Good point, though I don’t think its relative insignificance in the story negates my reading. Overconfident masculinity is just one form of masculnity; Hemingway-esque “grace under pressure” becomes another form that the movie promotes, instead of Burt’s excessive macho confidence. It’s still about masculinity, and fear of its loss, all of which got properly addressed and rejected, appropriately enough, back around when Hemingway died.
That the “inbred” characters are not the primary force that the city guys face doesn’t mean that the movie’s classist stereotypes are okay. Those characters, and thus actual rural white Americans, get reduced to the subhuman level of another natural, “uncivilized” force that the anxious city guys struggle against.
Anyway, you’re clearly going to stick to your guns on this one and dismiss me as a Gadfly, so have fun, I guess.
