Editing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (section)

==Themes and analysis==
===Contemporary American life===
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|quote = Hooper's apocalyptic landscape is&nbsp;... a desert wasteland of dissolution where once vibrant myth is desiccated. The ideas and iconography of [[James Fenimore Cooper|Cooper]], [[Bret Harte]] and [[Francis Parkman]] are now transmogrified into yards of dying cattle, abandoned gasoline stations, defiled graveyards, crumbling mansions, and a ramshackle farmhouse of psychotic killers. ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' [is]&nbsp;... recognizable as a statement about the dead end of American experience.
|source = — Christopher Sharrett<ref>[[#Sharrett04|Sharrett 2004, p. 318]]</ref>
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Critic Christopher Sharrett argues that since [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho]]'' (1960) and ''[[The Birds (film)|The Birds]]'' (1963), the American horror film has been defined by the questions it poses "about the fundamental validity of the American civilizing process",<ref>[[#Sharrett04|Sharrett 2004, pp. 300–1]]</ref> concerns amplified during the 1970s by the "delegitimation of authority in the wake of Vietnam and [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]]".<ref>[[#Sharrett04|Sharrett 2004, p. 300]]</ref> "If ''Psycho'' began an exploration of a new sense of absurdity in contemporary life, of the collapse of causality and the diseased underbelly of American Gothic", he writes, ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' "carries this exploration to a logical conclusion, addressing many of the issues of Hitchcock's film while refusing comforting closure".<ref>[[#Sharrett04|Sharrett 2004, pp. 301–2]]</ref>

Robin Wood characterizes Leatherface and his family as victims of industrial capitalism, their jobs as slaughterhouse workers having been rendered obsolete by technological advances.<ref>[[#Sharrett04|Sharrett 2004, p. 308]]</ref> He states that the picture "brings to focus a spirit of negativity&nbsp;... that seems to lie not far below the surface of the modern collective consciousness".<ref>{{cite book|last=Gelder|first=Ken|title=The Horror Reader|year=2000|page=291|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-21355-4}}</ref> Naomi Merritt explores the film's representation of "cannibalistic capitalism" in relation to [[Georges Bataille]]'s theory of taboo and transgression.<ref>[[#Merritt10|Merritt 2010, p. 1]]</ref> She elaborates on Wood's analysis, stating that the Sawyer family's values "reflect, or correspond to, established and interdependent American institutions&nbsp;... but their embodiment of these social units is perverted and transgressive."<ref>[[#Merritt10|Merritt 2010, p. 6]]</ref>

In [[Kim Newman]]'s view, Hooper's presentation of the Sawyer family during the dinner scene parodies a typical American sitcom family: the gas station owner is the bread-winning father figure; the killer Leatherface is depicted as a bourgeois housewife; the hitchhiker acts as the rebellious teenager.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Str-Th/The-Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705152942/http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Str-Th/The-Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre.html |archive-date=July 5, 2008|title=The Texas Chainsaw Massacre|last=Newman|first=Kim|author-link=Kim Newman|publisher=Film Reference|access-date=November 15, 2009}}</ref> Isabel Cristina Pinedo, author of ''Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing'', states, "The horror genre must keep terror and comedy in tension if it is to successfully tread the thin line that separates it from terrorism and parody&nbsp;... this delicate balance is struck in ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' in which the decaying corpse of Grandpa not only incorporates horrific and humorous effects, but actually uses one to exacerbate the other."<ref>{{cite book|last=Pinedo|first=Isabel Cristina|title=Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing|publisher=SUNY Press|year=1997|page=48|isbn=978-0-7914-3441-3}}</ref>

===Violence against women===
The underlying themes of the film have been the subject of extensive [[Misogyny in horror films|critical discussion]]; critics and scholars have interpreted it as a paradigmatic [[exploitation film]] in which female protagonists are subjected to brutal, sadistic violence.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wood|first=Robin|year=1985|page=19|title=An Introduction to the American Horror Film|journal=Movies and Methods |volume=2|url=http://www.neiu.edu/~circill/F1313.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609053420/http://www.neiu.edu/~circill/F1313.pdf |archive-date=June 9, 2011 |access-date=June 2, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Weaver|first=James B. III|date=Summer 1991|title=Are Slasher Horror Films Sexually Violent?|journal=Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media|volume=35|issue=3|pages=385–392|issn=1550-6878|doi=10.1080/08838159109364133}}</ref> Stephen Prince comments that the horror is "born of the torment of the young woman subjected to imprisonment and abuse amid decaying arms&nbsp;... and mobiles made of human bones and teeth."<ref>{{cite book|last=Prince|first=Stephen|title=The Horror Film|year=2004|publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]|isbn=978-0-8135-3363-6|page=113|chapter=Postmodern Elements of the Contemporary Horror Film}}</ref> As with many slasher films, it incorporates the "[[final girl]]" trope—the heroine and inevitable lone survivor who somehow escapes the horror that befalls the other characters:<ref name="Grant82">{{cite book|last=Grant|first=Barry Keith |title=The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=1996|edition=illustrated|page=82|isbn=978-0-292-72794-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Schmidt|first1=Leonard J.|last2=Warner|first2=Brooke|title=Panic: Origins, Insight, and Treatment: Issue 63|year=2002|publisher=North Atlantic Books|isbn=978-1-55643-396-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781556433962/page/224 224]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781556433962/page/224}}</ref> Sally Hardesty is wounded and tortured, yet manages to survive with the help of a male truck driver.<ref>{{cite book|last=Prince|first=Stephen|title=Screening Violence|publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group|Continuum]]|year=2000|edition=illustrated|page=146|isbn=978-0-485-30095-6}}</ref> Critics argue that even in exploitation films in which the ratio of male and female deaths is roughly equal, the images that linger will be of the violence committed against the female characters.<ref name="Grant82"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wells|first1=Alan|last2=Hakanen|first2=Ernest A.|title=Mass Media & Society|year=1997|publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]]|isbn=978-1-56750-288-6|page=476}}</ref><ref>[[#Clover93|Clover 1993, p. 7]]</ref> The specific case of ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' provides support for this argument: three men are killed in quick fashion, but one woman is brutally slaughtered—hung on a meathook—and the surviving woman endures physical and mental torture.<ref name="Bogart00">{{cite book|last=Bogart|first=Leo |title=Commercial Culture: The Media System and the Public Interest |publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2000|edition=2, illustrated|page=349|isbn=978-0-7658-0605-5}}</ref> In 1977, critic Mary Mackey described the meathook scene as probably the most brutal onscreen female death in any commercially distributed film.<ref name="JumpCut">{{cite journal|url=http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC14folder/MassacreWomen.html|title=Women and Violence in Film|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090506224934/http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC14folder/MassacreWomen.html |archive-date=May 6, 2009|last=Mackey |first=Mary|year=1977|pages=12–14|issue=14|journal=Jump Cut|access-date=November 15, 2009}}</ref> She placed it in a lineage of violent films that depict women as weak and incapable of protecting themselves.<ref name="JumpCut"/>

