Steampunk Film: A Critical Introduction

267 Pages·2019·20.244 MB·English

by  Robbie McAllister

Steampunk Film
ii
Steampunk Film
A Critical Introduction
Robbie McAllister
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
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First published in the United States of America 2019
Copyright © Robbie McAllister, 2019
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. xiii constitute
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Cover design: Eleanor Rose
Cover image: Film, Wild Wild West (1999) © Collection Christophel/ArenaPal/
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For Sarah Thomas,
whose support and guidance made this work possible
For Mum and Dad,
with love; through past, present and future
vi
Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
1 Steampunk Goes to the Movies: The Birth of a Genre 13
Identification and definition 13
Entering the mainstream 21
Steampunk as genre cinema 27
Prototype to archetype: Collating steampunk in film 36
2 Re-engineered and Repurposed: Steampunk as Adaptation 43
Adaptation and reception: ‘Sticking-Up’ The Wild Wild West 44
Auteur-ity and authority: Inferring legitimacy on the adaptation 51
Adaptation, homogenization and the blockbuster 58
Adaptation and the trans-media ‘mashup’ 67
‘Steampunking’: Genre as adaptive methodology 74
3 Dreams of Steam: Nostalgia for an Age of Imagined Industry 83
Spectacular machines: The nuts and bolts of the steampunk skin 84
Technological virtues: The wonders and horrors
of mechanical progress 93
Craftsmanship and mechanical mastery 104
Cinematic production and the steampunk object 113
4 Historical Identities: Representation in the Steampunk Empire 123
Visions of the past: Fashioning a previous century 124
Global industries: Colonialism and national heritage 134
Social problem cinema: Gender and race in steampunk’s histories 144
Mechanical bodies and electric souls: Assembling
the steampunk cyborg 156
viii Contents
5 Clockwork Modernities: Tinkering with Time in a Steampunk Age 169
Rationality, reason and industrial fantasies 170
Magical machines and the technological occult 178
Postmodernity and the new real 188
Industrial renaissance: The persistence of modernity 197
Beyond space and time: Exploring alternative modernities 206
6 Gearing Down: Making the Past Present in Steampunk Cinema 215
Works Cited 223
Bibliography 227
Index 248
Figures
Figure I.1 ‘Punked’ (2010), [TV programme] Castle, Exec Prod.
Andrew W. Marlowe, ABC Studios, 11 October 3
Figure I.2 April and the Extraordinary World (2015), [Film] Dir.
Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci, France/Belgium/
Canada: StudioCanal 8
Figure 1.1 Machinarium (2009), [Video game] Designer Jakub
Dvorský. Czech Republic: Amanita Design 17
Figure 1.2 Photo of ‘Steampunk Victorian Pump Organ Master
Command Computer Workstation’ courtesy of Bruce
Rosenbaum 19
Figure 1.3 Wild Wild West (1999), [Film] Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld.
USA: Warner Bros. Pictures 23
Figure 1.4 9 (2009), [Film] Dir. Shane Acker. USA: Focus Features 34
Figure 1.5 The Conquest of the Pole (1912), [Film] Dir. Georges
Méliès. France: Pathé Frères 39
Figure 1.6 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), [Film] Dir. Ken Hughes.
UK: United Artists 39
Figure 1.7 Around the World in 80 Days (2004), [Film] Dir. Frank
Coraci. USA: Walt Disney Pictures 39
Figure 2.1 Wild Wild West (1999), [Film] Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld.
USA: Warner Bros. Pictures 45
Figure 2.2 Treasure Planet (2002), [Film] Dir. Ron Clements and
John Musker. USA: Walt Disney Pictures 49
Figure 2.3 Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), [Film] Dir. Hayao Miyazaki.
Japan: Studio Ghibli 52
Figure 2.4 Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), [Film] Dir. Guillermo
del Toro. USA/Germany: Columbia Pictures 57
Figure 2.5 The Golden Compass (2007), [Film] Dir. Chris Weitz.
USA: New Line Cinema 62
Figure 2.6 Van Helsing: The London Assignment (2004), [Film] Dir.
Sharon Bridgeman. USA: Universal Cartoon Studios 71