I always pictured characters like Wesley from the Princess Bride, or Aragorn from LOTR as the prime examples of manliness. They are tough and willing to fight, but they do so for a sense of purpose, and are dedicated to their cause above themselves. They also aren't random romantics; they are deeply dedicated to their loved ones and have a sense of morality and purpose.

“What men are, the future will be.” I love the saying.

*When I studied ancient cultures I always wondered what a matriarchy would really be like. Now I know.*

As a 64 yo woman who married not one, but two weak, non-masculine men, when I hear Sean Connery in that scene, I burst into tears. I don’t think I’ve known even one masculine (which is to say a non-emasculated feminist) man except my own father who was born in 1923. Today’s men swim in the sea of feminism and they don’t even know they’re wet with it. It’s dispiriting. I’m a lifelong movie buff, used to write about masculinity in the Golden Age of the studios and how obvious masculinity was, how upfront. A lack of moral clarity was what marked the non-masculine man in film. Men who don’t understand ‘male-ness’ are now standard issue from the daycare culture.

Though he was short and fat, I always thought that Samwise Gamgee was a real man.

No one likes the passive weak "men" of modern Hollywood. The antihero is played out by now. I'm tired of the "cool" man who doesn't care. Where are the men who care deeply and fight for a cause greater than themselves?

"If money becomes the measure of manhood, the price is your moral soul" -greatest line

That Terminator scene is actually “Terminator 2: Judgement Day.” Best opening scene of an action movie for me as a kid. Loved it!

If anyone is wondering what a man is, he is the foundation stone of his family. If he is grounded well and sound then his family will be strong. If he is cracked or off kilter in any way his family will crumble.

My father controlled the TV in our house and we watched westerns, war movies, and crime dramas. My idea of manhood was shaped by John Wayne, Bogart, and more. As a little girl, when I played house it was a cabin on a ranch. The scene you showed of McClintock is my very favorite scene of any movie ever. I understand that there are men who take things too far, my father was abusive. But to stand for nothing, to tolerate everything is so wrong. I like real men. I like cowboys. Real men treated women with care and respect. I miss those days, when people knew right from wrong. The world is crazy now, much scarier than the wild west.

Joey calls his father a coward. Shane smacks the boy's bottom, telling him that his father is stronger than him by being a farmer rather than a gunslinger. Choosing peace, not war. Choosing hard farming work, not easy killing. Both men are needed to create a society.

I grew up with a single mom in the 80's, so cartoons were my babysitter after school. That's where I got alot of my ideas about what a man should be like. It wasn't until I had a child of my own that I noticed how much kids cartoons have changed. When I was young most of the kids cartoons were about adults (or creatures/robots voiced by adults) - He-Man, GI Joe, Thundercats, Inspector Gadget, Spiderman, Smurfs, Transformers, Tailspin, Ducktales, Ghostbusters, Scooby Doo, etc. These days all the shows are about children, or creatures made to seem young and cute. There are almost no shows that teach children to be mature or masculine any longer.

Growing up watching those "men of violence" eventually led me to pursuing fighting and martial arts sports. But I'll never forget when I first started, my father told me "You learn how to fight in the hopes that you never have to" - that you're ready to fight, but not looking for one. I came to realise that about masculinity as well - Always being ready to act, in all fields of life, but not to go looking for action or to allow it to define you.

The Man who shot liberty valance is so good!!! Watched it recently and wow!

“That’s all true. Now be a Man.” Well said

One of John Wayne's best movies, for me anyway, that sum up the end of an era of tough guy westerns is The Shootist, it starred Jimmy Stewart and Lauren Bacall as well as a young Ron Howard, and for me summed up Wayne's career in a nutshell. I find it an incredibly sad movie for a couple of reasons, it was Wayne's last feature film, he had already beaten cancer once and it showed how every age must finally end when all those people who made that age what it was finally die!! He was cancer free when filming took place but died of cancer some 3 or 4 years later and it wasn't his last movie role as people like to think because he had an unaccredited role in the first Star Wars movie but I don't know if his small part was actually used in the final cut of the movie by George Lucas. After Wayne died we ended up with a succession of western movies by Kevin Costner which, whilst watchable, were never a patch on films like True Grit or the westerns with Clint Eastwood.

Hi Mr. Klavan, I always have sincerely enjoyed your analysis of American films/entertainment media. I find it to be some of the best film commentary KZfaq has to offer and I hope you continue to do these videos in the future!

As always, a very well thought out and contemplative post.

McClintock is a great movie, I love that quote.

Victor Davis Hansen speaks of society needing the gunslinger and then telling them to move along. Beside Shane he lists Patten and LeMay. I could add the Polish pilots of RAF 303 Sqn who were treated shabbily once the war had been won.

