How have masculinity and Tom Hardy’s own personal experiences been represented in his films?

To play a succession of hypermasculine characters has Tom Hardy had to draw from his own personal experiences? Hardy stated that his “father came from an intellectual and studious avenue” and “was ashamed of not having any relevance” so was forced to go further afield and battled both alcohol and drug addiction as well as having one night stands and participating in criminal activities, making him the epitome of Andrew Spicer’s “Angry Young Man” which Richard Hoggart, a British academic who specialises in British popular culture, characterised as “the scholarship boy…exhibiting a deep sense of being lost, without purpose and with the will sapped”. While not all of these issues are addressed directly in his films, Bronson (2008), Warrior (2011) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) all deal with the idea of masculinity in crisis; the root of Hardy’s past misdeeds.

Hardy’s character of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises is, essentially, a terrorist that is motivated by the woman he loves. I see this as an exaggeration of Hardy’s personal experiences, like the need he felt to prove himself to his father and the other male figures in his life at the time, which he viewed as threatening to his masculinity. As Hardy stated “It would be ‘I’ll strangle the biggest guy in the bar and then no one will fuck with me. I’ll get tattoos and people will know I’m not afraid to hurt myself and they’ll be like warning signs.” The relationship, or lack thereof, between Hardy and these anonymous men is reflective of that between Bane and Batman, where both Bane and Hardy are fighting to eliminate the competition over what they think is being threatened, in Bane’s case, his woman (who Bruce Wayne had developed a romantic attachment to) and in Hardy’s case his ego and masculine pride.

The villainous character of Bane was said to be the catalyst for the shooting in Colorado, where a heavily armed gunman, James Holmes, entered a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises and gunned down 12 people and injured another 58. A report in the Daily Mail stated that “there were suggestions that the gunman was influenced by Bane, a character in the film which wears a dark mask covering his face” similar to the one worn by Holmes. Even though there is no direct link between the shooting and Bane’s influence, it is interesting to see the impact that this hypermasculine character has on audiences to make them come to that conclusion. AMC Theatres even went as far as not permitting guests in costumes “that make others uncomfortable”, nor will they allow face covering masks or fake weapons.

Violence has always been considered a predestined aspect of masculinity, as well as dominance and forcefulness, however, as there is no definitive biological evidence that supports this, it can be argued that violence is a by-product of masculinity in crisis. The 70s and 80s saw the introduction of ‘hard body’ films, which showcase the extreme male form that, therefore, led to the birth of the fight movie, which glorified violent sports and seemingly created an ideal that men felt compelled to aspire to.

Paradoxically, film academic Richard Dyer identifies that the male pin-ups of the hard body films has been associated with “a narcissism considered culturally inappropriate for men, betraying a supposedly feminised concern with appearance” despite “the way in which muscles can function as both a naturalisation of male power and dominance.” Even though Tom Hardy’s physique in these three films adhere to this statement, his large muscles are appropriate for the characters he is portraying in relation to their professions and lifestyles and not exaggerated like the steroid pumped muscles of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone.

Hardy’s depiction of former marine Tommy Conlon in the sports drama Warrior is aggressive with inherently male swagger and seething rage, which stems from his tortured past, and physically is much stronger than his onscreen brother, Brendan (Joel Edgerton). Both brothers though, have pretty, boyish features and do not possess the broken noses and mangled ears of seasoned fighters. Also, the last shot of the film, showing Brendan with his arm around Tommy, sees the two looking like young boys and reminding the spectator that there is still something very vulnerable and childlike behind the masculine persona. Despite Tommy’s aggressiveness in the ring, letting out the anger from his father’s abuse and brother’s abandonment as a child, he immediately tapped out of the fight as soon as his brother apologised and told him he loved him, as if that was all he wanted to hear, and was willing to shelve his masculine pride as a result, proving that hypermasculinity is not a more powerful motivator than love.

Masculinity in Warrior is also addressed differently in both Brendan and the father, Paddy’s (Nick Nolte), subplots. The main protagonist, Brendan, is the most relatable character in the film, being a family man with an average job. When the spectator is introduced to Brendan he is at a birthday party, wearing a bonnet and having his face painted “becoming a princess”; this, along with his slighter build and job as a physics teacher, he is depicted as less than manly. His seemingly effeminate nature is also shown through the use of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy as his entrance music and the repetitive use of midshots to make him appear smaller onscreen.

