“That’s the way of the West, ma’am”--characters who live by a macho code (spoilers)

Cafe Society
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Watching Firefly recently, I saw the episode in which Mal & Wash are kidnapped by the mobster whom Serenity’s crew encountered in “The Train Job.” At one point in the episode–after Zoe had bought Wash’s freedom, and the two of them are preparing to go get Mal back in a more vigorous fashion–Jayne complains that what they are planning is suicide. Wash replies, fairly seriously, that there is a code men like them live by: leave no man behind.

It’s a great episode, of course. But I mention it now not to praise Joss Whedon (as if he needs that hereabouts), but to start a broader discussion. What are, exactly, the rules of the code Mal & his friends live by? What other fictional characters live by such codes, and which do you most admire or detest? And, to proffer a definition, by code, I mean a set of unwritten rules & informal principles used to guide behavior, especially in lieu of religious strictures or formal laws. Star Trek’s Prime Directive doesn’t qualify.

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Seems to be pretty common. From Marvel, there’s Wolverine doing the modified bushido thing. ST:TNG had Worf doing the lawful good version of the Klingon thing. Babylon 5 had Delenn doing the High Priestess thing. Also from B5, G’kar had his own code, as did Sherridan and even Londo had some principles.

Josey Wales had a code too. Was pretty much “Don’t piss me off”. Worked for him.

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ROFL

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Those aren’t quite what I mean, as they are all formalized; in the latter two cases, I’m sure that, if you lived in the universes in question, you could find the rules the characters lived by written down. I’m more interested in customs that all the persons in a given group know about even though there is no formal authority mandating the custom.

For instance, in DC, it’s understood that if a masked super-hero is in good standing, other heroes will not try to penetrate his identity; Superman and the Flash definitely treat it as a no-no, even though they could typically find out anything they wanted if they really put their minds to it. Also, when one hero visits another’s city, the first hero generally checks in and acknowledges that he is on the other’s turf. (And yes, I’m sure the asshole version of Batman cheerfully – okay, grimly – ignore both these rules.) In Marvel, where the vast majority of hte heroes live in metro New York, it’s similarly understood that when an established super-villain attacks the city, handling said attack is the responsibility of whichever hero that villain “belongs” to. (Remember, early in Joss Whedon’s X-men run, Ben Grimm complaining about Cyclops’ violating this rule?)

That kind of thing.

Not quite a code, though. A better example might be the sheriff’s (frustrated) expectation in High Noon that the other townsfolk would help him against the gunslingers threatening him. Of course that’s a negative example, as the townsfolk were violating the code.

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You never leave a man behind!

I like the John Goodman delivery of that line from Raising Arizona.

The Magnificent Seven is full of men who live by the macho code. From riding shotgun on the hearse to defending a town because they paid you to do it.
Shane is good example of the code and the classic struggle of the rough pioneers that opened the west and the people who come later and settle it. Shane and the hired gun guy he faces are clearly on a different level from everyone else in the film.

I can’t remember which John Wayne movie it is but he is trying to sell a heard of horses. There is a guy from the US Army there and two men from the government of Mexico. Wayne is pissed at the US guy because he won’t buy the whole heard and the other two guys are going to buy them but they say something wrong to Wayne and piss him off.

One of them tries to take a swing at Wayne and John clocks him. Wayne looks at the other guy who just stands there and Wayne hits him.

The second guy says,
“Why did you hit me? I didn’t do anything!”

Wayne replies “You should have!”

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I won’t be wronged. I won’t be insulted. I won’t be laid a-hand on. I don’t do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.

Said by John Wayne’s character in The Shootist, who obviously lived before the era of junior high.

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The classic example of a man who live by a Code is, of course, Bertram Wilberforce Wooster. The Code of the Woosters is “Never let a pal down.”

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I really don’t think I’ve plugged Alatriste enough lately. If you can buy the books… I’ll cross my fingers that the translators are good. And if you can buy the movie, hell, even if you somehow manage to hate the story, there’s a lot of beautiful shots :slight_smile: (Any Velazquez fan should watch it just for the moments taken straight from his paintings)

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He abandoned those principals pretty quickly when it suited him, though (ref: “Gambit, part two”).

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I’d add “never break a deal that was honestly made”. It’s ok to break a deal if it turns out the person you made the deal with has withheld vital information, but you can’t break it just because someone else gives you a better offer.

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Have things changed? Superman and Flash (and the rest of the Justice League) knew each others identities back in the 60s; Superman and Batman knew them in the 40s.

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I don’t mean that they don’t KNOW; I mean that they wait to be told. Unless a metahuman breaks the law in a flagrant/violent/unjustifiable way, there’s no peeking under the mask.

