By Michael Foord
Epidemics are huge historical landmarks that can identify shifts in societies and individuals. In film the epidemic can be blatant or literal, it can also be informing and metaphorical. In this essay I will break down three distinct cinematic epidemics in film and the historical context that lead to them. The first is the 1980’s North America AIDS epidemic and its influence on horror and science fiction films, specifically David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986). The second epidemic is one of fear and xenophobia in the wake of 9/11 and the critical response pre and post 2001 of the foreshadowing film The Siege (1998) directed by Edward Zwick. Finally I will discuss the more literal epidemic and the effect it had on the audience of Steven Soderbergh’s film Contagion (2011).
AIDS Epidemic
‘In 1982 public health officials began to use the term “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome”, or AIDS’ (The AIDS Institute, 2012) and thus begun the branding of the mysterious opportunistic infections that were spreading around the world. A year later scientists discovered HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) as the cause. AIDS/HIV was lethal and changed society, it created anxiety. For individuals who had friends, family, or themselves fell victim, they did not only have death to look forward to but ostracisation. Due to a overly homophobic society at the time and the spread of the virus in the gay community, these issues were explored in Philadelphia (1993).
Tom Hanks, Philadelphia 1993
’The AIDS epidemic... is simultaneously an epidemic of a transmissible lethal disease and an epidemic of meaning or signification’ (Treicher cited in Pearl 1999, p. 210). Monica B. Pearl goes on to argue that due to the meaninglessness of such a thing as a virus, this results in a void that humans cannot help but attempt to apply meaning. Films are generally reactionary to issues within society and can be labelled as part of a search for meaning.
David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986) has been linked to being a metaphor for AIDS. Cronenberg might not agree specifically but with the critical response the film received it has become an important part of the conversation reviewing the film. In regards to the development of scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) ‘He first experiences the false euphoria of the drug addict, the night terrors of the cancer patient, and finally. the hopelessness and need of the AIDS victim’ (Badley 1995, p. 128). The Fly (1986) fits into a tradition at the time of ‘cinematic panic in the age of AIDS...pleasure equals panic’ (Pearl 1999, p. 222). It is through his embrace of the flesh comes his ultimate breakthrough in the teleportation of organic matter which will lead to his downfall. The film sexualises teleportation. Characters get excited by the notion of using the device it’s both dangerous and thrilling. They even have gender specific societal reactions to teleportation. He (Jeff Goldblum) wants to try it (the eager male) and she (Gina Davis) has reservations (the cautious virgin). There is a penetrative quality to going in and coming out of the pods. When Brundle proceeds with his experiment he does so in a reckless manner, the same way people engage in intercourse with out the appropriate protection in place. Brundle doesn't see the fly that is a uninvited third party symbolic of the invisible virus present during the sexual transmission of disease. ’Cronenberg criticism abounds with allusions to the bodily exchange of viruses and plagues and to the site of both affection and infection’ (Mathijs 2003, p. 30). Through this abstract metaphor Cronenberg is able to express ideas of the disease seemingly seperate from the issues of sexuality. In Philadelphia (1993), Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) directly states the real issue is about Andrew Beckett’s (Tom Hanks) sexuality and the discrimination of homosexuals, AIDS is simply ammunition to fuel bigotry. In a very subtle way The Fly (1986) cinematically reverses the stereotypical gender roles of the characters. Badley (1995, p. 127) argues that ‘identificatory positions for (both) male and female spectators that reintegrate psychic bisexuality...and make male and female one in their identification’. If this is true, although cast as male and female actors they are all at once a straight, gay and lesbian couple. Making there story more universal while remaining individual.
Fear & Xenophobia Epidemic
The year is 1998 and a another hollywood thriller arrives to mediocre reviews and to underwhelming box office returns. Fast forward to the 11th of September 2001 and everything changed, for the United States and as a consequence the western world at least. The zeitgeist makes a dramatic shift in mood and tone. Films are changed. Gone are the days of it being alright to depict the White House exploding like in Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day (1996), he wouldn’t be allowed to do that again until White House Down (2013). Back to 1998 and director Edward Zwick directs ‘The Siege’. A film in which FBI agent Anthony Hubbard (Denzel Washington) and CIA agent Elise Kraft (Annette Bening) must work together to take down several terrorist cells operating in New York. Generic thriller at first until the agents are only partially successful and some cells achieve their goals leading to New York being put under martial law. The Siege (1998) was written by Lawrence Wright, Menno Meyjes and Edward Zwick. Wright would go on to become a noted expert on Osama Bin Laden because of his Pulitzer Prize winning book The Looming Tower, Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (2006). Wright is credited as coming up with the story for the film ‘which in some respects creepily anticipated the events of 9/11’ (Martin, 2007). The film dates itself in a pre-9/11 New York but is prophetic and eerie with its content. In a similar style attack to the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing in which a truck bomb exploded. The film depicts a van loaded with explosives smashing into the entrance of the FBI New York headquarters. The resulting bomb site in the film looks exactly like the World Trade Centres 2001 ground zero. Men and women still in suits and office cloths are covered in the grey dust of the collapsed building. Scenes we would later see all over the news. Wright says ‘It was a box office failure, but it was the most rented movie in America after 9/11’ (Cited in Martin, 2007). This political thriller became the most realistic horror film ever made overnight. Its sudden popularity shows a societal shift in thinking and interests. A scene from the film captures how New Yorkers most have felt after 9/11. Hubbard and partner Haddad are crossing the street when a buses muffler backfires creating a bang. Everyone on the street either hits the deck of runs. They immediately realise they are not under threat but illustrates a societal wide anxiety, tension and paranoia.
