The Silvering Screen: Old Age and Disability in Cinema

236 Pages·2011·2.676 MB·English

by  Sally Chivers

THE SILVERING SCREEN
Old Age and Disability in Cinema
Popular films have always included elderly characters, but until recently,
old age only played a supporting role onscreen. Now, as the baby boomer
population hits retirement, there has been an explosion of films, includ-
ing Away From Her, The Straight Story, Barbarian Invasions, and About Schmidt,
where aging is a central theme.
The first-ever sustained discussion of old age in cinema, The Silvering
Screen brings together theories from disability studies, critical gerontol-
ogy, and cultural studies to examine how the film industry has linked old
age with physical and mental disability. Sally Chivers further examines
Hollywood’s mixed messages – applauding actors who portray the debili-
tating side of aging while at the same time promoting a culture of youth
– as well as the gendering of old age on film. The Silvering Screen makes a
timely attempt to counter the fear of aging implicit in these readings by
proposing alternate ways to value getting older.
sally chivers is the chair of and an associate professor in the Depart-
ment of Canadian Studies at Trent University.
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THE SILVERING
SCREEN
Old Age and Disability
in Cinema
Sally Chivers
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
©University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2011
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-0-8020-4079-5 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-8020-1104-7 (paper)
Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper
with vegetable-based inks
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Chivers, Sally, 1972–
The silvering screen: old age and disability
in cinema / Sally Chivers.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4426-4079-5 (bound) ISBN 978-1-4426-1104-7 (pbk.)
1. Aging in motion pictures. I. Title.
PN1995.9.A433C55 2011 791.43'654 C2011-900557-3
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance
to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts
and the Ontario Arts Council.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from
the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences,
through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided
by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support
for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through
the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
This book is dedicated to Chris Bell and Gabrielle Helms,
who didn’t live long enough.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Silvering Screen xi
1 Same Difference? Gerontology and Disability Studies
Join Hands 3
2 Baby Jane Grew Up: The Horror of Aging in
Mid-Twentieth-Century Hollywood 38
3 Grey Matters: Dementia, Cognitive Difference, and
the ‘Guilty Demographic’ on Screen 58
4 ‘Sounds Like a Regular Marriage’: Monogamy
and the Fidelity of Care 75
5 Yes, We Still Can: Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Aging
Masculinity, and the American Dream 99
6 As Old as Jack Gets: Nicholson, Masculinity,
and the Hollywood System 121
Conclusion: Final Films, The Silvering Screen
Comes of Age 139
Filmography 149
viii Contents
Notes 175
Works Cited 187
Index 199
Acknowledgments
Disability studies changed my thinking and my life. Special thanks to
Mike Gill, Michelle Jarman, Eunjung Kim, Robert McRuer, Nicole
Markotic, John Marris, David Mitchell, Sharon Snyder, Rosemary
Garland Thomson, Sara Vogt, and Cindy Wu for their comments on this
work. I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the work of feminist
cultural gerontologists for helping me to understand age as a category of
analysis, and I would like to thank Suzann Campbell who told me about
the Botox cartoon.
I have the support of amazing colleagues at Trent and am inspired by
my students’ unmatched enthusiasm for and interest in the world in
which they live. My thanks to all members of the Canadian Studies,
English, and Women’s Studies departments. Extra thanks are due to
Dimitry Anastakis, Suzanne Bailey, Martin Boyne, Dana Capell, Jeannine
Crowe, Richard Dellamora, Finis Dunaway, Laura Dunbar, Charmaine
Eddy, Michael Epp, Julia Harrison, Stephen Katz, Deborah Kennett,
John Milloy, Janet Miron, Orm Mitchell, James Neufeld, Bryan Palmer,
Zailig Pollock, Beth Popham, Joan Sangster, Kevin Siena, Margaret
Steffler, James Struthers, and John Wadland.
I have also been fortune to work with the members of the Hidden
Costs, Invisible Contributions research team who made me think differ-
ently about care. Special thanks to Pat Armstrong, Emily Bruusgard,
Sherry Ann Chapman, Tamara Daly, Donna Dosman, Janet Fast, Norah
Keating, Bonnie Lashewicz, Maggie Quirt, Carole Roy, and to SSHRC
for their funding through that team as well as through a standard re-
search grant.
I had a number of impressive research assistants working with me on
this project. Thank you to Lynette Schick for literature searches that