The 1980's was a pivotal decade for Britain. For it's entirety the decade had a Conservative government, led by the first ever woman Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. The decade saw war over the Falklands, the first big charity event Live Aid, boom time, then bust for the economy and British people, and the arrival of high fashion for the masses.

There were also a few major disasters in the 80's that began to challenge the positive attitude and apparent complacency with which society had adopted the 'new technology' of the era. These included the shocking explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, said to have put the space race back 50 years, and the momentous Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the USSR. These two key events had a major effect on society in the 80's because of the type of disaster they were. The Challenger shuttle made real a fear that, for example, many film directors had already expored; of technology getting out of control. This was shown in films such as The Terminator (1984), in which a robot is sent back from a future where robots have taken control of an earth with too much human reliance. 

Another key value of the 80's was greed. This can be illustrated by the catch phrase of the seminal film Wall Street (1986) in which 'yuppie' hero, Gordon Gecko, announced that 'greed is good.' This was at a time when 'yuppyism' was at its height. This 'boom time' lifestyle did not last though, and the late 80's saw a massive recession. Everyone had taken so much and become so greedy that the marketplace suffered an overload and job losses began to become frequent, businesses were liquidated and the time of the entrepreneur was coming to an end.

The greed factor did however, create the big corporations that we see today. The sole criteria for businesses was profit, much more so than today, which ushered in a taste for greater commodification of almost all things. It can be argued that the 80's was the decade of the commodity. Art became a commodity and commodities themselves became art.  No where is this better illustrated than in Hollywood; this was the decade that introduced the film 'blockbuster', for example, with its product placement and spin-off products, careful advertising and mass appeal.  Company's were always keeping an eye open to see where the next profit making scheme would come from.  In film it meant realising that this type of film was popular, so this director should be used, with this actor garanteeing box-office, and target this audience.

The 80's was also the decade that saw the AIDS virus appearing, causing massive panic and this was also expressed by film makers in movies such as The Fly, which was read as an analogy of the virus and Fatal Attraction (1987), with the stalking lover, played by Glenn Close who's character was also seen as a symbol of the virus.

In the United States the 80's was the Ronald Reagan era. The cold war was ongoing and the much-maligned Reagan had some famous summit meetings with Mikhail Gorbachov of the government of the then USSR. This tied in with the arms race, with the introduction of some serious weaponry, which generally worried the public because of the speed of the development and sheer scale of damage that these new weapons could do.

The development of technology was another theme of the 80's. There was a massive influx of technology; the microwave oven, Walkman, music video, compact discs and computers were developing at a fantastic pace. The 'boffins' were working at such a rate that many of the public were a bit concerned about the rate of development, whether it might go out of control or whether something could go wrong. A Freudian interpretation of this could be that the 'boffins' represented the super ego -totally logical and ploughing on regardless and that the id was not being represented at all in the lust for the 'bigger, better, faster and more powerful'. As written above, this fear was realised to a certain extent with the Challenger and Chernobyl disasters.

On the home front hooliganism became another problem in the country's national game, football. Disasters at Hillsborough and the Heysel stadium followed, where hundreds of fans were crushed to death. The hooligan problem often reflected the angst that the working classes were suffering in the eighties. Privatisation was the new ethos and many jobs were lost in industrial, working class areas. People were becoming angry because for years they and their forefathers had grafted at the coal industry and now they were just laid off. This anger could be seen as a contributing factor to the football violence and also to major social and political protests, such as the Miners Strike, led by Arthur Scargill. The 80's were a particularly bad decade for the British car industry. The British did not adopt the new 80's work addict, corporate attitude and paid the price, the demise of the hugely successful in the 70's Leyland and the resultant massive job losses.

There is an argument that what happens in industry or the arts are a reflection of social and political attitudes of the time. This is represented in the Rally World Championship. The text I have chosen to analyse is 'The Greatest Years of Rallying - The 1980's. With the backdrop of the working boom and corporate involvement, the 80's saw the Rally World Championship turn from a fledgling sport, where a man off the streets who entered a private car could feasibly win, into a massive event with millions coming in through sponsorship. The only way to win realistically was to be a driver who piloted a 'factory' vehicle. This term describes a routine where the driver is selected by the factory, for example Audi. As industry, it reflected what happened, for example to Leyland, that no longer could a company work with small teams and low key operations. The 80's attitude dictated that now was the time to go for it, go huge, the bigger the better and taking the risks to build your industry would pay off.

