Imagining 9/11: Blockbuster Hollywood Cinema as Cultural Violence from 1996-2003

This thesis explores the relationship between blockbuster cinematic violence and its historical context in the period surrounding the events of September 11, 2001. It charts the trajectory of violence by showing that screen violence in successful blockbuster cinema responds to historical developments. Violence in this thesis is defined according to the tripartite definition of violence articulated by peace studies theorist Johan Galtung. In order to analyse the historical positioning of the violence in the blockbusters being analysed, tripartite violence has been fused with the diagnostic critique of cultural theorist Douglas Kellner, which “uses history to read texts and texts to read history” (Media 116). By synthesising the two theoretical frameworks in this way, the diagnostic critique becomes violence-calibrated, and can be readily deployed to discern the ways in which blockbuster screen violence engages with the historical context of the text. The texts analysed represent the top grossing film from each year from 1996 to 2003, a period selected for its political relationship to 9/11. The eight films analysed are: Independence Day, Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Spider-Man, and The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. This thesis shows that the films from the pre-9/11 period articulate a clear “dream” of a world that is defined in binary terms with a good Self in opposition to an evil Other that is always external. The trends found in the violent dreams begin to shift with The Grinch as the relationship between the Self and Other changes, but the transformation does not fully manifest itself until the post-9/11 period when the films are marked by paranoia stemming from the repeated appearance of an Other than can pass as the Self, and ultimately a Self that behaves like the Other. While the violence that is found in the pre-9/11 films “dreams” of the Bush response to 9/11, the post-9/11 films ultimate envision a future that the War on Terror could not deliver. In the end, this thesis will develop a methodology that can be used to explore blockbuster cinematic violence in terms of the nuances that exist between the three types of violence Galtung articulates: direct, structural, and cultural.