He-Man Is My Gender Icon
By the power of Greyskull, he made me a man
Thirty-three years ago last week I begged my mother to take me to see the movie Masters of the Universe, a big-budget adaptation of a cartoon series based on a popular collection of toys about a neverending battle between the heroes and villains of a faraway space kingdom.
The movie starred Dolph Lundgren as He-Man, the musclebound hero of Eternia. The Swedish actor — and chemical engineer — had become famous a few years prior as Soviet bad guy Ivan Drago Rocky IV. He seemed perfect: he was blonde and muscular and blonde. The Masters of the Universe filmmakers then turned to a celebrated and serious stage actor to play their supervillain.
I do not know any other way to write this, but Frank Langella acts the hell out of Skeletor, a living skull with evil plans and a cape. He-Man’s greatest enemy is a flamboyant Grim Reaper played by the award-winning star of stage and screen—one hopes he was paid well.
Langella’s Skeletor is all camp and fury. His performance is enthusiastic. Playful. He…