Brendan must win the Mixed Martial Arts competition, Sparta, to collect the prize money to pay his mortgage and his daughter’s hospital bills. It addresses that the patriarch provides and protects the family and the profession he chooses to pursue is very unlike the fatherly figure we had become familiar with. It goes to show that male aggression varies from individual to individual depending on their motivation. Brendan’s motivation is to protect his family, which immediately makes him a likeable character, whereas Tommy is using MMA to release the anger that has been seething since his childhood.

Paddy Conlon is introduced as a sober, unmarried, religious man and very little else. It is soon revealed that Paddy drank heavily and subjected both his sons and wife to physical abuse. He is the representation of extreme masculinity in crisis and the warped side of patriarchal authority. It is obvious that Paddy feels he has failed his sons and we as spectators feel obliged to agree as “he did not nurture and rather encouraged the kind of violence which has continued to encroach upon Brendan and Tommy’s lives in one form or another” as stated in Boys Will Be Boys: Violent Masculinities and Warrior. While Brendan is the more secure brother Tommy, despite his protestations, is the one who needs his father the most and is the son who is most like him. Tommy goes to Paddy for coaching, whereas Brendan wins his place in Sparta without Paddy’s assistance alerting the audience to the fact that Brendan has moved on and forgiven Paddy while Tommy has not. This is later rectified when Paddy begins drinking again as he realises the true extent of the damage he has inflicted upon his youngest son and is cradled, childlike, in Tommy’s arms mourning the lost opportunity to be loved by his children.

The rage Tommy feels from his troubled childhood is similar to that of Tom Hardy’s. His fear of not having any relevance meant he was prone to lashing out as well as having addiction to alcohol and drugs. He addressed this when asked if the emotionally demanding scenes were harder than “the physical stuff”. He responded with “no, because that’s where I came from. That was me doing the bit I’ve done years of training on already. The whole addiction, abuse storyline was not a shock, and not far from home. Living with addiction isn’t something that’s difficult for me to access”. I believe all Hardy wanted during those rebellious years was to be truly appreciated by his high-achieving father and, as a result, found unorthodox ways to gain recognition and vent out his pent up anger, very similarly to Tommy.

Born Michael Peterson, Charles Bronson is the United Kingdom’s most violent criminal who had spent 34 years in prison by the time the film was made, most spent in solitary confinement. His original sentence was seven years for armed robbery of a post office but due to violent outbursts, such as getting into fights with both inmates and prison guards and taking hostages and demanding ridiculous ransoms, subsequent years were added to his sentence. Peterson changed his name to Charles Bronson to better suit his reputation as a fighter.

Masculinity in Bronson is a more complicated issue than the black and white representations in Warrior and The Dark Knight Rises. Even though Bronson is a hypermasculine character there are certain aspects of his conveyed personality that do not comply with male stereotypes. Director Nicolas Winding Refn has chosen to focus primarily on Bronson’s relationship to art, a subject that the majority of people see as feminine. Where fighting was the way in which Tommy relieved himself of his anger in Warrior, Bronson used the medium of art. One of the most poignant scenes in the film showed Bronson tying up a man who had irritated him previously and making him into a likeness of René Magritte’s The Son of Man.

What is particularly interesting about Bronson is the ambiguity of who the intended audience is. As stated in Bronson (2008): At the Intersection of Art and Violence “it’s a very feminine film about a very masculine topic.” There is a definite sense throughout of sexual ambiguity, which is not an inherently masculine trait. From the very feminine aesthetic and melancholic music used throughout to the very blunt statement of “Let’s fuck” from Bronson’s boxing leader and his response of “That’s what I’m here to do”, it is clear that masculinity is a much more complex subject in Bronson than my other focus texts.

Despite the link between violence and masculinity being seemingly anecdotal and stereotypical, from these studies, it appears that in modern cinema this is the case. Even though each of these characters has some form of motivation their only emotional outlet seems to be through violence; translating accurately into reality when studying Tom Hardy’s misguided youth.