Week 4: Romance Ruins Movies

My dad loves to show my siblings and me his favorite movies. Two phrases we are guaranteed to hear with each new movie that he shows us are “this is one of the greatest movies of all time”, and “romance ruins movies”. The latter phrase is often said as soon as the plot starts to get mushy or sentimental. Despite this constant utterance, there’s significant evidence that my dad doesn’t agree with his own statement:

1.      My dad has seen The Notebook once. He will never watch it again because it makes him cry like a baby.

2.      My dad went to see a bunch of “chick flicks” in theaters when he was in college. More often than not, he enjoyed the movies while his friends mocked each movie’s “girliness”.

3.      My dad’s shtick of heaving a deep sigh, shaking his head, and saying “romance ruins movies” becomes less credible with every new movie, for soon after he says this line, he starts crying at the movie’s sappy love story.

Men watching and enjoying stereotypically girly movies are ridiculed by mainstream masculine society. If a man admits to liking the romantic elements of movies, then that man is overly sentimental, soft, or otherwise feminine. So, even though my dad is genuinely affected by romantic plotlines, he will always deny that fact. Why are movies with a romance driven plot considered a girly thing? People of all genders experience love and feel romantic attachment, so romance shouldn’t be gendered. There are countless action and adventure movies that wouldn’t function without a romantic plotline, so those men—and sometimes women—who groan and say “romance ruins movies” should stop and think before they complain:

1.      In both Rocky and Rocky II, the underdog boxer is inspired by and driven by his wife Adrian. When Adrian disapproves of Rocky’s boxing career in Rocky II, Rocky is uninspired and lackadaisical. As soon as Adrian expresses her desire to see Rocky win, Rocky overcomes adversity to win. Without this love story, the movie would not exist.

2.      In Bruce Willis’ first action movie, Die Hard, the protagonist flies across the country to visit his wife, but soon becomes involved in a terrorist takeover. John McClane, Bruce Willis’ character, wouldn’t have been involved in the attack if he hadn’t gone from New York to Los Angeles to reconcile with his wife. His wife is used as leverage near the end of the movie, and McClane risks everything to get her to safety, therefore, what kind of movie would Die Hard be without this love story?

3.      The love story in The Terminator, that iconic movie that features Arnold Schwarzenegger as a time-traveling machine, saves the world. Sarah Connor, the protagonist, is the mother of John Connor, who leads the war against the machines decades in the future. Without the love of John Connor’s parents, there would be no war, and the Terminator would not need to come back in time to kill the mother of the resistance.

All of these movies listed are very masculine and violent movies that wouldn’t work without their romantic plotline. Though these examples are only from the 20^th century, movies today also rely on romance to develop plot and characters. Romance as a genre may always be marketed towards women, but romantic storylines in films are present no matter the genre. Name any movie from any genre, and you are bound to find a love story embedded in the plot. Though my dad tries to convince himself that “romance ruins movies”, I believe, and I’m sure Dad also believes deep down that the opposite is true: romance saves movies.