SIFF " Father and Guns"

I just got back from viewing "Father and Gun" and this movie also displayed a lot of masculinity characteristics. The movie was about a father and son who are on the police force in a special unit. They were on a mission trying to capture a biker gang. During their sting operation, the son's best friend who is also on the special force unit, gets kidnapped. The father and son do not know of the best friend's where abouts. The only person who would know would be the biker gangs defense lawyer. Mean while the lawyer is having family problems and his son hates him. It came to the lawyer's wife's realization that the lawyer and his son need a special retreat so they could bond and solve their problems. So they end up going through with a program that takes a group of father and sons to the wilderness and tries to counsel them and work out differences. The father and son from the police unit, come up with the idea that they must go undercover in order to get close to the lawyer so he could confess information about the biker gang.

In the program out in the forest, there were a few exercises that the group had to do to share how they really felt. One of them was to pick out a toy that reminded them about the other. The Father who is a cop, picked out a barbie doll because he felt that the barbie doll best described his son. He said that he is just like a girl, with his sensitivity, whining, need for attention, and other "famine" characteristics. This is when I first noticed that this film expressed masculinity and its roles. According to this film, a man has to know his gender role. He has to be tough, not sensitive, like sports, drink beer, and be independent. We all know that these things are not true. All men have feelings and the way this movie portray men is false but they do it in a humorous way, which I liked because I feel like it was a way to tell the audience to obviously not take those ideas seriously.

The lawyer's character displayed the most masculine role. He was the rough and tough person who did not like those who were men that were sensitive and did not display manly characteristics. He did not want to talk about his feelings and emotions nor did he want to hear about them. He was really annoyed with the father and son couple that loved each other so much and talked about their emotion. The only time the lawyer was having fun and had a smile on his face was when he was involved an a "manly" sport. An example of this is when they did the mud wrestling exercise. He was yelling and cheering and looked like he was having a good time. Another time was when they went hunting for food. He was excited about the idea and enjoyed the hunt. When it came down to talking and actually sharing each others feelings. The lawyer remained quite and uncomfortable. He was too much of a man to talk about "sissy" stuff.

As we all know the ideas and characteristics that were portrayed in this movie are a myth. We all have feelings and can express emotion. Sometimes its good to talk things out and express how we feel. We as men always do. It does not mean we are less then a man if we do. I feel that although the movie displayed these ideas, they did it in a way to make the audience laugh because truly, that belief is ridiculous. This movie made me laugh and was very entertaining.