Introduction

Abstract

In his article on Hollywood blockbusters, Thomas Elsaesser likens the production of a movie to a military campaign (“The Blockbuster” 17). For Elsaesser, the points of comparison are logistic complexity and finance. After all, only assault helicopters cost as much as the average blockbuster. Although Elsaesser does not elaborate on it, his comparison implies another truism about film, namely the fact that most movies are still decidedly masculine affairs. A large number of Hollywood films are written by and for men, and they are centrally concerned with the challenges and dilemmas of masculinity today.

I’m the big rubber clown doll you had as a kid, and every time you hit it, it bounces back. …

That’s me—the harder you hit me, the faster I come back up.

Clinton to Newt Gingrich, qtd. in John F. Harris 334

I like a moral problem so much better than a real problem.

Elaine May, qtd. in Vidal 70