Broken American Dream: Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The American Dream has been idealized in cinema and sought after in real life for many generations. The American Dream indicates that anyone, regardless of social standing or situation, can rise up through society and achieve their dreams. The film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, directed by Tobe Hooper, depicts the deterioration of the American Dream through both narrative and cinematic strategies. Cinematically, the film uses a perversion of the typical American family and other aspects like disillusionment in authority to reveal the deterioration. Narratively, most women are offered only three ending in cinema: married, jail, or death.

Additionally, the American Dream has one trajectory. The ending is a wife, children, a house with a white picket fence, and success within their career. However, many people realized that the American Dream depicted in cinema was just an idea and not attainable as time went on. Many scandals within authority figures and shifts in cultural norms all affected the view on the concept of the American Dream. As people lost traditional views, the American Dream began to unravel.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released in 1974 and during this time, many aspects of society and politics were changing but the capitalist system kept running the same way it always had been. Capitalism has created many great things and has benefited many people in this country; however, the capitalist system leaves behind those who cannot keep pace with the ever-changing system. Capitalism is required to make the American Dream function. It is the system put in place and all American citizens are expected to abide by it. The cannibalistic family was a victim of capitalism due to the fact that they were not able to keep pace with the system. They had one skill which kept them afloat and that skill was working at the slaughterhouse. As time went on, machines started to take over many jobs since it was more efficient and much cheaper because they do not have workers to pay. The family no longer had business so they had to find a different way to survive using the only skill they had. Since they had a failure in their business, they started to be othered by a society which only made their situation worse. The family had become a perverted version “of the underlying logic of modern capitalism” which is “the exploitation of others for profit”. They still used the skills that they already developed but in an unconventional way. They chose to slaughter humans to either eat for sustenance or sell them to make a profit for their families. The family has “always been in meat” so they work with the knowledge and abilities they already possess. The family represents the deterioration of the American Dream since they were failed by the system that was supposed to help them. The capitalist system caused the family to become an example of “animalistic savagery” when it should have provided them with success. The capitalist system provides help for the people trying to reach the American Dream in cinema since the system is influenced by the people and not controlled by the state. Since it is controlled by the people, it should be possible to move up and be successful but that is only in idealized films. The family did their part until their part was no longer needed so they adapted the only way they knew how to.

After events like the Watergate Scandal in 1972 and the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975, distrust in the government and authority figures grew to an all-time high. The public became disillusioned and less trusting of the government after they had proof that many questionable actions happen out of the public eye. Cinema during this time was focused on “the corruption at the heart of the establishment” and had an anti-establishment view. An example from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is when Sally went to the cook at the gas station looking for help while running from Leatherface. Sally trusted that man to help her but he ended up betraying her. He was part of the cannibalistic family and was there to use her. After the Watergate Scandal, the public felt betrayed by the people with the most power in the country. During his run for president, Nixon promised the public “hope” and “to heal and unite America”. This made the Watergate Scandal all the more painful for the American people since they thought Nixon would end the Vietnam War and put America into a new and superior state. The false hope Nixon gave the American people is reflected in the false hope the cook gave Sally at the station. He placated her and convinced her that she was safe with him until he revealed his true nature. This relates to the deterioration of the American Dream since people who follow the American Dream follow tradition. They are expected to be the ideal citizens and listen to and abide by what the authority says. The paranoia induced by the events during the 1960s and 1970s altered the view of the American Dream because if the government was unreliable then other established traditions must be too.

During this time frame, the dynamics of the typical American family were changing. The divorce rates increased dramatically, birth rates decreased, and there was a shift in the views of how to raise children. The family depicted by the American Dream in cinema was made up of a working father who held all the financial and working responsibilities, a stay at home mother who took care of the children and had the dinner table set every night for when the husband would get home from work, and the perfect, adoring children. The change within the American family was depicted through the cannibalistic family. The family “exists in a macabre parody” of the traditional family since they hold some similarities but in a twisted way. There were the typical roles of the grandfather, father, mother, and son. The grandfather was barely alive but he sat at the head of the table like the traditional patriarch. The father was the cook and worked at the gas station. The mother was considered Leatherface since Leatherface was serving the food at the dinner table like the stereotypical housewife would and was wearing a mask of a woman’s face with exaggerated makeup. Finally, the son was the hitchhiker due to his childish and immature behavior seen throughout the film. Also, they held family dinners just like a traditional family would except in a grotesque and perverted way. The editing during the dinner scene became “increasingly nonlinear with repetitive tightly focused shots of Sally’s eyeballs and her mouth”. This helps the viewer of the film feel the panic and disorientation Sally is feeling while sitting on a skeleton chair at the dinner table. Typically, an ideal family dinner is a peaceful gathering and the food that is served is not made up of human meat. The dysfunction within the family is used to parody the typical family of the American Dream and to depict the changes within the family structure during this time. Even though the flower children are now adults during this time period, they still possess “a deep distrust of traditional institutions” from when they were younger so they tended to stray away from the traditional views of family and they do not want to give up their freedoms that they are accustomed to. The traditional view of parenting was fading and replaced by a focus on what the parent wants and less centered around the children. The American Dream does not involve many of the aspects that were arising during the 1960s and 1970s like single parents or working mothers.

Overall, the film contains a dark tone and a sense of impending doom. The very start of the film is a warning about the film then it is followed by abject images of dead bodies with a voice-over describing how there has been an issue with “grave robbing in Texas”. The Hitchhiker, the horoscope readings, and the mark on the van from the hitchhiker all contribute to rising tensions. Later, Leatherface and the rest of the family are revealed and the doom is upon Sally and her friends. The ending upholds the dark tone of the film since there isn't a resolution. In many films like Bride of Frankenstein and The Exorcist, the evil is defeated at the end and the problem ends up being solved but in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Sally is still “dehumanized” even though she escaped with her life and the family goes unpunished. This is related to the deterioration of the American Dream since the typical American Dream always ends in success. It always ends with a perfect family, a perfect job, and a perfect lifestyle. The ending of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre depicts a very different conclusion. At the end of the film, Sally is covered in blood, wounded, and hysterical. Additionally, the cannibalistic family lost a meal or a way to make money. “There is no escape” for Sally even after she gets away from Leatherface and the family. The memories of what she went through and the things that she witnessed will always stick with her even though she escaped. The ending is desolate for both parties. The family now has lost a food source for themselves or something to sell since Sally got away. Also, the family will keep killing people who come by to eat them or sell them since they were not stopped by Sally or anyone else. The ending of the film is extremely unsettling due to the dance Leatherface does with his chainsaw to a hysterical Sally covered in blood in the back of a truck. The American Dream always ends with a perfect closing and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre had absolutely no resolution.

In the end, the American Dream depicted in cinema motivated many people to pursue their dreams even though their success was highly unlikely. The American Dream is just an ideal that gives people hope and that people desperately try to follow. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre represents the deterioration of the American Dream through the actions of the cannibalistic family and an ending that differs from how the American Dream is expected to end. Tobe Hooper uses this film to reflect the fears, beliefs, and societal changes during the 1960s and 1970s.