Typical Men

by Professor Andrew Spicer

Published 12 April 2001
Typical Men is the first history of masculinity in film from the Second World War to the 1990s. It explores in detail the changing nature of the dominant male cultural types: the debonair gentleman, the Byronic hero, the Angry Young Man, the delinquent, the maladjusted veteran, villains and comic fools. Typical Men gives detailed readings of key films including In Which We Serve, They Made Me a Fugitive, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and From Russia With Love and investigates the performances of important male stars such as James Mason, Kenneth More, Sean Connery and Michael Caine to produce a fresh interpretation of male roles. The book brings the story up-to-date by describing the recent evolution of British films.