There may be thousands of movies, but there are a few that have been written in golden letters in the history of cinema, as they continue to inspire and excite us today in terms of the performances, but also the style of the men who starred in them.
It’s certainly difficult to create a short list of films that have been so strongly imprinted on our minds and culture that we’ll continue to talk about them for years to come, but it’s not impossible.
Below we present you 10 movies that are the quintessence of masculinity and every man has or should watch once in his life.
Rebel without a cause
James Dean plays a teenager who is new to a small town and obeys his parents, but falls in love with the most popular girl in school and clashes with the bullies in his class.
The film is a relic of the post-war liberation of a generation that longed to break free from trauma and debris and feast on anger with rhythm. Through the story of the protagonist, the director tries to present the moral decay of the American youth, the alienation between people and the generation gap.
Godfather
The Godfather is considered one of the best films of all time and not without reason. It was based on the book of the same name by Mario Pujo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
No one can forget Marlon Brando’s excellent performance and of course the line “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse”, which was voted as the second most memorable line in film history.
The Big Lebowski
Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), receives a visit from two good guys. After peeing all over his carpet, they realize they’ve been hitting the wrong Lebowski and leave.
The Dude, a sleazy guy and his friend Walter, a Vietnam veteran and…Jew, decide not to let it go like that. It is a cult film, which is characterized by its dialogues, the life attitude of its heroes, its music and the scenes of Dude’s dreams.
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Matt Damon plays Tom Ripley with great success in the film “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, which was based on the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. The rest of the cast consists of Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman, while Anthony Minghella directed.
The film received excellent reviews from critics and was also a big box office success. He received five Academy Award nominations, including Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Jude Law.
Last out: Rita Hayworth
The film tells the story of Andy Difference, a banker, who has been in Shawshank State Prison for almost two decades, wrongly accused of murdering his wife and her lover.
There he develops a friendship with a fellow inmate named Ellis Redding and they discover the power of friendship until they both reach redemption.
American Beauty
Lester, a well-off suburban family man, gradually realizes the unbearable emptiness of his materialistic everyday life. His existential crisis will take on serious dimensions from the moment he begins to be attracted to a classmate of his daughter’s and behaves completely anti-socially.
The film deals with an “attack” on the traditional version of the “American dream” and on its representatives, who ended up being defenders of everything they once questioned.
Fight Club
Fight Club is a 1999 film directed by David Fincher, starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays an unnamed protagonist who is unhappy with his office job. He organizes a fight club with a soap manufacturer, Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt.
Their club includes other men who want to fight for fun. The narrator becomes involved in an affair with Durden and a strange woman, Marla Singer, played by Bonham Carter.
The Good Children
Martin Scorsese directs with stunning mastery the true story of Henry Hill, a “I always wanted to be a gangster” guy as he rises through the ranks in underworld circles, eventually becoming an FBI informant.
The Good Guys is one of the best mob movies ever, made by the perfect director for the job.
Revelation Now
In 1976, Francis Ford Coppola shoots in the Philippines, “Apocalypse Now”, the film that was to be a landmark in the history of cinema. The film is set during the Vietnam War and follows the main character, Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen), on a secret mission to assassinate the renegade and presumed insane Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando).
40 years have passed since the release of the film, however, it is no coincidence that it still fascinates audiences.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a 1966 Italian Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach in the respective roles.
The screenplay was written by Edge & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni and Leone, and revolves around three pistolero adventurers who search for a chest of Confederate gold amid the chaos of Civil War battle violence and POW camps.
