In order to properly understand why BMW created The Hire series and Chosen in particular one must first understand BMW's financial position in 2001. BMW was the envy of the auto industry. A 1999 AutoWorld magazine article sums up the company's enviable position--
"Most everybody seems to have a definite notion of who BMW buyers are - affluent Baby Boomers who wear their cars like Rolex watches and Armani suits, but also express a passion for driving.

That crystal clear image is what puts BMW among the most coveted automotive brands in the world."
The AutoWorld article goes on to discuss BMW's recent acquisition of LandRover and what it might mean for the company's future. Fast forward one year to June of 2000 and Fortune magazine is writing about BMW's unfortunate LandRover buy and subsequent resell. The article makes a case that BMW is undergoing distress and striving to maintain their elite brand image while still expanding their market share. Enter The Hire, Chosen, and a new era of marketing.
In 2001, BMW was not launching a new model, instead they invested a considerable sum of money into reestablishing themselves as the market leaders in luxury vehicles. They conducted extensive research that showed that the demographics of "the average work-hard, play-hard customer was 46 years old, with a median income of about $150,000. Two-thirds were male, married, and had no children." Another interesting statistic also emerged, 85% of them used the internet before purchasing a car. BMW decided to try a wholly new advertising approach and launched BMW films where prospective customers could come and view the films. It was a unique draw at the time and it created tremendous buzz and market appeal for the brand.
Chosen and the rest of The Hire series reinforced the image of what a BMW customer looked like, he was male, affluent, cool and perhaps most importantly elite. The advertising strategy itself also reinforced the image. Although it's difficult to remember now when high speed internet access is so easily accessible in 2001, access to a high speed internet connection was far more likely if you were relatively well off. The Hire series both in content and means of distribution therefore reinforced BMW's brand as well as the dominant power structure of the white wealthy elite male world. In 2006 a demographic survey was released that showed that 72% of the people who the BMW 5 series--the car featured in Chosen-- are white and male, clearly BMW's advertising paid off.

TIPRR 13

I have to admit, I am totally interested in this concept of ‘discursive practices,’ ‘hegemony’ and ‘interpellation’ as “the way power is internalized by those whom it disempowers, so that it does not have to be constantly enforced externally” (170). In the business world, the need to motivate a select populous through cultural means is ubiquitous. I deal with the concept almost every day and it comes up in conversations with other management routinely. Then, when I sit down and start to read theory and about this idea of creating a kind of internal motivation that “tricks” the individual into believing that something is a choice when it is merely a decision already made by the social construct (as in interpellation) – well, I can’t help but be interested in how that mechanism actually works in practice. There is a sadistic kind of pleasure in trying to understand how to create cultures that motivate without having “to be constantly enforced externally.” In fact, I cannot imagine that a teacher does not think of the same things – and yet we look at the idea in a mostly negative light when we feel like something is possibly “manipulating” us. Therefore, if the aim of looking through the lens of theory is, in part, to enlighten our understandings to these principles in action in our lives, what can we do about them except see them?

I apologize if my interpretation of the theory is incorrect, but I’m taking a stab nonetheless.

I would like to briefly look at an article written by Jere Longman for “The New York Times” dating Saturday, July 14, 2001 entitled, “OLYMPICS; Beijing Wins Bid for 2008 Olympic Games.” Specifically, I am interested in the discussion the article talks about regarding “human rights” in China:

Amnesty International reported last week that China has executed 1,791 citizens since April in a renewed anticrime campaign. Some recent executions took place after those sentenced to death were first taken to sports stadiums and jeered in ritual public humiliation, the rights group said today.

Without question, a large concern for all those who are citizens or refugees from China is the mass executions going on there and the violation of human decency in “ritual public humiliation.” It stands to reason that many have previously tried to boycott China’s bids for acceptance by the International Olympic Committee.

In an indication that the failed boycotts of the 1970's and 1980's would not be repeated in a post-cold-war era, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said, ''What we do know is that American athletes are going to go there, and they're going to compete and hopefully compete very well and bring home lots of gold medals.''

Obviously, Americans care about, in reference to their commercialism and media content, the idea of winnings, above all other things. Previous to the above statement, the White House spokesman, Ari Fleisher is quoted as having said, “The president does not view this as a political matter.”

