La masculinité militaire à l’épreuve des drones dans le cinéma hollywoodien contemporain

Abstract

Cet article étudie les représentations des drones de combat dans le cinéma hollywoodien contemporain en analysant à la fois les films qui mettent en scène ces armes et leurs opérateurs, comme Oblivion (2013) ou Good Kill (2014), que ceux dont le sous-texte est hanté par ces « unmanned aerial vehicles », comme The Dark Knight Rises (2012) ou American Sniper (2014). Il met en lumière les différentes manières par lesquelles ces productions tentent d’exorciser la « crise dans l’éthos militaire » (Chamayou) provoquée par la généralisation des drones dans l’armée américaine, en réaffirmant (ou redéfinissant partiellement) les idéaux de masculinité militaire traditionnels.

Unmanned? Military Masculinities in Filmic Representations of US Drone Operators

“…Sandeau notes the films’ post-9/11 context with their plots focusing on disillusioned drone operators attempting to save civilians, especially women and girls. This focus echoes immediate post-9/11 discourses that framed the pre-invasion debate in the US in which the repression of Afghan women was used as leverage to create justification for attacking Afghanistan (Sandeau 2019, 167). Feminist journalists and scholars have examined the gendered discourses—the “ultimate co-optation of feminist rhetoric” (Randol, 2005, 28)—used to legitimize the invasion of Afghanistan.…”

“…Egan’s marriage is failing, and the toll of his accumulated killings weighs him down. As Sandeau (2019) notes, Egan’s “helplessness as a soldier is redoubled” by his sexual impotence (162), another obvious threat to his virility. To cope, Egan drinks vodka straight from the bottle on his off-duty hours.…”

“…As he drives out of the base, a hard rock song kicks in, cementing the "Top Gun" image of Egan but also suggesting, as Sandeau (2019) notes, that only behind the wheel does Egan find "the freedom and virility" that is unattainable as a drone pilot (162). Indeed, the initial tough guy image clashes with the ordinary suburban existence he steps into, when he opens the door to a fight between his wife and their son-and to a kitchen that looks like "a bomb hit it" (6:28).…”