Movies, like everything else, can serve many different purposes at once. Some of them are meant to mirror back our lives in a realistic way. Some are meant to take us away for a couple of hours, as we blot out the harsh reality of our lives and escape into fantasy. The one thing that has never changed since movies were invented is that they are transformative experiences that take us to a different place from the one where we live. There is a reason the big screen has always been a place for gods and goddesses. We “project” our idealized versions of ourselves onto them, live vicariously through them, or just look at them.
It seems like lately, though, there has been a need to get rid of the male hero. Any male hero, of course, but especially the white male hero. At first I thought this was a reaction to Trump – a bad reaction, where whatever he was we had to blot out of our reality. But Trump is mostly gone yet the ideology has somehow remained. Any movie with a male protagonist is a problem from the outset. It’s one of those things that you don’t realize until it isn’t there anymore. Perhaps it was how 2020 went down, where the last people who were going to win any awards were white men. Even movies about white men were frowned upon.
I don’t think we specifically NEED white men. But we do need men. We need male heroes. We need strong tough guys or smart resourceful guys – or just GUYS. It is as fundamental as our need to drink water or eat food and it isn’t something we should do without. It is sort of like removing a female character’s sexuality because that too is somehow not fashionable anymore. Like, why? What would be the point of removing something so essential? It is arguably the most powerful force on the planet – getting rid of it makes the world and especially movies, a less interesting place.
It’s understandable how we got here. I was among the chorus of voices over the past two decades complaining about how Oscar movies, and movies in general, were only about men. It was either the “one special boy” mythology or the sturdy alpha hero who saves the day, like Ben Affleck in Argo. It’s great that this isn’t exclusively what movies are about anymore. But it’s also not going to be great if this becomes some kind of unwritten rule going forward: no more male heroes.
Many prominent voices on the Left seem to be perfectly comfortable with the idea that art should not REFLECT life, comment on life or offer satire or criticism of the human experience, but rather to dictate how people should think, how society should function and what we all should fear. The idea being, we have to “do better” as a society and never be offensive, not to a single person ever for any reason. Our rules are becoming more strict in order to leave no marginalized person behind, to never promote “bad” ideas, to always reach for the perfect America we know we can be.
Of course, some would argue this has always been the case. It’s just a matter of perspective. So many early films, for instance, backed up the idea that the cowboys were the heroes and the Indians were the scary villains. Minds have obviously changed over time. Black characters were often silent and moving around in the background of movies – serving meals, wearing maid uniforms while the prominent white characters played out their daily dramas.
We can go on and on about how culture was directed in an indirect way. It was just considered “normal” to audiences back then because audiences were primarily white. They were films aimed at white audiences about the white experience but looking at them now it is glaringly obvious how clueless Hollywood used to be about promoting stereotypes. Without the recent cultural upheavals maybe we would not have even noticed.
As with all things, a good thing usually goes too far and in our case we’re busily erasing things that we still need. One of those things is most definitely the two fundamentals that still apply: women have sexual power on screen, and we still need male heroes.
I watched a movie last night. It wasn’t bad. But in order to subvert the stereotype of the male action star the director decided to have two women save the day.
It wasn’t so much that it wasn’t good. It was fine. In the post-COVID movie universe I can’t complain about much. Thank you for making it is all I keep telling myself. But it was that to believe the story, or to go with the movie, you’d have to check your common sense and logic at the door. Subverting a genre for fun is can sometimes be electric experience. Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road is a good example of that. But it has to make sense. If it doesn’t make sense then you’re stuck with someone who made a movie to please Twitter.
There was no good reason why the villains in this film would be so incompetent they could be defeated by not one but two women, and they weren’t even women whose job it is to beat up bad guys. They were women who did ordinary jobs. These bad guys had guns, were supposed to be vicious, ruthless and had already killed a lot of people before the last scene. So to think that they, experts in killing, could be defeated by not one but two women who weren’t experts leaves you with the uncomfortable feeling that you’re being played. All so that the filmmakers can satisfy this need to replace the traditional male hero with females.
Of course, this year there are going to be male heroes a-plenty: like The Tomorrow War with Chris Pratt, Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins with Henry Golding, The Green Knight with Dev Patel, Free Guy with Ryan Reynolds, Tom Hanks in Bios, Daniel Craig in No Time to Die, and Timothee Chalamet in Dune. The executives who run Hollywood will take some risks but they’re not going to dump their billions just to please Twitter, that’s for sure.
But with films that are reliant upon reviews of the approval of critics, or films that might make it into the awards race – this is where we run into problems. Whatever cultural wave that swept through Hollywood over the past few years has definitely altered perspectives such that it might be the case that films with male heroes might be slightly downgraded, or criticized for that reason. Just for that reason.