In the BMW short-film, Chosen (2001), there is the interesting idea that Tibetan monks, refugees from China, are life-threateningly attacked by nameless and politically anonymous assailants, which are violently fought against and finally, in much the same American sense as Condoleezza Rice’s statement, beaten and lose against the competition of a superior “athlete,” both in the physical and in the driving sense. The expectation of the time was not necessarily that anything would change regarding China’s violence against its own people but that in small ways (bringing home lots of gold medals) American ability would show its superiority. This was not a “political matter” but one of innate dominance of the American people for their capitalistic competitiveness: they would out-race, out maneuver, and out fight in the small battles of the Olympic fields, just as the Hire does in the film.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/14/sports/olympics-beijing-wins-bid-for-2008-olympic-games.html?pagewanted=1

TIPRR 13-Cultural Materialism Has Nothing To With Shopping...

I was really hoping that it would. But alas...

So, in looking at Cultural Materialism, as Barry mentions, it seems that the huge majority has dealt with Shakespearean texts. However, when looking at "What cultural materialists do," the very first thing listed is that:

"1. They read the literary text...in such a way as to enable us to 'recover its histories,' that is the context of exploitation from which it emerged.
2. At the same time, they foreground those elements in the work's present transmission and contextualising which caused those histories to be lost in the first place" (180).

So, if I understand correctly (and I accept that I may be off base here), the idea is to take a look at the context/histories of the text's origin and then examine the text, with that knowledge, in the context of the present, focusing specifically on why those histories have been lost.

When examining Chosen, I would assume that most of us feel the same: it's not so old that its "histories" have been lost. Yet, the use of the Tibetan child as the "chosen" one allows for some examination of the context of exploitation.

2001, the year The Hire series was released, marked the 50th anniversary of China's reoccupation of Tibet. In May of that year, President Bush met with the Dalai Lama in the Oval Office, resulting in strained relations with China.

Analyzing Chosen in light of this knowledge, we are able to "recover its history" and its "context of exploitation." By centering this advertisement on the Tibetan "chosen child" one could say that BMW was making a statement about the necessity of helping the oppressed Tibetan people, further putting the white car and the better driver on the side of "good." At the same time, one could say that BMW was exploiting the plight of the Tibetans in order to sell cars.

So, what does that mean in the context of today, eight years later? Why were these histories lost? Is it because the Tibetan plight has taken a backseat to more pressing matters, like Tiger Wood's extra-marital affair? Is is because as a nation, we are trying to improve our relationship with China and so we gloss over the situation? Is it because we no longer care?

Analyzing Chosen now, one is able to see that BMW's use of the Tibetan imagery emphasizes the "otherness" of the Tibetan culture and brings their plight again to the forefront. In looking at the corrupted monk in the end, could one possibly pull out a statement regarding some of the corrupted means of dealing with the Tibetans? Are there people who are being "bought off" in order to not aid these people? Do we need to be more like Mr. Owen in our endeavors to help the Tibetans? I certainly think that taking a lesson from Chosen would be a bit more worthwhile than examining the ins and outs of Tiger Wood's life.

Something is Rotten in the City of Detriot

My title hails from a Transformers Animated episode that Brent was watching as I was reading about Hamlet and cultural materialism. It seemed slightly appropriate, even though I don't know if BMWs are made in Detroit...

Reading about these two approaches reminds me of a few books that I've been reading (skimming...) for my paper. One that seems like a perfect example of New Historicism is a book called American Domesticity that talks about the influence of the housekeeping practices and manuals from the turn of the century on Hollywood filmmaking practices. The book offers close readings of films and housekeeping manuals and societal practices, and ends up being a fascinating read. It seems like this is what New Historicism and Cultural Materialism both do: open up the analysis of a text to allow for historical realities, account for 'non-literary' texts and their influence on the literature itself.

The difficult thing about distinguishing between new historicism and cultural materialism when studying this specific text is that we're not really far enough removed from 2oo1 to make a large distinction between a historical text and a current text (though maybe I'm wrong about this...2001 still seems really recent to me). So, I'm going to attempt New Historicism, but I might get it all wrong, and it might seem quite a bit like Cultural Materialism (which I'm no longer going to capitalize because I've been inconsistent enough as it is...), but that's that.

