Masculinity in Action Movies of the past 3 decades

Men love action movies. Masculinity dictates that they have to – How can you not like someone who perfectly fits that ideal male image you have in your head? I’ve been a huge fan of actions movies as long as I can remember. Give me a big guy with big guns, a fresh mouth and have him kill the bad guy at the end and I’ll be satisfied. For years, I never questioned why I liked these movies so much. However, at some point during this course I began to think about action movies and how they were linked to our images of masculinity. I wanted to know why men turned out in droves to watch the same formula carried out by different actors over and over. I decided to look at the action hero and how he fits in with the current prevailing ideal image of male masculinity. Using three specific characters from three different eras I examined why these action heroes were portrayed as they are, why they act like they do, and how they are related to that era’s society.
The action hero is...