Steve Zissou - A Model for Modern Manhood

Unlike many of my peers, I view Steve Zissou as a compellingly iconic - hardly a ridiculous - figure. Clad in his signature red cap and powder-blue uniform, he is a real hero, the kind of accessible hero which any American male worth his salt should hope to emulate. And why do I say this? Why am I bothering with a post on such a potentially lame subject? Because I can't stop thinking about the ways in which watching this man, documented fantastically in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, activates my most uninhibited imagination, my desire for an adventurous, rollicking, unpredictable, yet defined life.

Though it's easy enough to laugh off Captain Zissou as just a character created to depict an aging, over-the-top, self-deluded fatso, I feel compelled to look deeper. And when I look just beneath what could easily seem a laughable exterior, I see the portrayal, the manifestation of masculine qualities which many of us desire so strongly, as well as those facts of male life which none of us delight in considering. The bottom-line is that Steve Zissou - though he at times begs mockery, dismissal, and a kind of laughing pity - is a self-defined man, he sees his story in large print down the path ahead of him, sees clearly how he wishes to act, interact, appear, project, be remembered. And despite failing in the eyes of many casual observers, he is ultimately successful because he is completely authentic, completely unique, completely intentional. He is what we should all strive to be - Homo Sapiens Sui Generis.

Steve Zissou - A Model for Modern Manhood