Tough Guys in America, (Part 1) 8-31-2010

 All this talk of being tough on crime has me thinking about America's tough guys. I say our toughness is dumber than it used to be, and it shows.

 I grew up seeing James Cagney and Gary Cooper and Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne. I think we can call of them iconic American tough guys. But they used their heads as much as their fists.

Look at every Cagney character, and you know his brains are running on overdrive. You see the intelligence burning in his eyes. Now, compare him with the atypical modern tough guy. I would give them 10 seconds in the ring with Cagney.

Meanwhile, Gable and Cooper would have suckered the poor fool out of his boots and watch. Bogart and Alan Ladd would lead the poor sap into so many double-crosses, he would beg to be sent home. Today's guys have bigger biceps and guns, but for pure meanness, there is always John Wayne.

I originally thought to write how Gary Cooper and John Wayne bisect American toughness. I set out to write how Cooper defined a manliness that was as much about brains as brawn. I planned on pointing to movies like North West Mounted Police and The Plainsman and The Westerner.

 Then I thought of Clark Gable.

I see an overlap in their film characters. They reveled in slyness; maybe Gable's characters even more. Both made slyness a masculine virtue.

Likewise, I cannot think of a John Wayne character that was witless. He is not the musclebound brute relying on outsized muscles and a large amount of firepower a la Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Of our modern action heroes, Willis in his John McCain movies and Kurt Russell resemble him the most.

sch

[Continued in Tough Guys in America, (Part 2) 8-31-2010. sch 3/19/23. ]