Are you going to say anything about the salmon scene, where the chase runs against the flow of traffic? Obviously, these are inherently "contrarian", or "maverick", but do you see them as otherwise gendered in any way differently from other chase scenes?
And speaking of stunt men, what do you make of The Stunt Man (the movie?) Centred on a car scene, I suppose you could shoehorn it into the gender narrative, but IMO it breaks many stereotypes, at least as they existed in 1980.
I thought about putting the salmon scene into the remaining two theses. It is, as you say, the supreme bit of anarchy, the moment the chase flips all traffic laws, rules, conventions on its head. I think who gets to do that is interesting and possibly gendered. But mostly I think it's a moment that both acknowledges and ultimately represses the insane violence of these scenes -- we all know what would happen if (as would surely happen IRL) one of those oncoming cars slammed into our hero. The way drivers instead weave through one row of cars after the other is a constant bracketing of measureless mayhem and certain death.
I've been thinking about your observations concerning gender, motorcycles, and helmets. One supporting point is, who gets to ride *without* a helmet? I can readily recall images of Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, and even Pierce Brosnan riding sans helmet, but most of the women I can recall without helmets are passengers. Of course, that could just be a defect in my memory - there are certainly counterexamples like Carrie Anne Moss.
The other thing is the helmet reveal. The trope is that the apparent bad guy on the bike pulls off the helmet at the end of the chase to reveal that he is a she (and also revealed to be incredibly attractive.) The helmet never uncovers Matt Damon or Ryan Gosling or whoever, no matter how good-looking they are.
Are you going to say anything about the salmon scene, where the chase runs against the flow of traffic? Obviously, these are inherently "contrarian", or "maverick", but do you see them as otherwise gendered in any way differently from other chase scenes?
And speaking of stunt men, what do you make of The Stunt Man (the movie?) Centred on a car scene, I suppose you could shoehorn it into the gender narrative, but IMO it breaks many stereotypes, at least as they existed in 1980.
I thought about putting the salmon scene into the remaining two theses. It is, as you say, the supreme bit of anarchy, the moment the chase flips all traffic laws, rules, conventions on its head. I think who gets to do that is interesting and possibly gendered. But mostly I think it's a moment that both acknowledges and ultimately represses the insane violence of these scenes -- we all know what would happen if (as would surely happen IRL) one of those oncoming cars slammed into our hero. The way drivers instead weave through one row of cars after the other is a constant bracketing of measureless mayhem and certain death.
I've been thinking about your observations concerning gender, motorcycles, and helmets. One supporting point is, who gets to ride *without* a helmet? I can readily recall images of Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, and even Pierce Brosnan riding sans helmet, but most of the women I can recall without helmets are passengers. Of course, that could just be a defect in my memory - there are certainly counterexamples like Carrie Anne Moss.
The other thing is the helmet reveal. The trope is that the apparent bad guy on the bike pulls off the helmet at the end of the chase to reveal that he is a she (and also revealed to be incredibly attractive.) The helmet never uncovers Matt Damon or Ryan Gosling or whoever, no matter how good-looking they are.
HELMET REVEAL! That's true!!!