned,
strictly controlled and mechanical since 1930 (McRoy, 2005, pg132). The film in
itself is very militarized ‘’ which was anarchic and set in the brutal and
amoral present’’ (Richie, 2001, pg 179), showing the unemployment rise,
students skipping school and the youth being violent and disrespectful towards
adults; shown in the case of Nobu stabbing Kitano when he was their school
teacher, and with the failing economy Battle
Royale is a reaction to these problems when they escalate too far, and as
Williams quotes Ellis to keep the ‘’social structure’’ from ‘’breaking down’’.
The film shows the national crisis that Japan faces, its policies and systems
in crisis and in Battle Royale portrays
a ‘no tolerance’ policy by taking badly behaved students an forcing them to
kill each other to fight for their right to be an adult and live their life,
this due to the ignorance of respect and gratitude towards the militarized
adults. The holocaust in Nanking in 1937 is linked with the film in showing the
very similar cultural system and the horrific violence involved in both the
film and the holocaust.
The students picked for the Battle Royale were in the ninth grade,
and the Japanese education system works in the way that if you attend class
then you automatically move up a grade until the ninth grade when all Japanese
students are to take nationwide exams in order to achieve a placement at a
highly classed secondary school. Many suicides have been recorded in Japan due
to the emotional stress and intense pressure faced by the students. One of the
students in Battle Royale states that
he will survive and kill as many others as he can so he can ‘go to a good
school,’ so the pressures of the Japanese education system are shown
significantly in the film. Williams states that
The opening captions reveal a world
in turmoil and a nation planning a special type of ‘Dies Irae’ for its
rebellious younger population ‘At the dawn of the millennium the nation
collapsed. 15% unemployment, 10 million out of work. 800,000 students boycotted
school. The adults lost confidence and, fearing the youth, passed the
Millennium Educational Reform Act, aka The BR Act’. (McRoy, 2005, pg 134)
Later in the film we see a survivor of the previous Battle
Royale, covered in blood, accompanied by news images showing the media involved
in the Act. There is contradicted optimism throughout the film due to the
Japanese controls and personal feelings fighting against each other. The
students are forced to work alone to prove they can survive in a ‘dog eat dog’
world in the future as adults. They have explosive necklaces to ensure they do
not try and escape or work together to revolt against the system. As previously
mentioned before just as in schools, the students are under pressure, so a few
of the characters commit suicide by jumping off a cliff or hanging themselves
due to the emotional stress of the situation. Also if they disobey the rules
they will also get killed by the explosive necklaces they wear. Showing the
control the Japanese military has over the situation. Elements of the 1960s
Japanese revolution are shown in Battle
Royale when different collectives of teenagers try to find different
escapes from this horror. The character Mimura tells his friends he is hiding
with that, ‘when we escape, it will be together,’ as Mimura hacks into the
military computers and manages to interfere with the signals for 15 minutes in
order to deactivate the necklaces, so they can start their own revolution and
blow up the school headquarters on the island to stop the BR Act. The fact that
the BR headquarters is an old schoolroom on the now deserted island shows the
connection of the education system in Japan in which ‘war’ is compulsory. The
education system in Japan uses the advantage of adolescent vulnerability and
the competitive nature of education and employment in which ‘’the ‘post-moral’
social force against which humanity and the limits of human agency are played
out and tested.’ (Standish, 2005, pg 334) the students have to follow the same rules
in the game in order to survive and become successful in the future.
Another national anxiety of failure is evident
throughout Battle Royale is failure.
Kitano believes he is a failed parent as he is disrespected by his own daughter
on the phone. During the film Kitano saves Noriko from Mitsuko and tells her
not to catch cold and hands her an umbrella, showing us his fatherly traits yet
he is aware that he is contradicting the system himself in his own mind.
Kawada’s voiceover seems to reside over scenes involving Kitano, as Williams
states ‘’as if the director expresses certain reservations over a younger
generation growing up to become other versions of Kitano.’’ (McRoy, 2005, pg
141). This film is a warning of apocalyptic traits, it is against violence and
it opposes the Japanese education system that the Japanese impose on their
students. The warning is also relevant to western cultures in the case of
capitalism setting people against each other.
Battle Royale is what Williams describes as an ‘Apocalyptic Millennial
Warning’ (McRoy, 2005, pg 92) the film shows the anxieties that Japan has over
its own systems and economy. Some of the anxieties shown in the film are
international problems too so this film appeals to an international audience, in
the events of separating the nation as failures or achievers and showing the
struggle they face against the political educational system. Similarly Last House on the Left shows the
national identity crisis in America during the Vietnam era when barbaric images
from Vietnam were being shown in the media and on television. There were many
anti-war protests that ended violently, one case being at Kent State University
in 1970, not to mention the Manson family murders which the criminal characters
in the film remind us of, and the fact that the Collingwood’s retaliated with
similar violence, show us that no matter what class, age or gender, the
compulsion to be monstrous and violent depends on the situation in which you
are faced. This applies to both of the films studied in this essay and they
both show that horror films can speak of national identity and the anxieties of
the nation.
Bibliography
Chibnall,
S., and Petley, J., (2002) British Horror
Cinema (eds.) London: Routledge.
Lowenstein,
A., (2005) Shocking Representations:
Historical Trauma, National Cinema, and the Modern Horror Film. New York:
Columbia University Press.
McRoy,
J., (2005) Japanese Horror Cinema (Ed.).
UK: Edinburgh University Press
Nicholas,
A. H., (2009) ‘Last Trope on the Left: Rape, Film and the Melodramatic
Imagination’ in Limina: A Journal of
Historical and Cultural Studies. Vol. 15 pg 1-13. [ONLINE] http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/current/hellernicholas?f=252877 (Accessed 05/05/2010)
Richie,
D., (2001) A Hundred Years of Japanese
Film. London: Kodansha International
Schneider,
S. J., and Williams, T., (2005) Horror
International (eds.) USA: Wayne State University Press.
Standish,
I., (2005) A New History of Japanese
Cinema: A Century of Narrative Film. London: Continuum.
Filmography
Battle Royale (2000) Fukasaku Kinji.
Japan: Battle Royale Production Committee.
Last House on the Left (1972) Wes Craven. USA:
Lobster Enterprises.
By Lea Weller BA
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