What Makes A Man A Man?

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Ben Wade: Well, would you look at all this? You all spared no expense this time, Byron. I gotta say, though, it's probably cheaper just to let me rob the damn thing.

Alice Evans: He's a killer, Daniel.
Dan Evans: Then someone ought to have the decency to bring him to justice.

Dan Evans: You say one more word, and I'll cut you down right here.
Ben Wade: I like this side of you, Dan.

Ben Wade: They're gonna kill you and your father, William. They're gonna laugh while they do it. I think you know that.
William Evans: Call 'em off.
Ben Wade: Why should I?
William Evans: Because you're not all bad.
Ben Wade: Yes, I am.
William Evans: You saved us from those Indians.
Ben Wade: I saved myself.
William Evans: You got us through the trunnels. You helped us get away.
Ben Wade: If I had a gun in them tunnels, I would have used it on you.
William Evans: I don't believe you.
Ben Wade: Kid, I wouldn't last five minutes leading an outfit like that if I wasn't as rotten as hell.

Dan Evans: [handing him Alice's brooch] William, I want you to give this back to your mother. I want you to tell her that it helped me find what was right.
William Evans: Pa... I can't. I can't just leave you.
Dan Evans: I'm gonna be a day behind you, William. Unless something happens, and if it does, I need a man at the ranch to run things, protect our family, and I know that you can do that because you've become a fine man, William. You've become a fine man. You got all the best parts of me. What few there are.
[Dan shakes William's hand]
Dan Evans: And you just remember that your old man walked Ben Wade to that station when nobody else would.

Ben Wade: I've always liked you Byron, but you never know when to shut up. Even bad men love their mommas.

Dan Evans: I ain't stubborn.
Ben Wade: What?
Dan Evans: Earlier, you called me stubborn for keeping my wife and sons on a dying ranch. When Mark was two, he got tuberculosis. Doctor said we should get him to a dryer climate.
Ben Wade: Why are you tellin' me this?
Dan Evans: I don't know. I guess I just wanted you to know... I ain't stubborn.

Dan Evans: [while being choked] I ain't never been no hero, Wade. The only battle I seen, we was in retreat. My foot got shot off by one of my own men. You try telling that story to your boy. See how he he looks at you then.

Dan Evans: I've been standin on one leg for three damn years waitin for God to do me a favor... and He ain't listenin.

Charlie Prince: For a one-leg rancher... he's one tough son of a bitch.

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

Dom: I live my life a quarter mile at a time. Nothing else matters: not the mortgage, not the store, not my team and all their bullshit. For those ten seconds or less, I'm free.

Johnny Tran: [about Jesse who is driving away] Where's he going?
Dom: He went to the car wash
Johnny Tran: Whatever. Go fetch my car!
Dom: Go fetch your car? We're not on your block any more. You better watch who you talk to like that.
Johnny Tran: [Dom walks away] TORETTO! TORETTO! SWAT came into my house, disrespected my whole family because somebody narc'd me out! And you know what? IT WAS YOU!
[Dom punches Tran and a brawl ensues]
Dom: *I never narc’d on nobody! I never narc’d on nobody!*

Brian: Hey, wait, hold up! I don't have any cash, but I do have the pink slip to my car
Jesse: Wait, you just can't climb in the ring with Ali 'cause you think you box!
Brian: [points to Vince] He *knows* I can box! So check it out, it's like this: If I lose, winner takes my car clean and clear. But if I win, I take the cash, *and* I take the respect!
Dom: [laughing] Respect?
Brian: To some people, that's more important
Dom: ...That your car?

Brian: I thought if I got in your good graces you might let me keep my car.
Dom: You are in my good graces, but you ain't keepin' your car.

Dom: You can have any brew you want... as long as it's a Corona.

Brian: So what's your best time?
Dom: I've never driven her...
Brian: Why not?
Dom: She scares the shit out of me.

Brian: What was the deal back there?
Dom: It's a long story.
Brian: We have a twenty mile hike. Humor me.
Dom: A business deal that went sour. Plus I made the mistake of sleeping with his sister.

Dom: This you're beer?
Vince: Yeah that's my beer... Yo Dom! Why'd you bring the busta here?
Dom: Because the busta kept me out of handcuffs, he didn't just run back to the fort, the buster brought me back

Dom: You almost had me? You never had me - you never had your car... Granny shiftin' not double clutchin' like you should. You're lucky that hundred shot of NOS didn't blow the welds on the intake! You almost had me?
Extra: You Tell him Dominic. Get out of here
Dom: Now, me and the mad scientist got to rip apart the block... and replace the piston rings you fried.
[closes bonnet of car]
Dom: Ask any racer. Any real racer. It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning.
[Crowd cheers in agreement]

Dom: (talking to Brian) You break her heart, I'll break your neck

Dom: [pointing to a picture] That's my dad. He was coming up in the pro-stock circuit. Last race of the season, he was coming into the final turn when a driver named Kenny Linder tapped his bumper and put him into the wall at a hundred and twenty miles an hour. I watched my father burn to death. I can still remember him screaming. The people who were there said my father died long before the tanks blew. They said it was me that was screaming.

