— Gen. Omar Bradley, Patton (1970)Give George a headline, and he's good for another 30 miles.
— Jack Lucas, The Fisher King (1991)I'm hearing horses! Parry will be so pleased!
— John Keating, Dead Poets Society (1989)The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?
— Maximus, Gladiator (2000)I've seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark, Rome is the light.
— Katsumoto & Nathan Algren, The Last Samurai (2003)Katsumoto: Do you believe a man can change his destiny? Algren: I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed to him.
— John Keating, Dead Poets Society (1989)Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day To-morrow will be dying.
— Miles, Sideways (2004)If you don't have money at my age, you're not even in the game anymore. You're just a pasture animal waiting for the abattoir.
— Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild (2007)The core of man's spirit comes from new experiences.
— Jake Sully, Avatar (2009)All I ever wanted was a single thing worth fighting for.
— Patton, Patton (1970)(looking at remains of a battle) I love it! God help me, I love it so. I love it more than my life.
— King Longshank, Braveheart (1995)Not the archers. My scouts tell me their archers are miles away and no threat to us. Arrows cost money. Use up the Irish. The dead cost nothing.
— Ron Franz, Into the Wild (2007)When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God's light shines on you.
— Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild (2007)I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong... but to feel strong.
— Lars & Gus, Lars and the Real Girl (2007)Lars: Well, Bianca can help you. She's got nurse's training. Gus: No she doesn't. That's because she's a plastic...thing. Lars: That's amazing. Did you hear that? Bianca said God made her to help people.
— Quintus & Maximus, Gladiator (2000)Quintus: "People should know when they're beaten!" Maximus: "Would you, Quintus? Would I?"
— Lester Burnham, American Beauty (1999)Look at me, jerking off in the shower... This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.
— Yuri Orlov, Lord of War (2005)Often the most barbaric atrocities occur when both sides proclaim themselves freedom fighters.
— Miranda, Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)Miranda (to Daniel): I bring home a birthday cake and a few gifts; you bring home the Goddamn San Diego Zoo. And I have to clean up after it!
— William & Malcolm Wallace, Braveheart (1995)Young William: I can fight. Malcolm Wallace: I know. I know you can fight. But it's our wits that make us men.
— Miles, Sideways (2004)Half my life is over, and I have nothing to show for it...I’m a smudge of excrement on a tissue, surging out to sea with a ton of raw sewage.
— Patton, Patton (1970)No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You win a war by making the other poor bastard die for his country!
— Parry, The Fisher King (1991)I have a hard-on for you the size of Florida!
— Gen. Omar Bradley, Patton (1970)Give George a headline, and he's good for another 30 miles.
— Jack Lucas, The Fisher King (1991)I'm hearing horses! Parry will be so pleased!
— John Keating, Dead Poets Society (1989)The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?
— Maximus, Gladiator (2000)I've seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark, Rome is the light.
— Katsumoto & Nathan Algren, The Last Samurai (2003)Katsumoto: Do you believe a man can change his destiny? Algren: I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed to him.
— John Keating, Dead Poets Society (1989)Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day To-morrow will be dying.
— Miles, Sideways (2004)If you don't have money at my age, you're not even in the game anymore. You're just a pasture animal waiting for the abattoir.
— Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild (2007)The core of man's spirit comes from new experiences.
— Jake Sully, Avatar (2009)All I ever wanted was a single thing worth fighting for.
— Patton, Patton (1970)(looking at remains of a battle) I love it! God help me, I love it so. I love it more than my life.
— King Longshank, Braveheart (1995)Not the archers. My scouts tell me their archers are miles away and no threat to us. Arrows cost money. Use up the Irish. The dead cost nothing.
— Ron Franz, Into the Wild (2007)When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God's light shines on you.
— Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild (2007)I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong... but to feel strong.
— Lars & Gus, Lars and the Real Girl (2007)Lars: Well, Bianca can help you. She's got nurse's training. Gus: No she doesn't. That's because she's a plastic...thing. Lars: That's amazing. Did you hear that? Bianca said God made her to help people.
— Quintus & Maximus, Gladiator (2000)Quintus: "People should know when they're beaten!" Maximus: "Would you, Quintus? Would I?"
— Lester Burnham, American Beauty (1999)Look at me, jerking off in the shower... This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.
— Yuri Orlov, Lord of War (2005)Often the most barbaric atrocities occur when both sides proclaim themselves freedom fighters.
— Miranda, Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)Miranda (to Daniel): I bring home a birthday cake and a few gifts; you bring home the Goddamn San Diego Zoo. And I have to clean up after it!
— William & Malcolm Wallace, Braveheart (1995)Young William: I can fight. Malcolm Wallace: I know. I know you can fight. But it's our wits that make us men.
— Miles, Sideways (2004)Half my life is over, and I have nothing to show for it...I’m a smudge of excrement on a tissue, surging out to sea with a ton of raw sewage.
— Patton, Patton (1970)No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You win a war by making the other poor bastard die for his country!
— Parry, The Fisher King (1991)I have a hard-on for you the size of Florida!
I’ve written a report from Masculinity Movies LIVE #2. It was a great evening with open-hearted shares about fear, a man’s worst enemy and best friend.
Six of the participants from MM LIVE #2
Masculinity Movies LIVE #2 became a slightly more humble affair than the first event. Some people were away for their summer breaks, others were busy presenting their work in other cities, yet others just didn’t show. Men living their lives, caring for their families and making an impact in the world. It’s a beautiful thing. Some integrity glitches were there for the no-shows, but that is workable.
So, we were eight men this time. The movie was Man on Wire and the topic of the evening fear. It seems that was a bit of a mismatch for some of the guys since they felt the movie was less about fear than the subject matter of walking a tightrope between the two WTC towers would indicate. In retrospect, I’m inclined to agree with them.
However, we did have a good discussion about whether Philippe Petit was just a really fearless man or whether he had narrowed down his focus to achieve the impossible to avoid fear in other aspects of his life. Many of us suspected there was truth to this. Nevertheless, we all admired his ability to achieve the unachievable – there is much masculine power in that. The rest is speculation.
The movie nevertheless served as a good segue into the highlight of the evening – when we all opened up about what scares us. To me, this became an extremely moving and powerful experience and I had tears in my eyes several times from the courage and openness of the guys who really opened up to men who they didn’t necessarily know that well. One guy remarked how courageous he found the guys present.
Sharing our fears as men is not a feminine exercise as some men seem to believe (which is their fear speaking). It is a courageous and noble thing. If you are going to build brotherhood, you want to know the strengths and weaknesses of your brothers. You want to know what scares them. True brothers don’t use their knowledge of the fear of the other to shame them. They use it to support them, to serve them. In such ways, strength in unity is forged.
A mature man owns his fears. And this night, the eight of us did just that.
Thank you.
PS! The next Masculinity Movies LIVE will take place in August. This marks the start of a bi-monthly cycle. Once a month is too much.
In the latest poll, you couldn’t quite make up your minds about which movie you wanted me to feature after Good Will Hunting. You wanted American Beauty and Godfather equally. I guess I have little choice but to feature them both!
That means that the upcoming series of in-depth reviews is as follows:
Thank you for your participation those of you who voted (and for making it hard for me…grumble grumble 🙂
I’ve been inspired to see that my article “King, Warrior, Magician, Lover – archetypes of the mature masculine” has become one of my favourites on this site. About ten people find it on google every day and spend an enormous amount of time (by Google standards) there. This suggests to me that people actually read it. Not bad!
The KWML book is one of my bookshelf favourites and I feel there is much more for me in there. What I have presented in the article is just really brief and presents my limited understanding of the topic. Looking for more information about KWML the other day, I became aware that Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette actually wrote FOUR VOLUMES, one for each of the archetypes. That is four volumes in addition to this brilliant book. But they’re all out of print.
I did some sleuthing on Amazon the other day and realized I can get hold of them second hand. One looked it was going to set me back almost $100, but then I found it somewhere else for £20. I haven’t ordered these gems yet, but I will soon, and then I will go through them one by one, reporting my findings to you as I do so. Archetypes – and especially the KWML archetypes – have become very important in my life and are very useful aids in my own personal daily life.
I want to bring some of the benefit I’ve had from getting to know these archetypes to you in the time to come. It is some of the work I’m most passionate about.
Stay tuned
Lysakerelva. A river that runs practically on my doorstep.
Long day at work today. Long WEEK. I’ve managed to achieve what seemed almost impossible and am quite impressed with my own focus and ability to get things done (thanks to my ever increasing Warrior energy). But I’ve been really tired at the end of the day most days for the past two weeks. Thankfully, we have nice weather. June is perhaps my favourite month – all of summer is still ahead of me. The flowers are bountiful and multi-coloured and smell heavenly, especially the lilac.
I was particularly receptive to nature’s splendour today. Maybe because I was particularly in need of it. I had observed lots of sexy women with my peripheral vision on my way home from work (I’m not seeking eye contact while on the No Woman Diet) and felt open to take in more of the Feminine. A huge white lilac stands behind a red wooden fence right next to my metro station, and bathes it in light and sweet scents. Today, feeling this lovely shrub felt like feeling a woman. It took on the form of my ex this time. Tomorrow, maybe someone else (although a white lilac is more likely to call up images of blondes for me).
Then I headed for the river – Lysakerelva is its name – a beautiful and peaceful nature’s artery that runs through my neighbourhood. It’s been heaven to enter its presence on my way back from work lately. After being so goal-oriented and focused for most of the day, it’s like the time-space continuum completely shifts as I linger close to it with no purpose but to be. It’s very healing.
Today, as I enter the thin, yet lush woods that cling to its bed, immediately my state changes. I find a new spot by the river this time. Beautiful place. I stand there and just breathe everything in. Perfect. Then I start shaking and sexual energy fills my body. I’m making love to nature. I’ve had such sensations before, but never this strong. The No Woman Diet has opened me up to a vastly increased sensitivity to the Feminine. There are women and there is the Big Woman – the vast Feminine force that surrounds us. As I stood in the presence of this Big Woman the other day, with a small woman who was totally restless and absent-minded, there was no question who I was more attracted to.
I’m grateful to have nature on my doorstep. When I was there, I came to thinking about the horrors of The Road again, and thought how dreadful life would be without nature.
(And if you’re asking yourself what kind of hogwash I’m talking today, then you need to get more intimate with the Lover archetype).
Get out into nature, guys. I can’t believe I haven’t done it more.