One of my inspirations as I was growing up were Goku, Ezio, Kratos and Spider-Man, then Guts later on.

This is a really superb video. All men should watch it.

I can never get past the opening monologs- which are fantastic. But I understood this entire clip. Great message.

I'm curious what Drew thinks about the recent Marlowe film with Liam Neeson.🤔

Brilliant video, love your culture sections, pure gold.

This was great, thanks Klavan!

In my adolescent time, my hero was Mr. Spock as a role model.

The 80s saw society create two molds for men to fill, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chevy Chase. Either a muscle-bound hero, or a derpy family man whose role was to be humiliated for wanting anything a normal father provides.

This video is really excellent. It has some very good points every writer should know.

This was a fantastic analysis.

You forget. The Jewish ritual of manhood, the "Bar Mitzvah" is a rite of passage into manhood. Think about that. Think about how it's been abandoned and maligned, how it's been discounted and ignored. How it's been misunderstood and why it's been marginalized. I remember your story of how your bar mitzvah was unsuccessful because of the attitude you had, how the people around you had failed to inspire you, how instead of pride in your passing into manhood you felt only anger and rage, that the entire thing was ludicrous. Ironically, you were paving the way for even worse things to come. The passage into manhood is something that all boys must prepare for, but without the inspiration that your very own mentors failed to provide your boyhood self with, that passage falters. Thanks for the content. Keep up the good work. בס'ד

The Duke was poking Leo Gordon in the stomach with his rifle. I have always wondered if Leo Gordon and Bruce Gordon ( Frank Nitty in “The Untouchables”) were related. Leo Gordon also played a reformed felon who returns to visit Sheriff Andy in Mayberry who sent him up the river. Fortunately Andy has Barney Fife, Gomer Pyle and Otis Campbell protecting him. Good luck.

Glengary Glenross: such a classic--script and performances.

Great stuff, but Ranse Stoddard didn't shoot Liberty Valance. Tom Doniphon did.

Great stuff!

Growing up, my role model was C.S. Forrester's Horatio Hornblower. A seasick sailor who is driven by duty to be more than what he is, but always with humanity. He is brave, he is daring, he is always struggling with his personal doubts.

"Life is full of disappointment. This is one of them. DEAL WITH IT!" Tsgt Roosevelt Williams

Brilliant closing words.

That was powerful, thx Andrew!!!!!

Am i the only one who laughed out loud at the cover of that john wayne movie? 😂 mclintock

"He's not John Wayne"...The irony of _'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'_ is that Jimmy Stewart was a real tough guy, while John Wayne was just a thespian....not that there's anything wrong with that (being a thespian).

I think the cartoonishly violent and exaggerated image of masculinity in 1980’s movies reflected a distorted understanding what men are. This was for a generation in the 1970’s who had grown up fatherless with their mother describing to them how abusive and worthless their father was and all men in general. That has evolved now after a few more generations into emasculinated men and a surge men trying to identify as “trans women” an exaggerated, cartoonish idea of women. So many young women support this because all they know is the distorted image of men fostered and promoted by feminists. None of this is really to the benefit of women as we see trans women infiltrating women’s sports. Men under 50 have been totally confused for at least 40 years by contradictory information about how women want them to behave because women themselves are completely confused about how they should be living their lives. The result now is a popular push to deny biological if not all physical reality. This can only lead to one fatal result for individuals and society as a whole at least in the Western world. The Middle East, Africa and Asia are not so much into this unless they are strongly influenced by western culture. I see this because I live in Asia in a country strongly influenced by western, particularly American culture. This ultimately is a philosophy of death.

There's so much irony in John Wayne playing the stronger foil to Jimmy Stewart, and I feel like such a dork for pointing it out, but I respect and admire Jimmy Stewart too much not to.

Mammot also did the series The Unit.

One of my favorite quotes that show's the difference between the kinds of men you mentioned comes from Robert E. Howard. "Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split."

Great point about context in _One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest_ . Randle P McMurphy would have been the slimeball villian in e.g John Wayne film (or any Hollywood movie before the 70s). Put RP McMurphy in the midst of a bunch of neutered, neurotic males and you get a potent anti-hero.

8:00 It's a story as old as Gobekli Tepi. Hunters vs farmers.

You showed Arnold from "Terminator 2" but not Michael Biehn (Kyle Reese) from "The Terminator".

What was portrayed as super masculine in the 50's and 60's now just comes off as super grandpa-y. Even a lot of the humor does too.

“True Lies” is the best Schwarzenegger movie

arnold was the villain in terminator 1

4:14 Terminator 2 not Terminator

You know that Terminator is supposed to be Action terror right? Like, T-800 is a villain and was one, do you know that?