I know a lot of people right now are worried about where movies are going in this Brave New World. They’re worried about art. They’re worried about freedom to speak your mind and say up front what it is you actually like for fear of being judged for it. But can you really micromanage something as primal and basic as gods and goddesses on the big screen?
I keep joking on Twitter and Facebook that conservatives – or a new political class – will have to rise up to make daring art again, tell funny jokes again, pierce the monolith of our current state of paralysis, where even the late night comedy hosts are unable to really do what comedy does best – make us laugh about the things we don’t dare talk about, things that scare us. With no way to laugh at them they’re just always looming, as a constant threat – a fuse waiting to be lit by a blue check on Twitter to send someone’s career spiraling.
Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and John Oliver – they can’t be funny anymore, which is why they’re now basically functioning as counselors, priests or activists. Their jokes have to be cancel proof. They can’t offend even though there is so much of right now to make fun of. They don’t dare go there.
Saturday Night Live has become one of its own sketches as everyone is too afraid to lampoon the side of the political aisle that is in desperate need of parody. So it’s left to either the conservatives or outsiders on Youtube or on podcasts to say what can’t be said. Controversial, yes. Funny? Yes. Well, at least to me. I feel sure many would just be freaked out and offended – which is why they are on Youtube and not on SNL.
Take, for example, Ryan Long:
Or Awaken with JP:
Why do I keep writing about this? Because I was part of the machine that built it. Now I have to be part of the machine that helps dismantle it, as we keep what is good and discard the rest.
That is how the idea of getting rid of the male hero ties in. If we decide that the male hero is no longer necessary, movies aren’t going to be as good. Not ALL movies, of course, ideally there are many different kinds of movies out there for many different tastes.
We need them because half of the population is still male. We need them because the other half, the females also like watching men. I worry about what will happen if Hollywood decides that male archetypes are no longer needed and thus, what will happen to all of the men wandering around out there? They need icons. They need heroes. We all do. Every kind of person needs representational heroes but only one kind has suddenly become a problem.
Finally, we need heroes because we need antiheroes. Antiheroes are responsible for some of the best films ever made. How can we have them without actual heroes?
It isn’t that heroes are completely gone, or that they ever will be gone. It is just the idea that they SHOULD be gone and if they aren’t gone then there is something wrong with us and with the movies we love. All I’m saying is that there isn’t anything wrong with heroes, male, female or otherwise. We need them. They’re mostly the reason movies exist at all.
They have to be larger than life because life can’t function with icons that big walking around. They have to live forever as separate from us. Bigger, stronger, prettier, smarter, better than we are. It is a screen onto which we project our own fantasies. We need them because we need a way out – even if it’s just for a couple of hours – of the things we struggle with on a daily basis. Big things, little things, complicated people, soul-crushing algorithms, the nightmare of our polarized country, the horrors in other countries. All of that goes away and we need heroes to open the portal out of our own limited mortality into the world of the limitless.
The narrative these days is that white men are evil/privileged/racist/misogynist/insert own trope. If they do get to play the lead in hero movies then conditions apply. They are either made fun of, forced to play second fiddle to some other character, and … well you get the picture. I actually feel sorry for teenage boys. If they come from a broken home and are looking for a male role model at the movies … tough luck. If all they see of white males is a negative stereotype what do you think you will get?
I think Joaquin Phoenix Joker character said it best … You get what you f#cking deserve
I am black. I live in a small town in the South. The state I live in has a large black population. Nobody I know is agitating to teach or be taught CRT, not even in the HBCU that is nearby. Most black people aren’t walking around spoiling for a fight or looking for racism. We know it will find our asses on its own. Nobody that I know is obsessed with canceling anyone.
Would most of the black people I know like to see more black movies with black protagonists? Hell yes. Are any of the black people here organizing boycotts of movies starring white men? No, because if we did, there’d be practically nothing to see. Also, there are only so many hours in the day and people actually have lives.
My point is that the obsessive yammering about cancel culture which believe me – IS NOT a thing in everyone’s circles – has become as tiresome as cancel culture itself.
Where I live NO white people are being persecuted for their beliefs or indoctrinated in any leftwing ideology.
I’m not saying that cancel culture on the left doesn’t exist. I’m not saying it doesn’t punish some people who are undeserving and I’m not saying that it isn’t a practice that doesn’t allow for redemption. I’m not saying that it can’t be mere virtue signaling that doesn’t result in positive change.
