Is your favorite male movie character a “Hero” or a “Wimp”? Both types of guys are film archetypes that we see all the time on the silver screen, say two New York Times critics. What are the others?
Critics Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott have distilled modern films down to six types of men who are particularly visible during the summer movie season:
1. The Big Baby (ex.: characters played by Kevin James, Zach Galifianakis)
The critics say: “At the very least, their soft bodies tend to render these characters as sexually unthreatening and cuddly, redefining male sex appeal and shifting the burden of attractiveness entirely onto their usually hot female love interests….”
2. The Brave Boy (ex.: Harry Potter, Shia LeBoeuf in Transformers)
The critics say: “The fantasy he lives out is the classic preadolescent boy’s dream of defying adult wisdom, saving the princess and getting to make all the noise and mess he wants in the service of a noble cause….”
3. The Bachelor (ex.: the guys in The Hangover)
The critics say: “In [Judd] Apatow’s laugh-ins, the touchy-feely brotherhood bonding can at times resemble 1970s feminist consciousness-raising groups, except with guys sitting around yammering about their lives and relationships (or lack thereof) while passing around a bong instead of a speculum….”
4. The Husband (the guys in Hall Pass)
The critics say: “Becoming a husband and father turns a man into a baby or a woman, removed from the company of men by diaper duty and other antisexual domestic chores…. Single dads seem to outnumber single moms in the movies (the reverse of real life), and widowers in particular are potent sources of pathos and sex appeal. A man rearing children in partnership with a woman is barely a man at all, but a man raising kids by himself is perfect.”
5. The Hero (ex.: Captain America, Thor)
The critics say: “While the Hero’s relationship to evil is relatively straightforward — he’s against it, though occasionally tempted by the corrupting perquisites of power — his relationship with women is ambiguous and almost definitively unfulfilled…. But the Hero’s main bonds, brotherly or antagonistic, are with other guys….”
6. The Wimp (ex.: characters played by Michael Cera; Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network)
The critics say: “Born to be mild, the Wimp exists to have sand kicked in his face and submit to wedgies and worse, or, like Woody Allen, to overcome adversity by being smarter and funnier than everyone else in the room…. Every tough guy has a Wimp to bounce off, sometimes violently, as does every Hero. Even so, the Wimp has been able to trade on his meekness to sometimes triumphant, even heroic end…”
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