All of the 80's thematic strands are represented in what happened in world rallying. The lust for more speed and power in early rallying led to an introduction of a class, known as 'Group B'. The rules for this class were simple, there was a more or less 'anything goes' attitude to car design, with the only restrictions being on weight and, importantly, that the cars had to be homoligated. This rule meant that for the manufacturer to put forward a rally car for competition use, they had to build 200 for sale to the general public and suitable for road use. The lust and race for more power and speed became all consuming with the big manufacturers. Cars were becoming too powerful and there were crashes. The thoughts for other things, such as spectator safety, were shelved in a relentless battle for who could make the fastest, winning vehicle. This eventually resulted in disaster, a 'group-B' Lancia lost control and ploughed into a crowd of people on a 'stage', a few spectators were killed and the world of Rally went into a shock period. The rest of the drivers pulled out of that round and the organisers decided to take action. There is a parallel that can be drawn with this quick rise seemingly without forethought, tragedy, ending in devastation as well as a fall from grace. This is what happened to the entrepreneurs that Thatcher had so encouraged. It all became too excessive and risky, and ended with a massive crash in the stock market, job losses and widespread bankruptcy for many a 'yuppie.' This is embodied in the world of Rallying, representing the 'boom and bust' trend that developed in the 80's. Furthermore, the British manufacturers and teams that began to set out and enterprise on their own felt the full wrath of the recession, meaning that many went bust, reflecting society.

Rallying in the 80's became more about advertising and sponsors. The big car manufacturers saw the potential money making in sponsorship, so once again went for it in every way. The big companies were getting bigger through the success they had and the little companies, such as new British teams, were squeezed out. This reflected Thatcher's Britain as the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, even though Mrs Thatcher said that there is no such thing as class. This happened because of legislation such as the widely unpopular Poll Tax. Another reason that the car companies began to get more involved in Rallying was because they saw the knock on effect that it had on car sales. Customers in the 80's wanted to get the fastest, biggest, best car, so a Rally car, with its race reputation would seem an ideal marketing product. This meant cars such as the Peugeot 205 Gti were produced in 1985, featuring an advertisement with the car racing across a desert, cashing in on the Rally image. This had the desired effect and the 205 Gti became one of the 80's iconic and most popular cars. Even today Audi is still using it's Rally reputation for being on the cutting edge of technology. In the July 2001 edition of Top Gear car magazine, Audi have an advert that reads, 'Quattro. Born out of the technology used in our rally cars.' Audi have not competed in Rallying since the 80's, so this just shows the effect that their Rally reputation has. In fact car design has become so much about making money that other markets were tapped into by the corporations, such as fashion. The Peugeot 205 Gti not only became a 'toy for the boys,' but a fashion accessory for women. This was a time that saw manufacturers targeting women with different advertising and a new market was born, this after Thatcher had stated that she wanted every British family to have 2 cars. Even today the car manufacturers are still doing the same successful marketing learnt in the 80's, such as an example in the 'style' section of Vogue, September 2001, speaking of the Audi TT coupe, 'hit the road in this year's sexiest new car.' If fashion became a big seller in the 80's, catwalk names available to the public, this was how the car manufacturers put their cars on the catwalk and made them more exclusive and more lusted after.

So to sum up then, Rallying in the 80's went from being the starting sport in the 70's, to a commodified product all about sales in the 80's. Profit became the first thing that the manufacturers were concerned with, including stages in Africa to gain press attention, as well as stages in places like Monte Carlo to glamorise the sport. The Rally world reflected what was going on socially and politically in the 80's in every facet.

