Superhero Movie Smack Down – Round 3
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Peter Lang – Orgazmo
The self is volatile enough as it is, and to be forced to maintain an identity despite established ethics and relationships – to force the self outside of the self – is an ordeal no individual should have to endure. And perhaps that is what makes the superhero so extraordinary. To balance between two distinct worlds, to wear two masks, so to speak, is a feat deserving of the term superhuman.
But, by and large, the heroes we love are all too human, and that’s what makes them truly spectacular. Fate, meddling bitch that she is, throws the individual into a situation wherein one’s self is tortured through simultaneously clinging to and disavowing everything that one has ever built, believed and loved. It is the perpetual struggle of the superhero and why I choose Orgazmo (1997).
Through comedy, the archetypal identity crisis of the superhero is highlighted as a simple Mormon, Joe Young, is forced into the apathetic (and at times violent) world of adult film. Still, he manages to hold on to some semblance of his former life and, despite the chaos of having no choice but to act in renunciation of his ethical constitution, manages to discover the virtue in taking such an erstwhile path.
It is an elementary exercise to defend a film by way of an established model (in this case, costume, powers, etc.), and I am certain many of my colleagues will have taken such a jejune approach, but to truly read cinema, as I have done here, unlocks the secrets and subtexts so easily overlooked in most genre film.
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Voting has been frenzied. In the second round, The Dark Knight lengthened its lead while Spider-Man 2 bounced into second place. Third place has become a four-way dead heat between The Rocketeer, Superman and newcomers X2 and The Fifth Element. The biggest surprise so far: Iron Man is dead last, behind even Dolph Lundgren’s The Punisher. Anything can happen – be sure to vote!
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