441 CHRONICLESnTitanic. Leslie Howard in The ScarletnPimpernel (1934), by pretending to bena fop, sacrifices his public reputationnand endures the opprobrium of hisnwife, all in order to cover up his heroicnescapades. For another model of virility,nthink of Fred Astaire in almostnanything; then compare Howard andnAstaire with Jeremy Irons innBrideshead Revisited or The FrenchnLieutenant’s Woman (1981). Similarntypes in a way, but the inner strength isngone. Or compare Clark Gable,nBogart, or Mitchum, who exude anvirile integrity, to that caricature ofnvirility, Sylvester Stallone, the new barbariannmale.nIn contemporary films, women donnot feel safe and protected; and menndo not provide authority and protection.nAs men have become weaker,nwomen have become harder, colder.nThis switch is not really a reversal.nHardness is not masculinity; it is femininitynthwarted. These women arencovering up insecurity with a mask ofnsupercompetence. It is neither a virtuennor true strength. And weakness andnbungling is not feminine. Rather it isnmasculinity thwarted, an emasculation,nthe ruination of masculine virtue andnauthority. The gelded male, dealingnwith the harpy, chooses a strategy ofnappeasement.nIt is no accident that there has beenna great increase in the number ofnmovies about homosexuals. To a largenextent homosexuality in men andnwomen is an expression of this loss ofnmasculinity and femininity, a way ofnavoiding giving themselves away to thenopposite sex. Women who becomen”granola dykes” and “lipsticks” expressnan aggressive contempt for men. Malenhomosexuality allows men to escapenthis contempt — no appeasement isnnecessary.nOne of the strongest images of thisnloss of robust adult masculinity comesnfrom Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958). JimmynStewart, a cop, chasing a criminalnacross the rooftops, slips and winds upndangling in midair, unable to go backnor forward. It is the perfect image ofnthe new man, caught between boyhoodnand adulthood, who falls in lovenwith and becomes obsessed by a womannwho is dead.nCop movies can tell us a great dealnabout changes in masculinity. Look atnGlenn Ford in The Big Heat (1953)nand Clint Eastwood in Tightropen(1985). Eastwood could be Ford 30nyears later. He is a good man whonfights heroically against evil. Butnwhereas Ford is married to a lovingnwife, Eastwood’s wife left him and isninvolved with another man. Ford’s wifenis murdered by gangsters, but Ford’snmemory of her causes him to resist thenseductive charms of the gangster’snmoll. Eastwood goes to prostitutes afternhis wife abandons him. In The BignHeat, the threat is from the adultnworld: the head of the mob is evil, butnhe is in full command of his faculties.nThe threat in Tightrope comes from anpsychopathic killer. In The Big Heat,nthe police are corrupt, but they returnnto being good cops by the force ofnFord’s example. The police in Tightropenare not corrupt but ineffectual.nFord is able to protect his child fromnkillers: he contacts his brother-in-law,nwho — with four war buddies —nprovides a very effective force againstnthe intrusion of evil. But in Tightrope,nthe killer is able to enter Eastwood’snhouse, murder the housekeeper, andnterrorize his two daughters, raping onenof them. Glenn Ford never doubts thenrightness of his actions. Eastwood hasnself-doubts, seeing parallels — quitencorrectly—between the killer andnhimself The protections and supportsnthat Ford could call on are, in Tightrope,nmissing or greatly reduced innpower. The orderly world of adultnrules, of authority and protection, hasnfaded.nThis adult world does not arisenspontaneously. It exists in large measurenbecause a generation of wisenadults is able to pass on its wisdom as angift to the next generation. The sign ofnthis in movies is the presence of oldernand wiser people, who guide a youngerngeneration toward full maturity. In ItnHappened One Night (1934), the fathernof the bride is present. He is wisenenough to know that Clark Gable isnthe virtuous man his daughter shouldnmarry. In Holiday (1938), GarynGrant’s stepparents have integrity andnhelp him find his way. KatharinenHepburn’s father, who values moneynand status too much, is at least presentnand manages to convey a certain patriarchalndignity. In the very first scene ofnThe Big Sleep, Philip Marlowe, playednby Humphrey Bogart, meets GeneralnSternwood, a representative of the oldnnnorder, who is now consigned to anwheelchair, a sign that the old order isnfading. Even though he is not seennagain, he is a pivotal point of thenmovie.nIn The Graduate (1967), plastics isnno more interesting to Dustin Hoffmannthan banking was to Gary Grant.nBut he has no one to guide him. Hisnparents and their friends are all fools.nHow can he grow up when he has nonmodels to emulate? He is like JamesnDean in Rebel Without a Causen(1955). Dean wasn’t rebelling againstnauthority so much as against the lack ofnit. His was a cry of protest against thenabsence of masculine virtue and adultnauthority. His father, played by JimnBackus, wears an apron—the symbolnof the gelded male. While James Deannfights back, Dustin Hoffrnan flounders.nHoffinan, like Clark Gable, runs offnwith the girl just before her vows tonanother man. But whereas in It HappenednOne Night there is unequivocalntriumph, Hoffinan and his bride, whilenescaping, have nowhere to go. They sitnin the back of the bus, cut adrift,nunconnected to any person or traditionnthat could guide them toward adulthood.nAn Unmarried Woman (1978)nshows what could be Hoffman and hisnwife 11 years later. Theirs is a woridnwithout fathers or mothers or familynmembers. Their marriage ends whennthe wife, played by Jill Glayburgh,nleaves her husband after he confessesnthat he is having an affair. We see hernat the end being blown about by thenwind, alone on the streets of Manhattan.nIn the 80’s, things are even worse.nDecadence has turned to barbarism.nEverybody is now a victim. It is EverynMan for Himself (1980), to use an aptntitle of one of Jean-Luc Godard’s movies.nIn its extreme form, the women arendangerous killers and the men expendable,nas in Black Widow. In 50 years,nmovies have gone from depicting mennand women as virtuous adults in moralndramas of good and evil to the actingnout of case studies of men and womennas pathetic, weak, barbaric, pathological,nand deracinated children.nFatal Attraction runs the gamut ofn1980’s pathologies. Since it is a boxnoffice hit we must assume that it expressesnquite well the spirit of the timesnand is striking a chord with millions ofn