Abstract
Satire of media practices, forms, and genres has increasingly become a staple of American entertainment over the past two decades, through films such as those treated in this chapter and television shows such as The Simpsons, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report. One likely explanation for this development is that producers discovered that satire had commercial appeal, but another is that satire was perceived to have qualities that were especially relevant in the contemporary media context. In the expanding media landscape of the 1990s satire can be seen as a reflexive and critical aid for dealing with the increasing supply of mediated material and the expanded importance of media for everyday activities and different institutions (mediatization). As such, the visibility of media in the satirical film of the period seems quite natural, and thus deserving of being included here as one of the central themes.
We are deceived and obstructed by the very machines we make to enlarge our vision.
—Daniel Boorstin1
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Notes
Daniel Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (25th Anniversary edition with a new foreword by the author and an afterword by George F. Will, First Vintage Books edition, New York: Vintage Books, 1992), p. 259.
Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P. Jones, and Ethan Thompson, “The State of Satire, the Satire of State,” in Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era, ed. Gray, Jones, and Thompson (New York and London: New York University Press, 2009), p. 4. See also Geoffrey Baym, “The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and the Reinvention of Political Journalism,” Political Communication 22, no. 3 (2005), pp. 259–276, accessed August 25, 2011, http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid= 2a903537-a2bf-457e-9689–1d6f502b14b8%40sessionmgr14&vid= 2&hid=16.
Steve M. Barkin, American Television News: The Media Marketplace and the Public Interest (Armonk and London: M.E. Sharpe, 2003), pp. 61–62.
Jeffrey P. Jones, Entertaining Politics: New Political Television and Civic Culture (2nd edition, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2010).
Geoff King, American Independent Cinema (London: I. B. Tauris, 2005), p. 33. In 1990, franchise included A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984), A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (Jack Sholder, 1985), A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (Chuck Russell, 1987), A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (Renny Harlin, 1988), A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (Stephen Hopkins, 1989).
President of Fine Line, Ira Deutchman, quoted in The Player, “Production Notes,” Fine Line Features (1992), p. 19, accessed April 4, 2011, http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cinefiles/DocDetail? docId=35321.
King, American Independent Cinema, p. 32; See also Justin Wyatt, “Marketing Marginalized Cultures: The Wedding Banquet, Cultural Identities, and Independent Cinema of the 1990s,” in The End of Cinema as We Know It: American Film in the Nineties, ed. Jon Lewis (New York: New York University Press, 2001), p. 70.
“The Player,” Box Office Mojo, accessed October 19, 2011, http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=player.htm. See also King, American Independent Cinema, pp. 33–34.
See David A. Cook, Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam 1970–1979 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, Macmillan Library Reference USA, 2000), pp. 89–90; Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994), p. 717; Robert Kolker, A Cin-ema of Loneliness: Penn, Stone, Kubrick, Scorsese, Spielberg, Altman (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 330.
Altman was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, five times as director and twice as producer, but never won. However, somewhat ironically, at the 78th Academy Awards (2005) he received an honorary Oscar for “a career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike.” “Robert Altman’s honorary Oscar,” The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, accessed October 18, 2011, http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1318873688506. Altman also won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best director three times, the National Society of Film Critics Award for best director twice, and an Independent Spirit Award for best director. “Robert Altman’s Awards,” The New York Times, accessed October 18, 2011, http://movies.nytimes.com/person/79456/Robert-Altman/awards.
Noël Carroll, Interpreting the Moving Image (Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 246.
Julie Salamon, “Film: Hollywood Skewered in a Whodunnit,” Wall Street Journal (April 9, 1992), p. 12, section A, accessed August 24, 2009, http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cinefiles/DocDetail?docId= 35332.
Roger Ebert, “The Player,” Chicago Sun-Times (April 24, 1992), accessed October 12, 2011, http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19920424/REVIEWS/40818001/1023.
Robert T. Self, Robert Altman’s Subliminal Reality (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003), p. 188. In this case Self mainly refers to Nashville (1975), Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1976), The Player, and Prêt-à-Porter (1994).
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction (6th edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001), p. 243.
Posters include Der Blaue Engel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930), Murder in the Big House (B. Reeves Eason, 1942), Highly Dangerous (Roy Ward Baker, 1950), Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942), Niagara (Henry Hathaway, 1953), Hollywood Story (William Castle, 1951), Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944), Prison Shadows (Robert F. Hill, 1936), Prison Break (Arthur Lubin, 1938), King Kong (Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Scheodsack, 1933), Red Headed Woman (Jack Conway, 1932), and M (Joseph Losey, 1951).
Ed Kelleher, “The Player,” Film Journal International 95, no. 4 (May 1992), p. 11, accessed August 24, 2009, http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cinefiles/DocDetail?docId=35327.
Peter Keogh, “Death and Hollywood,” in Robert Altman: Interviews, ed. David Sterritt (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2000), p. 154.
