The politics of mobility: introduction

This chapter examines 1980s film, Flashdance to discuss its own contradictions, but before that it is necessary to revisit the political landscape and ideological sentiments of the decade. It explores the ways in which they have seemingly shaped an entire decade through the conceptual terms Reaganite Cinema and Reaganite Entertainment. In Cobra the threat to national security is domestic rather than foreign with a group of Darwinian terrorists called New World Order going on a relentless killing spree in order to refashion social order. Through the extermination of the weak and, by extension, the survival of the strongest, which the chapter argues Reaganite logic par excellence. Yet, despite the box-office success, which can translate into the idea that there is a public demand and desire for the macho action films, Cobra’s production and reception recount several layers of unease, as the chapter discusses. However the chapter concludes with a discussion of dance-musical Flashdance as a model example of Reaganite filmmaking.