Thebuddy film is asubgenre ofadventure andcomedy film in which two people go on an adventure, mission, orroad trip. The two typically are males withcontrasting personalities. The contrast is sometimes accentuated by an ethnic difference between the two. The buddy film is commonplace inWestern cinema; unlike some other film genres, it endured through the 20th century with different pairings and different themes.
A buddy film portrays the pairing of two people, often the same sex, frequently men. A friendship between the two people is the key relationship in a buddy film. The two people often come from different backgrounds or have different personalities, and they tend to misunderstand one another. Through the events of the buddy film, they gain a stronger friendship and mutual respect. Buddy films often deal with crises ofmasculinity.American Masculinities: A Historical Encyclopedia explains, "[Buddy films] offer male movie-going audiences an opportunity to indulge in a form of male bonding and behavior usually discouraged by social constraints."[1] Ira Konigsberg wrote inThe Complete Film Dictionary, "Such films extol the virtues of male comradeship and relegate male–female relationships to a subsidiary position."[2]
Afemale buddy film is similar to a buddy film except that the main characters are women, and it is centered on their situation. The cast may be mainly female depending on the plot. There are far fewer female buddy films than there are male buddy films; however, notable examples include 1991'sThelma and Louise, which had a popular impact similar toButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and paved the way for onscreen female friendships such as those inWaiting to Exhale,Walking and Talking, andFried Green Tomatoes.[3]
Buddy films are often hybridized with other film genres, such asroad movies,Westerns,comedies, andaction films featuring police. The "threats to [the] masculinity" of the male–male relationship depend on the genre: women in comedies, the law in films about outlaw buddies, and criminals in action films about cop buddies.[1]
Buddy literature dates back as early asThe Epic of Gilgamesh, which details the combat and subsequent bonding of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, followed by their heroic adventures together. Gardner and Maier consider it to be possibly the first of "friendship literature," which would later feature prominently in Greek and Roman works.[4]
The buddy film is more common tocinema in the United States than cinema in otherWestern countries, which tend to focus on male–female romantic relationships or an individual male hero.[1] Film historianDavid Thomson observes that buddy films are rare among British and French films, "You just wouldn't see three Englishmen behave the way American men do, who are truly happiest when they are together with other men."[5] Portrayal ofmale bonding in the United States traces back to 19th-century authorMark Twain's charactersHuck Finn andTom Sawyer as a "good boy–bad boy combo", as well as Huck Finn and the slave Jim in Twain's 1884 novelAdventures of Huckleberry Finn.Vaudeville acts in early 20th-century United States often featured male pairs.[5] Another example could be 1881'sThe Prince and the Pauper withPrince Edward and Miles Hendon.
From the 1930s to the 1960s in the United States, malecomedy duos often appeared in buddy films.Laurel and Hardy andAbbott and Costello were popular in the 1930s and 1940s.[1] Laurel and Hardy starred in films likeSons of the Desert (1933), and Abbott and Costello starred in films likeBuck Privates (1941). Another comedy duo wasWheeler & Woolsey, who starred inHalf Shot at Sunrise (1930).Bing Crosby andBob Hope starred together in the 1940Paramount Pictures filmRoad to Singapore,[6] which led to other 1940s buddy films that theLos Angeles Times described as "escapist wartime fantasies".[5] Hope and Crosby starred together ina series of films that lasted to the 1960s.[6]Dean Martin andJerry Lewis were a popular duo in the 1950s, andWalter Matthau andJack Lemmon were famous in the 1960s, starring in the hit 1968 filmThe Odd Couple.[1]
A major departure from the more comic buddy films of the era wasAkira Kurosawa's 1949Japanese filmStray Dog, starringToshirō Mifune andTakashi Shimura. It was a more seriouspolice proceduralfilm noir that served as a precursor to thebuddy cop film genre.[7]