The next text for analysis is the film Robocop. Made in 1987, Robocop represents the image of technology that the public envisaged. Technology was moving so fast that robots were seen as the future, with films like Terminator showing the fear of robotic arrival. The difference between Robocop and Terminator was that the 'Terminator' was 100 per cent robot, whereas Robocop was part human, a cyborg. The Terminator represents the super ego, completely logical and unemotional, but because of the human element and the discovery of his former self throughout the film, Robocop much more shows the ego, and at the end of the film leans towards the id.

The diegtic images in Robocop illustrated everything that the public feared at the time. Corporate take over of the city, run by corrupt people who control the masses, illustrated when Robocop enters the police station for the first time and no one in the station has a clue what is happening. Dick Jones, the big boss in waiting, represents the image of the corporation on screen and shows all the fears of the audience about what is wrong with the big corporations that were getting increasingly more powerful in the 80's, evil, corrupt and purely out for his own gain.

Robocop is a policeman, an authority figure, which adds to his importance and influence over the audience. In the film it is impossible to corrupt Robocop, which is relevant because of all the other corrupt policeman in the film and that were believed to have been at the time in America, with the Rodney King incident amongst others yet to happen.

Robocop was a blockbuster. Massive hype surrounded its release and it even appealed to the young audience, it was the first '18 certificate' film I watched, as a child the Robot figure is attractive as a superhero like 'Spiderman' for the future or a robotic 'Superman'. The 80's was a period that showed people were having a love affair with machines. Robocop, coming out when it did in 1987, sandwiches the two Terminator films and acts as a catalyst for change. The first Terminator movie portrays the machine as totally evil and emotionless, Robocop presents a more human image of the robot, especially taking on the identity of the police officer he used to be at the end. Terminator 2 represents the complete turnaround with the reaction to robots. The Arnold Schwarzenegger character is much more humane and is fighting for the humans in 'T2', and this even ends in a Christ like sacrifice.

Robocop tries to show the dream everyone was beginning to have towards the end of the 80's, of arresting the boss. This ends up being impossible and articulates the anti-greed feelings that were starting to rise up near the end of the 80's. Another viewpoint is the Marxist interpretation, that the films depiction of the Corporation makes it anti-capitalist, again feelings that were becoming more prominent at the end of the 80's, after a decade of self-promotion and greed.

A psychoanalytical approach to Robocop introduces his female ex-partner as a mother figure to the disillusioned robot who is having flashbacks to his past, she helps him through and even gets him the food he requires, funnily enough, baby food. The fact that the viewer sees much of Robocop's early life through his computerised, video game style screen increases empathy with the character. The audience feels a satisfaction that 'our' robot is out catching criminals and doing the things that the inept, corrupt police cannot.

Robocop was a big, blockbuster film. The 80's was the period when the big blockbuster finally came to the fore, launched by the success seen with the Star Wars films, the likes of Simpson and Bruckheimer produced these big blockbusters which represented the film as a product. Films became more formulaic, as mentioned earlier in this essay and another facet of art was commodified, the 80's trend. Arguably some of the blockbusters were good films, but it was more of an overwhelming way that the studios could more or less guarantee a successful film by offering explosions and action, trying to hide the paper-thin story line.

The Robocop story line is a narrative that begins with a fear of robots and ends in the human inside the cyborg triumphing. The viewer wants to see Dick Jones get his comeuppance, which duely happens when he gets thrown out of the indexical large corporate skyscraper building. This creates an image that the audience longs to see, the evil side of the corporation is gone. The robot is still represented by the, total machine, 'ED-209', which, similarly to Dr Who's 'Darleks', comically cannot go down stairs, indeed illustrating how things sometimes can go from the 'sublime to the ridiculous.'

My third and final chosen text, again completely different to my other choices, is the British film, The Krays. Made at the end of the 80's in 1989 when discontent was beginning to grow with the Thatcher government, the film represents this with the Kray's mother depicted as a Thatcher figure.

The film tracks the history of The Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, from their childhood through to their mothers funeral in 1982. At the beginning the film starts with a dream sequence with an animated white Swan flying with a white background. Mary Desjardins argues that this image, 'clearly positions its conception in the personal and since this specific memory is of a dream, as a manifestation of the unconsciousness.'

