Cameron’s The Terminator and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale as Responses to Neo-conservatism :: Movie Film Essays

From abortion to pornography, the war on drugs to the end of the Cold War, the 1980s played host to considerable literary argument amidst such political uneasiness, then, it seems that Reagan Era rejuvenated middle-Americas latent conservatism. This return to the traditional Puritan values of the nuclear family also sponsored heightened State intervention and policing of the private sphere, thereby buttressing cultural myths of the dangerous, unknown Other. As such a fear of the Other was socially perpetuated, it seemed the responsibility of liberal-minded skeptics to note such propaganda as an affright preparation for totalitarianism. Many cultural texts from the period, such as James Camerons 1984 science-fiction film, The Terminator, and Margaret Atwoods 1986 feminist predictive-text, The Handmaids Tale, used this chance to illustrate the drastic outcomes of a society founded on such mass ignorance. Following in the tradition of dystopian, or anti-utopian, fiction, both texts u se a depiction of a perfect future world in order to isolate, exaggerate and expose certain problematic social trends. While not mean as realistic or plausible predictions, these dystopian texts seek to expose extremist attitudes (such as radical conservatism, religiosity, or technological reliance) as fundamentally intemperate to human nature and individualism. Dystopia, then, can be understood as a locale for the constant impediment of human freedom, maintained by a administrations oppressive control of technology, gender and ideology.What makes this fictional society so fascinating, however, is its cunning transformation from utopia to dystopia, or from Heaven to Hell each of these corrupt worlds is to begin with presented as a safer, more stable and efficient alternative to contemporary society. Atwoods tale, for example, presents a portrait of a society, Gilead, which is superficially ideal it is free of (visible) violence, wickedness or suffering. Yet this apparent perfect ion comes with break, for all aspects of the population are controlled social class and intellectual ability are all carefully regulated, with stableness maintained at all costs. Similarly, Camerons Terminator presents members of modern-day (circa 1984) Los Angeles in a beneficial symbiotic relationship with machinery as technology improves daily liveness for humans, so too do humans improve technology. Yet this techno-friendly society based on social alliance is jaded once the machines begin to surmount and out-wit humans here the oppressive regime that threatens humanity is technology itself.In both texts it seems clear that both technological advancement and control are strident to the succession of an autocratic state. And as the audience is always kept keenly aware of the dangers that homogeneity poses to the quality of life, these dystopian texts question whether technology necessitates a sacrifice of human individuality.