But sweet Jesus on a cracker! Whining is whining whether it comes from the right, left or center.
The Coen Brothers are correct that it is their right to write whatever they want and cast it however they want. They are quirky motherf—-r’s who have always done whatever the hell they wanted to do.
But what I don’t get is that after getting dressed down by the Coens – who have pushed back on being expected to shoehorn POC into their movies when that isn’t their vision – why the interviewer didn’t follow up when Coen said, “Now if you want to talk about diversity in the industry that’s another thing.
That was a perfect time to ask him about it. If Hollywood is leaving money on the table with its tendency to greenlight movies like it was the 1950’s, then he should have an opinion on what should be done about it.
But this seems to escape everyone who wants to fight the culture war.
Not my favorite post but here is what I responded to:
As long as ” the heroe’s journey” remains one of the first things taught in screenwriting, we are in zero danger of losing heroes. There are worse things to lose sleep over, such as point #2 below:
“But Trump is mostly gone yet the ideology has somehow remained.”
–>Tell that to the party who is constantly trying to get him exonerated and re-elected in 2024.
Lastly, was the movie you described Those Who Wish Me Dead? Because it sounds like it.
You think that’s the movie she meant ? I don’t know because in that movie it was very clearly explained why those two women in particular could possibly triumph : one was under attack on her own turf (forest during a wildfire) and as a smokejumper she had a unique set of skills that was necessary to survive that predicament, a crucial skillset that the hitmen did not have. And the sheriff’s wife was literally a survival expert, that was her profession, so again, makes sense she would, well, survive.
It’s just a guess but yes. For the record, I liked the movie.
I LOVED that movie. I am a sucker for these midrange-budget 90s throwback B-thrillers that also serve as star vehicles. This one also had a great ensemble, too.
I took a closer look at the 2021 theatrical release schedule and I have to say, I am not too worried about the disappearance of the white male lead anytime soon because just on 2021 releases with white male leads, Hollywood spent billions on production alone. Films like The King’s Man, Spider-Man : No Way Home, Top Gun : Maverick, Ghostbusters, Dune, No Time To Die, Venom : Let There Be Carnage, Free Guy, The Last Duel, Reminiscence, The Hitman’s Bodyguard’s Wife are all white male protagonist type of big-budget Hollywood films with a combined production price tag of what should be in the 2B range plus the global marketing costs.
Then there are also the low-to-midrange budget star vehicles for white male actors like Nightmare Alley, Wolf, The Card Counter, The Many Saints of Newark, Dear Evan Hansen, Don’t Breathe 2, Old, Joe Bell, The French Dispatch. Another roughly 250M spent on the production of films with white male leads.
That’s 20 high-profile films with male leads already.
Then we still have 8 high-profile star vehicles for non-white male leads In the Heights, King Richard, A Journal for Jordan, The Matrix 4, Sang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Space Jame : A New Legacy, The Green Knight, The Little Things. That’s another roughly 600M spent on production.
Then four proper two-handers with male / female co-leads with only one of the 4 getting top billing : The Conjuring : The Devil Made Me Do It, Jungle Cruise, The Tragedy of Macbeth, West Side Story. Roughly 350M spent on production.
And only then, 32 male lead roles and roughly $3.2B production costs later do we even get to the 10 proper female star vehicles of the year : Black Widow, Eternals, Respect, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Malignant, Antlers, Last Night in Soho, Halloween Kills, Those Who Wish Me Dead, Resident Evil : Welcome to Racoon City. Their combined production price tag is somewhere in the 600M range.
And for the record, while clearly still falling short, this IS still one of the most progressive years Hollywood has ever seen as far as representation goes. For example ever since their big break (Iron Man in 2008), Marvel released 23 films of which 1 was headlined by a woman (Captain Marvel) and 1 was headlined by an actor of colour (Black Panther). This year there will be 3 Marvel films, one headlined by a white actress, one headlined by an actress of Asian descent and one headlined by an actor of Asian descent, latter two making history in the process as well.
So if in a relatively progressive year Hollywood still spends almost four times more on films with white male leads than either on films with non-white male leads or female leads (and don’t even get me started on non-white female leads), then I am pretty sure there is nothing to worry about when it comes to male white cinematic heroes.
In an ideal world the roughly 4B that is spent on high-profile film productions by big studios and mini-majors in an average year, should be divided equally as far as racial and gender representation goes : so 500M for films with white male leads, 500M for films with white female leads, 500M for films with non-white male leads, 500M for films with non-white female leads.
I wouldn’t start worrying about the disappearance of white male leads until a year comes when Hollywood spent less than 500M on making their films. This year that number is roughly 2.2B. So they are clearly safe.
