Current Forum: Session 11: Action/Adventure and Sexuality	Read 5 times 	
Date: 03-Apr-2001 01:34:26	
Author: MCKAHAN, JASON G. <jgm8530@garnet.acns.fsu.edu>	
Subject: Lethal Masculinity 	
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       An early scene Lethal Weapon (Donner 1987), with Murtaugh and a fellow officer in the police station, begins a dialogue on 1980s masculinity. The other officer claims, “Guys in the 80s aren’t tough… [they’re] sensitive people…[they] show their emotions around women…last night I cried in bed.” Later, the General remarks to Murtaugh, “There are no heroes anymore.” This 
clearly mocks a new masculinity mentioned by Cooper Thompson that shuns violence and misogyny and works towards showing other emotions than anger and the respect of women. Murtaugh represents a more responsible and cerebral form of masculinity, while Riggs embodies brute force and psychosis. As the plot progresses brand of masculinity of Riggs wins approval; it is not unlike the masculinity of Mr. Joshua, who proves his toughness by letting the General hold a lighter to his arm. With Riggs it is instead the flagrant jumping off buildings with a suicidal civilian, holding loaded guns in his mouth, masterminding dangerous plans, and fist-fighting Mr. Joshua at the end. Violence and killing is thus rewarded as an activity for law enforcement and is legitimized by social authority.
       “Good” women are restricted to domestic spheres. In nearly every scene that we see Murtaugh’s she is in the kitchen, She cooks and cleans, but it is questionable whether any of the men appreciate her work, as is evident from the repetitive criticism of her cooking. Women are to be saved and Murtaugh’s daughter becomes thus becomes the object of a captivity sub-plot. “Bad” women, on the other hand, are either in crime or professionals. The stereotype of the prostitute as coke-heads and scopophilic object (note the contrast of the cross-cut to the image nude Riggs getting out of bed) is clear in the opening of the film and she meets a her doom, as the drug pushers do, being a social outcast. The police psychiatrist is ignored by her male coworkers when she claims that Riggs is off his rocker. An interesting framing occurs when the Chief calls her work “psych-bullshit” and shuts the bathroom door in her face. We see a close-up of her and the label “Men” with a male symbol on the door as she mumbles, “Asshole!” This character is also belittled by Murtaugh in a telephone conversation. Unlike Murtaugh’s wife, the professional woman transgresses her “natural” space and figures thus as “feminist.” 
       Race figures as a signifier of difference between Riggs and Murtaugh. In the beginning, the relationship between Murtaugh and Riggs seems conventional for the buddy film. When the two 
first head out through the parking garage, backlighting is employed to such an extant that race is not evident and this scene possibly could be regarded as equality. However, although Murtaugh is a sensible and “good” cop, he is often challenged and bettered by his white partner. For instance, when Riggs and Murtaugh homoerotically compare “guns,” Riggs sees his gun as more masculine, as compared to Murtaugh’s “old-timer” six-shooter. At the shooting range, Riggs is a better shot and as already noted, Riggs takes control (albeit dangerous and 
irresponsible) when Murtaugh’s daughter is kidnapped. In the final standoff between Riggs and Mr. Joshua, Murtaugh assumes the role as referee and curiously cheers on Riggs, as he calls the other officers off from breaking up the fight, “This guy killed two cops!” Most stereotypic is the image of “Endo,” an Asian stereotype of the torturer right out of Manchurian Candidate and other Korean, Japanese and Vietnam war films, concerning whom Riggs asks, “Who’s the chin?” 
       The upper class is equivocated with corruption in this middle class yarn. Michael Hunsaker’s lust for wealth has not only led him into becoming a corrupt banker, but also bring flagrant disregard for his own daughter. The scene in the bank when he tells of his daughter’s involvement in drugs and prostitution, his duplicity is evident in his non-frontality in facing away 
from the camera (and Murtaugh). His hypocrisy is put frankly in the image of him, a drug-dealing bourgeois, dying while holding a healthful carton of orange juice.