Denzel Washington, The Siege 1998
The film caused protesting from the Muslim and Arab communities when released in cinemas. The film has one redeemable Muslim character Frank Haddad (Tony Shalhoub), Hubbard’s (Denzel Washington) partner but for the most part Muslim males are portrayed as terrorists. However the overall point of the film is that it is wrong to marginalise and vilify a community or people. In the third act, Muslims are rounded by into camps by Major General Devereaux (Bruce Willis) and his military force. This turns Americas military action and extreme measures into the films villain. Making the whole pay for the crimes of the few. This is personalised for the audience when Haddad’s son is wrongfully imprisoned. The film could be read as metaphor for the questioning of American foreign policy. Devereaux describes the army as a ‘broad sword not a
scalpel’ (The Siege, 1998). But the use of troops in this manner aggressively policing New Yorkers is no different to the use of U.S. troops on Iraqi and Afghani populace. 9/11 launched the ‘War on Terror’. Terror is defined as extreme fear. Our governments, Australia included went to war based on a epidemic of fear.
Bird-Flu/ Avian Influenza Epidemic
‘The monster is the monstrous body not the monstrous character’ (Jerslev cited in Cruz 2012, p. 161), Cruz continues in his definition calling body horror equivalent to biological horror. On screen zombies are a literal personification of a virus like the flu. The zombie horde is mindless in search of new bodies to infect. As the flu does not discriminate in its search for new bodies to infect. In 2009 ‘WHO (World Health Organisation) declared the first influenza pandemic in 40 years. This H1N1 pandemic is speeding far and wide - and moving fast’ (Ki-moon & Chan 2009). The CDC website (cdc.org) has a ‘flu news’ page where it is possible to read articles dating back to 2009. The first article is about the FDC allowing the CDC to go ahead with testing to detect H1N1 in humans. Proceed forward in time and in broad strokes we can track the aggressive evolution to the new virus. The site reads like a scene from The Andromeda Strain (1971). Next ‘Avian Influenza A (H5N1) human infection in Hong Kong’ (CDC 2010), at the same time reports come in of H3N2 or Swine flu begin. As of January 2016 there are 9 subtypes of the H7 strain of avian influenza, we watch cautiously if H7N8 can make the jump from birds to humans like other strains. Not to mention the more recent Ebola epidemic in Africa. Contagion (2011) was simply born out of the paranoia of the real life events taking place. The film is a ensemble piece, seemingly very little is done to introduce each character, yet through brief interactions with family or co-workers they all feel like real people. Montage is used to rapidly move around the world introducing them. Each character playing a role in learning how the virus spread and how it was eventually defeated.
Jude Law, Contagion 2011
In the War of the Worlds (1953) the Martian invasion is seen from the perspective of the top brass and scientists in charge of defeating the aliens. Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005) aimed to show the invasion from the perspective of an average man and his two children just trying to survive. This is a complete reversal of the evolution of the zombie film. George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) is about a group of average people experiencing the outbreak of zombies. Contagion (2011) like War of the Worlds (1953) features the top brass, workers at the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) and WHO (World Health Organisation) trying stop the virus and lessen casualties of the epidemic. Unlike Outbreak (1995) the virus is already global. This is part of what makes Contagion a zombie film, the zombie infection is always a worldwide epidemic without hope of containment. It also feels like a zombie film thanks to the score by Cliff Martinez who took inspiration from the Romero’s Dawn of the Day (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985). Contagion (2011) plays a clever trick on the audience, Soderbergh often lets the camera linger for a moment on something a sick person has touched, making the audience aware that surface is now likely to infect the next victim. The audience then takes that notion outside the cinema and becomes paranoid of everything they touch. Even making them fearful of touching their own face.
My creative practice will be informed by this in the following ways. It seems obvious but I have become more aware of how large scale events change both society and individuals in different ways creating unique stories from societal wide perspective down to one persons narrow yet universal perspective of how they were effected. The one line synopsis for my film is ‘a couple deals with the aftermath when one of them is infected by a biological weapon.’ I aim to have a society scale issue like terrorism and the hatred it creates infect a relationship which will play out at a individuals level. The biological weapon in a grotesque Cronenberg style way is symbolic of hatred and will physically change a person, turning them into a weapon that will infect others simply spreading more hate. Questioning the pointlessness of the current form of terrorism our society experiences. Which for both sides inspires and motivates new people to go out and fight, continuing cycles of hatred.
Bibliography
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Filmography
Andromeda Strain, The 1971, Motion Picture, Universal Pictures. Contagion, 2011, Motion Picture, Warner Bros.
Dawn of the Dead, 1978, Motion Picture, Laurel Group.
Day of the Dead, 1985, Motion Picture, United Film Distribution Company. Fly, The 1986, Motion Picture, SLM Production Group & Brooksfilms. Night of the Living Dead, 1968, Motion Picture, Image Ten.
Outbreak, 1995, Motion Picture, Warner Bros.
Philadelphia, 1993, Motion Picture, TriStar Pictures.
Siege, The 1998, Motion Picture, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Thing, The 1982, Motion Picture, Universal Pictures.
War of the Worlds, 1953, Motion Picture, Paramount Pictures.
War of the Worlds, 2005, Motion Picture, Paramount Pictures.
