A couple of romance movies I liked would include Romancing the Stone and Crocodile Dundee. Interesting, I just realized they fit the mold of adventure in a faraway land. But other important factors—the woman must be beautiful (hey, we need something to look at!) and the man must be somebody men want to be, not just some pretty boy. A Mel Gibson, Michael Douglas or Paul Hogan. Brad Pitt works too. Also, the movies are basically romances, but there's adventure too, a nice balance of the 2. I realized one day that The Terminator is a romance—2 mysterious and powerful men who seem dangerous appear from somewhere else (the future in this case) and fight for Sarah Conner. It's intrigue and adventure suddenly crashing into her otherwsie ordinary life. And it isn't clear at first which one is the good guy or if either is—they both seem dangerous until the moment Reece shoots at the Terminator in the club. Reece confesses his love for Sarah, even though he's never met her before He's always loved her, and he came across time for her. And to give her a child, who became the savior of mankind. Then he died. It was the first and last time he made love apparently. It's a freakin' love triangle, only one guy is too abusive. Just listen to the music, it's clear romance is really a major factor. And yet it's a movie guys can really sink their teeth into. There's a movie called Time After Time that's actually surprisingly similar to The Terminator in many ways. The two strangers come from the past (Victorian England actually) and fight over a bank teller in modern (early 80's) New York. One of them is Jack the Ripper, who stole H G Wells' time machine. Wells follows and a merry chase ensues. In each of these movies (all 4 of them) the men are strangers in a strange land. What's the trope called? Born Sexy Yesterday I think. They're so out of tune with the time or place they find themselves in they seem like children in a way, lost and innocent, and yet with just enough of the Bad Boy to get along. Ok, I guess Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone doesn't quite fit that one. He wasn't lost or innocent, he was all bad boy. It's a 'They hate each other but really they don't, and by the end they both admit it.' EDITED to add—Fight Club is a love triangle... Romeo + Juliet Body Heat Blade Runner Joe vs the Volcano Tom Hanks keeps encountering screwed-up versions of Meg Ryan until near the end he meets the perfect one The 5th Element Is it a romance? Yeah, I think so. He has to save the world to protect her. Bonnie and Clyde Leon the Professional Yep. It's a romance. Bram Stoker's Dracula King Kong? It's basically a Beauty and the Beast story. But there's a man involved as well—another triangle. 10 Things I Hate About You The Hunger Games Cat People (80's remake) Let Me In/Let The Right One In The Fly I could doubtless just keep adding movies as I think of them. In fact I will I did. Oh, all these noirs I've been watching—probably 3/4s of them are romances. Doomed, but still... I suppose Romeo and Juliet was an early noir.
books i can think of that fall into this category would be stuff like Nick Hornby Hi fidelity Mike Gayle My legendary girlfriend, turning thirty, brand new friend etc Matt Dunn Best man (and everything else hes written) Kevin Samson, Freshers
Hm yeah I can't think of a book that I have read that was centered on a romance. It always seems to be a basic subplot, but never the focus. I suppose if there are books like some of the romantic movies I have watched, I'd be interested in picking one up. The Lobster was mentioned earlier; that was brilliant. I tend to enjoy the more complicated romances. My favourites are Punch Drunk Love, Lost in Translation, and the devastating External Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Come to think about it, I've gotten some of the best reactions for my romantic-suspense novel from guys.
If we’re talking movies then I must mention David Lynch’s Wild At Heart (I read the book too but IMO the movie is superior).
Marjorie Morningstar is a romance published by Herman Wouk in 1955. The MC is a woman, but there is a strong male character who takes the leading role in the story. I think the story is aimed at girls, but I read it when I was a young man. I was very surprised at the ending, but now that I've read it a second time, the ending is obvious. I highly recommend the book, it is not a typical romance story, it is aimed at more intelligent readers.
Connager by Louis L Amour I think would fall into this category. It's a Western but even the less intelligent readers of romance should be able to enjoy it.
Apologies, tongue was firmly in cheek. I would recommend Connagher though, even for people who wouldn't traditionally be fans of the Western genre.
The men I know who read romance novels are perfectly content and entertained by the stereotypical muscular male and beautiful female characters.
If we’re talking about novels focused on the typical dating scene, just with male POV emphasized, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered such a thing. You might have better luck digging into gay romance, but a lot of that is written by straight women for straight women, so it may be hard to find what you’re looking for. Some of the romances with heavier external conflict do find time to deal with normal things like dating, but they’re not super common. One of my favorite examples is from Tom King’s run on Batman, which is in many ways a romance in comic book form. An entire issue is nothing but a Batman/Catwoman and Superman/Lois double date.
I loved the romance between Lula and Sailor in the David Lynch film Wild at Heart. That sort of relationship written into a story would be epic in my opinion and I think it would resonate with a male audience.
If you count two personalities contained in one individual both having a relationship with the same woman... Well in some way most of LL's books fall into some romance, usually with a homely but manly cowboy who falls in love with a scorching hot girl, there is some crazy conflict and after the gun smoke clears, the bad guys are full of holes, the girl realizes how much she loves the gun-slick cowboy, they get married and live happily ever after. Unless it's Sackett Brand...then not so much, but that one is a one-off from the norm.
Barry Lyndon wants to marry a rich woman. It's his only goal. He will lie, cheat, and steal to get there. He's unscrupulous and a clod, but he has one legitimate skill. You do not, for any reason, duel Barry Lyndon. He will slice you in two. It's his only boast that's true. (I always picture him as Biff from Back to the Future. Wearing a tricorn, naturally.)
They're presented as separate people up until the very end. And according to the Jack Durden analysis Marla Singer is another of the narrator's alters. He goes even farther and says everyone associated with Project Mayhem is an alter. Not sure how much I buy into that, but I do think he's right about Marla and Bob with bitch tits. So yeah, as long as the movie is treating the various alters as actual people (which is the way they seem to the afflicted person) then it's a love triangle.
Me, myself and I, locked in a love triangle? I guess it is to the person with the disorder, but physically...its a one person triangle...or mono-angle? Or non-angle? I think this movie has sparked more conspiracy and arguments than most other pieces of film....complete masterpiece IMO.
So you're rejecting the whole premise of the movie? Where up until the very end Tyler Durden is seen as a person in his own right? The entire movie is set inside the narrator's mind, where all these other characters are absolutely real and separate. He only realized Tyler was not real at the very end, when (according to that analysis) he rejected him as an alternate personality and chose Marla instead.
No. I am saying it was a triangle in his mind, even for the entire duration of the film. For him it was very real. But physically, as he is the same person, it can't be a triangle, no matter what the narrator's mind told him to the contrary.
The whole movie was in his mind. Marla, Bob and Tyler are absolutely real there, maybe more so than objectively 'real' people. Would you say in relation to The Terminator that Terminators aren't real, and neither is time travel, so therefore neither of those characters could actually exist and only Sarah was real? The characters are real within the context of the story, whether they're robots from the future or imaginary alternate personalities in the head of a crazy narrator.
I think the main problem is that it starts with an elegant southern ball abruptly interrupted by Nicholas Cage bashing in a man's head to a speed metal soundtrack.
I'd read them too. But really, I think to make a good romance that would appeal to men, you just need a good male character. A lot of the time, they feel extremely generic and too universally appealing to have a memorable personality--for example, there's a scene in the novel Fangirl where the male lead punches a guy at a party who's being a jerk to the female lead. But before and after that, he's always portrayed as this calm and gentle type who never gets angry or frustrated. It felt very much like the author was ticking the "will fight for you" box on a checklist of romance hero traits, and it stopped me believing in him as a character. And that's still better written than the hordes of Mills & Boon "smug alpha male with a vulnerable side and some trauma the heroine will fix" clones. I think Suzanne Brockmann is the best romance author I've read so far at writing male characters. It's subtle, but they always feel like they are their own characters, and like they would have had an interesting story going on even if they'd never met the female lead.
This is the lowest of the lowbrow, but those Japanese fantasy novels where a hero in a fantasy world collects a harem arguably qualify as romance. “Being Able to Edit Skills in Another World, I Gained OP Waifus” is apparently popular enough for more mainstream stuff to reference it.
