Auteur/Bricoleur/Provocateur: Gregg Araki and Postpunk Style in The Doom Generation
Author(s): KYLO-PATRICK R. HART
Source: Journal of Film and Video, Vol. 55, No. 1 (SPRING 2003), pp. 30-38
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of the University Film & Video Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20688402
Accessed: 12-03-2016 23:42 UTC
REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20688402?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
University of Illinois Press and University Film & Video Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to Journal of Film and Video.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 131.173.17.71 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 23:42:37 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Auteur/Bricoleur/Provocateur: Gregg Araki and Postpunk Style
in The Doom Generation
KYLO-PATRICK R. HART
I ENJOY SCREENING director Gregg Araki's
let my own first reactions, I ask them to trust
1995 creation The Doom Generation in the film
me. Then I attempt to demonstrate why I regard
courses that I teach because, upon viewing it
The Doom Generation as a masterpiece and
for the first time, most students want to dismiss
Araki as one of the few modern-day auteurs.
it as cinematic rubbish. They are quick to state
These are the goals of the present essay as well.
that the narrative is too fractured and surreal,
Araki's fifth feature, The Doom Generation
that the come-hither (or at-least-just-come)
maximizes the effectiveness of the postpunk
approach to exploring teen angst is superficial,
style developed in his earlier films, a style that
that the (at times) hardcore images and throb
is the essence of both his filmmaking and his
bing hard-rock soundtrack result in visual and
radical/subversive potential. This style is based
aural over stimulation rather than a satisfying,
in the cultural practices of bricolage, main
meaningful viewing experience. In addition,
stream incorporation of avant-garde phenome
they consistently maintain that the brutal, un
na, and postmodern narrative approaches.
expected bloodbath at the end is there for its
shock value, not to make a compelling point.
Clearly, after experiencing a tour de force, a
film that leaves them in a mild state of shock
and emotionally spent, my students-most of
The Punk Movement and Beyond:
Toward Identifying Key Components
of a Postpunk Style
whom have been raised on mainstream Holly
wood movies-have difficulty knowing what to
The punk rock movement in the United States
make of the themes common to Araki's oeuvre:
tion to rock music, which had by then-just a
"pointless[ness], boredom, futility, nothing
few years after Woodstock-become firmly en
and Britain emerged in the mid-1970s in opposi
ness, hamster wheel [reality], no fucking idea
trenched in mainstream popular and consumer
where I'm going, emptiness, no meaning, no
culture. As media scholar Richard Campbell
future, no past, just a present that's really
explains, punk music, which "has generally
fucked up, what difference does it make, alien
been characterized by loud, unpolished distor
ation, stagnation, detach[ment], betray[al],
tions, a jackhammer beat, primal vocal screams,
nothing matters" (Chang 49). In response to
crude aggression, and defiant or comic lyr
their (highly predictable) reactions, which paral
KYLO-PATRICK R. HART is author of The AIDS Mov
ics, ... attempted to recover the early amateur
ish and offensive energies of rock and roll" (91).
Punk music was identifiable by its rawness,
ie: Representing a Pandemic in Film and Television
(Haworth, 2000), and of numerous articles on
aggressive energy, nihilistic themes, and inten
media representations of gay men. He has intro
duced students to The Doom Generation at Ply
a distinct cultural form that encouraged a po
mouth State University, the University of Michigan,
and the University of Virginia's College at Wise.
lized societies historically have endeavored to
tional lack of commercial appeal. It represented
tent spirit of anarchy and disorder, a spirit civi
30 JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 55.1 / SPRING 2003
This content downloaded from 131.173.17.71 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 23:42:37 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Initially, because they intentionally ex
pressed forbidden messages (resistance to
hegemonic conceptions of class, celebrity, con
sumer culture, and gender roles) in forbidden
forms (aggressive music, transgressive behav
ior, incessant foul language, occasional vomit
ing and spitting) (Hebdige 91-2), punks en
gaged heavily in the process Claude
Levi-Strauss calls "bricolage" (12). At its most
basic, bricolage involves playing with cultural
elements in order to bend their established
meanings to serve new (and frequently opposi
tional) purposes. In other words, punks con
sciously created a musical and visual aesthetic
that distinguished them from mainstream ex
pectations, appropriating established musical
styles (e.g., rock) and fashion styles (e.g.,
ripped t-shirts covered with profanity, guerilla
style outfits, modified school uniforms, outra
Writer/Director Gregg Araki. Photo courtesy Trimark
Pictures.
