Abstract
Stories about how humanity rebuilds in the wake of apocalypse have enjoyed great success in American film post-9/11. In a period of seemingly perpetual war, these films articulate some of the anxieties about both the causes that underpin these conflicts and our inability to escape them. Rather than imagining a society organized in entirely new ways, these films harken back to much older political traditions and debates. These films pit the Hobbesian war of all against all against a Tocquevillian view of self-interest, rightly understood. This chapter explores how a critique of selfishness underpins these films and explores the attempts offered to combat excessive individualism. While government and corporate corruption are pressing matters, personal corruption and apathy remain the central concern. These films reveal how selfishness is the base of conflict and avenues for building institutions to limit those impulses.
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Notes
- 1.
The Road, directed by John Hillcoat (2009, Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2010), DVD; Left Behind, directed by Vic Sarin (2014, Los Angeles, CA: Freestyle Releasing, 2015), DVD; 2012, directed by Roland Emmerich (2009, Culver City, Columbia Pictures, 2010), DVD; Hunger Games, directed by Gary Ross (2012, Santa Monica, CA: Lions Gate Home Entertainment, 2012), DVD; Divergent, directed by Neil Burger (2014, Santa Monica, CA: Summit Entertainment, 2014), DVD; Maze Runner, directed by James Dashner (2014, Beverly Hills, CA: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2014), DVD.
- 2.
WALL-E, directed by Andrew Stanton (2008, Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Home Entertainment, 2008), DVD.
- 3.
For causes on the surge in post-apocalyptic films, see Kim Moana Thompson, Apocalyptic Dread: American Film at the Turn of the Millennium (Albany, NY: University of New York Press, 2007); John M. Stroup and Glenn W. Shuck, Escape into the Future: Cultural Pessimism and Its Religious Dimension in Contemporary American Popular Culture (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2007); Douglas Kellner, Cinema Wars: Hollywood Films and Politics in the Bush-Cheney Era (West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).
- 4.
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. Edwin Curley (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1994).
- 5.
On the Beach, directed by Stanley Kramer (1959, Santa Monica, CA: MGM Home Entertainment, 2005), DVD; Testament, directed by Lynne Littman (1983, Hollywood, CA: Paramount Home Video, 2004), DVD.
- 6.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Other Writings of Henry David Thoreau ed. Brooks Atkinson (New York: Modern Library, 1992); Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, eds. J.P. Mayer and Max Lerner, and trans. George Lawrence (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1996).
- 7.
Kim Paffenroth, Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2006).
- 8.
Land of the Dead, directed by George Romero (2005, Universal City, CA: Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2005), DVD.
- 9.
Dawnof the Dead, directed by George Romero (1978, Troy, Michigan: Anchor Bay Entertainment, Inc., 2004), DVD; Dawn of the Dead, directed by Zack Snyder (2004, Universal City, CA: Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2004), DVD.
- 10.
Idiocracy, directed by Mike Judge (2006, Beverly Hills, CA: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2007), DVD.
- 11.
Childrenof Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón (2006, Universal City, CA: Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2007), DVD.
- 12.
Zombieland, directed by Ruben Fleischer (2009, Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures Home, 2010), DVD; Shaunof the Dead, directed by Edgar Wright (2004, Universal City, CA: Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2004), DVD.
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Maloyed, C.L., Williams, J.K. (2020). The Democratic Impulse in Post-Apocalyptic Films. In: Picariello, D.K. (eds) The Politics of Horror. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42015-4_4
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