Category: Friendships

Another example of friendship from the movies for my series, New Year; New Types of Friends is one that still makes men cry. Brian’s Song is about the real-life friendship between two Chicago Bears running backs, Gale Sayers (starring Billy Dee Williams) and Brian Piccolo (James Caan). The 1971 movie shows how brotherly love and selflessness provide an emotional depth that every friendship needs. About Sayers and Piccolo Gale Eugene Sayers (May 30, 1943 – September 23, 2020) was already an established star. Known as the “Kansas Comet” for his college career at the University of Kansas, Gale spent his entire seven-season career with the Chicago Bears. He set a league record by scoring 22 touchdowns—including a record-tying six in one game. He gained 2,272 all-purpose yards en route to being named the NFL’s Rookie of the Year in 1965. Sadly, a serious knee injury in 1970 ended his career.

As I wrote in my last post, friendships form between real actors but also between the fictional characters they portrayed in the many formats of entertainment. In this next subset of my series, New Year; New Types of Friends, I provide examples of friendships from movies. The first shows the dynamic friendship chemistry between Robert Redford and Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  The First Friendship Flick The relationship between two of the most legendary actors of all time blossomed while working on the iconic movie. In what may be the first “buddy movie” of all time, the 1969 film is a retelling of the lives of actual figures from history: a pair of Wild West outlaws named Robert LeRoy Parker (“Butch Cassidy”, played by Paul Newman) and Harry Longabaugh (The Sundance Kid, played by Robert Redford). The smash-hit achieved box office dominance and won more Oscars

At the beginning of this year, I started this series titled, New Year; New Types of Friends that suggested every man should periodically evaluate their friendships. I wrote subsequent posts about The Philosophy, The History, The Psychology, and The Physiology (physical aspects) of friendships. I then described The Friendships Throughout a Man’s Life and How Much Time Men Need to Become Friends. After those introductory posts, I began with examples of real-life friendships in politics and sports. This next set is examples of friendships in the entertainment world.  But first, here’s a quick recap.  Friendships in Politics The subset of posts with examples of friendships in politics included the friendships of Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed, The Frenemies of Our Founding Fathers, along with Alexander Hamilton’s Challenging Friendships. Each friendship showed how differing ideologies and political differences were set-aside when there was a