geously dyed hair) in order to subvert their
mainstream meanings and create a new, alter
native subculture.
repress (Arnold ii). Punk music, its makers,
Over time, as has been the case with so
and its followers challenged hegemonic con
many avant-garde cultural phenomena, the
ceptions of ideology and social order, produc
punk aesthetic-which initially caused social
ing a potentially powerful form of resistance to
outrage and hysteria both in the United States
dominant social groups and establishments, as
and abroad-was incorporated to a substantial
well as to repressive social expectations and
degree into mainstream culture. The subcultur
gender roles.
al signs of the punk movement (fashions,
In Subculture: The Meaning of Style, cultural
songs, etc.) were soon converted into mass
critic Dick Hebdige offers an extensive analysis
produced objects. Punk fashions and insignia
of the rise and fall of the punk movement in the
United States and Britain. He states that, from
were available via mail order in the summer of
the beginning, the movement was somewhat
year; "to shock is chic" became a popular say
unstable, in part because of its dubious parent
age (David Bowie/glitter rock, American proto
ing (Hebdige 96). Simultaneously, the "devi
ant" behavior of punks was reclassified as rela
punk a la the Ramones and Iggy Pop, and
tively unthreatening after all; boys wearing
1960s' mod subculture, among other influenc
es) and in part because of its conflicting im
dress-up (Hebdige 94). These cultural process
1977 and influenced high fashion the following
lipstick were analogous to children playing
pulses (minimalism, narcissism, nihilism, gen
der confusion, and masochism) (25). Punk's
cacophony was reproduced visually by its per
formers and advocates, who created a "self
es stripped the punk movement of much of its
consciously profane and terminal aesthetic"
Postpunk Connections to Gregg Araki
subversive potential, ultimately contributing to
its rapid demise.
(26-7). The result, Hebdige explains, empha
sized alienation, "blankness" of expression,
the self and its emotional states, and cosmetic
The preceding remarks highlight the centrality of
rage (28).
both bricolage and the mainstream incorpora
and His Fimmaking Style
JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 55.1 / SPRING 2003 31
This content downloaded from 131.173.17.71 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 23:42:37 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
tion of avant-garde phenomena to any discus
t-shirts, film posters, extreme images of sex
sion of postpunk style in modern filmmaking.
and violence designed to test the viewer's gag
Stemming from these cultural practices, and of
reflexes, cameo appearances by cultural icons
equal importance to the discussion, is the relat
of recent decades, and throbbing hard rock and
alternative soundtracks.
ed phenomenon of postmodern narrative ap
proaches. These three topics will now be ex
In an early attempt to define auteur theory,
plored in relation to the career and filmmaking
Andrew Sarris argued that a true auteur must
style of Gregg Araki, in particular to the radical/
demonstrate a distinctive style over a group of
subversive potential of The Doom Generation.
films, a style that serves as his or her "signa
In interviews, Araki has addressed the con
ture" (516). Araki's postpunk style, clearly in
nections between his filmmaking style, ongoing
fluenced by Jean-Luc Godard of the French New
influences of the punk movement, and the
Wave, serves as his signature, and it is possible
somewhat limited opportunities for realizing
to study the continuity and evolution of his
radical/subversive intentions in a highly com
style and his themes. Like punk music, Araki's
mercialized society. As he explained in a 1997
interview, ". .. my sister became an accoun
films feature a bleak, disconcerting tone that,
tant, my brother became a computer program
itself or the films' themes too seriously. As a
result, like the music videos that have also in
in the end, ultimately refuses to take either
mer, and I was the black sheep, punk rock, ar
tistic kid." He continued: "When I first started
fluenced Araki's editing and storytelling style,
out in 1987, I was a very anti-Hollywood, guerril
narratives that initially appear to be traveling
la filmmaker.... The more radical and subver
down a linear path end up feeling insufficiently
sive elements of my movies are kind of like the
resolved, even somewhat incoherent.
punk rock music of the late '7os and early '8os.
As the website "Mr. Cranky," run by the thir
Punk was viewed as being very far out of the
tysomething Colorado film critic Jason Katzman,
mainstream, but later bands that started out
stated in 1997, "Gregg Araki's movies are the
punk like Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins
type of films jeered at not just by critics, but
ended up being in the Top 40" (Asch).
Araki is one of a handful of American auteurs
also by drunken teenagers, prison inmates and
medicated zoo animals" (Hershenson). It is far
working in film today. Over the past decade and
too easy to dismiss Araki in this way, however.
a half, Araki-serving simultaneously as writer,
Critics who have taken the time to dig beneath
director, cinematographer, and editor of his
the stylish surface have labeled him "one of
America's most amusing chroniclers of adoles
first four films (Three Bewildered People in the
Night [1987], Long Weekend (o' Despair) [1989],
cent angst" (Satuloff 92), a noteworthy director
The Living End [1992], and Totally F***ed Up
with "deft directorial intelligence" (Murphy 66)
[1994]) and giving up just a bit of that control
whose "work is, in spirit and nature, authenti
on The Doom Generation, his fifth film, and on
cally subversive" (Wood 342).
the two that followed it (Nowhere [1996] and
Splendor [1999])-has produced one of the
most intriguing bodies of work ever captured on
film. He has used the plasticity of the medium
to explore a consistent set of thematic motifs:
The Centrality of Bricolage
Although it is not always evident, Araki is
steeped in film history and theory and very
rootless teens (with absent and/or abusive
familiar with the auteurs of the 1950s and
parents), desperate to connect with another,
1960s. A graduate of the University of Southern
who attempt to come to terms with their angst
California School of Cinema-Television, his
and their sexuality in a culture that emphasizes
most significant influence from this period has
sex, drugs, and (hard/alternative) rock and roll.
been Godard, whose intertitle-structuring de
Components of his style and mise-en-scene
vice in Weekend (1967) Araki incorporates in
include well-known advertisements, concert
Totally F***ed Up; similarly, the demented road
32 JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 55.1 / SPRING 2003
This content downloaded from 131.173.17.71 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 23:42:37 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
movie variation from Weekend is updated in
way, he says, as long as he is allowed to contin
both The Living End and The Doom Generation.
ue capturing his unique vision on film (Asch).
Araki regularly incorporates the disjointed nar
These realities, however, strongly suggest that
rative techniques (jumpcuts, handheld camer
Araki and his films have begun to be incorpo
as, nonlinearity, etc.) of Godard's films, and he
rated into mainstream society. Although this
agrees with Godard that outsiders can indeed
incorporation is an inevitable part of commer
reject traditional conceptions of film realism yet
cial success, ultimately it threatens to strip
still work within the cinema industry in order to
postpunk filmmakers of their radical/subver
change it (Moran 19-20).
sive potential, in the same way that it stripped
If a key component of a postpunk style is bri
colage, Araki functions as a bricoleur in the way
the punk movement of that same potential.
Historically, the term avant-garde has been
he modifies Godard's techniques in order to
used to characterize the experimental film
produce films of even greater subversive poten
movement that occurred in Europe in the
tial. His postpunk bricolage is seen even more
1920s, a movement that incorporated the radi
clearly in the way he plays with the conventions
cal aesthetic and abstract qualities of Dadaism
of various genres in order to make them serve
and surrealism (Beaver 34; Hebdige 105). In
new and radical purposes. Critics have repeat
contemporary film criticism, however, this term
edly pointed out that Araki has, in just a few
is frequently applied to any film that uses ex
years, significantly reworked Hollywood sub
perimental techniques and approaches (Beaver
genres such as buddy films, juvenile delinquen
34). As such, Araki's status as an avant-garde
cy films, and road movies into gay and lesbian
director has become endangered in recent
scenarios (Moran 19; Grundmann 25).
years in direct proportion to the increase in his
Acknowledging his role as bricoleur with
regard to Nowhere, Araki has stated, "It's a
mainstream movie with mainstream content,
but totally tweaked and totally twisted and to
tally me.... []t's the flipside of mainstream"
(Chang 53). He has also pointed out that even
in films that feature straight material, he regu
larly uses traditional film grammar in unique
ways to convey a "gay sensibility," such as by
eroticizing men's torsos by shooting them from
low angles, for example, or lingering on extend
ed eye contact between two attractive men
(Chang 50).
Mainstream Incorporation of
Avant-Garde Phenomena
Although Araki began his career as a self-de
scribed anti-Hollywood guerrilla filmmaker, one
who thrived on doing everything himself and
running around Los Angeles shooting every
where without permission or permits, his film
making process has become a bit more conven
tional as both his fame and his budgets have
increased (Asch; Chang 53). His attitude toward
Hollywood has softened and will remain that
fame and film budgets, as expectations for the
commercial success of his films continue to
grow. Entertainment journalist Chris Chang has
summed up this process of incorporation into
the mainstream:
Creating from an oppositional standpoint
the outsider/Other-[Araki] provides for
those moments of rupture when things
change, new forms develop, history advanc
es. We used to call it the avant-garde, but
that, along with any oppositional form, even
tually becomes co-opted by the mainstream.
Turn on your television and watch William S.
Burroughs speak about "The Body" for Nike
Air, or hear a Butthole Surfers song as
soundtrack for a Nintendo ad. Although the
unthinkable is becoming passe, Araki gives it
a run for its money. (50)
Araki himself has described this process of
incorporation metaphorically as resembling a
giant blob ("the mainstream") absorbing every
thing around it ("the outside" or "the edges")
(Chang 50). In doing so, he has referred explic
itly to punk culture, which began with young
people wearing safety pins through their noses
JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 55.1 / SPRING 2003 33
This content downloaded from 131.173.17.71 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 23:42:37 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
and listening to the Sex Pistols, and ended up
were to make a $50 million movie," he added,
with businessmen in fancy cars listening to
"because my personality is very strong, it would
Nirvana (Chang 50).
be a high-budget Gregg Araki film" (Moran 20).
Whether you regard yourself as being on the
"inside" or the "outside" of mainstream cul
Nevertheless, anyone who has seen Araki's
ture, Araki notes, "as the margins get pushed
your-face style and extreme sexual/violent im
further and further, they're slowly drifting to
ages-can cite disconcerting initial evidence to
ward you" (Chang 50). He believes he will be
the contrary.
1999 film, Splendor-which lacks his usual in
incorporated into mainstream culture sooner or
later, an eventuality that will significantly di
minish his subversive potential (Asch). As an
auteur, Araki will likely continue to explore the
Postmodern Narrative Approaches
A third essential component of Araki's post
same sorts of themes he has explored to date;
punk filmmaking involves his use of postmod
Jean Renoir once pointed out that an auteur
ern narrative approaches, which stem from
often spends his or her entire life making just
both bricolage and the process of mainstream
one film (Wollen 529). At the same time, com
incorporation of avant-garde phenomena. As
mercial considerations may ultimately force
Araki to tone down the extreme visuals and
Fredric Jameson has noted, postmodern media
offerings from punk music to contemporary
story lines that are essential to his postpunk
films typically efface key boundaries or separa
style. "I'm not too concerned about being
tions, especially historical distinctions between
sucked up into making faceless movies," Araki
high culture and mass/popular culture (112).
said after the release of The Doom Generation,
Two additional key features of postmodern me
appearing to discount such concerns. "Even if I
dia, according to Jameson, are pastiche and
schizophrenia (113, 118). Pastiche is imitation
for imitation's sake, as an end in itself (114).
Unlike parody, which typically stems from a
satirical impulse, pastiche provides the most
dedicated followers of popular culture with
images that they can recognize while most oth
er viewers cannot; in this way, pastiche rewards
viewers of films and other media offerings for
their extensive knowledge of popular culture by
providing them the pleasure that comes from
being in the know, from recognizing a reference
that others do not. In contrast, schizophrenia
describes a visual style based in the "fragmen
tation of time into a series of perpetual pre
sents" Oameson 125), a seemingly disconnect
ed, discontinuous stringing together of
narrative images that fail to offer a coherent
global meaning, or at least appear to fail.
All of these features of postmodern media
apply to the postpunk filmmaking of Gregg Ara
Nontraditional sexual pairings and triangles are
common in Araki's films: Zed (Matt Keeslar), Veron
ica (Kathleen Robertson), and Abel (Oohnathon
Schaech), from Splendor (1999). Photo courtesy
Columbia Pictures.
ki. In part, this is because Araki wants to cri
tique today's "supersaturated" consumer cul
ture in ways that the individuals most obsessed
with it can readily comprehend (Moran 21). For
example, Araki frequently refers to pop music
34 JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 55.1 / SPRING 2003
This content downloaded from 131.173.17.71 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 23:42:37 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
and popular culture, often taking topics of con
versation, even lines of dialogue, from songs by
the Smiths (Chang 49). In addition, Araki en
joys constructing films from "fragments of
scenes" drawn both from his own life and from
the works of other artists (Chang 53).
Postpunk Style in The Doom Generation
The Doom Generation presents the road trip
misadventures of three rootless young people
Xavier Red Oohnathon Schaech), an insolent,
pansexual drifter; Jordan White Oames Duval), a
dim, straight teen; and Amy Blue (Rose McGow
an), a bored and caustic drug user-as they
push the boundaries of sexual experimentation
in the wake of their murdering a Korean Quickie
Mart employee and others. Severed heads and
arms abound as the three discover their (per
verse?) sexual desires amid a series of signs
that read "Welcome to hell," "Shoplifters will be
executed," and "Prepare for the apocalypse."
Araki's bricolage is effective throughout the
film, in part because he borrows from influen
tial filmmakers, especially Godard, and uses
what he borrows to achieve new and dramatic
Rootless young people: Xavier Red Oohnathon
Schaech), Amy Blue (Rose McGowan), and Jordan
White Oames Duval), from The Doom Generation
(1995). Photo courtesy Trimark Pictures.
ends. For example, The Doom Generation is
filled with Godard-inspired disjointed editing/
storytelling and with exquisite lighting, includ
generation, individuals always conscious of the
threat of illness and death. He turns conven
greens" (Moran 20) exuding from the sides of
tional plot developments into potentially gay
(at least bisexual) scenarios; a theme in all of
buildings to express the inner turmoil of the
his films is the superficially complex romantic/
ing "bloody reds, fiery oranges, and neon
characters as they flee from the scene of a
sexual pairing and the bizarre love triangle,
crime. Another example is the brilliant use of
most frequently either two (typically gay) men
strobe-lighting during the climactic castration
exclusively, or in relation to a (heterosexual or
and attempted rape sequence; the on-screen
bisexual) woman.
developments can only be partially seen, but
In addition to the fugitives-on-the-lam story
line, therefore, The Doom Generation follows a
the lighting maximizes their emotionality.
Far more significantly, however, Araki as bri
coleur reworks the conventions of the road
bisexual young man (Xavier) who has increas
movie, creating one "in which the characters
never actually seem to go anywhere" (Kenny
(Amy) in order to entice her clueless boyfriend
68), substantially reinforcing the themes of
ingly kinky sex with a jaded young woman
(Jordan) into bed. Unfortunately, the impend
ing sexual act between the two men is violent
pointlessness, futility, alienation, and bore
ly curtailed by a band of gay-bashing neo-Na
dom, themes common to all of his films. He
zis, who believe that society must be
transforms the semantic and syntactic ele
protected from anything non-heterosexual.
ments of the road movie-its conventional story
Finding Xavier and Jordan naked in bed, they
lines, for example-for members of the AIDS
explain that the "world will be a better place"
JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 55.1 / SPRING 2003 35
This content downloaded from 131.173.17.71 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 23:42:37 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
when the "two little faggots" are dead. They
(Araki has referred to it as "the gayest hetero
cut off Jordan's penis using gardening shears,
sexual movie ever made") (Smith 9). Subtitled
killing him instantly.
"A Heterosexual Film by Gregg Araki," this film
By placing these young sexual adventurers
demonstrates Araki's interest in undermining
on the road, Araki appears to create a utopic
overtly heterosexual content with homoerotic
space within which they can explore their most
intimate desires. Road movie scholar Katie
and/or homosexual subtexts. Araki has referred
to this as the undermining of function by form,
Mills has summarized the radical/subversive
in the tradition of Gus Van Sant's Drugstore
potential of such an approach: "[A film such as
Cowboy (1989)(Chang 50); the result ends up
this] effectively taps the deep longing for rebel
being about as heterosexual as the average
lion or utopia that the road genre elicits, then
Calvin Klein ad featuring male models. At the
uses it to comment on the problems faced by
same time, violence is at an all-time Araki high
society's non-conforming groups, its "out
during the climax of The Doom Generation,
laws." In this way, the film creates for viewers a
though it is toned down everywhere else, espe
metamorphosis like that experienced on a road
cially compared to his earlier road film, The Liv
trip, by generating new scenarios for the audi
ing End (which contained the violent bashing of
ence's own fantasies and coordinates for imag
a homophobe, an almost unwatchable gay rape
ining desire" (325). Accordingly, in The Doom
at gunpoint on the beach, etc). Apparently, this
Generation, Araki creates a utopic setting in
which Xavier and Jordan can consummate their
dent director attempting to find a mainstream
desire, then brutally prevents that consumma
audience. In this regard, Araki's typical graphic
tion in order to make a powerful statement
focus on the realities of the gay subculture is
is the price to be paid by a subversive/indepen
about American ideology in relation to sexual
replaced in The Doom Generation, at least on
"outlaws." Simultaneously, Araki's visual treat
the surface, by an extremely graphic focus on
the violence that is sometimes visited on that
ment of Los Angeles in this and other films is
another instance of his transformation of road
subculture. This shift of focus is an attempt to
movie conventions; he offers a dystopic setting
preserve Araki's signature radical/subversive
as the site of utopia. Araki's LA features none
potential even as his films are incorporated into
the mainstream.
of the typical landmarks; instead, he focuses
on overcrowded clubs and undercrowded
streets and parking areas, frequented by the
The Doom Generation is a transitional work
for Araki, in large part because it was his first
occasional transient, places that could be any
film made with a sizable budget (just under $1
where, as if his characters are trapped in a
million, from French investors). As a result, he
boundless abyss.
gave up many of his guerrilla-filmmaking ways,
Mainstream Incorporation Revisited
designer, and SAG actors for the first time (Mo
It is noteworthy, therefore, that in the end, Ara
characters have been either teens confused
hiring a director of photography, a production
ran 20). In this and earlier films, most of Araki's
ki fails to fully deliver on the utopian potential
about their own sexual orientation or young gay
of The Doom Generation, killing Jordan just as
he and Xavier are about to consummate their
men. It is noteworthy, however, that both Ara
(mutual) sexual attraction. The politics of the
ki's character types and their on-screen actions
have become more tame as his fame and bud
incorporation of the avant-garde into the main
gets have increased.
stream best explains why this film ends the
way it does.
With The Doom Generation, Araki departs
substantially from the in-your-face themes and
The Doom Generation was by far the "straight
characters that broke new ground in the New
est" film Araki had made up to that point, even
Queer Cinema movement and generated sub
stantial critical enthusiasm. Gone are the pro
though it contains his trademark gay sensibility
36 JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 55.1 / SPRING 2003
This content downloaded from 131.173.17.71 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 23:42:37 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
vocative images of bareback gay sex, blowjobs
behind the steering wheel, S&M, and the like
found in The Living End. Admittedly, the sexu
Concluding Remarks
So, the question remains: Is The Doom Genera
al situations in The Doom Generation still tee
tion an example of cinematic trash, or is it in
ter on the boundaries of the pornographic; the
film certainly offers a stimulating, borderline
stead a cinematic masterpiece, as I have
pornographic sex pastiche that breaks down
claimed? Beauty lies in the eye of the spectator.
The careful viewer-especially one armed with
the barriers between high-brow and low-brow
some understanding of Araki's other films-will
representations of sex on film. This means that
have little trouble piecing together all of the
Araki still retains a good deal of the radical/
seeming loose ends that remain as Xavier and
subversive potential evident in his earlier
Amy, after Jordan's death, briefly discuss
films. However, in an attempt to find a larger
Doritos and then drive off into a gloomy un
audience and to generate larger box office
returns, the director has toned down the sub
the roof of their car.
versive sex, retaining his cache as a boundary
pushing "independent" director by piling on
violence in its place.
To complete his storytelling goals, Araki re
lies heavily on key features of postmodern me
dia offerings, particularly pastiche and schizo
phrenia. To keep the viewer thinking, the
known, the image of a huge smiley face gracing
One critic has gone so far as to state that The
Doom Generation demonstrates the "aesthetics
of willful incoherence" (Kenny 68). I whole
heartedly agree, and this aesthetic definitely
produces an active viewer, one who, like a de
tective, continually searches to make sense of
all the clues. The narrative is fractured and a bit
director positions his characters "amidst the
too surreal at points (as when the severed head
surreal detritus of road signs, billboards, and
of the Quickie Mart employee suddenly starts
bumper stickers whose ironically witty juxtapo
sitions of printed word and image often speak
to talk). At the same time, however, the film
captures the rawness, aggressive energy, nihil
louder than his dialogue" (Moran 20). This is
istic themes, and intentional lack of (full) com
just one form of pastiche offered in the film,
mercial appeal that were the hallmarks of punk
however. In addition, Araki tosses in repeated
images of skulls, repeated references to the
number "666" (which is the price of almost
everything the trio buys, as well as Amy's SAT
score), random nursery rhymes, and cameo
appearances by cultural icons such as Heidi
Fleiss and Perry Farrell, to reward loyal consum
ers of popular culture for their knowledge of
that domain. The film's schizophrenic storytell
ing style emerges in large part from the fact
that, although many of the trio's pursuers
music in its heyday. Ultimately, it offers a satis
fying, meaningful experience about, on the one
hand, the randomness of postmodern life, and
on the other, the progress that remains to be
made toward the acceptance of non-heterosex
ual identities.
