A deceptive sleight of hand occurs in all dystopian film, even if we don’t recognize it at first blush. Dystopia is defined as something Other, something that must be negated and transformed into its opposite—utopia. Utopia, as Thomas More originally defined it, means a place that is no place. It is an ideal form of community that does not exist but must be realized through mindful, concerted political struggle, and then continuously maintained through power.[7]
Depending on how the language, symbols, and imagery of dystopian film are employed, they can be potent catalysts for such change. When the dystopia is evoked to distance us from what is already in existence, it can open critical thinking and discourse to recognize what needs to be transformed. The trick for fomenting radical political change, then, is to realize that the dystopia is not an imaginary place but is this place. In other words, if we are to inspire revolutionary action, we must begin by recognizing that we act within a dystopia every day.
But when the utopia identified is already in existence, dystopian film serves not as an impetus for political change but as a part of the culture industry, producing and disseminating propaganda for liberal democracy—all the while appearing merely as entertainment, amusement. Yet as viewers, we are manufactured through these films to become mere characters of ourselves, waiting patiently, obediently, hopefully, for nothing to change.
In this way, visions of utopia lull spectators into satisfaction with the prevailing conditions of our own unfreedom, and liberal democracy is the most devastating utopian lie of all. Even as dystopian film shows inspired fits of social upheaval on the screen, it actively bets against it in reality. To turn a phrase from The Hunger Games on its head, our odds for producing fundamental political transformation may never be in our favor.
Our way out of this predicament is not to escape it through death but rather to face the absurd impossibility of change through continuous revolt. For, as the existentialist philosopher Albert Camus put it, only rebellion can bring about true autonomy: “One of the only coherent philosophical positions is revolt. It is a constant confrontation between man and his obscurity…. It is not aspiration, for it is devoid of hope. That revolt is the certainty of a crushing fate, without the resignation that ought to accompany it.”[8]
the impact of dystopian film
the impact of dystopian film
the impact of dystopian film
the impact of dystopian film
Oscar Night 