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| Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen in Red Dawn. Is Swazye the last true white American action star? |
It is a rarity in films today to see a white American male protagonist in an action film that isn't named Shia Labeouf, James Franco, Seth Rogen or some other insufferable actor that looks like the nerd you gave the long walk out of the fraternity house to on the first night of rush.
Why is it that the new crop of action stars in Hollywood have to be imported from Australia, England, Germany and New Zealand? Are there not any white American actors worthy of being tapped as the next great action star?
Watching The Expendables, a film where a bunch of near septuagenarians hobble around on camera, was brutal and a sad reminder that few worthy Hollywood action stars exist anymore. Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell and other actors have seen their best days. Nicholas Cage, when he isn't having hair plug surgery, is running from creditors. Mark Wahlberg is intent on being a producer.
By continually casting wimpy white American actors that look like they spend their time shopping in J. Crew instead of hitting the weights and relying on tough, foreign white actors to carry the machismo-load does a disservice to aspiring thespians who haven't been emasculated.
When was the last time you saw a 6'2 actor in a Hollywood film? Sorry, Jason Segel doesn't count. Almost every movie made with American actors now has some combination of Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, and the perfect example of a Stuff White People Like white person, Michael Cera (see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World).
The Black action star is virtually dead. Wesley Snipes is in jail, Will Smith is trying to buy proven movie franchises as vehicles for his feckless son and the current crop of Black actors grew up in a community that puts more faith in the "keep it real" ethos of Jalen Rose, spurning the Uncle Tom mindset of Grant Hill that consumers are more interested in paying to watch (I'd wager that 90 - 95 percent of Black people agree with Rose on the Duke basketball - Black players/Uncle Tom situation).
One of the horrible aspects about life in Black Run America (BRA) is that white males have been basically emasculated. Afraid to say anything that goes against the ruling zeitgeist for fear of losing a job, the inevitable social ostracism and, worst of all, having little appeal to the opposite sex for harboring views that have been labeled as seditious and offensive is the purported price of being among those who can see.
There's a reason why such films as Fight Club and Boondock Saints resonate with this disenfranchised group of people.
The actors highlighted in The USA Today article include Tom Hardy, Chris and Liam Hemsworth, Andrew Garfield and Henry Cavill. All are white actors; none are American.
In reading the autobiography Patrick Swayze wrote shortly before he died, I found one portion of the book particularly interesting. He said that being a Southern gentleman would have been even better then being an actor (he got to play one in some 1980s miniseries).
You got the sense that Swayze knew he was born into the wrong century, the wrong epoch. That the ideals he embodied - heroic, idealistic, and gentlemanly - were no longer in fashion.
Finishing the article in USA Today on the new action stars between 20 - 35 (I'm right in between that age group) made me realize that I might be one of the few people to even notice that no white American was listed.
We don't make anything in America anymore; we even have to import action stars. Perhaps this is because any authentic American action star would be a throwback to a time period when white males weren't emasculated.
When a movie like The Searchers could be made.
It's fitting then that Swazye might have represented one of the last true iconic white American action stars, for he uttered four words in Red Dawn that embody the essence of what it means to be an American: "Because we live here."
That this view seems archaic is the reason BRA holds power in the first place.
36 comments:
I have to dsagree with this. America still produces some badass white American Action stars.
Matt Damon: The Borne series, Saving Private Ryan, Green Zone, The Departed
Leonardo DiCaprio- The Departed, Blood Diamond, Inception
Viggo Mortensen- Lord of the Rings, History of Violence, The Road
Christian Bale- Batman Begins, The Dark Night, Equilibrium
Just to name a few.
American actors are no longer being typecast as being Action Stars in the way Jason Statham is, but we produce some amazing action films with American white actors. Hugh Jackman was overshadowed by Liev Schreiber's performance in X-Men origins. Anyway, the death of American Action Stars has not yet occurred, but you never see White men standing up to blacks.
-GB
Hollywood's young, white, male actors today are reflective of the vast amount of young, white males in our society. They are unkempt, out of shape fat shlubs. Either that, or unkempt, out of shape, scrawny douchebags.
Seth Rogen is the worst offender. He actually plays romantic leads in screwball comedies and chick flicks. These are the same type of roles that Clark Gable or Cary Grant would have played in the 1930s. Amazing.
