The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a 1974 Slasher film directed by Tobe Hooper. The film stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwinn Neal, Jim Siedow and Gunner Hanson. The film follows a group of friends who are killed off by a family of cannibals while on their way to visit an old homestead. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a commentary on the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration signalling the death of the peace and love era.
The film begging’s with photography flashes showing pictures of dead bodies before showing a corpse with another corpse on it on a cemetery gravestone. This horror reflects the horror going on in the sixties relating it to the Vietnam war. The film introduces a bunch of 20 something year old hippies as the protagonist with one of them having an interaction with a resident saying death is near. One of the girls in the film is a star sign reader with links to the hippy era, as they ask where the house is the drunk warns of doom. They then smell a slaughterhouse as franklin explains how the cattle are killed in a messed-up way as they pass it. This links to the Vietnam war as these teens are like solders going to their death being slaughtered like soldiers or cattle. This also demonstrates the Nixon administration and the ned of the hippie era this end is shown they will end violently. The hitchhiker they pick up is crazy and the slaughterhouse killer that got put out of work by the new equipment. He is crazy and weird as he explains how it works, as he steals Franklin’s knife and cuts himself and takes a picture of them and cuts franklin with a straight razor as they throw him out. This act demonstrates the idea that the peace and love generation will end and links the hitchhiker’s job that them and the generation will be slaughtered.
They then stop at the petrol station where they ask the gas station owner where they get to the place there looking for as the owner says not to go as the symbol on the van shows an omen of death. They then get to the house which is dilapidated as they are hippies’ wanderings into a bad environment, with likens the end of the hippie era and the Vietnam war as the hippies are in a bad situation that reflects this. The chicken bones in the house are wrapped in cloth and well as hanging form the door frame and act as omens of doom. The hippie couple stumble upon a creepy house nearby with netting over the cars of the people they’ve killed. This again links to the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration as the setting demonstrates that this generation is about to be slaughtered and the hippie era is over. They go to the house next door to find gas, as they find a human tooth as kirk goes into the house as Leatherface hits him with a hammer killing him. This again links to the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration as kirks death links to the peace and love generation being slaughtered. Pan then goes into the house as she finds animal bones everywhere with feathers and chickens in cages, bones are also used as decoration showing their murders and cannibals. Leatherface then appears and chases after her dragging her inside and hangs her up on a meat hook and chainsaws her to death cutting her body up. This horrific death links to the horrors of the Vietnam war brought on. By the Nixon administration as these slaughtered characters links to the end of the era and the horrors of the Vietnam war.
The film contains constant omens of doom with the symbol as franklin is being taunted by Jerry with the sign reading showing everything means something. The film contains constant omens of doom as Jerry torments Franklin over the symbol which links to the sign reading as everything means something. These hippie motifs juxtapose with tee omens of doom links to the disillusionment of the hippie era which is shown through the film’s violence linking to the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration. Jerry ends up going into the house and is killed by Leatherface with a hammer. His death links to the atrocities of the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration and his death relates to the end of the hippy generation this death is the death of the peace and love generation. As night falls Sally and Franklin go looking for the m as Leatherface appears and chainsaws Franklin killing him. Franklin’s death mirrors the atrocities of the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration as Franklin’s death symbolises the peace and love generation be slaughtered. Sally runs away in the darkness with Leatherface chasing after her as this violent act demonstrates the disillusionment of the hippie era due to the Vietnam war and the Nixon admiration as this slaughter shows a generational slaughter. Sally then finds grandad who is an old man dying and his wife as a corpse. They’re dying forms make them symbolic of the atrocities going on at the time and that the hippie generation will be dead like them.
Sally Jumps through a window to escape as she runs away blooded with Leatherface chasing after her as she runs to the petrol station owner. This horrifying scene shows the disillusionment of the era, as the horrifying acts represent the atrocities of the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration and the slaughter of the peace and love generation. She then sees meat cooking which is human flesh and as he comes back to tie her up, she tries to attack him, but he attacks her, knocks her out and takes her back to the house. This scene shows the disillusionment of the era as the cannibalism and kidnapping show the violent acts of the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration and her death will be the slaughter of the peace and love generation. The gas station owner kidnaps her as she’s struggling in his truck and hits her to subdue her. This volent act shows the disillusionment of the era as this violent act is symbolic of the atrocities of the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration and the slaughter of the peace and love generation. The station owner then beats the hitchhiker which is family and the one that robbed the graves as they take the girl out of the car and into the house. This horrifying sicario mirrors the warped mindset of the time and links to the horrific acts of the Vietnam war and the politics of the era as this hippy era is coming to an end.
With the father saying, “look what your brother did to the door”, it shows that the family acts like a difunctional family as he beats Leatherface who has the mind of a child giving the character a little bit of sympathy as the gas station dad is the one running the show. They then bring her inside and tie her up and they torment her. This torture mirrors the horrors of the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration as well as the death of the peace and love generation. The grandpa is shown to be a very old man that is chairbound and can’t do anything who is practically dead as The Texas Chainsaw massacre shows a messed-up version of the traditional family unit. They torture her by cutting her finger so Grandad can sick the blood from it showing the cannibalism of the family as she passes out. These horrific acts link to the atrocities of the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration as her beating shows the death of the peace and love generation. Salley awakens as she is strapped down at the dinner table with the family, as the film creates a messed-up prevision of the traditional family dinner. The family then starts to fight when the hitchhiker says the gas station owner is just a cook which makes him made and they get into an argument, as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a film about a dysfunctional family. She is tormented by the family as she’s in a state of fear as this terror is symbolic of the horror of the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration as the peace and love generation is slaughtered. The petrol station guy says that don’t need to just torture her as he gets into an argument with the hitchhiker. This again is symbolic of the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration as her picture is the death of her generation.
The family ties to be sadistic with her but the gas station owner just wants it done, as her torture mirrors the atrocities of the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration as her torture mirrors the slaughter of the peace and love generation. They try and kill her by getting the grandad to kill her but he’s so old and frail he can’t hold the hammer which is funny. This scene links to the violent atrocities of the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration as her being beaten links to the peace and love generation being slaughtered. The hitchhiker gets fed up with waiting and fights over the hammer leading to the girl escaping by jumping out though the window. These atrocities mirror the atrocities of the time being the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration as this scene showcases the peace and love generation being slaughtered. The film ends with her running away from them as Leatherface and the hitchhiker chase after her. The hitchhiker then runs onto the road and gets hit by a truck and dies, as the trucker saves the girl as they climb though the truck to run away. The trucker then throws a wrench at Leatherface casing him to chainsaw his leg, as a pickup truck comes buy as drives away with the girl blooded and screaming and laughing as Leatherface swings his chainsaw angry in the air. This climax destroys the disillusioned hippies and makes them face the grim reality. As the horrific insane climax parrels the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration as like her friends the peace and over generation is slaughtered.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a film about the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration and how the horrific slaughter of the characters demonstrates the death of the peace and love generation.
