Summer heat, movies and the great American dream

In the long, hot summer night, attention wanes, and sleep comes slowly. It demands a particular remedy: the visual phantagasmoria of the gangster movie and the political thriller. Both let us sweat out summer heat in the action-packed stories of deceit and deception and the guilty pleasures of voyeur luxury and success. However, more than a thrilling visual and guttural ride, these films are a glimpse into the true virtues of the great American dream. Pulling yourself up by the bootstraps is not only a political philosophy of the neoliberal state, it is at the very core of that great American dream: power and success for all willing to sacrifice – even the most powerless. The gangster movie and political thriller are perfect genre from which to explore this recovery narrative. Fueled by ingenuity, charisma, street smarts, and more necessarily, hard work, and the occasional means-to-an-end trickery, the working-class hero is willing to sacrifice all in order to achieve what is rightfully theirs. They can but achieve that which they desire: power and money. But in the wake of this success love, friendship and family have been sacrificed, or forgotten.

However, this ride to power and success if often driven by an internal hate which is also a fatal flaw. True Colours, the story of two young law students who forge a friendship, pursue their career goals only to be faced with mutual betrayal, provides a glimpse into this realm. Peter Burton (played by John Cusack), the brash law-student is driven to succeed, and at all costs is willfully masking his lower-class upbringing in the deindustrialized decay of in the urban northeast to forge friendships with his political connected roommate. With hard work, Burton is able to get a summer internship on Capital Hill. His acumen, smarts and willingness to blur right and wrong, provides him with an initial steps to political office including a choice connection with a business-class campaign financiers. On his rise to the top Burton uses all the people around him including his best friend, his wife (and best friends ex), and his pre-dementia father-in-law (not that IS rotten!). Having used all, Burton gets his election victory. However, Burton’s business connections prove to be less than savoury, and the now Department of Justice lawyer best friend, comes in to help bring down the congressman-elect. Burton could rely on his bare knuckles and political smarts to win on election night, however, his lower-class background did not provide him with the right moral background to play the game. The only financing he could get was of a dubious nature. The lack of financial connections would prove to be his downfall. All can have power, but without the right combination of power AND money, success is fleeting. His strength and will to win would also be his downfall. In the search for success from the bottom, friends and family are burned, until, the mighty recovery becomes a downfall, sometimes fatal.

This narrative is the driving line to Brian DePalma’s remake of Scarface. Tony Montana, the equally brash, balsy, tough, edgy, street smart equipped, small time criminal Cuban refugee literally breaks out from an internment camp in Florida to rise to glorious wealth and power in Miami’s 1980’s drug trade. Like Burton, Montana uses powerful connections he makes to get the connections needed to supply his own power. Montana, working for an established drug kingpin carefully crafts a relationship with a powerful Columbian drug lord into his own drug empire. He discards his previous boss, marries his boss’ trophy girlfriend, and with his massive drug profits builds his odd to opulence, a tacky mansion featuring among other things an in bedroom sunk-in hot-tub and a lobby pool with his mantra, the “world is yours.” He gets all that he wants: power and more money than he can imagine. The world has become his. However, Montana, like Burton, becomes obsessed with his own aura of power and success. He recklessly botches a job to kill an international anti-drug trade crusader, and then knowing a full war is coming goes to find his long-time associate and fellow refugee. However, he finds his friend with his sister: a definite no-no according to Tony’s moral code. He callously kills his friend point blank. The stage is set for his undoing, but Tony is set up to go down swinging. Upset at the death Tony retreats to his office and snorts enourmous amount of cocaine from a huge pile on his desk just as the Columbians come to seek pay-back. He won’t be an easy target, though and from the balcony of his office takes on a mini-army. Despite his coked-up bravado and impressive stamina, even Tony’s street smarts cannot stall his undoing. His street smarts could only get him so far, and the well-heeled culturally sophisticated Colombia gets the better of him, just like the articulate and proper best friend got Burton.

The moral of summer films so far. The rise to success can be quick, but those who achieve, using dubious means, will fall fast. And justice prevails?