Unless you’re Batman.

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The boiled down essence of all things macho is contained and displayed in Elmore Leonard’s Hombre and only Paul Newman could have done it.

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From Cowboy Bebop

Jet Black : “Women may find betrayal easy, but men live by an iron code of honor.”

Faye Valentine : < disgusted > “Oh, please. You don’t really believe that, do you ?”

Jet Black : “I’m trying real hard.”

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Vimes from Terry pratchett sure has a code of honor. It’s the policeman’s way. “Who watches the watchmen?” And his answer is, that he does. Who watches him? He has this Inner Policeman that always makes sure he’s doing the right thing, that controls him and his ethics. It’s a fascinating thought.

Wayne of course had one in his movies, but I don’t follow Westerns too much.

It has to be recurring characters, I presume?

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Read some Elmore Leonard for some of the best examples of “honor among thieves.” The “good guys” in Elmore Leonard books are always known to the reader as good guys according to the way they adhere to this code of honor, rather than by more conventional measures of good-guy/bad-guy. In Elmore Leonard’s world, the good guy is just as likely to be a guy who sticks up liquor stores as the bad guy is to be a judge.

The John Ford hero is a classic of the breed, too. Tom Joad, of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath–an ex-con who still carries murder in his heart–is the quintessential Ford hero in Ford’s version of Grapes of Wrath. He’ll kill a man, but he’ll do it for honor and dignity.

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Ive a couple of examples of "unwritten codes"in Britain in real life ,one noble ,one absurd!When Bonnie Prince Charlie was fleeing for his life through the Scottish highlands after his failed attempt to take the English throne for the Stewart dynasty(NOT leading Scotland against England as many ill informed romantics tend to believe) he and his entourage were given food and shelter by a Campbell government tax collector (sworn enemies of the Jacobites),who also refused to betray him to the Hanoverin forces hunting the Prince . this was because of the code of highland hospitality(which incidentally was totally ignored at the massacre of Glen Coe) The absurd example happened in recent years in East London at the time of a magnificent funeral for one of the Kray brothers (who were psycopathic gang bosses) The media were out in force interviewing the locals about the "old days" and how the krays were almost community leaders dispensing rough but fair justice though it hurt them to do it ,and how really they had more in common with Robin Hood then with murderous hoodlums ,when one local character told a reporter that years ago the Krays had shot him in the leg as a punishment!they didnt want to do it he said !he told the journos but they had no choice because he had broken the unwritten law of the East End and he had to say it was only fair of them and he deserved it .Now what comes next may sound like Monty Python but its absaloutely true ,the reporter asked him exactly which law hed broken and the "character"looked confused for a moment and then said "er well im not quite sure cos they`re not written down you see !"

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No, it can be any character, one-shot or not.

You’re right…it does sound like Python.

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I think the Code really started as “The Code of the West” meaning to be honourable in a hostile, chaotic environment (typified by the lawless town, for instance.) The idea, of course, hearkens back to the old Romantic notion of the Age of Chivalry, where knights and paladins held true to a common, shared ethos. There was probably no such thing in real life, of course, and there probably still isn’t: life is too complicated. But it’s a common notion running through heroic fiction.

John Wayne (and John Ford) tend to typify the Code in Westerns, but it’s found throughout American literature and film (Robert Parker’s Spenser character, for instance, in the detective genre.) It basically has to do with being loyal to your friends and true to your ideals, being internally strong, controlling your weaknesses. The Code usually includes protecting the weak and helpless (although there are exceptions and sometimes deliberate reversals, like the Clint Eastwood westerns.)

The Hero with the Code never rats out his friends or abandons them, no matter what torture he’s submitted to. There’s a professionalism to the Code, and a bit of disdain for amateurs. Often (check movies by Howard Hawks) the Code is, in fact, “professional courtesy” within a group: whatever the group, they know how to act towards each other and towards the outside, and how to deal with problems.

The Code is often expressed humorously or even ironically. “That’s twice you’ve hit me, don’t ever do it again,” says Wayne to Dean Martin in RIO BRAVO. And “Never apologize, it’s a sign of weakness” is a common Wayne line in Ford movies. The summary of the Code is probably the now-trite, “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” What he’s “gotta do” is the Code.

BTW, just as a reminder, John Ford movies usually don’t restrict the Code to men: there are plenty of strong women as well. And, of course, Ford plays lots of reversals on the Code, such as in THE SEARCHERS.

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I came in to post for Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven. What about Shane? One of the things that made Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven so interesting is that it’s essentially the cowboy gunfighter in an advanced age having to grapple with life as he has been.

Then again, it’s been a minute since I saw Unforgiven. That’s one of my favorite movies, too. Hm.