Bromance 4ever
You are a man. It’s 11 PM on a Tuesday. You’ve had a hard day at work, you’re not quite yet ready to go to bed, and you don’t want company. All you want to do is flip on the TV, turn on Sportscenter, and see who won the game.
But then the commercials come on. And you just can’t take another ShamWow commercial. It is time to hit the Guide Button and see what else is on.
Re-run of Jersey Shore? Well, ok, why not? You watch until Snookie is fall down drunk and The Situation is in the Smush room. Then maybe you get nervous (or remember that you gotta retain some dignity) and flip again.
Simpsons! Damn, already seen it.
The News! No way, not in the mood.
And then there it is. Like a siren calling to you and your buddies as you sail back to Ithaca… and you just can’t resist… the Shawshank Redemption.
It’s the part where Andy Dusfresnes is about to be hurled off the roof by the Head Guard. You love this part. You think, “Hey, what’s 15 minutes going to hurt? I’ve seen it a million times, I don’t need to see the whole thing. Just 15 minutes.”
Two hours and a box of Oreos later, you realized that it happened again. You watched the whole thing.
It doesn’t have to be Shawshank, it could be Rocky III or Field of Dreams or Bloodsport. You know the other options. And I know you’ve been there. So why do we keep doing it to ourselves? What is it that strips us of our will-power?
We crave the bromance.
While guys love to tease women about needing to see Jake Gyllenhaal or Hugh Grant or take your pick, we dudes are no better. We dream of that last embrace between Red and Andy on the shores of foreign beach; of one last catch with Ray and his father; of the last fight between Apollo and Rocky; of Frank Dux faithfully delivering Ray his bandanna. Deep down in places we can’t/won’t tell our friends, we want that.
These are the scenes that we will stay up until 1 AM to watch, not because we we are putting off work or bed, but because we love the bromance.
Editor’s note: We will run a piece on the top ten bromance movie moments next week. We invite your contributions. What are your favorite bromance moments and why do you love them? Email us at [email protected] or add them to the comments below.
