Hard Bodies

"An important and original book with dazzling insights . . . it challenges some widely held views of both the political and cinematic components of contemporary America, and it should certainly evoke a goodly share of indignation as well as admiration."--H. Bruce Franklin, author of MIA or Mythmaking in America
"Hard Bodies is a real page-turner in which Susan Jeffords reveals how in the 1980s Ronald Reagan, Rambo, and Robocop came together at our own fitness clubs in a way that transformed crucial numbers of movie-going, Nautilus-devoted American white men into anti-Communist presidential voters. This serious book is sure to change how we make sense of Hollywood's gendered maintenance of the Cold War."--Cynthia Enloe, author of The Morning After: Sexual Politics at the End of the Cold War
Hard Bodies looks at some of the most popular films of the Reagan era and examines how the characters, themes, and stories presented in them often helped to reinforce and disseminate the policies, programs, and beliefs of the "Reagan Revolution." In particular, because Ronald Reagan was himself most often portrayed in terms that emphasized his strength, toughness, and assertiveness, one of the key images of the Reagan era was that of masculinity itself. But the Reagan era also promoted a concept of the nation as gendered, strong, tough, and assertive, like the President who seemed to epitomize the United States in its confrontation with the "evil" Soviet empire, the Sandinista government, or the drug-trading cartels. Action-adventure films of the 1980s accentuated these qualities, not only as foreign policy methods but also as domestic agendas, putting forward the American "hard body" asthe solution to the nation's foreign and domestic failings.
Through her illuminating and detailed analyses of both the Reagan presidency and many blockbuster movies, Susan Jeffords provides a scenario within which the successes of the New Right and the Reagan presidency can begin to be understood. Rambo, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Robocop, Back to the Future, Star Wars, the Indiana Jones series, Mississippi Burning, Rain Man, Batman, and Unforgiven are among the films she discusses.
Susan Jeffords is a professor of English and director of Women's Studies at the University of Washington. She is the author of The Remasculization of America: Gender and the Vietnam War, and co-editor of Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War (Rutgers University Press).

Publishers Weekly

Offering close and intriguing readings of movies like Rambo and Robocop , Jeffords ( The Remasculinization of America ) entertainingly argues that action films with white male heroes ``portrayed many of the same narratives . . . that made the Reagan Revolution possible.'' While Jeffords acknowledges that many films--like E.T. and Blade Runner --countered the dominant ideology, she defensibly chooses to focus on some of the biggest hits. Thus, she finds links between the ``hard body,'' or macho, militarism of Rambo and Reagan's attacks on Libya and Grenada and suggests that Rambo's wounding implies the possibility of repair and regeneration--i.e., the nation can recover from the wounds of the Carter years. In the late 1980s, she observes, masculine sensitivity replaced machismo; films like Casualties of War suggest that white men can still lead us to justice without the wimpishness of the Carter era. She concludes that Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven signals the current masculine model, an action-oriented idealism that invokes the family to justify foreign intervention. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)

Susan Jeffords is a professor of English at the University of Washington and director of Women's Studies. She is the author of The Remasculinization of America: Gender and the Vietnam War, and the editor of Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War (forthcoming, Rutgers University Press).