Dom: I saw Linder about a week later. I had the wrench in my hand... and I hit him! And I didn't mean to keep hitting him, but by the time I was done, I couldn't lift my arm. He's a janitor at an elementary school. He has to take the bus to work... and they banned me from the tracks for life.

Dom: I’m not running!

Yeah said I wasn't gonna do action movies and what not and for the record I fucking hate westerns like with a passion. But when I saw 310 to Yuma this weekend I just thought it was so good. The way that you follow the story you root for the bad guys the whole time. Your like the ranchers kid whose like holy shit those guys have the fastest hands in the west. You can't help but want them to succeed and get their money and get away. Anyway's I'm interested in discussing for the moment what makes a man a man. I find this extremely important cause I've been raised primarily by my mother and although I have an older brother I never really thought of him as a role model. I've seen a bizillion movies and there are only a handful of male actors I like and strangely enough most of them aren't action film actors. But today since I'm doing something somewhat unorthodox by looking at an action film and a western which I might add will probably never happen again. I thought these questions are worth asking. Vin Diesel is the man. I can't say what exactly it is, it could be his deep loud voice, his massively muscly body or his constant confident I do what I want and take what I want attitude. I've seen sylvester stallone, Bruce Willus, Arnold Schwarzanegger, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and countless others get a variety of female attention from their roles but I don't believe any of them command the masculinity that Vin Diesel Does. I don't think they're even remotely compariably. What is useful in comparison is the genuineness. As for the common action hero yes trying to do good at all costs, very common these days amongst hero's but not that many have that certain prowess that is commanding at least I think. Vin Diesel isn't even in very many movies, and out of all of them The Fast and The Furious, Chronicles of Riddick, And triple X by far countinue his domination of an action hero. WHere btw he blantly doesn't give a fuck. Which is admirable I think. Much more admirable then the soft sides that Bruce Willis, Russel Crow, or Health ledger (god rest his soul) may profess.

I am curious though if being a man is just that simple in most peoples eyes. A man of few words. A man who takes action. A man whose protective. A man who fights for whats right. A bad boy, troublemaker, confident egotistical. I'm curious how that image is played out. I've never had problems meeting new people, getting dates, or even taking those dates to the next level. But there is only few and far between that get to go to the next next level because of the role of a man. A man is the bread winner. He basically eats, drinks, fucks, works, and gets angry I think. I think that about sums up his existence from the view of say umm.. I don't a woman. However I believe from man to man and going with my ongoing study of "Rite of Passage" there is so much more of a variety of factors and limitations that make a man a man. How much fight is in them. How strong are they physically and emotionally when real life situations are present. How does truth and honor and loyalty among other men affect them. True I think most men aren't emotionally availible. I think that on average we think that things go one way or the other and if it's not what we wanted we become sad or angry or what have you. But that anger for example I think is engrained in men purposefully. I think it's admirable to control your anger but at the same time it's more admirable to fight for something you believe in. Physical confrontation is in our blood.

This is where if u do wanna catch 310 to yuma you stop reading and come back to read if u want. So yes there are couple places where this film got me thinking. Like the son from the very beginning just thinks his father is a weak man. He constantly tests him and goes so far to say that he should do the extreme to the man that's trying to kick them off their land which is dun dun dunnn kill him. Like there ain't much killin going on in a western. Honestly that's why we're sittin in this town we wanna see all the killin. Anyways, so the picture that's painted of Dan (Christian Bale) from the gecko is poor. He has one fake leg and he doesn't seem like a strong character but as the film goes on it's just more and more prevailiant that he's extremely strong and no one sees it. Not until the very end where the bad guy even feels it. That totally blew me away. Like there was a comradery between Dan and Ben through the whole picture but you really thought that Ben was gonna get free and probably kill Dan. But instead dan has this huge monolugue and the truth of why he's doing this is all layed out and he is a tough guy. A tough good guy that's not agenda prown or alterior motive, just put so simply and I think that's what's important. On the other hand Ben Wade keeps this concept of being bad ass of being the most rotten of the rotten and you believe it. And at the end you think he's changed but all that's changed is his opinion of Dan in this kinda non-verbal man language. Yes non-verbal man language, happens all the time.

Today and looking at those films in an overview I think I appreciate being a man. I can't say I really like being one here cause the gender roles are a lot more concrete and I don't like them that way but on the same token sitting here thinking about it and my tiny man crush on vin diesel I guess that's the science of things. That's probably why girls act sweet and innocent when they're anything but that and why guys that have some crazy ass insecurities do a variety of things to cover them up. Again supporting less uses for truth. Still many uses for justice and honor persay but if we all play our roles even if it's the most primal of roles of someones elses example it's still not the truth. Maybe... I gonna keep looking for a better more defining statement about that and truth and acting. I'm thinking I should get back into acting to uncover it. Anyhoot just thought I'd share today on how I think men are men in the eyes of men. If u disagree u know what to do.