Rage Against the Machine in the Garden

Television, Voyeurism, and Hyperrealism in American Suburban Film

Abstract

Following the Second World War, living in the suburbs was connected to the American Dream. The suburbs appeared to be the perfect place to raise a family and enjoy the benefits of both urban and rural conveniences without the exposure to harmful influences of the city. However, some people realized that reality did not live up to the project's utopian expectations. The magnet that drew them to the suburbs in the first place began to tear them apart through conformity, social pressures, and paranoia. This article explores the American suburban movie from the post-WWII era until 9/11 to analyze how screenwriters and directors grappled with the conflicting disparity of the utopian vision versus reality of the suburbs and how they produced a picture of the faulty design and constructed-ness of the middle landscape. This design not only subordinated nature, but also subverted and deconstructed human nature by the introduction of technology. That is, the introduction of artificial structures in a natural environment caused human nature to become artificial and mechanical itself.