In one study, a group of men were shown five films depicting differing levels of violence against women.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1460-2466.1984.tb02180.x|last=Linz|first= Daniel|author2=Donnerstein, Edward |authorlink2=Edward Donnerstein|author3=Penrod, Steven |date= September 1984|title=The Effects of Multiple Exposures to Filmed Violence Against Women|journal=Journal of Communication|volume=34|issue=3 |pages=130–147|url=http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ308140&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ308140}}</ref> On first viewing ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' they experienced symptoms of depression and anxiety; however, upon subsequent viewing they found the violence against women less offensive and more enjoyable.<ref name="Bogart00"/> Another study, investigating gender-specific perceptions of slasher films, involved 30 male and 30 female university students.<ref name="Study">{{cite journal|last=Nolan|first=Justin M. |author2=Ryan, Gery W. |year=2000|title=Fear and Loathing at the Cineplex: Gender Differences in Descriptions and Perceptions of Slasher Films|journal=Sex Roles|volume=42|issue=1 & 2|page=39|issn=0360-0025|doi=10.1023/A:1007080110663|s2cid=142297913 }}</ref> One male participant described the screaming, especially Sally's, as the "most freaky thing" in the film.<ref name="Study"/>

According to Jesse Stommel of ''[[Bright Lights Film Journal]]'', the lack of explicit violence in the film forces viewers to question their own fascination with violence that they play a central role in imagining.<ref name="BrightLights">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/71/71horror_stommel.php |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5xiv2Zpwj?url=http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/71/71horror_stommel.php |archive-date=April 5, 2011 |title=Something That Festers |last=Stommel |first=Jesse |date=February 2011 |magazine=[[Bright Lights Film Journal]] |access-date=February 24, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Nonetheless—citing its feverish camera moves, repeated bursts of light, and auditory pandemonium—Stommel asserts that it involves the audience primarily on a sensory rather than an intellectual level.<ref name="BrightLights"/>

===Vegetarianism===
''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' has been described as "the ultimate pro-[[vegetarian]] film" due to its [[animal rights]] themes. In a video essay, film critic Rob Ager describes the irony in humans' being slaughtered for meat, putting humans in the position of being slaughtered like farm animals. Director [[Tobe Hooper]] has confirmed that "it's a film about meat"<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/07/30/texas_chain_saw_massacre_and_vegetarianism_animal_rights_themes_in_the_original.html|title=The Ultimate Pro-Vegetarian Film Is the Last Movie You'd Expect|magazine=Slate|first1=Forrest|last1=Wickman|date=July 30, 2013|access-date=June 28, 2018}}</ref> and even gave up meat while making the film, saying, "In a way I thought the heart of the film was about meat; it's about the chain of life and killing sentient beings."<ref>{{cite news|last=Wickman |first=Forrest |title=The Ultimate Pro-Vegetarian Film Is the Last Movie You'd Expect |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/07/30/texas_chain_saw_massacre_and_vegetarianism_animal_rights_themes_in_the_original.html |access-date=July 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130802094405/http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/07/30/texas_chain_saw_massacre_and_vegetarianism_animal_rights_themes_in_the_original.html |archive-date=August 2, 2013 |newspaper=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |date=July 30, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Waddell |first=Calum |title=Tobe Hooper Interview |url=http://www.bizarremag.com/film-and-music/interviews/10249/tobe_hooper.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130805022028/http://www.bizarremag.com/film-and-music/interviews/10249/tobe_hooper.html |archive-date=August 5, 2013 |access-date=July 31, 2013 |newspaper=[[Bizarre (magazine)|Bizarre]] |date=November 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Writer-director [[Guillermo del Toro]] became a vegetarian for a time after seeing the film.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XQVqyB-psI |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/8XQVqyB-psI| archive-date=December 11, 2021 |url-status=live|title=Director Guillermo del Toro Became a Vegetarian Because of a Slasher Film - TMZ|publisher=YouTube|date=November 7, 2013|access-date=June 28, 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>