The current "in" actor (who I absolutely despise) is that waste product, fat ass idiot, Zach Galifinakis. Hollywood is using him to actually define white males in 2011. Sadly, they may be right. Every restaurant I go to these days has an entire stable of waiters that look and act just like him. And off to the side I'll observe smoking hot waitresses who are completely enamored by these no-testosterone slugs.
When I was in my twenties, if you went to a gym after work the whole place was crawling with people in their twenties. Today, if you go to a gym after work, the entire place is crawling with people in their forties. They're the same damn people. Young people, especially white males (I have a hard time referrring to them as "men") are drinking beer and eating delivery pizza in their parents' basement, and the result is they look just like Hollywood's white American male "leading men". Amazing. The more a guy does to make himself look like a human Twinkee, the more he looks like a Hollywood star!
It's not just the being out of shape part that frosts me the most. It's the fact that they are unapologetic pussies. They do nothing productive, still ride skateboards, play video games, jack off to online porn, smoke pot all day long...and they have hot girlfriends who are attorneys and marketing directors and hospital administrators. It's completely fucked up.
I will say that white males with pride do still exist. Our military is chock full of them. It is a travesty that Hollywood is portraying shlubs, geeks, and wusses as desirable men, while our warriors who kill Al Qaeda are portrayed as crazy psychotics.
Such is life in BRA.
Great post, SBPDL! It stirred me up.
I know that it is possible to use a ton of examples that tend to dilute your opinion above. I do not wish to do that as I generally agree with you. But, ever so slowly, masculinity has been making a come back in film and tall, rugged American actors do exist and have been choosing some interesting (if slightly obscure) projects in that direction. The two I am thinking of are Jim Caviezel and Timothy Oliphant. For Caviezel, check out "Outlander" and "The Count of Monte Christo." For Oliphant, "Deadwood-TV Series" and "The Crazies."
What is an emasculated American male? There seems to be many action films coming out that feature white American male actors: 'Source Code' (Jake Gyllenhall); 'The Lincoln Lawyer' (Matthew Maconaughey); 'Limitless' (Bradley Cooper).
'Inception' was a very good movie with Leo DiCaprio, who's a great actor.
I don't really get the beef. I always see trailers and think, 'God, there is a lot of white people on TV!' So, you have a problem with the kinds of white people on TV? LOL!
Films with the 'white losers'--like Michael Cera or that fat guy no girl would have sex with, Seth Rogen--are just some of the comedies that are hot with audiences. It's not exactly the only stuff out there, nor will they supplant action films, or that those guys will be the standard for 'new heroes'. It seems like you are looking for a totally flawless action hero; audiences like identifying with flaws, so that may be a thing of the past.
I love old films, like what you'd see on TCM; the stories and writing are great but the characters are very 2-dimensional. That a star has to wear a suit the whole film is that idea personified.
I don't think Bruce Willis or Nicolas Cage are out their prime; they just haven't necessarily chosen good roles, or good roles are only made for younger male stars? Americans are ageists, as you have proven.
I try to avoid action films, or anything starring Shia Labeouf or Channing Tatum. The films seem to be so formulaic they're hard to stomach. A resurgence of the hero you're talking about would just be annoying; matter of fact, most movies now are annoying.
I'd like to see Robin Williams in more dramatic roles; an indie flick called 'World's Greatest Dad' where Williams is a struggling writer just solidified for me what a treasure he is when he's not doing comedies. I'd rather watch Philip Seymour Hoffman, a truly great actor, than a Harrison Ford character in a film.
It just seems like you, SBPDL, like those trashy All-American flicks popular in the 1980s. Those are total blah, and just don't age well. In my opinion, some of the worst films come from the 1980s. 'Fast Times At Ridgemont High' is overrated. It seems like you want to see a film where the guy is a killing machine, gets the girl, waves the American flag; eh, that's boring guy fantasy.
I thought, by this entry, you'd make it to the end without Blaming Darkie, but you couldn't. Studio execs pay attention to what the majority of white consumers want to see; blame Whitey for the emasculated American male, whatever that is.
Masculinity making a comeback? I think not. Anyone else seen that Public Service Announcement with Daniel Craig as James Bond 007 dressed as a woman? If not, go here (http://www.weareequals.org/) and prepare to be disgusted.
By the way, Christian Bale is British, not American.
