Citation

King CS. Crit. Stud. Media Commun. 2010; 27(2): 111.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15295030903550977

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This essay argues that The Brave One (Neil Jordan, 2007) treats 9/11 and its aftermath, including America's controversial wars and culture of surveillance, as cultural traumas and, in response, attempts to manage disruptions to American master narratives, particularly in relation to gender. A vigilante film that features a cinematically anomalous female vigilante, Jordan's film positions its hero-villain (Jodie Foster) as a post-traumatic subject whose “female masculinity” and brand of vindictive justice function both to assuage anxieties about American emasculation on September 11th and to atone for the “sins” of a warring nation. By coding its vigilante as disturbed and melancholic, The Brave One figures America as a battered woman who must become a man and, thus, offers a framework for understanding, and even justifying, America's post-9/11 performance of vigilante justice.