The Dialectic of Desire in the Films of Nicholas Ray Essay -- Films Mo

The Dialectic of Desire in the Films of Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray's films frequently address a competition between a 'father' and 'son' (whether literal or figurative filial relationship). More importantly, Ray has an ideological approach to these struggles. In his films, homosocial struggles are always supplanted by Ray's desired outcome of an idealized heterosexual coupling. That is, the threat of prolonged homosocial desire between his characters is usually eradicated by the death of one of the dueling men. The deus ex machina nature of the deaths implies that the resulting heterosexual coupling is somehow the way things "ought to be". In Bitter Victory and The Lusty Men, the women are clearly the people over whom the men fight in their struggle to establish a 'home' or security (with that woman). In Rebel Without a Cause, however, the male-male-female love triangle is complicated by the on-screen presence of a nuclear family that effectively literalizes Freud's Oedipal conflict. Before examining homosocial desire in specific films, I must first outline the Freudian principles that gave birth to the term "homosocial". According to Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Freud's Oedipal triangle is established at an early stage of life when a child attempts to situate itself with respect to a powerful father and a beloved, subservient mother (Sedgwick 22). As such, "homo- and heterosexual outcomes in adults [are] the result of a complicated play of desire for and identification with the parent of each gender: the child routes its desire/identification through the mother to arrive at a role like the father's, or vice versa" (Sedgwick 22). Richard Klein summarizes this argument as follows: In the normal development of the little boy's p... ...ti-war film; it was a private psychological duel. I liked the idea that the outcome of the mission was really nothing to do with how they performed it, but with what they felt about each other" (qtd. in Eisenschitz 293). 3. The title itself is indicative of the ensuing battle over the men's homosocial desires. 4. Tellingly, Horace McCoy, the second screenwriter of the film, was found by producers Jerry Wald and Norman Krasna in the RKO Studio's screenwriters' file under "masculine relationships" (Eisenschitz 176). 5. It is safe to assume that Plato has already fallen off the proverbial cliff. He, too, is alienated from his father-a wealthy man who has spent much of Plato's life off gallivanting with his wife, leaving Plato to be reared by a nurse and guardian. http://www.film.queensu.ca/Critical/PhelanCox.html The Dialectic of Desire in the Films of Nicholas Ray Essay -- Films Mo The Dialectic of Desire in the Films of Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray's films frequently address a competition between a 'father' and 'son' (whether literal or figurative filial relationship). More importantly, Ray has an ideological approach to these struggles. In his films, homosocial struggles are always supplanted by Ray's desired outcome of an idealized heterosexual coupling. That is, the threat of prolonged homosocial desire between his characters is usually eradicated by the death of one of the dueling men. The deus ex machina nature of the deaths implies that the resulting heterosexual coupling is somehow the way things "ought to be". In Bitter Victory and The Lusty Men, the women are clearly the people over whom the men fight in their struggle to establish a 'home' or security (with that woman). In Rebel Without a Cause, however, the male-male-female love triangle is complicated by the on-screen presence of a nuclear family that effectively literalizes Freud's Oedipal conflict. Before examining homosocial desire in specific films, I must first outline the Freudian principles that gave birth to the term "homosocial". According to Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Freud's Oedipal triangle is established at an early stage of life when a child attempts to situate itself with respect to a powerful father and a beloved, subservient mother (Sedgwick 22). As such, "homo- and heterosexual outcomes in adults [are] the result of a complicated play of desire for and identification with the parent of each gender: the child routes its desire/identification through the mother to arrive at a role like the father's, or vice versa" (Sedgwick 22). Richard Klein summarizes this argument as follows: In the normal development of the little boy's p... ...ti-war film; it was a private psychological duel. I liked the idea that the outcome of the mission was really nothing to do with how they performed it, but with what they felt about each other" (qtd. in Eisenschitz 293). 3. The title itself is indicative of the ensuing battle over the men's homosocial desires. 4. Tellingly, Horace McCoy, the second screenwriter of the film, was found by producers Jerry Wald and Norman Krasna in the RKO Studio's screenwriters' file under "masculine relationships" (Eisenschitz 176). 5. It is safe to assume that Plato has already fallen off the proverbial cliff. He, too, is alienated from his father-a wealthy man who has spent much of Plato's life off gallivanting with his wife, leaving Plato to be reared by a nurse and guardian. http://www.film.queensu.ca/Critical/PhelanCox.html