ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the connections between masculinity and heroic agency in certain versions of popular film. It proposes that how films dignify and celebrate the suffering and striving of their leading men may be quite centrally indicative of durable sensibilities regarding the qualities and virtues seen as defining manliness; and, moreover, that some of the more drastic reaffirmations of rugged masculinity in recent films starring Schwarzennegger, Stallone, and others are in reaction against instabilities in current notions of masculine gender identities. It is in such aspects of representation, people should now locate discussions of the social influences of screen 'violence'. One thing that the debate on screen violence and masculinity can learn from developments for example in the study of pornography is that one can develop a sophisticated grasp of how the genre works (as a form of signification) without lapsing into agnosticism about its moral and political implications.