The Thatcher-figure mother is represented by her attitude to the boys. She encourages them to be enterprising and successful, entrepreneurial, even though she must know that they could not have got so successful so quickly without bending rules. As Desjardins argues, 'Violet (Kray) allies herself with the Thatcher philosophy that respects and gives Spartan nurturing to those who succeed through individual initiative.' For me the clearest sign that the film does represent Thatcher as Violet, is in the pub with Cornell. He almost quotes Thatcher with his verbal barrage about the Krays, 'those Krays are just hanging onto their mothers apron strings,' this is remarkably similar to a line from Thatcher, who wanted to free people from, 'the apron-strings of the governess state.'

In the film all of the men are 'infantilised', they are turned into children, but this, although moaned about by Violet, is unwittingly aided by her attitude towards men, that her husband is a fool and so is Granddad. Their cowardly attitude is illustrated along with their child like nature when a policeman is sent round to find the Krays father. Not only is the act of hiding him cowardly, after he has been asleep in the chair, but it also proves to act out a children's game of hide and seek between the policeman and the father.

The conflict between gender and class that is illustrated in The Krays, working class women on the home front, represents an element of the Thatcherite government argues Desjardins that the film, 'exposes the core of resentment that the Thatcherite government tapped in the later post-war period.' This was a source of great support for the government who started to add a nationalistic element to their politics, almost Churchillian, to make the country great again.

The film does encourage the viewer to have a homophobic attitude, as we see the more violent, unbalanced twin Ronnie, involved in a gay relationship which sparks into violence. Desjardins argues that the film could be, 'more concerned with exposing a "homosocial economy" of the male gangster society of Thatcher England, which rejects the maternal.'

We see the effects of the maternal when Reggie marries the child like Frances. The character is depicted as just a young girl, Reggie, 'mothers her to the point of suicide,' Desjardins sites. This is another warning against the maternal state. This is made worse because Violet can see what is going to happen, but fails to take the appropriate action, saying to Ron, 'she's just to start kicking,' again a reference to a baby.

Adding influence to the anti-Thatcher feeling is the way that the women of the film are often depicted as a group of witches at the beginning of the film, and the 'mirror, mirror,' Sleeping Beauty reference. Alongside this is the monsters theme. The Kray boys are obsessed from an early age with crocodiles and reptiles, symbolic as cold-blooded and man eating, just as the Krays were. The Thatcher effect on this is that the oppression of these women and the working class is turning the working classes into 'little monsters', one of the films hook lines on release.

To conclude then all of these texts articulate 80's ideologies in different ways. Robocop represents the fear of the Corporation, becoming too powerful through greed and corrupt, but it is too late to take action because they have become too powerful. This is coupled with cutting edge technology, with early 'King Kong' depicted fears changing towards the end of the film when we see the cyborgs human side.

The Krays shows how the 'mothering' of the state can effect people, specifically the working classes to the extreme, leading to violence and turning the working classes into monsters. The film is very symbolic and readings can also be drawn in through the eerie white Swan dream sequences that act to gloss over the truth through Violets distorted reality. This is much more of a British reaction to the 80's, focussing on Thatcher, than Robocop, focussing on the world-wide corporation worry.

Finally the World Rally Championship, which more than the other two texts encapsulates almost everything in the 80's. Of course spanning the decade it should, but everything from technological progression to corporate take-over and commodification is shown in the Rally world, and it is a true example of how what was happening socially and politically can be reflected in almost anything. The 80's was the decade of commodification, greed and profit.

Bibliography

Desjardins, M. (1993). Fires Were Started: British Cinema and Thatcherism. Ed. Lester Friedman. University of Minnesota Press.

Palmer, William J.(1993) The Films of the Eighties: A Social History.  Southern Illinois University Press.

BBC Top Gear Magazine. Audi Advertisement. pp122-3. July, 2001.

Vogue Magazine. Style Section. p.212. September, 2000.

• TV Progs.

The Greatest Years of Rallying: 80's. Documentary. 1990.

• Films

The Krays. Film. Directed by Peter MEDAK. UK: Polygram Ltd, 1990.

Robocop. Film. Directed by Paul VERHOVEN. USA:  1988.