Furthermore, Jim Caveziel has been discriminated against by Hollywood for refusing to do sex scenes or do movies that trash America or Catholics (I did love OUTLANDER, though), so I can't say I buy the argument that there is a masculinity comeback that Caveziel is leading. If anything, he's having to fight to get those roles because Hollywood wants no part of it.
The Searchers was meant to portray John Wayne as an anti-hero, not as a role model, when it was released.
Last post,
It failed.
I won't deny that guys like Bradley Cooper, Oliphant and Patrick Wilson (stole the show in The A-Team) are good American actors.
It's the import of young actors from England and Australia that I find strange.
Also, the Black actor Michael Jai White has been unfairly neglected by Hollywood (check out Black Dynamite).
It may be my age, and I admittedly won't/don't pay to view most of Hollywood's garbage, but the ads on t.v. and the previews at the few movies I do go to only reinforce your point, SBPDL. What normal American woman would ever find someone like David Shwimmer (sp?) or Ben Stiller attractive? I cannot conceive of fat-faced DiCaprio as "hot." Jake Gyllenhaal is attractive and masculine, but I will not pay money to see his liberal face. Patrick Swayze, Harrison Ford, and Tom Berenger were men, not boys. Even Mel Gibson, in his heyday, was too much of a "pretty boy" for my taste. (That said, he is not aging well, like another former "pretty boy" Robert Redford who aged horribly). Another manly American actor who has aged well is Tom Selleck. The plethora of "sensitive" or "humorous" or geeky ethnots being pushed today reek of White self-abasement (or, more accurately, debasement of Whites by Hollywood's liberal Jewish owners).
Yes Tim Oliphant seems to be the "new" Gary Cooper, very refreshing. I do see the "weak pussy white guy" agenda being pushed by the media, mostly in commercials(Progressive insurance being the worst). Just saw two commercials last night, one with a black guy with twenty inch guns, for no reason, and some muscular and buff black guy flying around with his shirt off(!?) Most white "men" are portrayed as double chinned pastry puff pussies. This of course only fuels me with the desire to pump out those extra reps at the Y. Damn wussies! Fuck that!
Oh yeah, pardon me, but Christian Bale is Welsh.
The first part of the decline of white males in this country had to do with the way they dress. The artist Bill Griffiths once said that in the forties and fifties, young men used to aspire to dress like their fathers, and you would see them with porkpie hats or fedoras, patent leather wingtips, etc. Now the opposite has occured. Grown men tend to dress more like their children, wearing shorts and t-shirts with logos on them, ballcaps and sometimes even...fanny-packs.
I have a few suits, a worsted navy, a poplin, a tweed. If I wear these around casually on a weekend I will inevitably be asked several times why I'm wearing it.
The only place where suits are still popular with the average man would be among blacks, and they wear egregious, box-cuts like something from the Stacy Adams or Steve Harvey collection.
I instinctively agree with the article but then find myself going around in circles. Lee Marvin, James Coburn, they were manly guys. So was Connery (Scottish) and Michael Caine (English). Manly doesn't mean having a gymbody or anything like that imo. Of those around today maybe Viggo Mortensen is a man's man. Daniel Craig, he's a bit of a throwback for James Bond, not a pretty boy. James Bond was modelled (or modelled himself so to speak) on the American Hoagy Carmichael, a bit rough around the edges. Bond is English of course and so is Craig.
So it may be these guys always came from here and there, USA, UK, Australia, but men are just generally portrayed differently. Bruce Willis & Sly Stallone, I wouldn't say they were real men exactly, they may go to the gym a lot but that's not the same thing.
Interesting article. I just can't find a single straight-up answer to it.
So for blacks today in the movies you have:
Denzel Washington
Morgan Freeman
That's about it...unless you want to count Tyler Perry in a dress.
Re: Whatever you think of Caviezel on film, in life he is a "real man." He has taken on the Hollywood elite and openly declared that speaking for the unborn is more important to him than his career. He has also adopted two children with disabilities from China, practicing what he preaches. Integrity makes the man.
http://www.tldm.org/News13/JimCaviezelProLifeMoreImportantThanMyCareer.htm
Almost every movie made with American actors now has some combination of Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, and the perfect example of a Stuff White People Like white person, Michael Cera (see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World).
