It Takes a Village
A decade ago, the class of two thousand eleven was eight years old. Ten years ago terrorists cracked fissures in the façade of safety that surrounded the United States. Those who were children have grown up, and realized that the world they dreamt of disappeared, leaving in its wake the indelible footprint of fear and uncertainty. After World War I, Germany was in much the same state. The once powerful Empire found itself defeated. The result was the popularity of the German Expressionist science fiction films. In times of distress, when the world seems built on shaky ground, people turn to the fantastical. They turn to the supernatural for their imagined villains, and to ordinary heroes for their salvation. In Germany, they turned to films such as Nosferatu, Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and The Golem. The children and adults who, after 9/11, made Harry Potter and Lord of Rings box office successes, continued to choose science fiction films throughout the last decade. The result, the fear that began with the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the continuing uncertainty that has enveloped the country in the aftermath, combined to create a cinematic environment that gives us the subconsciously desired heroes. The similarities between the German Expressionist and science fiction/fantasy films of the last ten years, like the collection of Harry Potter films, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the newest reimagining of Star Trek, as well as Iron Man, and Super 8, show that humanity, in the absence of safety and security, will seek out the fantastical to give them something to believe in. They will look for a hero to do what they themselves cannot: fight the evil that they see in their own world. As the intertitles in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis state, “the mediator between the head and hands must be the heart.” In times of need, the public craves a hero with the heart to save the world.
The similarities between the science fiction movies of today and those of the German Expressionist era begin, at least at first, superficially. Sets, costuming, and in general, world building play an incredibly important role in cinema. They give us the details of the world we are about to experience. The German Expressionist films gave us intriguing, and oftentimes, off-putting set designs. The sharp angles of Dr. Caligari evoke a town that is unsettled. It puts the viewer on edge, and informs them that this is not our world. Compare this to the moving staircases, and in general, the entire atmosphere of the Harry Potter movies. It also creates a world that is unsettled. The viewer may not know it at first, but they have just entered a place where the ground is literally moving beneath them. With the higher budgets of modern cinema, and the advanced technology of it, the worlds are more elaborate, but the mountains surrounding Count Orlok’s castle in Nosferatu are not so different from those in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Both worlds are dark and menacing, with danger around every nook and cranny. In Lord of the Rings, the evil that creeps outward into the realm of Middle Earth, towards the homes of our protagonists, is similar to Nosferatu traveling closer and closer to the home of Thomas Hutter’s love. Science fiction creates these worlds to fuel our imagination. They take us away from the harsh reality of everyday and place us firmly in the hands of heroes.
Andrew Gordon, in his essay Star Wars: A Myth for Our Time, quotes Brian Aldiss who describes the “space opera”
Ideally, the Earth must be in peril, there must be a quest and a man to meet the mighty hour. That man must confront aliens and exotic creatures. Space must flow past the ports like wine from a pitcher. Blood must run down the palace steps, and ships launch out into the louring dark. There must be a woman fairer than the skies and a villain darker than the Black Hole. And all must come right in the end. (316)
Science fiction offers escape and hope all wrapped up in a package that makes the audience want to cheer in their seats. They can imagine themselves as Harry Potter, Frodo, Tony Stark, or Captain Kirk. Maybe they envision themselves as Hermione, Uhura, or Pepper Potts. They can avenge wrongs and save the universe from the safety of a comfortable chair; fly like Harry Potter on a broomstick playing Quidditch; soar at supersonic speeds across the globe like Iron Man. They can fight the Battle of Helms Deep like the heroes in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. They can, in essence, forget for a few hours the mortgage and the car payment, the economy, the wars, and the world that seems to slide closer to a dystopia every day. Where the Nineties, and the relative security thereof, brought us The Matrix, Independence Day, and Men in Black, the society changed one sunny day in September. “For American...citizens, who were only accustomed to perceiving catastrophe through the media or as a view of entertainment, the intrusion of terror into their everyday world broke the barriers of fiction and real life to introduce phobos as a fruit of a tangible threat” (Sanchez-Escalonilla 11). The draw of science fiction movies changed from the spectacular nature of destruction to a desire for a hero to save the fictional universe.
