When Daniel Craig emerged from the sea in a pair of powder blue La Perla trunks in 2006’s Casino Royale, it was watershed moment in the depiction of men on the cinema screen. Craig was Bond as we’d never seen him before: ripped, bronzed and objectified in a way previously reserved for 007’s girls.
Bond’s body wasn’t the only thing that had changed since the series hit in the big screen in the 1960s. Back then, 007 was held up as some kind of role model for young men: competitive and aggressive, debonair but deadly.
Over the years, Bond has mutated as the cultural moment demanded it so that by the time Daniel Craig stepped into his tuxedo, the fantasy revealed flaws and 007’s masculinity became something to be explored rather than simply hero worshipped.
This chimes with the times. It is no coincidence that one of the biggest male Hollywood stars is Ryan Gosling, an actor who broke out in Drive as a getaway driver whose icy exterior hides emotional depth.
Gosling’s film choices since reflected cinema’s appetite for exploring masculinity in a nuanced way. He found his groove playing complex men, and his voice in La La Land, a musical about the guy who doesn’t, in the end, get the girl. Life – and men – are more complicated than that.
Historically speaking, cinema has not offered much in the way of emotional depth in its leading men. Men in film were expected to be strong and silent and stoic. The kind of guys who didn’t deal in the messy business of feelings, which is why they thrived in heists, shoot-outs and wars.
The police drama was a good place for the authentic tough guy to patrol. In the late 1960s to early 1970s, traits such as competitiveness and decisiveness defined the lead characters in gritty films such as Point Blank, Bullitt and Dirty Harry. The actors of the time – Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood – embodied this hard-man masculinity.
In the 1980s, action heroes such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone did increasingly preposterous things on cinema screens but the ridiculousness of their tough guy tasks had the unintended effect of lampooning hyper-masculinity.
The contemporary comic-book blockbuster era takes this a step further. Marvel Comics action heroes demonstrate all the supposedly masculine traits necessary for its men to get the job done, but guys such as Thor and Iron Man quip about their supposed manliness. They take their roles – saving the universe – seriously, but not themselves.
The absolute don of this is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, one of Hollywood’s (only) bankable stars. He juggles scaling skyscrapers and being intimidatingly ripped with respect for women, love for his kids and using his almighty social media presence to encourage men to be open about their feelings.
Men have traditionally turned to women to do this last bit for them. Women have been the key to unlocking men’s emotions on screen. The transformative power of a woman’s love is a trope that Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart built their careers on.
While the idea hasn’t absolutely disappeared, feminism has changed the playing field dramatically. From the late 70s, women became liberated from the role of making sure men were OK. Instead, they looked out for themselves like Sigourney Weaver in Working Girl; each other like Susan Sarandon and Gina Davis in Thelma and Louise; or, for all humanity, like Weaver again in Alien.
A safe space for men on screen has always been with each other. They just couldn’t talk about it. Since the early days of cinema, classic male duos have emerged such as Laurel and Hardy. And men have found ways to explore emotional bonds in settings that are safe to do so like a sports drama or buddy movie.
Bromances changed that. In the 21st century, films such as Anchorman or Pineapple Express used comedy to poke fun at hyper-masculinity and, at the same time, let men express how much they mean to each other.
Not every bromance was a cute meet, however. In 1999, Fight Club launched a plethora of theses on its themes of violent collective masculine identity, as well as setting new standards for men in the abs department thanks to Brad Pitt’s eight-pack. Fight Club retains some cultural cachet nearly 20 years on. But the films that have become talking points in contemporary culture suggest that audiences are interested in wider ranging explorations of masculinity.
In the Intouchables (2011), the French box-office hit (remade in English as The Upside in 2017), the two leads initially form a bond because they need each other. Philippe (François Cluzet) is a millionaire who needs a carer after a hang-gliding accident; ex-criminal Driss (Omar Sy) doesn’t want the job, but needs to show willing to continue his welfare payments. Soon they are taking care of each other in ways they could not possibly have imagined.
The 2017 Oscar winner Moonlight is a film about masculinity that dares to be beautiful and tender. Call Me By Your Name (2017) is a gay romance that resonated with anyone who has ever fallen in love over a long, hot summer. Both are critically acclaimed and box-office hits which allow their male heroes to be vulnerable.
It is a pattern that has continued in this year’s cinema hits. In Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, it is the men who express their emotions – including grief and joy at dancing to Abba songs – most vividly. In Incredibles 2, our animated superhero juggles the challenge of being a stay-at-home dad. In Marvel’s Black Panther, the male lead T’Challa takes strength from the women in his life and, as a result, is one of more well adjusted superheroes we’ve ever seen.
The action hero still has his (very profitable) place in all of this. Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible franchise continued to clean up at the box office this summer, proving that an appetite remains for the most uncomplicated version of man on screen.
But more and more diverse versions of masculinity are being played out from arthouse to blockbuster, with male characters doing what feels right rather than conforming to stereotypes. So much so that Bond, when he reappears, will have to reinvent himself again.
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