American mentality? Trauma, imperialism and the authentic veteran in mainstream Hollywood narrative

Abstract

This paper deals with one contemporary ‘myth’ circulated within mainstream cinema; the validation of masculine purpose through ‘heroic’ action. This is exemplified within Hollywood narratives by the recurrence of particular scenes, interludes which attempt to dramatise the experience of male characters (usually middle-ranking veteran officers) who are presented as traumatised and also, in some cases, apparently ‘conscience-stricken’. The representation of these supposedly ‘psychological’ phenomena are the subject of controversy; quite apart from their uncertain status as references to a ‘post-traumatic’ and the concentration of emotional resource on male rather than female sufferers, they produce ambivalent accounts of American military power. Using reference to The Last Samurai (Zwick, 2003), Windtalkers (Woo, 2002), and Glory (Zwick, 1989), the work investigates the discursive purposes of such typification, asking to what degree it may represent a series of expressive or ‘ideological’ acts in the guise of a standard cinematic technique (the ‘flashback’). The piece studies the retrospective attribution of ‘modern’ sensibilities to earlier periods, the narrative strategies which assign authenticity to the actions of protagonists whose ‘word’/honour falls under scrutiny, and argues that the neurotic deployment of alibis is used to assist in the reconstruction of stable masculine hierarchies.

Keywords:

• ideology
• narrative
• themes
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• proposition
• configuration