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Throughout the 1960s and the 1970s, thefeminist movement and "a widespread questioning" of socialinstitutions influenced buddy films. The films explored male friendships more dramatically and encouragedindividualism—particularly to be free from women and society.[1] Critics such asMolly Haskell andRobin Wood saw the decades' films as "a backlash from the feminist movement."[8] Philippa Gates wrote: "To punish women for their desire for equality, the buddy film pushes them out of the center of the narrative ... By making both protagonists men, the central issue of the film becomes the growth and development of their friendship. Women as potential love interests are thus eliminated from the narrative space."[9] The buddy films of these decades were also hybridized withroad movies.[8] The decades' buddy films includedButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969),Easy Rider (1969),Midnight Cowboy (1969),Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), andDog Day Afternoon (1975).[1] TheLos Angeles Times said films likeScarecrow (1973) andAll the President's Men (1976) reflected the "paranoia and alienation" felt in the era.[5] Beyond Hollywood, a notable buddy road movie of that era was theBollywood "Curry Western" filmSholay (1975),[10] which was thehighest-grossing Indian film of all time.[11][12]
Biracial buddy films emerged in the 1970s and 1980s;Richard Pryor andGene Wilder initiated the movement withSilver Streak (1976) andStir Crazy (1980).Eddie Murphy was a key actor in biracial buddy films, starring in48 Hours (1982) withNick Nolte and inTrading Places (1983) withDan Aykroyd.[13] Throughout the 1980s, the individual roles in biracial buddy films are reversed. The "racial other... is too civilized" while the white man "is equipped for survival in... the urban landscape".[14]
The 1980s was a popular decade foraction films,[15] and the genre that "blended masculinity, heroism, and patriotism into an idealized image" was hybridized with buddy films. Following theCivil Rights Movement, black advancement was also reflected in more common biracial pairings.[1] In this decade, the buddy cop film took the place of the buddy road movie.[8] Action films with biracial pairings include the 1982 film48 Hours starringEddie Murphy andNick Nolte and the 1987 filmLethal Weapon starringMel Gibson andDanny Glover. Another combination of the action film and the buddy film in the 1980s and another biracial reversal was the 1988 filmDie Hard in whichBruce Willis's heroic characterJohn McClane is supported by the black cop Al (played byReginald VelJohnson) and the sequelDie Hard With a Vengeance in which Willis partners withSamuel L. Jackson.[16]
In the early 1990s, the masculine figure in films became more sensitive, and some buddy films "contemplated a masculinity that required sensitive relations between men". Such films includedThe Fisher King (1991) andThe Shawshank Redemption (1994). The decade also saw new approaches to the genre. The 1991 filmThelma & Louise featured a female pairing ofGeena Davis andSusan Sarandon, and the 1993 filmThe Pelican Brief featured a male–female platonic pairing ofJulia Roberts andDenzel Washington. The 1998 filmRush Hour featured a nonwhite male pairing ofJackie Chan andChris Tucker,[1] which theLos Angeles Times said symbolizedcolor blindness in American cinema.[5]
Biracial buddy films continued in the 1990s and 2000s and were combined with different genres, such asWhite Men Can't Jump (1992),Bulletproof (1996),Gridlock'd (1997),National Security (2003) andThe Bucket List (2007).[1][14][17]
Also in the 1990s and 2000s,John Woo's Hollywood films imported thewuxia "themes of loyalty and trust" from his previous Hong Kong-produced films to create different takes on male bonding. Kin–Yan Szeto writes inThe Martial Arts Cinema of the Chinese Diaspora, "[In] his third Hollywood film,Face/Off... Woo manages to deploy and politicize themes of homosociality with the possibility of contesting hegemonic masculinity that consolidates kinship and family." Woo's 2001 World War II filmWindtalkers depicted two buddy pairs, with each pair indicating inequality through ethnicity (white American soldiers protectingNavajo code talkers but ready to kill the talkers to protect the code). Szeto explains, "Woo uses the twin buddy pairs to explore the shifting meanings and multiple possibilities in interracial bonding, rather than simply recuperating and empowering dominant positions for white heterosexual men."[18]
Lethal Weapon was adapted into atelevision series which ran from 2016 to 2019.[68]The 2021 seriesThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier has many of the features of the buddy film genre, and is influenced by films like48 Hrs.,The Defiant Ones,Lethal Weapon andRush Hour.[69][17]Other examples includeHardcastle and McCormick, in which a retired judge and his last defendant follow up on cases that were dismissed due to technicalities;CHiPs, the adventures of twoCalifornia Highway Patrol motorcycle officers; andVoyagers!, in which a member of a league of time travelers and a boy travel through time repairing errors in world history.
In 2018, an original anime productionA Place Further than the Universe aired. It comprises four girls with contrasting personalities and life background meeting together to go toAntarctica.[70]
In addition to being a masterful precursor to the buddy cop movies and police procedurals popular today, Stray Dog is also a complex genre film that examines the plight of soldiers returning home to post-war Japan.
