Point Break is a feminine perspective on toxic masculinity

There are a lot of reasonsPoint Breakremains, after 30 years,incredibly watchableand a touchstone in pop culture. A lot of it is to do with the eternal appeal of Keanu Reeves, of peak Patrick Swayze, of the great action scenes and dumb-fun plot. Some of it might be the barely latent homoeroticism—a key feature of fellow touchstone filmTop Gun—and the placePoint Breakoccupies on many peoples’ timeline of self-discovery. But one of the other reasonsPoint Breakis so enduring, and so unrepeatable, as the 2015 remake proved, is that it is never quite the film you expect. In some ways, it’s dumber than can be believed, in others, it’s smarter than it has any right to be, and for a film about a couple of alpha males locked in a deadly battle of wills, it’s a surprisingly feminine film. Director Kathryn Bigelow’s films are marked by a combination of muscular action and fragile emotionality, and inPoint Breakshe prizes apart the twisted dynamics of toxic masculinity. John C. McGinley, who plays Special Agent Harp in the film, understands this appeal:

Point Break’s feminine perspective begins with the casting of its two leads, Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves (the film was cast by Sharon Bialy and Richard Pagano). At the time, Swayze was best known for romantic films likeDirty Dancingand鬼，即使他有像Road Houseand红色黎明under his belt. Swayze, with his wiry dancer’s physique, didn’t fit the 1980s action star mold of Arnold and Sly, but he was still too fit to pass as a Bruce Willis-esque everyman, so he found himself relegated to the B-tier action movies and A-list romantic dramas.Point Breakplucked him fresh off of鬼, which solidified his swoony screen presence. Keanu, meanwhile, was best known for teen roles in films likeRiver’s Edge,Parenthood, andBill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure。At the start of the 1990s, these are not the men you expect to headline a Hollywood action film.

然而，正是因为它们不适合模具Point Break作品。性符号摇摆完美地捕捉了眼镜蛇作为菩提邪教领袖的魅力，而新鲜的基努（Keanu）是约翰尼·犹他州（Johnny Utah）的完美魅力。他们在一起具有令人难以置信的化学反应，是的，是性的。这有点像竞技场中的“希腊人”的吸引力Top Gunvolleyball scene, which plays into an intrinsic human pleasure in seeing physically perfect specimens engage in activity together. ButPoint Break’s answer to the volleyball scene is the beach football scene, in which Johnny plays ball with Bodhi and his friends, is more explicitly violent and illicitly dangerous than the display inTop Gun。约翰尼（Johnny）是卧底的，因此我们了解他的处境和发现风险的不稳定，这是与菩提的每一次互动的基础。但是，由于约翰尼拒绝被老年菩提击败，也存在公然的男性挑战。

Bodhi and Johnny trade ferocious tackles, and when Johnny knocks Bodhi into the surf after a relentless chase—foreshadowing events to come—the rock music drops off the soundtrack and Mark Isham’s score kicks in with an ominous note. Everyone else is playing for fun, but Johnny and Bodhi are already playing for stakes. Far from the oiled torsos and cinematic posing of theTop Gunvolleyball scene, thePoint Break足球场面是一场狗打架，而约翰尼（Johnny）抓住菩提（Bodhi），但没有胜利的感觉，只会增加危险。活线的边缘注入了所有的互动，很明显菩提和约翰尼不能共存。它们都是Alpha，Alpha无法分享领土。他们的关系是基于友好的竞争，以及菩提慷慨地容忍约翰尼的存在，分享冲浪技巧，智慧甚至女性的观念，这是因为菩提人的宏伟性而暗示约​​翰尼只与泰勒（Lori Petty）在一起。

它的easy to imagine an alternate universe in which the latent homoeroticism between Bodhi and Johnny is made explicit and they are simply lovers, but the socio-politics of late 20th century mainstream Hollywood keepPoint Breakin the celluloid closet. However, Bigelow and her team seem aware of the subtext becausePoint Break扮演非常像约翰尼和菩提之间的星际恋爱。有一位较老，经验丰富的导师在外部力量威胁要拆开时，向一个封闭的社会发起了睁大眼睛。它的Romeo & Juliet与银行抢劫或O的故事冲浪。约翰尼（Johnny）和菩提（Bodhi）击中了许多浪漫史的节拍，从遇见可爱到误会到悲惨的结局。本质上是敌人的敌人，除了Point Breakdoesn’t make the sexual component of their relationship real. Instead, for the purposes of maintaining heteronormativity, there is Tyler, a woman both men have been with and thus stands in for the sex the men aren’t having together.

Bigelow使用Johnny和Bodhi之间的浪漫潜台词以有毒的男性气质产生。人们之所以死，是因为这两个男人无法在任何级别上与竞争性交往。他们在一次争执中相遇，他们的竞争在一场比赛中都巩固了他们的竞争，他们都非常认真地对待，然后从那里升级了。尽管它们形成了依恋，但它并不健康，因为他们没有健康的方式表达自己的感受，并形成了真正的联系。他们不能裸露自己的灵魂，因为他们都隐藏了对方的关键信息，而且他们无法做爱，因为我们的社会不允许在识别直率的男人之间进行休闲性行为。由于他们没有其他出色的感觉，因为他们通过相互谎言和背叛而变得更加复杂，约翰尼和菩提可以通过暴力来联系的唯一方法。随着约翰尼和菩提彼此变得更加沮丧 - 约翰尼，因为菩提是犯罪分子，菩提，因为约翰尼坚持坚硬的决定论，Point Break稳步增加。

如果没有积极的情绪出口或对感情的健康身体表达，约翰尼和菩提彼此撕裂。只有一个死亡，但最终很明显约翰尼不会毫发无损地走开。令人惊讶的是这一切的必然性。从他们的第一次会议开始，很明显，这些人将互相消费。当然，他们在法律的相对方面，但尽管如此，他们彼此喜欢。但是约翰尼也无法将自己逮捕菩提，即使他杀死了某人，就像Bodhi无法将自己带到Cede领土上约翰尼，即使这意味着要走清洁。两者都不能屈服：α姿势的需求也是以自我毁灭为代价的总统治地位。有悲伤Point Breakwe often see in great romantic dramas, of knowing the lovers are doomed no matter what, but here it isn’t family or class or war or any of the usual suspects keeping them apart. There is only heteronormativity and masculine posturing dictating their doom.Point Breakcould easily have been an empty spectacle about nothing but gun fights and explosions, but Kathryn Bigelow turns it into an examination of the inevitable death spiral of toxic masculinity.