AMST-A201 | 11537 | U.S. Movements and Institutions | TOPIC : Cultural Paranoia and the Contemporary Hollywood Misdirection Film | 3 cr. | A & H | TWRF, 2:30-3:20 | Film screenings: M, 1:25-3:20 | Seth Friedman
Since the early 1990s, there has been a spate of Hollywood films such as The Sixth Sense (1999), The Usual Suspects (1995), and Fight Club (1999), which are renowned for their surprise endings. All these films possess a similar narrative structure; they each contain a revelation that encourages spectators to reinterpret retrospectively all that has come before. Although these films can be identified as belonging to other pre-existing industrially recognized genres, this class will take the approach that they are more appropriately categorized as constituents of the “misdirection” genre. This is because the narrative revelation is the most consistently referenced feature whenever people speak or write about these films, regardless of the ways that the studios package them.
This class will investigate the reasons why this long-standing narrative mode has proliferated in the U.S. over the past two decades. It is significant that some U.S. audiences have been drawn to films that demand greater interpretive work than what is typically needed to decipher the standard Hollywood fare. To address this apparent paradox, we will examine the socio-cultural and industrial conditions that have made misdirection films attractive to both Hollywood producers and some U.S. audiences over approximately the past twenty years. We will attempt to determine why an audience for these films has recently formed. Specifically, we will address why films containing narratives that suggest that the “truth” is being concealed from view have become so appealing to a significant segment of U.S. spectators. We will focus on questions such as the following: What relationship do films and other forms of media have to the culture in which they are produced and consumed? What can the popularity of contemporary misdirection films tell us about the acceptability of different modes of interpretation in the U.S. since the early 1990s? How do communities form from specific interpretive practices? What can these films tell us about contemporary racial and gender politics in the U.S.? What connection do these films have to the development of new home-viewing technologies, the rise of the Internet, and other recent changes impacting the U.S. media industries? To help us respond to these questions, we will read selections from a variety of disciplines such as Anthropology, Film and Media Studies, History, Literary Studies, and Political Science.
Films will likely include the following: Arlington Road (1999), Fight Club (1999), Jacob’s Ladder (1990), Magnolia (1999), Memento (2000), Mulholland Drive (2001), Psycho (1960), The Shining (1980), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), and The Usual Suspects (1995).
