Canadian Identity in Dead Ringers
Written by Gauntgirl, copyright 2000.
Over the past twenty or thirty years, cultural and artistic debates around the world have increasingly challenged modernist ideologies. In the West, there have been great upheavals in dominant values prompted by the women's movement, developing questions around the consequences of rapidly advancing technologies, and the growing confusion over unified cultural identities in the light of an increasingly immigrant/multi-racial world. As a second world, post-colonial country, Canada seems a fitting site for these postmodern discussions. Indeed, the problem of a unified, cultural identity in Canada (that which is essentially 'Canadian') has long been a concern for Canadian filmmakers and artists. Although his films may not seem traditionally Canadian, David Cronenberg's films are just as concerned (if not more) with the many possible realizations of identity. In an attempt to locate discussions of Canadian identity in Cronenberg's films, I will examine his 1988 tour-de-force, Dead Ringers.
Traditions of filmmaking in Canada have long relied on the documentary aesthetic. Canadian films tend to be concerned with an authentic depiction of the 'Canadian reality' as it relates to the physical/cultural world. David Cronenberg's films choose to deviate from explorations of reality and authenticity in an effort to represent the inner/psychological world of identity. In Dead Ringers, Cronenberg plays metaphorically with issues of the fragmented identity, gender, and social anxiety. These issues are given shape in the twins, Bev and Elliot.
Postmodern discourses around identity have been challenging ideas of essentialism. In a postmodern world there are no unifying identities, we are all fragmented. In Canada, identity is constructed by a complicated mix of our colonized history, dual dominant languages, and a growing multi-cultural population (to name only a few factors). This type of fractured identity is made flesh in Bev and Elliot. They are two who behave like one (or try to at least), two halves of the same coin. Like the original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, each twin is necessary to the other's survival. Their relationship is a balancing act between the need they have for each other (for unity) and the want to be individuals. Bev's nightmare is an expression of both his fear and need of Elliot. In the dream Bev and Elly are physically connected through an umbilicus. At first Bev doesn't want Elly to see him with Claire (his desire for an individual identity) but when Claire attempts to sever their connection Bev awakes in terror and cries that he never wants to have that dream again (that he can't stand the reality of being separated from Elly). In the final scenes of the film Bev 'separates' himself from Elly ("separation of the Siamese twins") by disemboweling him and cutting the imagined umbilicus with his mutant tools. Like the story of Cheng and Eng, the death (separation) of the one proves to be the death of the other. I find a parallel in this scenario with the anxieties in English and French Canada over the possible separation of Quebec. The combination of both French and English cultures ('unity') in Canada has shaped the manner in which she is valued both at home and abroad. If Quebec separates in her need for individuality, then there are fears that what's left of the Canadian identity will crumble.
Bev and Elliot also seem to represent the British/colonized element of Canadian identity. For one, Jeremy Irons is British and even though there is no mention of the twins being British, there is also no attempt to hide his accent. As for the characters themselves, they are cold, analytical, and clinical. They fit the perfectly detached British stereotype. In the beginning of the film they conduct themselves in a manner that is sterile and proper. As boys, they express a disgust of the messy mechanics (both physical and emotional) of sex and marvel at what it would be like to be fish who can reproduce without making physical contact. But behind a proper, bourgeois exterior, their true natures are deceptive and tormented. This effect implies that we have skeletons in our colonial closet. Indeed colonization, under the guise of being God's work (i.e. missionaries), caused great suffering and constructed a Canadian history of victimization. Bev and Elly's victim is their shared lover Claire. They are attracted to her because of her mutation, her otherness. Although they cannot ultimately cure her of her deformity, they don't hesitate to continually use her body. But she is just as guilty of using herself through sex and drugs; and as an actress, the only role we see her play is that of a victim (implied by bruising make-up around the mouth and eye). In this sense Claire seems to represent the Canadian identity as being trapped in a cycle of victimization fueled by masochistic tendencies.
In Dead Ringers issues of gender identity are also at the forefront. The most apparent difference between the seemingly identical Bev and Elliot is that Bev is representative of the feminine and Elly is the masculine. Bev is the weak/emotional half of the coin; he easily becomes dependent of Claire and her drugs while Elly remains detached. Bev is ultimately tormented by his femininity. When Claire confronts him about the fact that he has a woman's name, Bev becomes irate and frustrated. He attempts to regain his masculinity by lashing out, but to no avail for she has already proved to be a castrating force. Once castrated, Bev becomes more feminized and weak. His feminization ultimately causes the castration of Elliot who joins his brother in a drug induced downward spiral until they become indistinguishable and their shared feminine weakness manages to separate and kill them.
Anxieties toward the feminine are commonplace in cinema and, since Laura Mulvey's theories and feminist movements in film, cinematic analysis of the feminine have also become commonplace. The image of the castrating feminine, although prevalent in Canadian cinema, is not restricted to a Canadian exploration of identity. I believe the connection between anxieties around the feminine in Dead Ringers and Canadian identity is found in the feminization of Canada (or any second world, post-colonial country). Canada is feminine in that she is defined in relation to the aggressive masculine (United States, Britain), her nature is ultimately passive, and she is representative of the other (in being a multi-cultural melting pot). Domestically, these feminine elements have caused sections of the population (largely males) to feel threatened by Canada's 'weakness'. They demand, for example, tougher immigration laws to keep the 'Other' from invading Canada and threatening employment for those who've already settled. On another level, there are fears about how the women's movement has managed to change (to feminize) the western world. There are no longer clear distinctions of dominance in relation to gender. In a sense, men throughout the West are all becoming feminized by the growing gender-conscious ideologies.
Dead Ringers takes another western anxiety and unites it with an examination of gender issues. By the 1980's the latest technological and scientific booms were already in full swing. Once again, the western world begins to change rapidly. And with all change comes fear. There is skepticism that new technologies and scientific finds will actually benefit mankind. The almost constant changes in scientific arguments are exposing flaws and we begin to realize that science and technology don't have all the answers. For Bev and Elliot, their scientific focus is the ultimate secret of the female body, reproduction. They are fueled by their search for identity, a need to understand the nature of their existence as twins (an aberration of the reproductive processes). But their need for understanding as scientists proves problematic. They view their subjects (woman and identity) from a detached distance where they are unlikely to get 'messy'. This distancing eventually causes Bev to make false findings and develop false theories - that something is wrong with women, they are all mutants. It is from these falsities that he designs his tools for working on mutant women (a.k.a. tools for separating Siamese twins) with which he almost kills a woman. This new technology founded on false science is their ultimate destroyer. These tools are first responsible for the loss of Bev and Elly's professional careers, then they further become the tools for their death.
In David Cronenberg's film Dead Ringers, the case for Canadian identity is convoluted at best. I have shown that within the two protagonists of the film are elements of the fragmented identity (as related to Canada's duality and the language debate), colonial victimization, gender anxieties, and anxieties around the scientific unknown. These are only a few of the possible readings of identity in this film. In moments, the examinations of identity in Cronenberg's films become so complicated that they are almost impossible to decipher. I think this is part of his point - that the nature of identity is complicated and the effort to decipher its codes is beyond anyone discourse.
BibliographyFeldman, Seth. Take Two: A Tribute to Film in Canada. Toronto: Irwin Publishing, 1984: 80-89
Freeland, Cynthia. The Naked and the Undead. Colorado: Westview Press, 2000: 104-120
Keith, Barry. The Dread of Difference. Texas: U of T Press, 1996: 244-247
Cronenberg, David. Cronenberg on Cronenberg. Edited by Chris Rodley. London: Faber and Faber, 1997
