Spoiler Alert: Everyone’s seen High Noon already, right?

In High Noon (1952), Gary Cooper faces an outlaw gang alone, after the town turns its back. He fights them with his wits and his gun (and some timely help from his wife) and emerges victorious. In the final scene, he throws his Sheriff’s star in the dirt, and rides away.

Gary Cooper in High Noon

Homer Simpson is consistenly (and hilariously) bewildered by life’s events. His greatest accomplishment is forming a perfect ass-groove in his couch. His dominant discipline strategy is strangulation. He has a meaningless job, and his only redemption is his sweetness of heart and his love for Marge.

There is a principle in educational psychology that expectation affects performance. If a teacher believes a student is bright, then that student will work to fulfill that expectation. If a student is classified as dumb, then they will fulfill that expectation as well.

The same effect can occur culturally. When American men are presented with the cultural expectation that they will be competent, resilient and tough, then they strive to meet those standards. When there is the cultural expectation that they will be overweight dullards, then they tend to fulfill those expectations as well.

In the 1800s, entertainment and cultural information was distributed through dime novels, plays, and word of mouth. Many of the folk heroes of the time were actual people like George Washington, Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, who had their deeds exaggerated to fill popular demand.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the lawmen and cowboys of the Wild West populated the national imagination, despite their brief time on the national stage.

The development of new media, including radio, movies and eventually television, allowed entertainment and cultural icons to be broadcast to every corner of the nation.

Some of the most iconic moviestars appeared in the 1940s and 1950s. Humphrey Bogart found his first major success in 1941 with The Maltese Falcon, a film noir classic. Bogart consistently played the hard-boiled cynic, and he showed the same admirable stoicism in his own life, refusing to complain about the pain from the cancer that ended his life in 1957.

Katharine Hepburn said: “He was one of the biggest guys I ever met. He walked straight down the center of the road. No maybes. Yes or no. He liked to drink. He drank. He liked to sail a boat. He sailed a boat.”

John Wayne came on the scene in Stagecoach in 1939. He remained a force in film until his final role in The Shootist in 1976, and is an American icon. He played the rugged, slow walking individualist so often that it came to define him.

Gary Cooper presented a different aspect of masculinity. His stoic portrayal of Marshal Kane in High Noon is a decided contrast to John Wayne’s swagger. As one review said, “In 1952, the movie was unsettling for some because they were unprepared to see a reflection of themselves on the screen. They expected an invulnerable hero; they got a man.”

As times changed in the 60s and 70s, so did the cultural icons. Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke and Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest both portrayed a new kind of hero. Instead of the town sheriff, who represented order and authority, these new heroes were rebels. Of course, they weren’t always rebelling against nothing. Perhaps the ultimate American rebel in film in the 1960’s was Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, who silently rebelled against the South’s code of injustice by promoting racial equality and respect for American principles such as the rule of law.

John Wayne aside, what the roles of actors like Cooper, Newman and Nicholson showed was not indestructible superheroes calmly dispatching villainous foes. Instead they portrayed real men who were confronted with difficult circumstances and acquitted themselves with as much courage and dignity as they could.

These were icons that people could relate to.

An example of the important difference between a hero as a man and as a superhero can be seen in the Die Hard series. In the first movie, off-duty cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) is trapped in the terrorist take-over of a Los Angeles skyscraper. He responds by fighting back, eliminating the terrorists one by one (everyone’s seen Die Hard, right?). By the end of the movie, he is battered, bloody and can barely stand.

In Die Hard 4, John McClane is a superhero. He even jumps aboard a fighter jet at one point. He is indestructible, superhuman.

The first hero is one we can relate to, and even try to emulate by courageously facing adverse circumstances. The second hero is a cartoon.

Recent years have not been kind to the male icon in popular culture. Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin are easily recognizable, and are the near antithesis of everything a man should be (although, in fairness, Ralph Kramden and Archie Bunker were idiotic men in the 50s and 70s).

Even among movie stars, the current crop of male figures is impoverished. Tom Cruise is nuts. So is Mel Gibson. Will Smith was cool, but Scientology seems to have gotten him too. Brad Pitt is too pretty. Stallone is still making Rocky movies, and Arnold is a governor.

George Carlin liked to talk about the ‘pussification of the American male.’ Where there were once icons of courage, stoicism, and individuality, we now have Scientologists, anti-Semites and cartoon characters.

Does entertainment reflect culture or influence it? As women have increased their power and prominence in society, women in movies and television have moved out of the kitchen to become the heroes. While men have lost their traditional roles as breadwinner and figure of authority, the roles of men in movies and television have changed as well.

People often will fulfill the expectations that are set for them. If you expect American men to be smart, independent, and tough, then they will strive to meet those standards. If you expect American men to be fat, lazy and oafish, then they will move to meet those standards as well.

Right now, we have all the encouragements towards lethargy we could possibly want.

Pass the popcorn.