Total Recall Essay

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The White Male Fantasy of Total Recall

After saving the planet from a ruthless dictator and barely avoiding death on the hills of Mars, Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger) puts a final spin on Total Recall with his final lines: "I just had a terrible thought. What if this is all a dream?" This last statement by Quaid leaves the audience pondering the question of reality, wondering what truly was 'real.' By the end of the film, one could easily argue a whole realm of possibilities: The events were all real; they were all a dream; they were the Recall implant fantasy played out; or they were the Recall fantasy gone haywire. In addition, the film seems to reject imperialism and the domination of white males, also rather postmodern in ideology. What is most ironic about this apparent postmodernism of resistance that we see at the surface of the film is undermined by high modernist ideology that recalls metanarratives of a patriarchal past. Thus we actually get the high modernist ideology that the film appears to reject. For every progressive step that Total Recall takes forward, then, it takes …show more content…

The difference between the good and evil seems mostly to be appearance, with the evil looking old (Cohegan) and bald (Richter), representing the dying patriarchal system and a weak phallus. The embodiment of the renewed patriarchy is the good looking, hyper-masculine Quaid, whose phallic power can even withstand repeated kicks to the phallic palace. Thus as we see patriarchy crumble with Quaid's victory, we also see a new patriarchy born in which a white male still speaks for women and minorities. The new patriarchy is even stronger, for we like this patriarchal figure--he is strong, hyper-masculine, and most importantly a hero. And so we see Quaid, in control of his woman, and acting as savior of the helpless, and we can see the Total Recall of the white male

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