8 Influential Bromances

8. Han Solo & Chewbacca

Where would the galaxy far, far away be without Chewie playing conscience for smuggler with an eventual heart of gold Han Solo?  Although it was Chewbacca who owed a life-debt to Han, it was Han who much of the time gave into the wookie’s puzzled disappointment.  The two had much more of a deep brotherhood and partnership than a relationship where Han in anyway took advantage of the wookie’s loyalty.  In fact, it is in this relationship where the obviously honorable wookie is so devoted to Han Solo that the viewer is given the first hint that there is more beneath the surface of the Corellian pirate than an opportunist looking to make a fast buck.

The two stayed fast friends to the end until the eventual death of Chewie while saving Han’s son’s life in one of the hackneyed Star Wars novels based in the extended time-line.  I personally have never read the book where the deed is done, so as far as I’m concerned it never happened.

7. Matt Damon & Ben Affleck

There is little debate that Good Will Hunting hasn’t aged that well.  It’s still a pretty good story with pretty good acting that got caught up in the morass of 1990s film-making  and Robin Williams. There is something still magical about the movie in that the Damon and Affleck screenwriting duo was so enthusiastic to get the film made.  For Damfleck it was not gratuitous cinema geekery that led to the birth of ‘Good Will Hunting,’ but more of a slowly unfolding work in progress that they approached as getting made was only a matter of time.  There are rumors that screenwriter and author extraordinaire William Goldman (The Princess Bride, Misery) may have either doctored or completely re-written the script, but Goldman has denied everything except suggesting the end of the movie for the final draft.

Damon has gone on to star one one of the best modern action franchises as Jason Bourne and has made highly acclaimed smaller films that boosted his reputation.  Affeck has been less successful in his acting endeavors largely due to the bad decisions of throwing in with a Michael Bay blockbuster and starring in a superhero movie before superheros were cool again.

Affleck, however, showed considerable directorial acumen while directing his brother, Casey, in the wonderful Gone Baby Gone (based off a novel by Dennis Lehane ['Mystic River']).  So there is hope yet in the Affleck camp.

6. Charles Dickens & Wilkie Collins

The two classic authors are perhaps the most famous literary bros.  Collins was introduced  to Chuck early in 1851 and the two struck up an immediate friendship that included collaboration and family marriages.  Dickens advised Collins and published many of his serial novels of the time; Collins edited some of Dickens work; Collins’ brother married Dickens daughter; etc.  The two were joined at the literary and bromance hip including after Collins became addicted to opium while trying to treat his rheumatoid arthritis and became afflicted with a delusional crisis involving what he termed, ‘Ghost-Wilkie.’ After Dickens death, Collins helped out widow Dickens with Charles’ estate and even advised on and edited some posthumous published works.

5. Quentin Tarentino and Robert Rodriquez

The bromance between QT and RR is well documented.  The cumulative of the two director’s bromance came in the supposedly ‘bad on purpose’ Grindhouse (2007) . This may be the most one sided bromance on this list for in terms of actual talent and industry currency in the shared field. What that means is that QT has tons, RR… eh, not so much.  Rodriquez is well known for shooting messy along a pressure intense schedule while chopping movies together from rag-tag efforts of cliche that he then attempts to pass on as iconic. Sin City (2005) may be the one exception, however the movie was more pulled out due to Mickey Rourke’s performance, Tarantino’s directorial contributions, and the influence of co-director and creator Frank Miller.

None-the-less, Rodriquez is one of the busiest “in development” directors in Hollywood.  His borrowed Tarantino reputation has netted him deals to reboot (probably badly) Predator, as well as hash out another paid-to-make-bad-movie in yet another faux grindhouse snooze-fest Machete.  While RR unapologetically rips off Hollywood and fanboys alike with the great ‘bad on purpose’ con, his bro Tarantino continues to fortify their shared reputation with movies like Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds.

4. Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson

It’s elementary that although Holmes was the greatest of all fictional minds, he may have succumbed to the odious Moriarty or a henchman and never lived out his days to retire to beekeeping if it were not for the steady hand and trusty service revolver of one Dr. John D. Watson.  Holmes and Watson lived together between stints of Watson’s marriage; Holmes’ fake death and exile as a concert violinist in northen Europe; and other occasional circumstances where the two men did not share rooms.  For the most part, however, during the breadth of Holmes’ and Watson’s partnersip, the two single crime solvers shared what has become the most iconic address in all of fiction, 221B Baker St., with the cantankerous but caring landlady Mrs. Hudson.

The relationship started as simply as something based on need.  Watson, newly discharged from Her Majesty’s Service and without lodging he could afford on his military commission, found Holmes through a mutual acquaintance where Watson was warned of Holmes’ idiosyncrasies before being introduced as a possible roommate.  Afterward, Holmes often referred to Watson as his ‘Boswell’ (referring to the famous biographer of Samuel Johnson) and assured the doctor that he would be lost without his faithful assistance.  Watson claimed Holmes was the greatest man his would ever know and his adoration (if often accompanied with frustration) was clear in his narratives.

3. Samwise & Frodo

(Cinematic Version)

Similar to other entries on this list, the bond between these two hobbits was strong, but shouldered rather one-sidedly by one half of the duo.  In this case Frodo has the lineage of being a descendant of infamous renegade hobbit Bilbo Baggins and was also trusted with the One Ring in the Fellowship’s quest to destroy it.  Every other aspect of the relationship was dominated by the hardy Samwise Gamgee.  There was very little give and take between the two hobbits.  True, Frodo carried the weight of the ring (and whined about it enough), but Sam was the steady (and not whiny) leader that battled against Frodo’s manic depression, paranoia, and plethora of wuss moments before finally getting the duo to Mount Doom. Once there, if one remembers, Frodo failed to destroy the ring, which is what they traveled a gazillion miles to do, and was about to murder his best friend Sam in a petulant temper-tantrum before Gollum showed up and saved the day.

Despite Frodo’s obvious lack of character Sam stayed faithful to his friend. Even when Frodo bailed in the final wuss out of his life and went to live with dead elves, Samwise was there to see Frodo off with a tear in his eye, sad that his “friend” was leaving for good (to be fed grapes by nymph-like elves panting over his rock star status).

2. Luke Skywalker & Han Solo

The two far away galaxians shared much in the Rebel’s quest to squelch the Galatic Empire.  This is an entry where there is no view that has not been expressed by many millions of people in hundreds of different ways.  Many kids growing up liked Luke because he was a Jedi and had cool powers; many other kids preferred Han because Luke was a bit of a dork and Han was the devil-may-care smartass who got the girl.

The truth is that the galaxy would not have been saved without the two having found each other. Han’s nature was always buried beneath his gruff exterior, but that more noble nature may never have surfaced without Luke’s bleeding heart and fanciful crush on his sister (he knew only that she was a princess that the old goat Kenobi had a thing for). Han eventually came to love Leia (as Luke was cock blocked by the discovery of their brother-sister status) and, perhaps because of her and Luke, the rebellion (because frankly he profited from the Empire’s totalitarian rule).

Han was also a powerful influence on Luke.  Han played the part of big brother to Luke who grew up without the benefit of a male presence to whom he was able to relate. Luke may have learned from Han to step more confidently and to pitch down his voice when excited so he didn’t sound like he was on the verge of tears.  Life’s struggles as overcome by Han (he was frozen in a solid block of metal, for instance, and never felt entitled over the whole affair) led Luke to being able to face the fact that his dad was the most evil dickhead in the galaxy.  In Han’s case, remembering Luke as a goofy kid from a backwater planet, he was more easily able to work with the Ewoks instead of shooting them with his laser pistol and letting Chewie spit-roast them for brunch.

1. Lennon/McCartney

I really don’t care what anyone thinks about The Beatles; if he misses the point entirely and moans about the Stones or Zeppelin or friggin Sufjan Stevens.  Lennon/McCatney penned so many number one songs that if one could take each letter from lyrics of those songs in 1″ squares and put them side-by-side, the resulting length would reach from the Earth to Neptune and back seven times.  One could reconstruct word-for-word every Shakespeare play with just the words in the titles of the Beatles number ones.   Lennon & McCartney have been quoted by everyone from Napoleon to Obiwan Kenobi to my mother to your mother to Gandhi to Winston Churchill.  Lennon & McCartney’s words held so much influence that the U.S. government brainwashed Mark David Chapman in the MK-ULTRA program to assassinate Lennon.  The Beatles at their peak, and probably once again due to the Rock Band release, were more popular than Jesus Christ.

Many folks think that John Winston-Ono Lennon and James Paul McCartney hated each other.  Well, they may have for a time, but in the beginning their relationship was one of unheard of bromance.  The two musical geeks spent hours together listening to records, playing gigs in The Quarrymen and Silver Beetles, chasing girls, and generally hanging out at each others crib like the best bros that they were.  That the two stayed together through the initial rush of fame, the pressures of touring, and lack of real money was a testament to their friendship.  It was not until the two wanted different directions for themselves that the Beatles as a band started to drift apart.  They had been mostly writing songs separately for years, but that was the way they worked best.  John tweaking an awkward or overly sentimental passage in a Paul lyric; Paul coming up with a strange sound or improved melody for a John chorus.  Their bromance worked perfectly in give and take and withstood most challenges until the band, the world, and the duo themselves could no longer ignore the call to a different age with different directional forces pulling them apart.

Their split is even enough to substantiate their bromance.  Not only was it widely covered throughout the entire world, but their back-and-forth bickering in interviews and song immortalized their break-up.  Lennon’s spiteful “How Do You Sleep” and McCartney’s playful re-joiner  “Let Me Roll It” both showed that, although not together, they were both still infatuated with each other like any good broken-up couple.

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