I'm glad I'm not the only one with a low opinion of Michael Cera. I'd say that he's more insufferable than Rudd and Hill combined, but Seth Rogan has him beat for sheer volume. By the way, Cera's a Canadian.
There's a reason why such films as Fight Club and Boondock Saints resonate with this disenfranchised group of people.
I think Boondock Saints resonates with Americans because we are so enormously dissatisfied with the prison system. We want convicts to either spend the rest of their lives at hard labor or to hang. We don't want prisoners to have three nutritious meals per day, a warm cot at night, and myriad educational and recreational entitlements, and all with plenty of energy left over to sodomize each other. Since our prisons will never go back to being punishment centers, all we're left with is fiction and the possibility of violent prison rape, which I think is despicable.
Leonardo DiCaprio- The Departed, Blood Diamond, Inception
If Leo is considered a badass, I'd say you just made SBPDL's point for him.
He has also adopted two children with disabilities from China, practicing what he preaches. Integrity makes the man.
That's a shame. Caviezel's stock just went down a notch for me. There's not exactly a dearth of actors itching to bring little brown vanity projects to the Land of the Big PX.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan from The Losers and Watchmen.
Oddly, despite his small stature, Jackie Earle Haley is manly.
Chris Evans is kinda a pretty boy, but he's a great actor and plays a younger man's man well.
Hirsch,
I have a few suits, a worsted navy, a poplin, a tweed. If I wear these around casually on a weekend I will inevitably be asked several times why I'm wearing it.
Nice!
This is incredibly hot. :-}
The white American male has been emasculated because he is less masculine than the black male. On the football field or in the nightclub, the white male is less athletic and virile.
The white people on this blog are caught up on the demerits of blacks but won't admit to the ways in which they are inferior.
I do not exactly see these foreign actors running around screaming "Niggers" "Kikes" "Spics" and "Chinks". So how exactly does not being able to say these things make you less of a man?
matt damon and de caprio(sp?) are anti-american screechers. imho, they are not men, girly men, off screen. interesting, the roles they play are generally war people. lol
i agree with the article completley. we may see men in masculine action roles in the movies, but they are girly men in real life.
"The white people on this blog are caught up on the demerits of blacks but won't admit to the ways in which they are inferior."
You're obviously an ignorant negro newcomer, it's been discussed many times.
Blacks can run faster and jump higher.
Whites are more intelligent.
"I do not exactly see these foreign actors running around screaming "Niggers" "Kikes" "Spics" and "Chinks"."
If you didn't see it, then it never happened.
"Anonymous said...
"I do not exactly see these foreign actors running around screaming "Niggers" "Kikes" "Spics" and "Chinks"."
If you didn't see it, then it never happened."
Your wit, sir, astounds me.
You're obviously an ignorant negro newcomer, it's been discussed many times.
Blacks can run faster and jump higher.
Whites are more intelligent.
Apparently you timid whites have not had a forthright discussion.
Add to your list: Blacks are more masculine.
"Add to your list: Blacks are more masculine."
I suppose it depends on how you define "masculine". It's irrelevant to me.
Either way, congratulations on acknowledging that we are NOT all alike, different races are biologically different. Most of the negroes on this board refuse to admit this fact.
"Your wit, sir, astounds me."
Thanks. Your ability to assess the behavior of "foreign actors" based on what you "see" is equally astounding.
Except for that darned Mel Gibson.
Amazing that in 25 comments, no one has named the puppetmasters behind this dearth of strong white male presentation: our Ancient Friends, the High-Functioning Gypsies, the Two-Percenters, those Wandering Undesirables, the Lox Smiths, they of the stage names and the culture of critique. Juan Williams was fired by CNN for such a revelation; only a descendant of the Learned Elders may proclaim the true face of Hollywood (in boastful manner, no less).
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/19/opinion/oe-stein19
It's been hypothesized that sports culture is the keystone supporting the entirety of BRA, as blacks outside of athletics showcase far too few positive traits to atone for their race's abject misbehavior. Who are the ringleaders of these organizations? Bud Selig of Major League Baseball, David Stern (the "internationalist") of the NBA, Gary Bettman of the NHL, and even the English Football Association's chairman David Bernstein (successor of David Triesman) all read from only one half of the King James Bible.