Brottman and Sterritt, writing in the essay, Allegory and Enigma: Fantasy’s Enduring Appeal, write, “Harry Potter’s enormous popularity and moviegoers’ keen anticipation of The Lord of the Rings reconfirm the enduring desire of both children and adults to immerse themselves in fantasy worlds-a desire that might have swelled further since the events of September 11, give the time-proven power of escapist art in troubled times.” They go further to say “Part of the explanation clearly has to do with the deep-seated human compulsion to immerse ourselves in the lives of other, especially when those others-like Harry Potter-are unlikely underdogs faced with the challenge of overcoming phenomenal obstacles” (Brottman and Sterritt). In other words, the viewer becomes the hero, and can therefore feel, for a short time, as if they are able to defeat the villain. The difference in the movies of Germany and those of America would seem to be that Germany had already lost the war, and that Americans will not concede defeat. Where German audiences sympathized with Freder in Metropolis and Hutter in Nosferatu, the films tend to have a bleaker outlook. Though Nosferatu dies in the end, it is only with the sacrifice of Hutter’s wife Ellen. At the end of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the question of Francis’ sanity remains. Despite the differences in the resolutions, the German Expressionist films seem to be less hopeful than those of the current cinematic wave of science fiction films; the parallels between the characters of both genres cannot be dismissed.
In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, our band of protagonists undertakes a quest to save Middle Earth from Sauron and his army of evil. In Harry Potter, he and his friends fight to rid the world of Voldemort. Kirk, Spock, and the crew of the Enterprise battle to against the universe manipulating wrongs of Nero. All three of these antagonists are similar in appearance to Nosferatu: tall, thin, with deep-set, creepy eyes that seem to contain only malevolence. In each of the movies, evil seeps out from the villain and slowly spreads to the rest of world. In Tony Stark’s Iron Man, there are echoes of the Golem. Both characters contain a weakness embedded into the center of their chest, in the shape of a circle. They are both created from scratch: the Golem from mud and clay, and Iron Man from scraps and spare parts. They also create unintended destruction in their pursuit of their mission. Neither of them starts out as a hero, but become so over the course of the film. The Golem does so by saving the Jews from exile, while Iron Man saves the world from maniacal danger of Obadiah Stane. Both of these films, as well as Metropolis and Super 8, also comment on the ruling classes that exist within the structure of the worlds.
While Iron Man fights against the proliferation of weapons that his company provided, and continues to provide against his orders, Feder in Metropolis fights against a system that exploits its citizens. The Golem’s duty is to protect the Jews from the injustice of upper class that wants to evict them from their homes. In Super 8, the children are the characters who explore what is actually happening to their town, while the military shoots what it can’t cover up. In all of these films, as well as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Harry Potter, and Star Trek, it is only through communities of ordinary people working in conjunction, with the help of magic, that evil is defeated. Of course, the definitions of magic and ordinary vary when placed in the universe of science fiction.
Harry Potter, Nosferatu, Dr. Caligari, and Lord of the Rings all draw heavily on the use of magic. While in Metropolis, Star Trek, Iron Man, and Super 8, magic takes on the guise of technology. Both of these support our heroes and heroines on their quests, and without them, the battles might be lost. They are all ordinary folks who, when placed in extraordinary circumstances, far exceed what normally might be expected. No one expects the orphan to raise a rag-tag army of children to fight the evil bent of the destruction of their world. No one expects the corn-fed Iowa boy to succeed where more experienced Starship Captains failed. The children, the weak, the inexperienced, and the unlikely, stand up to fight for their communities. They use intelligence and tenacity to learn what they must, to create what does not exist, and they cannot do it alone. They become superheroes, whether in actuality or in deeds only, because they work together. James Poniewozik writes, “We don’t want our superheroes to be invulnerable Supermen-Clark Kent’s sad-sack persona is as essential to fans as Superman’s ability to turn steel girders into pasta ribbons. It’s not enough that superheroes fight our battles. We need them to suffer our heartbreaks, reflect our anxieties, embody our weaknesses.” We need them to be human. It allows the audience to envision themselves into the role of the hero. It reminds them that, on September 11th, in the midst of such tragedy, there was a group of heroes. Ordinary citizens who brought the plane down in the Pennsylvania countryside, and gave their lives to avert further disaster.