The Terminator is a bad guy in the first movie...

Hearing good things about the Sound of Freedom movie….

Small correction. It’s the great Angie Dickinson who plays Hallie in TMWSLV, not Vera Miles.

Correction: scene from T2. Great film

Fix audio

I think to some degree this evolution degradation of morality is exactly why The Sopranos worked. It wasn’t showing a lot of morality, but it was still self aware and allowed for them to show masculinities positive and negative aspects.

Drew, you do recall that (spoiler alert) Stoddard WASN'T the Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance, yes? That's the point of "When the legend becomes fact..."

Lesser extent Bruce Willis?! O.o ! hahaha

I kinda like funny Klavan better than serious Klavan,,, but serious Klavan is right most of the time.

Thats terminator 2 not 1

My favorite subject is how the nature of men haven't changed, and so you see the man born in the wrong time, like Commander Queeg, tough sharp men who earned little to no pay, to defend our fat, dumb, happy country during times of peace and recieve no glory, only to see younger men unfurl themselves and do as they were born to do, and recieve their country's honors and recognition.

Are you using “ telos “ which means “ end” or “ finish” in Greek to mean “ ultimate “. That is one’s ultimate identity? I have never heard it used this way and I lived in Greece for 8 years. This must be an English adoption of this word with a slightly different usage. BTW for anyone reading this far for the 1000th time there is no B or D in Greek. This leads to gross mispronunciations. β beta is the letter V. Δ delta is not D but the sound “ th” in mother, brother, feather. It drives me crazy ( not a very long trip) to hear English speakers butchering Greek by pronouncing as if it were English. Such people would spell Klavan with an “ e”.

Imagine a world where the French had knights and the English had musketeers 😂

Klavan/Peterson colab is upcoming? Be a man is what it is all about! Are you a male thinking you are unable to be a man? Then support the concept of being a man. That is right, telling a low down liar that he is a low down liar is being a man and champions arise from such confrontations. I am not saying you should waste yourself in pointless confrontations. Thing is there are times when making a stand matters even if you, yourself, are incapable of enforcing the change that needs to be made. Sometimes making the stand is what matters the most because the enforcers will come in behind those who make the stand. Be a man when it counts my friends!!!

80s---the hyperbolic man.

Masculinity in Film? What's that?

I really loved your video about Mr Rogers and I wish you had gone even further with it. He is beloved by Hollywood and the media because he’s the type of nice, effeminate wimp they want all men to be like.

Men talking about men is so manly

Okay Marlowe, you've been punched, hit, clubbed, and drugged. So now you're going to have to do something really hard. Put your pants on. These films were just entertaining. Only liberal arts would make this into something you can analyze. "I want you should find my Velma"

Maybe this is why I'm no longer interested in current movies. I'm so tired of the rivalry between men and women. Who are these film makers, are they in kindergarten? It's that age when boys think that girls are icky and vice versa. Then there's the unreal scenes where a woman beats up a man twice her size. I miss the older, more realistic movies.

"Masculinity? What's that?! Sounds scary. It's cancelled!" - 2020s

Strange that back when men were oiled up and half naked in action films is even they were at their manliest

You read books? Well it doesn’t sound like it to be honest. You see “Indians “are from India. They’re called Native Americans. I have Indian friends from India. Doesn’t help that John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart were massively racist. There are videos of those two talking about how black shouldn’t have equal rights. But if you’re calling Native Americans Indian you probably don’t care.

You must know that knights, samurai, westerns, etc. are mostly legend and not truth. Both versions of history are false and they are both false for the same reasons. Stories need a purpose, the past is just something that happened, history is an examination of the past to make a point. If you don't believe me just take a look at this whole recording. It is you explaining not what happened by why you think those things happened. What you think it all means. And just like every other story teller, your point is more important to the story then the facts.

I cant wait for mission impossible miss strong men due to woke! Tom will not have that him n his team r a strong cast

Sometimes, Clavan has really insightful things to say. Other times, he is utterly and painfully wrong.

Now do a female version!!

But can Andrew answer the most important question of all... Do real men take baths??

Yeah no. The 1980s wasn't the start of it at all. Arnold is a terminator he's not representing man. If you took other examples in the 80s it would debunk that claim. Also does that mean comics didn't exist or werent influential to people in the 80s? Poor analysis

Ah, the cover picture. Went from John Wayne, to Woke Boy Arnold Schwarzenegger, to Sissy Boy Murderer Alec Baldwin. The decline is monumental.

Disney use to make films that told us what men should be. Competent, strong, competitive, and fair. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_and_the_River_Pirates en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Follow_Me,_Boys!

Masculinity: 1962: Tom Doniphon 2023: Harry Styles Gawd Help Civilization