Sederi Yearbook 29

Sánchez-García, Inmaculada N. “Uneasy lies the heart that wears a badge: James Gray’s We Own the Night as a Gen-X Henriad.” SEDERI 29 (2019): 135–60.

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34136/sederi.2019.6                                                          Download PDF

 

Abstract

This article analyses James Gray’s We Own the Night (2007) as a cinematic retelling of Shakespeare’s Henriad that presents Hal’s story not as the chivalric redemption of a national hero but as a tragic fall from happiness. Through close comparative reading of these texts, I explore how We Own the Night rewrites Hal’s story as a (post)modern tragedy which addresses the concerns of the so-called Generation X. Hal’s liminal position—caught between opposing social worlds of crime and law—presents the narrative’s major conflict, which itself echoes Jan Kott’s tragic vision of Shakespeare’s play.

Keywords: James Gray; Henriad; Prince Hal; Generation X; Filmic Shakespeare

 

 

 

 

References

Adams, James Truslow. (1931) 2012. The Epic of America. Washington D.C.: Library of Congress.

Alpert, Robert. 2012. “The Films of James Gray: Old Testament Narratives.” Senses of Cinema 65. Accessed October 30, 2018. http://sensesofcinema.com/2012/feature-articles/the-films-of-james-gray-old-testament-narratives/

Althusser, Louis. (1971) 2001. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus.” Translated by Ben Brewster. In Lenin, Philosophy and Other Essays, edited by Louis Althusser, 85–126. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Aragay, Mireia. 2015. “Introduction. Reflection to Refraction: Adaptations Studies Then and Now.” In Books in Motion: Adaptation, Intertextuality, Authorship, edited by Mireia Aragay, 11–32. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

The Bad Sleep Well. 1960. Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Toho Company.

Burnett, Mark Thornton. 2013. “Re-reading Akira Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well, a Japanese Film Adaptation of Hamlet: Content, Genre and Context.” Shakespeare 9 (4): 404–17.

Calbi, Maurizio. 2013. Spectral Shakespeares: Media Adaptation in the Twenty-first Century. New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Campillo Arnáiz, Laura. 2015. “Recycling The Tempest in Tron:Legacy.” In Shakespearean Echoes, edited by Adam Hansen and Kevin J. Wetmore Jr., 120–29. New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Cartelli, Thomas, and Katherine Rowe. 2007. New Wave Shakespeare on Screen. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Catania, Saviour. 2017. “Spectres of Film Adaptation: A Hauntology of Relational Hybridity.” LFQ 45 (2): n.p.

Chopra-Gant, Mike. 2005. Hollywood Genres and Postwar America: Masculinity, Family, and Nation in Popular Movies and Film Noir. London: I.B. Tauris.

Gelly, Christophe. 2011. “The Yards (James Gray, 2000): Neo-noir as Generic Hybrid.” Études Anglaises 64 (4): 455–64.

Grady, Hugh. 2000. “On the Need for a Differentiated Theory of (Early) Modern Subjects.” In Philosophical Shakespeares, edited by John J. Joughin, 35–52. London: Routledge.

Gray, James. 2007. Interview with Andrew O’Hehir. Salon, October 11. Accessed March 18, 2017. http://www.salon.com/2007/10/11/btm_13/

Gray, James. 2007. Interview with Serge Kaganski. Les Inrockuptibles, November 28. Accessed August 26, 2013. http://www.lesinrocks.com/cinema/films-a-l-affiche/la-nuit-nous-appartient/

Greenblatt, Stephen. 1980. Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Halberstam, Jack. 2011. The Queer Art of Failure. Durham: Duke University Press.

Hanson, Peter. 2002. The Cinema of Generation X: A Critical Study of Films and Directors. London: McFarland.

Kastan, David Scott. 2002. “Introduction.” In King Henry IV Part 1, Arden Shakespeare 3^rd series, edited by David Scott Kastan, 1–131. London: Bloomsbury.

Kott, Jan. (1967) 1994. “The Kings.” In Shakespeare our Contemporary, translated by Boleslaw Taborski, 3–46. London: Routledge.

Lanier, Douglas. 2016. “Shakespeare and the Indie Auteur: Michael Almereyda and James Gray.” Shakespeare Bulletin 34 (3): 451–68.

Lanier, Douglas. 2014. “Shakespearean Rhizomatics: Adaptation, Ethics, Value.” Shakespeare and the Ethics of Appropriation, edited by Alexa Huang and Elizabeth Rivlin, 21–40. New York: Palgrave.

Lee, Christina. 2010. Screening Generation X: The Politics and Popular Media of Youth in Contemporary Cinema. Farnham: Ashgate.

Leitch, Thomas. 2008. “Adaptation Studies at a Crossroads.” Adaptation 1 (1): 63–77.

Leitch, Thomas. 2017. “The Place of ‘Literature and Film’ Today.” LFQ 45 (2): n.p.

Lim, Dennis. 2007. “An Auteur for a Neglected New York City.” The New York Times, September 9, A46.

Little Odessa. 1994. Directed by James Gray. Fine Line Features.

Melchiori, Giorgio. 2007. “Introduction.” In The Second Part of King Henry IV. New Cambridge Shakespeare, edited by Giorgio Melchiori, 1–73. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Mintzer, Jordan. 2012. Conversations with James Gray. Edited by David Frenckel. Paris: Synecdoche.

Naremore, James. 2000. “Introduction: Film and the Reign of Adaptation.” Film Adaptation, edited by James Naremore, 1–16. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.

Ortner, Sherry B. 2013. Not Hollywood: Independent Film at the Twilight of the American Dream. Durham: Duke University Press.

Ray, Robert B. 2000. “The Field of ‘Literature and Film’.” In Film Adaptation, edited by James Naremore, 38–53. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.

Scott, A.O. 2007. “2 Brothers, and the Mob in the Middle.” New York Times, October 12, E18.

Stam, Robert. 2015. “Introduction: The Theory and Practice of Adaptation.” In Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation, edited by Robert Stam and Alessandra Raengo, 1–52. Oxford: Blackwell.

Stam, Robert. 2017. “The Changing Pedagogies of Adaptation Studies.” LFQ 45 (2): n.p.

Strange Illusion. 1945. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. PRC.

Tangney, ShaunAnne. 2012. “The Dream Abides: The Big Lebowski, Film Noir, and the American Dream.” Rocky Mountain Review 66 (2): 176–93.

The Yards. 2000. Directed by James Gray. Miramax.

Tron:Legacy. 2010. Directed by Joseph Kosinski . Walt Disney Pictures.

We Own the Night. 2007. Directed by James Gray. Columbia Pictures.

Weil, Herbert, and Judith Weil. 2007. “Introduction.” In The First Part of King Henry IV, edited by Herbert Weil and Judith Weil, 1–79. New Cambridge Shakespeare. New York: Cambridge University Press.