Violent bodies and victim narratives: On the cinematic activism of Gregg Araki’s The Living End

This article examines how director Gregg Araki uses violence as a means of political contestation in his queer ‘road movie’ The Living End (1992). Closely analysing the formal and aesthetic construction of the film’s various violent moments by considering them alongside both specific activist practices and works of theory, this discussion outlines the material effects, and subsequently the significance of Araki’s abrasive, often confrontational style. Throughout, this article argues that The Living End’s use of violence operates on a much more complex level than a lot of critical discussions recognize, moving its focus away from the currently dominant practice of attributing significance to ‘homo pomo’ (homosexual postmodern) stylistics and instead considering the contextually specific political realities that prompted such representational excess.