12/7/2023 0 Comments Superman title sequenceI argue that Donner’s film exhibits what David A. In this article, I will discuss how Donner’s film repurposes past forms and genre codes in order to aid in the cinematic recovery of a hero mythology, one that stands in stark contrast to the themes present in the Vietnam narratives that emerged around the same time. Released in late 1978, Richard Donner’s Superman is prime example of film used to cinematically recover a national mythology of the past for the context of the present. Many Hollywood films of the late 1970s exhibit a mode of genre memory in which classical genre films are evoked alongside the new formal approaches of 1960s and early 1970s and new advances in special effects. This reimaging of national myths has been realized through the repurposing of past genre codes, what Mikhail Bakhtin called “genre memory”: the remembering of past genre forms, infused with the resources of the immediate present, to provide a genre with a new orientation (Morson & Emerson, 1990). As previous moments in film history have demonstrated, cinematic movements can be instrumental in reconstructing a nation’s image of itself. Star Wars, however, was not the only late 1970s film that attempted a cinematic recovery of a heroic war mythology, devised anew for a generation wary of antiquated myths about America. A series of films that emerged during the 1970s, ones marketed as blockbuster entertainment or populist fair, can be reconfigured within the conversation that America was having with itself, a discourse on the disillusionment with a previous American war mythology, thought to have been punctured by the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.Ĭhief among these films was George Lucas’ Star Wars (Twentieth Century Fox, 1977), a film that infused the memory of science fiction films of the 1950s with the honorable-warrior tropes contained in the films of Akira Kurosawa. The Deer Hunter and Coming Home, however, were not the only films in dialogue with the legacy that Vietnam had left behind. These films, according to film journalist Peter Biskind, reopened “old wounds and inflamed passions long thought spent” (Biskind 2008). Caldwell calls a “superiority-through-strength mythology” (Caldwell 2006, 125-126). involvement in Vietnam had unraveled an American mythology that arose at the end of World War II, what Wilbur W. Cimino and Ashby’s films were released to an America attempting to come to grips with the notion that U.S. Though radically different in their dialogue with the legacy of Vietnam, both films examine the trauma and alienation felt by the war’s veterans. In 1978, two films attempted to come to grips with the indelible mark the Vietnam conflict had left on the American consciousness: Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter and Hal Ashby’s Coming Home. Symbols of America’s strength and power, were goliaths struck downīy schoolboys flinging stones, be they Vietcong in black pajamas orĬrusading young reporters for the Washington Post.” “Both our vast military complex and increasingly imperial presidency, Richard Donner’s Superman (1978) and the Cinematic Recovery of American Mythology in 1970s Hollywood Cinema David Bowie was not part of the project at the time I was designing the sequence.Author's note: This article was written in 2013 and is currently unpublished. However it really didn’t relate to the highway and was scrapped in favor of the stencil-like font which emulates road work. “It was slit scanned on an animation stand which, at the time, and still is, a very cool technique. It looked like water (water snake from “Abyss”) and was way cool.” One of the original ideas I presented him was these streaking titles that came at the screen and stopped and then collapsed into themselves. For Lost Highway he was looking for something ‘organic’, as he explained it. He is even more eccentric in person than his films. I’m a good listener, so I had a better chance than most of understanding what David was looking for. “ David Lynch saw my demo reel and was interested in my work. Like the ‘Lost Highway’ stencil font emulating roadwork).” And if at all possible, even if it is just the design of the font, create a metaphor of the film. I like to favor subtle animation moves that add a bit of uniqueness. Title designer Jay Johnson: “I think solid design over what is gimmicky or trendy is always favored. Smokin’ Aces Jay Johnson, Pacific Title & Art Studio (1997)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |