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Lecture 10: Lecture 10: Who are the reWho are the reeel aliens?l aliens?

Professor Daniel Bernardi /

Professor Michelle Martinez

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In the last lecture…In the last lecture…

• Crossover Theory

• Selena and Selena

• Jennifer Lopez’s Cross-over Appeal

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In this lecture…In this lecture…

• Types, Metaphors, & Allegories

• Aliens & Hispanics

• Blade Runner (1982)

You can pause the lecture at any point, click on one of the hyperlinks (text that is underlined) to visit a site or view a clip, and then return to the same point in the lecture when you’re ready.

Shot from Star Wars: Episode I (1999)

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Types, Metaphors & AllegoriesTypes, Metaphors & Allegories

Lecture 10: Part 1

Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Kirk (William Shatner) in the original Star Trek

(1966-69)

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Remember Definition of GenreRemember Definition of Genre

“Stated simply, genre movies are those commercial feature films which, through repetition and variation, tell

familiar stories with familiar characters in familiar situations. They

also encourage expectations and experiences similar to those of similar

films we have already seen.”

- Berry Keith Grant

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Key Questions to AskKey Questions to Ask

• What are the visual features/motifs?

• What are the narrative features/discourses?

• What are audience expectations/Triangles?

Shot from Blade Runner (1982)

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Remember the Western TypesRemember the Western Types

• WASP Mainstream

• Ethnic Margin

• The Native

• African Americans

• Mexicans & Mexican Americans Scar (Henry Brandon) from

The Searchers (1956)

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Science Fiction TypesScience Fiction Types

• White Hero– Like Western

• Colored Humans in Background– Also Like Western

• Sympathetic Alien– E.T. (1982)– Star Wars Series

• Destructive Alien– Aliens (1986)– Independence Day (1996)

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Critical CategoriesCritical Categories

• Representation of Humans– White Heroes– Colored Others

• Representation of Aliens– Racial Metaphors – Destructive (coloreds)– Racial Metaphors – Sympathetic (whites)

• Narrative– Socio-Political Allegory (multiculturalism?)– The Future as History

Click Here to See Scene from the original Star Trek (1966-1969)

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Classic Sympathetic AlienClassic Sympathetic Alien

• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

• God-like Aliens Come to Earth

– Klaatu/Carpenter (white male)

– Message of Unity During Cold War

– Christ AllegoryClick Here to See Scene from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Shot from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

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Quintessential Destructive AlienQuintessential Destructive Alien

• Aliens (1986)

• Racial Metaphor– Black w/ Stereotypical

Racial Phenotypes

• Racial Allegory– Overpopulating

“Welfare Queen”

Click Here to See Scene from Aliens (1986)

Shots from Aliens (1986)

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And the HumansAnd the Humans

• Aliens (1986)

• White Heroine– Maternal– Strong yet Beautiful

• Colorful Background– African Americans all

Die First (common)– Chicana “Macho”

Click Here to See Scene from Aliens (1986)

Shots from Aliens (1986)

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And the Narrative:And the Narrative:White Future-TimeWhite Future-Time

• Contact– Xenophobia– Assimilation

• Time Travel– Fixing Past to Save Future– Attacking Past to Defeat Future

• The Future– Success of Liberal-Humanism

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“What does the Alien in these SF films signify? What does the introduction of the Sympathetic Alien

mean? And in what ways is the SF alien connected to Hispanic imagery in American film?

RamRamírez Berg’s Questionsrez Berg’s Questions

Shot from Blade Runner (1982)

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Remember SemioticsRemember Semiotics

• Signifier: Recognizable Part of the Sign

• Signified: Mental Image After Receiving the Signifier / The Concept it Represents

For example: The word or image “alien" is the signifier,

and the concept of an alien is the signified. The two together constitute a sign.

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Semiotic ProcessSemiotic Process

From Noodle Tools

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Relationship of Signifier to SignifiedRelationship of Signifier to Signified

• Arbitrary: The word and image “alien” aren’t inherently connected to the mental image of an extra terrestrial or a human; that relationship is structured through the evolution of language systems (words and images) in relation to social and individual perception.

• Historical: The relationship of signifier to signified, in short, is historical. It changes with time, space and “knowledge.”

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Signified/MeaningsSignified/Meanings

• Denotative: Definitional, literal, obvious or commonsense meaning of a sign.

• Connotative: Cultural, personal, ideological associations of the sign.

Click Here to See Scene from Alien Autopsy (1997)

When you see an extraterrestrial, do you

create a mental picture of a being from another planet (denotative) or something

more terrestrial and human (connotative)?

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“… these films fulfill an important mythic-cultural function by producing a cinematic arena for the

unconscious reflection of the immigrant ‘question’.”

RamRamírez Berg’s Proposalrez Berg’s Proposal

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Aliens & “Hispanics”Aliens & “Hispanics”

Lecture 10: Part 2

Cartoon Associating Blade Runner (1982) with Miami Vice (1984-1989) to Illustrate the Interracial Buddy Dimension of SF

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Alien as Monstrous “Other”Alien as Monstrous “Other”

“Film theorist Robin Wood views the Other as a function ‘not simply as something external to the

culture or to the self, but outwards in order to be hated and disowned.’ Thus, on a society-wide level, the

Other exists as a project of what the culture represses. That is, the culture projects on the Other, what is repressed within the Self, in order that it can

be discredited, disowned, and if possible annihilated.” – Charles Ramírez Berg

Click Here to See Scene from Star Wars: Episode I (1999)

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The Application of Wood to SFThe Application of Wood to SF

“I contend that these new extraterrestrials in film are a culturally unconscious means of working out the

question of immigration as it has emerged in the last several decades….My project is first to pose a

correspondence between immigrants and SF Alien Others and, second, to analyze it with the hope of unveiling what was, as a society, repressed and

oppressed in regard to immigration.” – Charles Ramírez Berg

Suggested Supplemental Reading:

Star Trek and History: Race-ing Toward a White Future by DrB

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In other words…In other words…“What I want to do is investigate one signifier-

signified pair, the Alien as Hispanic immigrant, in order to track the consequence of moving the

cinematic representation of Latinos from Stereotypes (in which group members are portrayed as one-

dimensional characters) to distortion (where they are depicted as nonhuman Aliens).”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

Infrared night pictures of illegal aliens. www.desertinvasion.us

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Based on DataBased on Data

• Focus on 1980s– Cuba– Latin American – Mexico

• Increasing Number of “Illegal” Aliens– Competing for Limited Resources– Threats to National (Nativist) Identity

• Spiritual Guilt (give us your tired, your huddle masses… except Mexicans)

Click Here to See Scene from Nightline episode from the 1980s

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SF as DreamSF as Dream

“Stereotyped versions of the Hispanic correspond to (relatively) undisguised dreams, serving to fulfill

the wish of the dominant society to exercise control of Hispanics by belittling, ridiculing, and

exaggerating them into the margin.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

Based on Sigmund Freud’s work, where dream-distortions are linked to the need of the dreamer to prevent anxiety or other

distressing feelings.

Click Here to See Alien Abduction Scene from Communion (1989)

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Today’s Sympathetic AlienToday’s Sympathetic Alien

“What we are able to realize through the appreciation – deportation narrative of Sympathetic Alien SF is

that for all the space creatures’ virtues they are still Aliens – a difference that makes not only a difference, but all the difference in the word. In narrative terms,

this necessitates the Sympathetic Alien's leaving Earth and returning home.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

This is a similar structure to the Chicano social problem film, which places sympathy with the Chicano only to have him return to the barrio and, thus, not succeed at assimilating.

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Today’s Destructive AlienToday’s Destructive Alien

“Aliens in Destructive Monster movies from Alien to Predator to Blade Runner are sucked into

outer space, blasted to smithereens, or die a

mercilessly, genetically engineered death. The message

seems to be as clear and succinct as it is brutal: Aliens,

go home or die.” – Charles Ramírez Berg

Shots from Predator (1987)

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Blade RunnerBlade Runner (1982) (1982)

Lecture 10: Part 3

Shot from Blade Runner (1982)

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CreditsCredits

• Released in 1982• Directed by Ridley Scott• Stars Harrison Ford,

Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos

• Story of the Future, Set in L.A., About Replicant Slaves and a Diverse but Decaying Inner-city

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Plot SummaryPlot SummaryBlade Runner is based on Philip K. Dick's story, Do

Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. It’s a SF Film Noir film about a retired cop, Deckard (Harrison Ford), in a decrepit 2019 Los Angeles who is brought

back to the L.A. police force to "retire" (kill) four genetically engineered cyborgs known as

"Replicants.” The four Replicants have escaped from an off-world colony in order to find their creator and force him into expanding their pre-determined four

year life span.

Summary written by DrB

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White Hero White Hero “Deckard’s dilemma is very similar to that of the Border

Patrolman played by Jack Nicholson in The Border, namely, how to uphold national identity in the face of the aliens’ demonstrated humanity. Blade Runner’s

main conflict is psychological: Deckard's inner tension between his job and his conscience. In this way, the

film raises questions about the justice and humanity of American’s policy of cold-blooded nativist isolationism.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

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Multicultural Future-Time Multicultural Future-Time “Deckard has trouble ordering food from an Asian

street vendor. Gaff (Edward James Olmos), Deckard’s assistant, speaks a street gibberish that Deckard tells us is a combination ‘of Japanese, Spanish,German, whatever.’ The teeming, multicultural makeup of the

people in the streets is depicted as the dark side of the melting pot: chaos, filth, overcrowding, disorder.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

Click Here to See Scene from Blade Runner (1982)

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Metaphoric Aliens Metaphoric Aliens “The Replicants are twenty-first century braceros. Their lot is

unpleasant at best, and they are intelligent and human enough to

realize it. ‘Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it?,’ Roy, the

Replicant leader asks Deckard just at the point when he could kill him, ‘That’s what it is like to

be a slave’.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

Shot from Blade Runner (1982)

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The Big Point The Big Point “By seeing the Alien Other in human terms, it once again

forces consideration of how the long-range aims of immigration reform in this country conflict with the nation’s cherished

humanitarian ideals.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

Shot from Blade Runner (1982)

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The Contradiction: The Contradiction: Popular Culture’s ParadoxPopular Culture’s Paradox

• Anti-Racist (Progressive) Allegory– Sympathize w/ Slaves (whiter than white)– Racism is Wrong – White Hero Escapes w/ Replant Love Interest

• Racist (Reactionary) Metaphor– L.A. is Decadent Due to Multiculturalism– Stereotypes of Latinos/as– Stereotypes of Asians

Click Here to See Scene from Blade Runner (1982)

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“Cultural tension about immigrants, coupled with psychological guilt and fear, together with doubts

about national identity combines to produce, as they have in other times, in our history, xenophobia,

isolationism, and nativism. What is different – and I wish to make us aware of – is the current cinematic

shape of that fear: fear that transformed the greaser bandido into terminating cyborg, the Hispanic harlot

in a fertile black Alien mother, menacingly reproducing monsters down in her lair.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

RamRamírez Berg’s Big Pointrez Berg’s Big Point

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End of Lecture 10End of Lecture 10

Next Lecture:

What about that other alien?

Still from Rancho California (Caldwell, 2002)