{"id":1166,"date":"2015-05-21T21:44:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T05:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/?p=1166"},"modified":"2015-05-22T06:42:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T14:42:09","slug":"texas-rising-men-who-are-not-afraid-to-be-men-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/2015\/05\/texas-rising-men-who-are-not-afraid-to-be-men-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Texas Rising’ Boasts ‘Men Who Are Not Afraid to Be Men’ (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"texas-rising\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Come Memorial Day, it looks like the cowboys are back.<\/p>\n

Premiering Monday, May 25, History\u2019s 10-hour, five-part miniseries \u201cTexas Rising,\u201d<\/a> directed by British-born Roland Joff\u00e9 (\u201cThe Killing Fiekds,\u201d \u201cThe Mission\u201d) and filmed in Mexico, picks up the story of the Texas Revolution in the wake of the 1836 Mexican siege, led by President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio.<\/p>\n

After the deaths of the Alamo\u2019s \u00a0defenders \u2014 who included James Bowie, William Travis and Davy Crockett \u2014 and Santa Anna\u2019s cruelty during the battle, the \u201cTexians\u201d (the English-speaking settlers in what was then a part of Mexico) rose up in revolt, leading to the decisive Battle of San Jacinto.<\/p>\n

The large cast includes Bill Paxton (Sam Houston), Olivier Martinez (Santa Anna), Kris Kristofferson (President Andrew Jackson), Jeff Fahey (Thomas Rusk) and Johnathon Schaech (Col. Sidney Sherman), along with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Crispin Glover, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Christopher McDonald, Brendan Frasier, Ray Liotta, Thomas Jane, Sarah Jones, Jake Busey, Robert Knepper and Chad Michael Murray.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has this great sense of self-discovery,\u201d said\u00a0Joff\u00e9 of the production. \u201cIt\u2019s a story not only about men discovering themselves but about countries discovering themselves; about people discovering who they want to be, who they might be, who they wish they weren\u2019t. That\u2019s the stuff of cowboys, so all that stuff is wonderful to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this day, Texans have retained a strong identity and a fierce pride.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a uniqueness in Texas,\u201d\u00a0Joff\u00e9 said, \u201cthat is rather rare. I think it comes out of a blending of cultures. These auspicious stock had somehow fought the land, and gained through that fight, as if the land and they have wrestled together, and in that wrestling has been forged something like Jacob wrestling the angel. I don\u2019t know which one\u2019s the angel and which one\u2019s Jacob.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s as though Texas is the result of a titanic struggle in a way, which is a cultural struggle and a geographical one. That does breed a certain sense of uniqueness, a certain sense of bluntness, a certain sense that Texas is more than it should be. That\u2019s the character of the place. That\u2019s in the landscapes very much, and that\u2019s in the music of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Texas Rangers figured in the revolution and have become icons of rugged American manhood \u2014 and that wasn\u2019t lost on\u00a0Joff\u00e9. He has a strong response when asked if we may be moving out of the age of the antihero and back to a more traditional view of masculine values.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will never go back to the stage of the monochrome hero,\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0said, \u201cthe man without a complex, who\u2019s just a hero. I do think there is a genuine hunger, and this comes back to the cowboy movie, to make stories about men. Men who are not afraid to be men, without all the fashion models.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of women need it and would love it and would feel very vindicated to see that. Certainly, as we\u2019ve shown this to some women, the response is immediate. They\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, we love this, because these are men<\/em>. We feel they\u2019re men with everything that means to us.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat does come back to the cowboy story, and it comes back to a kind of heroism. That\u2019s certainly something we thought about a lot and wanted to enjoy, and wanted an audience to enjoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe women are very strong, too, but they\u2019re not strong at the cost of weak men. They\u2019re strong because there\u2019s tons of strength around. At that time, people had to be [strong] to survive. That\u2019s rather beautiful. That\u2019s in a way, the most important answer to your questions. Some of the heroes have been whitewashed \u2014 assuming we are looking at males as males, and they are allowed to be fully men, as far as they can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of a dominating matriarchy or patriarchy,\u00a0Joff\u00e9\u2019s vision is more about two sexes that are very different and yet stand eye-to-eye, but not necessarily toe-to-toe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can honor other people by being strong in myself,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause that\u2019s a position from which we can really deal with people. Then, they know who they\u2019re dealing with, and you require the same thing from them. That\u2019s not actually conflict. It doesn\u2019t breed conflict; it breeds a kind of respect and a great sense of fun and enjoyment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s important between the sexes. Then, the other way around, you get into all kinds of moral dilemmas that are not much enjoyment and some kind of a mess, it seems to me; but that\u2019s just my opinion, and I\u2019m one person.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wonderful thing about this is, before any of that became enshrined as an ideology \u2026 both sexes shine as they are with the ability to live fully in their own strengths. That\u2019s great, and like I say, when both sides of the equation can do that, it can only be a plus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to read part two, where executive producer Leslie Greif joins the conversation \u2026<\/p>\n

Take a look:<\/p>\n