Cinderella for Guys

Do you ever watch those sweaty guy movies like Die Hard or Under Siege?  My husband devours these movies with an unholy gluttony.  Now, I am the last person on the planet to criticize anyone for their preferred genre.  After a long day at work, I confess to having a bizarre fascination for watching old re-runs of Cops, so I have no desire to pick up the first stone.

Having sat through my fair share of these guy movies, I have concluded that most of them adhere to the male version of the Cinderella theme.  The classic example is Under Siege (1992).  Steven Segal plays a cook on the battleship Missouri.  He’s a mild mannered guy, overlooked and under-appreciated by everyone except the captain of the ship, who treats this lowly cook with a great deal of respect. 

Segal keeps to himself and performs his humble kitchen chores until the ship is infiltrated by clever villains who are out to steal the ship’s nuclear weapons.  Chaos and mayhem ensue, but suddenly the humble cook is revealed to be a former Navy SEAL who was busted down to the position of cook after he struck a commanding officer who got his men killed in botched operation in Panama.  Sooooo, Cinderella sheds his rags and emerges as the hero, the only man who can save the ship despite his lowly status as a cook.

I think this movie, and the thousands that follow in a similar mold, speak to something inside the average guy.  Who doesn’t want to be a hero?  For every real life cook or mailroom clerk, there is the young kid who once dreamed of becoming a Navy SEAL.  For every manicurist or secretary, there is a woman who once dreamed of being Cinderella.  I think most women who hanker after this kind of storyline will migrate to romance novels or romantic comedies (Ever seen Pretty Woman? Maid in Manhattan?)  Women endure a lot of ribbing from their men for liking this sort of thing…..but I still say a healthy chunk of men’s action movies are simply Cinderella for Guys.