Movie Cliche´s - The Antihero wore Tweed

[Hemingway Jones]

The concept of the anti-hero goes all the way back to Odysseus plowing his fields trying to avoid the voyage to Troy. In film, Sam Spade is a great example; think of the original "Maltese Falcon" and the womanizing marginally sympatheric Spade. Though even in the '41 version, Spade's lack of sympathy for Archer, and the associated complications with their relationship, are slightly shocking to the modern viewer.

In the late sixties urban decay and ther forces began to take its toll on the National, and perhaps international, psychi and perhaps what corruption that was tolerated to maintain our institutions, no longer seemed to work for the common man. It would take a new hero to negotiate this pernicious landscape. In strode McQueen, Eastwood, and Bronson to bring order and embody the aspirations of the modern viewer.

 

[carebear]

I found a two-fer. Who says staying in Saturday night can't pay off.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I watched "The Fugitive" last night, for the same reason as carebear watching "48 Hours." Dr. Richard Kimbal, a man against a system that had done him wrong, a man willing to do anything to clear his name and to bring those who killed his wife to justice, clad in a very nice Harris Tweed jacket with leather buttons.

 

[carebear]

Now that you say that Hemingway, I think that was the first movie where I ever saw a sportcoat as an actual piece of functional outerwear as opposed to "something you wore with a dress shirt".

When he's in the city, coller up and hunched into it against the cold and rain, hands in his pockets. I saw that scene and something finally clicked in my head, "Hey, that's a jacket!"

Finding the Lounge and you guys has helped that immensely, learning the history and functionality of menswear beyond "wear a suit to formal events".

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Well said, carebear, those epiphanies never stop; this place is a constant revelation.

I am about to head out into a New England rain shower in one of mine; collar up, hands in pockets, leaning forward and squinting into the wind and rain,

 

[carebear]

Wear a hat, you'll catch cold.

 

[carebear]

Speaking of that, I bought my first fedora (a black Scala fur felt, now I know better) in a local suit shop just over a year ago.

I was out in the parking lot at work not a few days later talking with some coworkers, in the rain, when I realized I was dry. I didn't have water running down my face and my head was warm.

Up until that moment it was just an accessory, after that it was a hat and placed me squarely in the "wear it in the rain" camp.

I suppose at some point I'll come to realize water is wet and fire is hot, that being the depth of my epiphanies lately.