Whether you are on the ground or in outer space the evil boogeyman best known as “the patriarchy” or “toxic masculinity” is out to snatch up all the soy boys and terrorize all females no matter the location. And according to Ad Astra director, James Gray, and Bradd Pitt, the movie elliptically underlines and questions masculine roles regarding “macho-ness.”
If you haven’t seen the trailer for the upcoming space film starring familiar faces in Hollywood such as Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland, then you can check it out here:
To save you time, the movie right now has an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, while a film like Rambo: Last Blood holds on to a 34%. In other words, it’s more than prime for potentially making the “Get Woke, Go Broke” list.
Websites such as Vogue picked up on this to stress the usual SJW rhetoric on how Ad Astra’s “Brad Pitt Is Going to Fight Toxic Masculinity.” Or how the Daily Beast writes “Brad Pitt Opens Up About Toxic Masculinity in Venice” where the film premiered. The Canberra Times follows suit and has a piece that reads “Brad Pitt says Ad Astra explores toxic masculinity.”
Here’s an excerpt from the Daily Beast on Pitt explaining what the movie is attempting to spread thematically:
“One of the main themes in the film, Pitt said, was toxic masculinity—a topic that constantly arose in early conversations between star and director.”
Further in the piece, Pitt has this to say:
“In retrospect, I look back on our early conversations—James [Gray] and I—and what we were really digging at, without labeling it so much, was this definition of masculinity. Having grown up in an era where we were taught to be strong, not show weakness, don’t be disrespected, and so on and so forth, there’s certain value in that as far as entering into the world and holding your own, but there’s also a barrier that’s created with this kind of embracing of the self, because you’re denying, to a sense, those pains or the things [that make] you feel shame, whether real or imagined, the regrets in one’s life. Looking back, we were asking the question: Does actually being more open provide you with a better relationship with your loved ones, with your parents, with your kids, and with yourself?”
In other words, masculinity will slow you down in life sooner or later, according to Pitt and Gray. And speaking of this silent underlining message, it rings a similar bell that Rockstar rung with Red Dead Redemption 2 using an elliptical SJW message as per a thorough breakdown provided by American Krogan.
The above sentiment rings louder in recent Rotten Tomatoes reviews such as Cameron Frew from website FrewFilm wrote:
“Toxic masculinity, daddy issues and mankind’s battle with existentialism make up the poetry of James Gray’s magnificent, beautiful space odyssey.”
Preston Barta from Denton Record-Chronicle had this to say:
“There’s a particular madness to ‘Ad Astra’ that causes you to look inward and ruminate on your own dealings with pain, shame and regret. It teaches a lot about humanity, fatherhood and masculinity.”
Lastly, The Quartering picked up on all of this and offered his take:
The 20th Century Fox film, Ad Astra, is set to hit the silver screen worldwide on September 20th, 2019.