The first thing I ever thought when I saw this film was, "Did this actually work?" It seems like a large price to pay for a commercial. Turns out, it did work. The internet tells me so (their sales were up 12.5% after releasing the films, even though BMW didn't release a new car that year). The BMW films emerge from a culture of product placement so ingrained in the traditional American viewer that not only do we not flinch at its inclusion in anything (in fact, automobiles are the most likely to be included as product placement), but we fully accept that in this case, our entertainment is a commercial, a commercial our entertainment. This pairing of entertainment with economics perfectly reinforces our capitalist system. If I'm not aptly saying it, what I'm trying to say is this: our capitalist society has fully accepted a system where we are informed about our products through entertainment, and it is only in this climate that a film like Chosen can even exist.

In a traditional close reading, we would delve deeply into the text, discussing how differing elements of the film contribute to its overall meaning. In new historicism, these facts of BMW sales and wikipedia articles about product placement are co-texts to be read in tandem with the text. So, beautifully photographed BMW chase scene=reinforcement of societal notions of the BMW as a luxury vehicle. If I understand it correctly, the goal of new historicism isn't only to understand a text or a context, but ultimately to understand a culture. And that is kind of cool.

Comrad Jeff

“Men and women make their own history but not in conditions of their own choosing.”

Cultural materialism is a form of historiography with a political nature. It takes the political framework of the time in which the literary text comes and the current political situations that the text helped create.

Cultural materialism is used typically to study Shakespearian texts in current situations. Shakespearian criticism changed because of the political influences of Marxism and feminism. With this reading of Chosen, I will focus on the political commitment.

For this cultural materialist reading we must first start with the context. Chosen was released in 2002 and typically I would think that a 7 year period isn’t a significant amount of time to really study any political differences, but two aspects really work in our favor: our countries economy has made a significant swing this decade and our text is a commercial for a luxury vehicle.

The year 2000 had our lowest unemployment rates in the US since the 60s. BMW has its most profitable year in 2001 (http://edition.cnn.com/2002/BUSINESS/03/11/bmw/).

The unemployment rate of 10.2% in October of this year (http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers
&series_id=LNS14000000) was the highest since 1940. BMW is making layoffs (search BMW layoffs in your favorite search engine, there are many stories).

I haven’t provided a fraction of the information out there concerning the US economy or even touched on many of the financial issues concerning American homes. I’m not an economist, but I am a theorist and this is my reading of Chosen in the context of our current economy and the economy at the time of creation.

One reason for our poor economic situation is traced back to loans given by large institutions that were then unable to cover the loan once the party who took the loan could not pay it back. When a bank or other financial institution forecloses on a home, they do not get the same return as they would if the loan was paid back in full.

A lot of fault goes to the poor planning of those many financial institutions that gave loans to those who wouldn’t be able to pay it back. But why were people applying for loans and racking up debt? What was so important that they were willing to go into debt to pay for it?

BMW is selling a luxury car. Luxury cars should be purchased by the 1% with the disposable income available for luxury items. But this commercial isn’t exclusively appealing to the wealthy. If you aren’t Clive Owen in a BMW, then you’re a scum ball in a Ford trying to kidnap a child. Do I really have a choice? Either I go into debt and save the world or I make the fiscally sound decision and everyone thinks I’m a creep.

I had a difficult time choosing a single idea to address from this week's reading because there was so many interesting ideas and areas where the two schools of thought intersected. Ultimately I decided to go with a couple of Barry's points about what feminist critics do.

Barry stated that feminist critics "raise the question of whether men and women are 'essentially' different because of biology or are socially constructed as different". One of the feminist theories that I find most interesting is the idea that sex is a biological fact but that gender is performative and shaped by cultural norms, so that what we in America consider appropriate male or female behavior is shaped by our cultural expectations. Chosen is an action movie and action movies are designed to appeal to a male audience. Clive Owen is the stereotype of a male action star. He is tough, cool, and independent--clearly not swayed by any female influences. This is a genre made by men for men. Even in the few action films with a female lead the heroine is portrayed as being an exception to her gender. She is heroic because she acts like a man. Action films reaffirm the societal construct of male and female behaviors.

Of course Chosen is also a commercial and it's clearly trying to sell a product to a male audience by proclaiming this is what it means to be a man in a man's world. BMW is unconcerned about whether or not any women appear in the ad because in a patriarchal society media that highlights men and caters to men is the norm rather than the exception. The Bechdel Test is a simple rule used for judging female representation in media, the very existence of such a test makes a case for the limited presence that women have in media. Additionally, I would argue that societal misogyny makes it acceptable for women to like action movies-- see Timbre's example of female fans of the James Bond franchise-- while belittling any men who like media that is produced for a female demographic.