Roger Goodell, against the odds, was chosen as NFL commissioner ahead of two Chosen (and two other non-Chosen) finalists for the position. We should savor a sports authority with three high school varsity letters, as such pedigrees are not long for this world.
Food for thought: intelligent criticism of the Artful Dodgers is not that they necessarily conspire to destroy the West, but that their nepotism, hubris, and competitive hostility produce much the same result. As far as Hollywood is concerned though, I do not believe they deserve the courtesy of "intelligent" criticism.
." Every restaurant I go to these days has an entire stable of waiters that look and act just like him. And off to the side I'll observe smoking hot waitresses who are completely enamored by these no-testosterone slugs."
I'm surprised those "smoking hot waitresses" aren't enamored with the over-the-hill raging narcissist at table five.
"When I was in my twenties, if you went to a gym after work the whole place was crawling with people in their twenties. Today, if you go to a gym after work, the entire place is crawling with people in their forties. They're the same damn people."
So I guess youre part of the "gym-going generation?" I see an even mix of young and old at my gym.
"It's not just the being out of shape part that frosts me the most. It's the fact that they are unapologetic pussies. They do nothing productive, still ride skateboards, play video games, jack off to online porn, smoke pot all day long...and they have hot girlfriends who are attorneys and marketing directors and hospital administrators. It's completely fucked up."
I know many who do, or have ridden skateboards. None of them fit the rest of your description. If you've ever slapped the back of your head against the concrete,sacked yourself on a handrail,Pete Rose'd on the asphalt, or all of the above a dozen times, you wouldn't be calling them "pussies." From what I see, skateboarding takes a lot more fortitude than your evening at the gym followed by dinner at Spago.
@Phalluster
Well said, brother. You are one that can REALLY SEE.
DGB
@Phalluster
I was wondering if anyone was going to make that connection! The whole article, I was thinking, "Okay...at some point we'll get to it: the people BEHIND this trend."
Jay Baruchel over Rogen is my own irritant. His voice and whiny, neurotic mannerisms have the same effect on me that a knife scraping a ceramic plate or nails on a chalkboard have. Him and Michael Cera. Eugh...
I will never be one of the women sucked in by the over-saturation of weak-willed, whiny, neurotic 'men' with no morals in our movies and on TV. Give me a guy with actual testosterone any day of the week.
American society has changed in a broad sense. A hundred years ago American boys had strong male role-models, today they don't - especially in the black community. Most of the population a hundred years ago lived on the farm and worked on the farm. Boys had role-models. Boys today see very little of their dads and the role-models they do have are often shallow pieces of crap. Many boys are raised almost entirely by women, at home and in school. Mix that with a consumer-driven economy that promotes quick-fix, instant gratification and political correctness instead of character and principle and I think we can find some clues. I think Clint Eastwood and John Wayne, sadly, are gone forever.
Mhmm, gotta admit it is a disturbing trend.
Although I find Rogen, Cera etc good entertainment - I don't think they should be pushed as the prototype of young males today.
At the heart of hit, any male lead in a Judd Apatow movie ( barring Owen Wilson and Sandler) is a wimpy, scrawny kid or an overwieght, good for nothing.
It is really sad that Hollywood keeps pushing out this image.
Back in the day, young boys wanted to be winners like their fathers - real men. If it wasn't your father it was Sean Connery in Bond.
The whole video game geek movement needs to end. Get a hold of yourself fellow young males.
It's still a man's world - but Im not sure it will be for too much longer.
Matt Damon? You must be kidding!! See Team America World Police.
Leonardo? See the Don's John
I'm white and the author is right.
fck all you racist pieces of sht. all you nazis can get the fck out of america and go back to your own countries. you sheep fckng neanderthals are disgracing native soil with your inbreeding and systematic retardation. GET THE FCK OUT AND GO BACK TO EUROPE.
It doesn't matter whether the actor is white or black. Its just like everything else that comes from other countries. Are all the acters going to be imported as well? Don't get me wrong,they are good at what they do but still where are our american actors. We still have some living or what about home grown american actors.
The initiation of the New World Order and subsequent enslavement of mankind depends first on the media's emasculation of males ( We are working harder for less and less, which will get much worse with inflation.)The same "group" of people who own Hollywood, the media, and the banks are responsible for this satanic agenda. Strong willed men stand up and fight evil, whereas weak men succumb to it.
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