Cowboys and kings: The coming of age film in 1990s Irish cinema

Authors

  • Carlos Menendez-Otero University of Oviedo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2015.123

Keywords:

coming of age film, Irish cinema, Hollywood, teen, Celtic Tiger, 1990s

Abstract

The article explores why in the 1990s many Irish filmmakers chose precisely a coming of age narrative to attempt to take the international box office by storm, and assesses some of the films that resulted from the attempt. First, it discusses the cultural roots and generic conventions of the Hollywood teen film, especially the rites of passage it has reified and its idealization of small-town, mid-century America. Second, it studies the economic and cultural reasons behind the (over)production of coming of age films in Ireland over the 1990s. Finally, we tackle how these films alternatively deviate from and rely on the conventions of the Hollywood coming of age film to meet investor demands and engage global audiences with Irish concerns.

References

Balló, Jordi and Pérez, Xavier. La semilla inmortal. Los argumentos universales en el cine. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1997.

Barton, Ruth. “The Ballykissangelization of Ireland”. Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television 20.3 (2000): 413-426.

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Novato, California: New World Library, 2008.

Doherty, Thomas. Teenagers and Teenpics. The Juvenilization of American Movies in the 1950s. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002.

Driscoll, Catherine. Teen Film. A Critical Introduction. Oxford and New York: Berg, 2011.

Fox, Levi. “Were Those the Days? Historical Coming of Age Films in American Culture”. Accessed November 28, 2014 (2002), http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG02/fox/home.html

Genette, Gerard. Narrative Discourse. An Essay in Method. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1980.

Hopper, Keith. “Film Fleadh Irish Premieres”. Accessed November 17, 2014 (1996), http://www.iol.ie/~galfilm/filmwest/26khart.htm

McLoone, Martin. Irish Film. The Emergence of a Contemporary Cinema. London: British Film Institute, 2000.

Mules, Warwick. “Youth and Coming of Age. Australian Film and Culture”. Accessed November 8, 2009 (2001), http://www.ahs.cqu.edu.au/humanities/litculture/cult11011/pdf/Seminar9.pdf

Rains, Stephanie. The Irish-American in Popular Culture, 1945-2000. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2007.

Tannock, Stuart. “Nostalgia critique”. Cultural Studies 9.3 (1995): 453–64.

Wikipedia. “Bildungsroman”. Accessed December 20, 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildungsroman

Downloads

Published

2016-02-17

How to Cite

Menendez-Otero, C. (2016). Cowboys and kings: The coming of age film in 1990s Irish cinema. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 5(1), 5–33. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2015.123

Issue

Section

Articles