04-22-2009, 10:46 AM
Captain Kirk? I always liked that one scene from Star Trek V, where the dude is taking everyone's pain away, sort of turning them into mindless hippies, and Kirk rejects it, saying "I don't want my pain taken away! I NEED my pain!" It was like the one good scene from that whole movie.
Did Kirk ever cry into his cereal? Even when Spock died he didn't fling himself through paint and have a crying fit. (And the only time Kirk ever tried to do "suicide by first officer" was actually a secret signal. Since Spock knew Kirk would never do such a thing, Spock realized Kirk was under duress and sent down an armed rescue party.)
I thought about John McClane (Die Hard) but stoic people aren't supposed to shout "YIPPIE KIE YAY". He enjoys it entirely too much to be considered "stoic". He's closer to "insane".
With Dirty Harry it's hard to say if he's stoic or just brazenly overconfident. Most of Clint Eastwood's characters are stoic, though. He's like John Wayne with less of a sense of humor. Particularly true of his older western movies.
As for stoic TV characters within the last 10 years or so, I dunno. Mal from Firefly? He was pretty stoic. And then they canceled that show.
I think Hollywood just hates stoic characters. Far from fears about "every character" being stoic, we have to think hard to come up with a list.
Did Kirk ever cry into his cereal? Even when Spock died he didn't fling himself through paint and have a crying fit. (And the only time Kirk ever tried to do "suicide by first officer" was actually a secret signal. Since Spock knew Kirk would never do such a thing, Spock realized Kirk was under duress and sent down an armed rescue party.)
I thought about John McClane (Die Hard) but stoic people aren't supposed to shout "YIPPIE KIE YAY". He enjoys it entirely too much to be considered "stoic". He's closer to "insane".
With Dirty Harry it's hard to say if he's stoic or just brazenly overconfident. Most of Clint Eastwood's characters are stoic, though. He's like John Wayne with less of a sense of humor. Particularly true of his older western movies.
As for stoic TV characters within the last 10 years or so, I dunno. Mal from Firefly? He was pretty stoic. And then they canceled that show.
I think Hollywood just hates stoic characters. Far from fears about "every character" being stoic, we have to think hard to come up with a list.