“This Time We Take the Engine!”: Class War in Dystopian Films of the Occupy Era

Abstract

In the wake of the Occupy movement, a group of dystopian films were released that, despite many differences, share a unique series of characteristics. In the Hunger Games trilogy, Elysium and Snowpiercer, class war emerges as the main theme. The 99% are physically shut out from the world of the 1% by impressive barriers which must be destroyed through bloody struggle. The paper uses a critical approach, mainly Jamesonian, to examine historical, political, psychological and interpretative issues in this constellation of occupy-era films, and how they testify to the huge impact on the American psyche of the 2007 financial crisis and ensuing long depression, and the feeling of frustration that fostered Occupy. Of particular interest is the way in which these critical dystopias deal with the ideologeme of “ressentiment” while depicting the breaching of the residences of the elite by the pleb.

Keywords

• dystopian films
• class conflict
• science fiction
• hunger games
• elysium
• snowpiercer
• karl marx
• fredric jameson
• occupy
• great recession