Are male actors more attractive in old or new movies?
Old: 1984
New: 2004
-ish.
About the same.
Male actors were and are a mix of highly attractive men, ordinary-looking men, and "interesting" looks that photograph well.
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There was a point when male stars went from icons of masculinity to soy-boys that nobody really wants to go see. This occurred roughly 10 years ago.
shareExamples?
shareYou used to have masculine stars like Connery, Pacino, Hackman, Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis etc. They commanded the screen in a way that today’s male stars cannot. Ryan Gosling has some screen presence but only a fraction of the testosterone of those guys. I’m hard pressed to even think of a contemporary star who can match them for masculinity 🤷🏻♂️
shareGuys like Stallone and Schwarzenegger were pumped full of steroids. It's easy to be masculine when your male hormone levels are through the roof beyond what is naturally possible.
Also some of this is due to hollywood writing. Those guys got typecast in badass action hero roles.
Pacino is 5ft6 and slender. He has charisma and is a good actor, played some badass roles like in Scarface, but if he was an everyday man working in an office you wouldn't consider him manly.
Guys like Chris Hemsworth, Jason Momoa, Henry Cavill, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Ritchson and co are big muscular dudes in this era. Many women are attracted to them and these dudes would dwarf some of the 'manly' stars of yesteryear. (I'm aware a lot of these guys are full of steroids too, but as I said so were Schwarzenegger and Stallone.).
Commanding the screen is just hollywood smoke and mirrors plus acting ability. Nothing to do with masculinity.
It's easy to cherry pick. Actors like Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, Joe Pesci, Marlon Brando & Jack Nicholson weren't big manly brutes.
My examples of earlier stars all had masculine gravitas, the fact that Schwarzenegger and Stallone might have roid-boosted at some point doesn’t affect that.
None of your examples of roided-up contemporary stars can match the earlier guys for masculine energy and gravitas. Pacino, slight in stature though he may be, has 100x the gravitas and screen presence of Cavill, for example.