REFERENCES
Arnold, Matthew. "Culture and Anarchy." Cultural
Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader. Ed. John
Storey. 2nd ed. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1998.7-12.
Asch, Andrew. "Teen Issues Meet Aliens in Director
pledge to track Amy down and kill her, this
Gregg Araki's Mind." Knight-Riddet/Tribune News
does not happen; it is Jordan who ends up
Service 10 July 1997 <http://web2.infotrac.
dead in the end. Amy cries over an injured dog
but never over the people she has helped to
kill; while having sex, Jordan suddenly begins
to ponder the meaning of human existence;
random young men and women claim to know
Amy and to have had sex with her: none of this
is explored or explained, and as such it contrib
utes to the schizophrenia of the film.
galegroup.com/itw/infomark/715/229/
656i4i86w3/purl=rci_GRGM_o_Ai9576822>.
Beaver, Frank. Dictionary of Film Terms: The Aesthetic
Companion to Film Analysis. New York: Twayne,
1994.
Campbell, Richard. Media and Culture: An Introduc
tion to Mass Communication. New York: St. Mar
tin's, 2002.
Chang, Chris. "Absorbing Alternative." Film Comment
Sept.-Oct. 1994: 47-53.
JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 55.1 / SPRING 2003 37
This content downloaded from 131.173.17.71 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 23:42:37 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Grundmann, Roy. "The Fantasies We Live By: Bad
Boys in Swoon and The Living End" Cin?aste 19.4
(1992): 25-30.
Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style.
London: Methuen, 1979.
Hershenson, Karen. "Bombs Away! Film Critic Hurls
Moran, james. "Gregg Araki: Guerrilla Film-maker for a
Queer Generation." Film Quarterly 50 (1996): 18-26.
Murphy, Kathleen. "Toronto." Film Comment Nov.-Dec.
1995: 65-71.
Sarris, Andrew. "Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962."
Film Theory and Criticism: introductory Readings.
Invective Across the Internet." Knight-Ridder/Tri
Ed. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. 5th ed. New
bune News Service 1 Aug. 1997
York: Oxford UP, 1999. 515-518.
<http://web2.infotrac.galegroup.com/
itw/informark/7i5/229/656i4i86w3/
purl=rci_GRGM_o_Ai964i874>.
Jameson, Fredric. "Postmodernism and Consumer
Society." The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern
Culture. Ed. Hal Foster. Seattle: Bay Press, 1983.
111-125.
Kenny, Glenn. "For Director Gregg Araki There's Scant
Profit in 'Doom'." Entertainment Weekly 31 May
1996: 68.
L?vi-Strauss, Claude. The Savage Mind. New York:
Weidenfeld, 1966.
Mills, Katie. "Revitalizing the Road Genre: The Living
End as an AIDS Road Film." The Road Movie Book.
Satuloff, Bob. "Nowhere." The Advocate 27 May 1997:
92.
Smith, Gavin. "Sundance 'Kids.'" Film Comment Mar.
Apr. 1995: 8-9.
Whitty, Stephen. "Totally F***ed Up." Knight-Ridder/
Tribune News Service 18 Aug. 1994 <http://
web2.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/715/
229/656i4i86w3/purl=rci_GRGM_o_Ai5724030>.
Wollen, Peter. "The Auteur Theory." Film Theory and
Criticism: Introductory Readings. Ed. Leo Braudy
and Marshall Cohen. 5th ed. New York: Oxford UP,
1999. 519-535.
Wood, Robin. Sexual Politics and Narrative Film: Holly
wood and Beyond. New York: Columbia UP, 1998.
Ed. Steven Cohan and Ina Rae Hark. New York:
Routledge, 1997.307-329.
38 JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 55.1 / SPRING 2003
This content downloaded from 131.173.17.71 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 23:42:37 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions