Contemporary Hollywood Masculinities: Gender, Genre, and Politics

This volume traces changing concepts of masculinity in popular Hollywood blockbusters from 1992 to 2008 - the Clinton and Bush eras - against a backdrop of contemporary political events, social developments, and popular American myths. The authors investigate the most common male types - cops, killers, fathers, cowboys, superheroes, spies, soldiers, rogues, lovers, and losers. Their in-depth analyses of over sixty films, from The Matrix and Iron Man to Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lord of the Rings, from Wedding Crashers and Mr. & Ms. Smith to War of the Worlds and The 40-Year Old Virgin, show that movies, far from being mere entertainment, respond directly to today's social and political realities, from consumerism to "family values" to the War on Terror.