If there is a group to worry about than that’s the non-white leading ladies. 32 films with male leads will have theatrical releases this year, of that 32 at least 20 will be headlined by white actors. In contrast only 14 with female leads are expected for the big screen this year, of those 4 are co-leads and only one of the 4 is an actress of colour (Rachel Zegler) and from the 10 proper female star vehicles only 2 are headlined by actresses of colour (Respect, Eternals). So 20 white male star vehicles for the big screen in 2021 and only 3 non-white female star vehicles. Now THAT is a problem for me. The possibility of white male actors getting fewer star vehicles, isn’t really, mainly because the numbers just simply don’t even suggest they are getting even remotely less than before while other groups are most definitely getting less and have been since the dawn of time.
P.S. This whole argument is based on theatrical releases (so no streamers) and star vehicles (so no lead-less ensemble pieces like The Suicide Squad or Downton Abbey).
I suspect this whole piece was designed for someone to lose their cool and respond back with a series of insults and invective. It’s hard to have a persecution complex if one isn’t being persecuted, so do the next best thing and bait someone into it.
I truly get that’s how the internet outrage business works for both right and left.
At least this isn’t Wells who routinely insults his community by name if they say something he disagrees with.
I was trying to figure out what “removing a female character’s sexuality” means, then I realized this is just troll bait. No thanks.
” Conservatives will have to rise up to make daring art again ” Never gonna happen! The Arts have always been left or liberal and always will be . Have there been conservatives in the arts? Of course there have but they have been few and far between . Conservatives are good at a lot of things but the Arts aren’t one of them . It’s just not in their DNA !
Sasha, be honest for once. This article only was written because you want the attention and to be able to try and cry that you’re a victim. You don’t actually think there’s a problem. You just hope you’ll get comments that disagree with you, and then you’ll cry that you’re being canceled lol. Thats all this is.
For someone who hates cancel culture and monitoring free speech so much, you take part in both on this site. Don’t be a hypocrite.
As hot and dry as it is in this part of the country, repeated use of straw men is a big time fire hazard.
I’m wracking my brain at which completely obscure pundit or dodgy “journal” on the “left” set off anti Twitter on this topic.
1. “Many prominent voices on the Left seem to be perfectly comfortable with the idea that art should not REFLECT life, comment on life or offer satire or criticism of the human experience, but rather to dictate how people should think, how society should function and what we all should fear.” – Such as who specifically? I mean which PROMINENT voice do you mean as opposed to some nobody mentioned in passing in Twitter by someone else no one has heard of.
2. “Black characters were often silent and moving around in the background of movies – serving meals, wearing maid uniforms while the prominent white characters played out their daily dramas.” Many of them were also Stepin Fetchit or Amos and Andy. Ok, cheap shot by me that was a long time ago, but I will compliment you for not taking this article in a direction GUARANTEED to get angry reaction
3 “Saturday Night Live has become one of its own sketches as everyone is too afraid to lampoon the side of the political aisle that is in desperate need of parody.” The thing is SNL has never done political humor that well, even in the so-called Glory Days. Often a point of view issue that reduced sketches to abstracts. However, in the last two years or so, they have been embracing a more surreal approach (normally reserved for the 10 to 1 death spot) that has gone a different direction than the Game Show/Talk Show tropes and/or the ultra tired White Guy hardcore rapping about banal things. It’s not been 100 percent perfect, but there’s definitely a noticeable change in direction which will be interesting to watch if the expected massive cast turnover plays out this summer.
4. When virtually every major picture this year is a comic book or superhero film, this is an odd time to complain about men being shunted aside. Frankly, action pictures need a huge kick in the behind because the formula has grown beyond tired (shoot me dead, but having Bob Odenkirk kicking ass was REALLY CLEVER, thinking outside the box shouldn’t just be a George Miller thing).
5. If we’re talking Oscar, Nomadland was I think the first movie to win Best Actress and Best Picture since Million Dollar Baby? And one of few BP winners with a dominant female performance as the true lead of the picture. I think Men will be fine.
6. I’m puzzled at the assertion that there’s some sort of movement to eliminate heroes or specifically male heroes from American film. This summer’s lineup tells me the exact opposite. Then again, I’ll watch ANY type of film as long as I think it’s GOOD. Call it a case of small c catholic taste, but it’s moronic to instantly dislike a film because something either overly familiar or unfamiliar is on the poster in the lobby. This is not a binary art form. This isn’t an art form where ONLY ONE TYPE of movie is acceptable. I respectfully disagree with your overly rigid take on this while respecting your right to make it.