The hope in the hero is a desire that transcends time and culture. This is what makes these kinds of movies so popular: the escape they offer to people living in turbulent eras. But, more than that, it is the belief in the ability of people to bond together to defeat the evil that threatens the safety and security of the community at large. Americans, who watched as terrorists attacked New York City and Washington, DC, found themselves helpless to do anything. After World War I, Germany was a shadow of its former empire. In both times the citizens turned to science fiction movies to ease the depression that seemed to envelop their world. Though the German films are smaller in scope, they deal more with intimate communities threatened, they offer the same comfort as the blockbusters of contemporary society. Nowadays science fiction movies, when well done, seem to be a mass media gold mine. In 2003, in the essay Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, Kristin Thompson wrote
Three of the seven films that have grossed over $800,000,000 worldwide were released within a five-month period, and all three were fantasy films: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (number 2, released November 2001, gross $965,700,000), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (number 5, December 2001, $860,200,000), and Spider-Man (number 7, April 2002, $803,600,000.) (45)
They were also all released in the first seven months after the events of September 11th.
Like Germany in the decade after World War I, Americans have turned to the fantastical to ease their terror. It is easier to sit in a darkened theater and watch as Harry, Hermione, and Ron defeat He Who Shall Not Be Named, than to name the very real fears that concern our current society. The attraction of all these movies lies, not only with the heroes, but also with the friends who are integral to the happy ending. Kirk is dependent upon Spock, Uhura, McCoy, and Scotty. In Super 8, Joe Lamb has his would-be group of filmmakers. Frodo Baggins has Sam, Aragorn, Gandalf, and a marry band of misfit elves, hobbits, and dwarves. Hutter, from Nosferatu, Feder, from Metropolis, and Francis, from Dr. Caligari, succeed only with collaboration of the communities they inhabit. There are differences, yes. The German protagonists are more singular, where today’s films focus more on the cooperation of the group. Perhaps due, in part, to the actions of those on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. But, even though nearly a century separates them, the similarities, between the German Expressionist films of yesterday and the science fiction films of today, show that the wishes and desires of humanity are not so very different from one another. Ordinary citizens may not have been able to stop the attacks the irrevocably changed the landscape of the world, but in the dark of the theater they can imagine, for a short time, that they are the heroes.
Works Cited
Brottman, Mikita, and Sterritt, DAVID."Allegory and Enigma: Fantasy's Enduring Appeal." The Chronicle of Higher Education 48.17 (2001): B.16-B16. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 26 Nov. 2011.
Gordon, Andrew. "Star Wars: A Myth for our Time." Literature/Film Quarterly 6.4 (1978): 314- 26. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.
Poniewozik, James, Andrew Arnold, Benjamin Nugent, and Heather Won Tesoriero. "Blockbuster Summer: Superhero Nation - TIME." Time.com. 20 May 2002. Web. 26 Nov. 2011. .
Sánchez-Escalonilla, Antonio. "Hollywood and the Rhetoric of Panic: The Popular Genres of Action and Fantasy in the Wake of the 9/11 Attacks." Journal of Popular Film & Television 38.1 (2010): 10-20. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. .
Thompson, Kristin. "Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood." Velvet Light Trap.52 (2003): 45-63. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 26 Nov. 2011.