David Thompson, ed., Altman on Altman (London and New York: Faber and Faber, 2006), p. 156. See also Robert Altman Featurette (New Line Home Video, 1993), DVD.
Alan Rudolph is a writer, director, and producer who collaborated with Robert Altman on several films: he was second assistant director on The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973) and California Split (Robert Altman, 1974), and assistant director on Nashville, and wrote the screenplay to Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson.
David Bordwell, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960 (London: Routledge, 1985).
Gleiberman, “The Player.” See also Todd McCarthy, “The Player,” Daily Variety (March 16, 1992), accessed August 24, 2009, http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cinefiles/DocDetail?docId=35319.
Richard Dyer, “Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society,” in Film and Theory: An Anthology, ed. Robert Stam and Toby Miller (Oxford and Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 2000), pp. 606–607.
Richard Maltby, Hollywood Cinema (2nd edition, Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2003), p. 332.
According to Altman, they shot about ten takes of the opening scene, and printed five. “Production Notes,” p. 18.
Hilary De Vries, “My Fourth Comeback,” Los Angeles Times Magazine (April 26, 1992), p. 34, accessed August 24, 2009, http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cinefiles/DocDetail?docId=35199.
Anne Billson, “The Player,” New Statesman & Society (June 26, 1992), p. 36, accessed October 26, 2012, http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cinefiles/DocDetail?docId=35346.
See Frederic Jameson, Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1991), pp. 16–19.
Hillary Henkin and David Mamet are credited with the screenwrit-ing and adaptation of the original novel, American Hero. However, there are differences in opinion as to whether or not these credits are fair. Henkin adapted the original novel before Levinson committed to the film (the rights were owned by Robert De Niro’s production company Tribeca), but the latter, who was intrigued by the concept of inventing a war on television but did not feel enthusiastic about Henkin’s script, or the original book for that matter, was interested in a low-budget film he could make quickly. Tom Stempel, “The Collaborative Dog: Wag the Dog (1997),” Film & History 35, no. 1 (2005), p. 61, accessed October 17, 2011, http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/film_and_history/v035/35.1stempel.pdf. An article in Variety tells of how the Writers Guild of America awarded Henkin the first-position credit and describes Levinson’s reaction (he threatened to withdraw his membership in the Writers Guild) and cites his argument that not one line of her dialog is in the film. Michael Fleming, “WGA’s ‘Dog’ Days,” Daily Variety 258, no. 18 (December 23, 1997), pp. 1, 10.
David Mamet, Wag the Dog (October 14, 1996), accessed May 6, 2011, http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Wag-the-Dog.html.
Reviewers pointed out that Motss was a take on Hollywood producer Robert Evans. Kenneth Turan, “ ‘Wag the Dog Is a Comedy with Some Real Bite to It’,” Los Angeles Times (December 24, 1997), p. 4, section F, accessed May 11, 2009, http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cinefiles/DocDetail?docId=46419; Janet Maslin, “If the Going Gets Tough, Get a Pet or Start a War,” The New York Times (late edition, East Coast, December 26, 1997), p. 7, section E, accessed October 8, 2007, http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=24458323&sid=4& Fmt=3&clientld=29149&RQT=309&VName=PQD; Roger Ebert, “Wag the Dog,” Chicago Sun-Times (January 2, 1998), accessed February 12, 2010, http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs. dll/article?AID=/19980102/REVIEWS/801020302/1023.
Sarah Kozloff, Overhearing Film Dialog (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 2000), p. 91.
Örjan Roth-Lindberg, Skuggan av ett leende: Om filmisk ironi och den ironiska berättelsen (Stockholm: Bokförlaget T. Fischer & Co, 1995), p. 225.
Owen Gleiberman, “Wag the Dog,” Entertainment Weekly (January 16, 1998), accessed November 19, 2007, http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,281576,00.html?print. See also Mick LaSalle, “Satire Wages War on Press, Politics: ‘Wag the Dog’ a Biting Comedy,” San Francisco Chronicle (January 2, 1998), accessed November 26, 2007, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1998/01/02/DD57197.DTL; Stephen Holden, “Amid All the Illusion, Satire with Real Bite,” The New York Times (late edition, East Coast, January 4, 1998), accessed October 8, 2007, http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=25156526&sid=4&fmt=3&clientld=29149&RQT= 309&VName=PQD.
See Paul Simpson, On the Discourse of Satire: Toward a Stylistic Model of Satirical Humour (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2003), p. 126.
Wag the Dog premiered on one screen (Century City, California) on December 17, 1997, and then had a limited release on December 25. “Wag the Dog,” The Internet Movie Database (IMDb), accessed October 18, 2011, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120885/release info. News of the scandal broke in mid-January of 1998.
Douglas Kellner, Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Postmodern (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), p. 198. See also reviews by Holden, “Amid All the Illusion”; LaSalle, “Satire Wages War.”
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© 2013 Johan Nilsson
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Nilsson, J. (2013). Satire and the Media. In: American Film Satire in the 1990s. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137300997_4
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