I was also interested in the idea that feminism criticism debates the idea of the death of the author and instead argues that "experience is central". I think that this has interesting applications for Chosen. Ang Lee is an Asian American male and in Chosen he's made a film that features Asians and men. This would seem to support the idea that experience is central in the creation of a text. Of course a look at his entire ouvre of work show's that he is capable of telling authentic stories about characters who are very much outside his personal experience but I do think it's interesting to question this idea of the role of experience in creating art. Is it possible for a white male to create a feminist film that accurately depicts female characters? Is it possible for a white film maker to create a story about African American characters? I'm not entirely sure that this was the point Barry was trying to make but I found the idea very interesting.

TIPRR 12

Of the chapter readings, I was most interested in this idea of écriture féminine: or the inherently female-oriented language. It was interesting that feminists saw male-oriented language as authoritative and controlling and felt the need to pit the female-oriented against it as rule-breaking and looser (the opposite rather than a complementary). I have to admit I had similar misgivings to Barry, “And if femininity is socially constructed then it must follow that it differs from one culture to another, so that such overarching generalizations about it are impossible.” It was not without some humor that I found myself laughing when the idea of a female-oriented language was analyzed by Kristeva who said essentially that female-oriented language is best shown in poetry because it kind of made the idea of prose a little out of reach of this language. But I did like reading Kristeva’s perspective on the same subject – I leave this subject alone for now because my analysis is long.

With my textual analysis, I have to give the following caveat: I intend to give this a classical Freudian analysis. Chosen is about the fears of homosexual encounters and the necessity of the woman in a male world. Now that I have said that you might be saying, “Huh?” I’ll try to explain.

In the beginning the main character pronounces his availability by the turning on of his lights as a boat comes to harbor. He has effectively introduced his willingness to receive and be alternately pursued. Following the docking of the boat he is introduced to the little box – a hollow object with a surprise inside – symbolic of female genitalia. He is quickly told as he goes to open it, “Wait. It’s for later.” This introduces a pause between the time of reception and the time of revealing the secrets within the woman. The car could be seen here having two meanings; first, the ambition of the main character, and second, the three (man, boy, and car) as male genitalia, thus expressing the latent manhood of the main character.

The boy is put into the backseat, where he is physically and metaphorically demonstrating that he is no longer in control of his life. As he and the boy– the boy being perhaps a symbol of the man’s own innocence – turn to leave, they see the lights of two cars turning on, thus revealing themselves and their intentions. From the passenger seats of both cars emerge unknown men. The symbol of three – the driver, the passenger and the car itself – reiterates the male genitalia. The initial interest is easily evaded as the BMW goes speeding past them only to run into yet another hiding car. What follows is a dance, symbolic of sexual intercourse, of the three cars but the dance is in the form of a chase, thus evoking a fear of homosexuality. The main character becomes trapped. There is penetration by the use of the rifle – a dangerously aggressive metaphor – and the main character’s escape by brute force.

There is a transition at this point in our story which follows by the acceptance of a home – a place where we should feel safe – and the introduction of a counterfeit monk (perhaps symbolizing our own religious faith and devotion). This monk receives the main character’s symbolic “innocence” (the child) and attempts to use a syringe (yet another symbolic form of sex) to inoculate the “innocence” with a pink/purple glowing material (purpose unknown but with obvious female connotations). The man returns (after seeing other monks tied up – three of them to be precise) and uses aggressive force to stop the kidnapper. Thus, the ordeal is completed, an important change symbolized in the main character’s life, he is finally able to go back to his car to find the box (the woman) sitting there, waiting for him. He finally opens the box (now that it is later) and finds a band-aid within – a symbol of healing. He is thereby healed on his ear – yet another possible symbol of being responsive and receptive – and finally conquers his own fears because of the woman. Of course, there is the Hulk image on the band-aid that perhaps could mean the woman holds something of innate manhood for the main character making him a “greater man” in the process. Also, it is not without irony, that the kidnapper wears cowboy boots, which leads to a future award-winning film by the director, “Brokeback Mountain,” that deals with issues of homosexuality – perhaps making this short film a dream of the director’s. In the end, the BMW commercial is a reiteration of the powerful machismo of heterosexual aggressiveness and the connection of the BMW to the sexual potency of the heterosexual male, but that potency is only applicable when he listens to women.