Superheroes in post 9/11 cinema

Superheroes in post 9/11 cinema

Stephen Hendry

31, February 2010

·      The world, quite simply has not been the same since that day. The West reeled from the shock of seeing a vicious and premeditated attack on Western values and ideals and can be seen to have slipped into a ‘culture of fear’.

·      Terrorism became the main cultural concern and nations tightened up security, changed laws and fought wars in an attempt to take back some control after the feelings of helplessness caused that day.

·      The ‘war on terror’ was not a war like those that had gone before. The enemy was hidden and unidentifiable and the fear was that they could strike again at any time.

·      It might not be a complete surprise that Hollywood’s response was to create heroes. Classical Hollywood narrative provides reassurance and this structure was applied in the retelling of stories which gave us powerful heroes who save the day. These fantasies responded to the post 9/11 context and provided some comfort in a time when danger seemed very close.

·      Hollywood tends to provide the culture with the heroes it needs so it might not be surprising that ‘alien’ heroes were brought in by Hollywood to provide the answer to our social problems. The extra-terrestrial superhero Superman (1978 onwards) was a popular figure who came to earth with a host of superpowers and solved problems for us.

·      At the end of this period two films were in production. X-Men and Spider-Man. X-Men was released in 2000 and although Spider-Man was released just after the 9/11 attacks (2002), it was in production beforehand. The X-Men franchise spans the years 2000 to 2009 and there are currently three films in the main series: X-Men 1-3 (2000, 2003, 2006) and a fourth ‘origin’ film, Wolverine (2009). Spider-Man 2 was released in 2004 and Spider-Man 3 in 2007. Both franchises have further instalments either planned or in production. Each film within the trilogies can be read as reflective of cultural attitudes which relate to the pre, post and even post-post 9/11 context in which they were made.

·      s we move further away from the events of 2001 the culture is shifting away from its immediate post-9/11 responses. By looking at these films it is possible to identify changes in the cultural context that surrounded them. Spider-Man 3 breaks away from the reassurance of classic Hollywood narrative, creating a complex representation of good and evil that perhaps indicates the culture’s more questioning and challenging attitudes towards authority.

I chose this article because since the terrorist attacks the cinema has been dominated by superhero like characters who will protect over us when we are in fear of another attack and we need some escapism