A US soldier who claims he was bored one day, memorises and performs the dance from the cult film Napoleon Dynamite in a mess tent somewhere in Iraq during the war. Napoleon Dynamite by Me is my intervention which explores themes of narcissism, masculinities and state-controlled violence. The soldier’s movements are both aggressive and playful as he parodies a caricatured effeminacy. His gestures may appear sexualised or threatening, or silly and even vulnerable within his dance sequence.
Black and white imagery of the dancing soldier is juxtaposed with broken images from a staged terrorism alert which took place in central London and was broadcast across news media in the UK. Female victims scream as they are supported by male paramedics. Terrorism it would appear is stereotypically gendered.
Napoleon Dynamite by Me has be been curated in different ways including two channel projection in which the dancing soldier performs above the scene of a female ‘victim’ below
This is an extract of an artists talk that accompanied a 2 channel video projection delivered at AHRC Mascnet: Masculinity and National Identity in Berlin, January 2020.
Napoleon Dynamite by Me plays with themes of dominant and subordinate gender hierarchies. It features a dancing soldier who performs movements that are aggressive and playful as he parodies a passivity and caricatured effeminacy of the character of Napoleon Dynamite from the film of the same title. His gestures may appear sexualised or threatening, or silly and even vulnerable within the sequence, often at the same time.
The original 2004 American film Napoleon Dynamite, addresses the instabilities surrounding themes of masculinity, femininity, power and oppression. Its hero, Napoleon challenges a hegemonic order, through his performance of an eccentric dance at his high school show. The dance is a subtle parody of a feminised and vulnerable masculinity, that ultimately triumphs at the end of the film. Subordinated masculinity is absorbed into the dominant order while subverting it at the same time.
The parody by jeffryismyusername is performed by a solider and filmed by another, in a mess tent, in Iraq in the middle years of the war in 2007. The video was posted in the year that saw the highest casualties with 900 US soldiers and 26,000 civilian deaths. The highest number of civilian casualties happened in the previous year of 2006 when nearly 30,000 civillians were killed.
The soldier wears combat trousers and a t-shirt labelled, ‘Whose your Baghdaddy?’ I can’t decide whether his expression is one of ecstatic abandonment, perhaps under narcotic influence, or one of concentration in synch with his precisely performed dance moves. This is the work of an expert. He keeps to a defined space in front of the camera, while at the same time remaining fluid. Masculinities and femininities, which were challenged within the original film, are exaggerated through the soldiers aggressive dominating performance.
I removed the musical track and added a subtle, almost indistinct sound of breath over a distant drone. In later versions I created a sampled soundtrack comprising military drums and a borrowed short sound extract from Kathryn Bigelow’s 2011 film Zero Dark Thirty. The soundtrack includes triumphant orchestral score which is also reminiscent of the drone of military aircraft, missiles and helicopters. The musical drone effect and distant thuds are designed here to draw attention to the off-screen spaces at the edge of the frame, behind the camera or outside canvas of mess tent. Through this the viewer is invited to contemplate the imaginary spaces beyond his internal reverie.
I juxtaposed the sequence with a film which utilised mobile phone footage of a staged terrorism alert, which took place in central London and was broadcast across news media in the UK in 2015. Female victims appear to be screaming or being supported by male paramedics. Male actors as hostage takers parade in balaclavas. Terrorism in this film is stereotypically gendered. I projected the dance by the solider above images taken from staged London attack. His commanding presence is completed by the opening scene that depicts a woman sitting on the ground. She appears to to try to pull herself up with with the body of a standing man. But many ways the imagery is suggestive of a sexual act performed for the benefit of him rather than her.
Notes
Jared Hess, Napoleon Dynamite, (United States): Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2004.
“Napoleon Dynamite Dance By Me in Iraq,” Jeffreyismyusername. Published March 6, 2007 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqUaIbDuIS0&t=1s
Statista Reported 904 US casualties in the Iraq War in 2007. See, “Number of U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraq war from 2003 to 2020.” Statista Research Department. https://www.statista.com/statistics/263798/american-soldiers-killed-in-iraq/. Statista also reported over 26,000 civilian deaths in the same year. In 2006 however over 29,000 civilians were killed in Iraq. See, “Number of documented civilian deaths in the Iraq war from 2003 to July 2021.” Statista Research Department. Published August 10, 2021 https://www.statista.com/statistics/269729/documented-civilian-deaths-in-iraq-war-since-2003/
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty, United States: Alliance Films, 2013.
See Noêl Burch’s formula for on and off-screen space where sound operates a capacity to bring off-screen spaces into play. See, “Nana or Two Kinds of Space,” in Theory of Film Practice (London and Paris: Secker and Warburg Limited, 1969) 17-31
UK Government worked with emergency services on a counter-terrorism training exercise in London, “UK Police Test Terrorism Attack Response in London.” Sky News. Published June 30, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSEVw0aXdCA