Rambo, the prototypical muscle bound American war hero with a talent for killing was created by a Canadian. Who knew? David Morrell is a Canadian novelist from Kitchener Ontario who lived in the United States post Vietnam and wrote his debut novel First Blood in 1972 which would become the successful Sylvester Stalone movie.This all came up during the ongoing Q discussion about the development of the hero from the Friday December 12th edition of Q the program. Jian along with David Morrell and Jason Anderon track the mutation and transformation of our Western heroes. From pulp fiction detectives, to The Man with No Name, to the muscle bound uncomplicated Stallone and Schwarzeneger, to the Joseph Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces) inspired Luke Skywalker, to modern day Jack Bauer and James Bond who are more brains than braun. Spider-Man is a nerd afterall. Batman just has a lot of money.
The question becomes, does the 'Obama generation' desire a new type of hero that isn't concerned with terrorism like Jack Bauer and 24 are? How do things change when Bush leaves office? Are our heroes changing? Is the hero a reflection of a society's worst fears?
I know its the holidays but Q stimulates the hell out of me.
Leave a comment and tell me what you think.
3 COMMENTS :
I agree with the statement "The hero is a reflection of societies worst fears".
I'll start by saying two straightforward lines:
1. If your car breaks down on your way to catch an important flight, a taxi driver is your hero.
2. If you are locked out of your house with a baby inside, the locksmith is your hero.
Consider the case of the taxi driver:
If you met a taxi driver, the first thought through your mind is not "The world would fall to ruins without you guys".
(thought through, world would...)
But, for that moment that you are in fear, the taxi kicks in to take the stage as hero.
Example Statement:
"We will always need firefighters"
Basically, anyone can be a hero. It just depends on the light in which they are seen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVX-cUJGdxs&feature=related
PRESENT DAY HEROES:
It's hard to say right now because we are in that worldly transition period that occurs only 7... no... 8 times in a human life, but I feel our present day heroes are those working towards a green earth.
(Assumption based on "The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)" compared to its 2008 remake.)
Amen Aunt May. Amen. That's always been one of my favorite parts of the movie.
All generations of heroes do seem to grasp on to the attributes Aunt May talked about. Keeping us noble, allowing us to die with dignity, and so on. It seems harder to imagine Rambo providing this for us than it does Jack Bauer. But maybe I just admire Jack Bauer too much?
Can we have a last action hero movie pitting our hero against pollution? Is Captain Planet on the verge of making a comeback? Perhaps. Perhaps our heroes will indirectly reflect our society's concerns by placing the emphasis on the dangers within our borders, pollution, excess, corruption, dishonesty, as opposed to those overseas, terrorism and war. The shift may occur that our villains are no longer the 'other', rather they are just like us.
The distinction between hero and villain underwent a transformation in the later 20th century that saw it all change to shades of gray: The Man with No Name, Sonny Chiba and so on. I think those shades are about to become a lot more complicated.
Well written Eric.
I really enjoy when discussion is generated like this!
I remember last year in my Canadian Studies class I took an opportunity to rant about this sort of thing. I don't know if you've heard about "Social History", or rather, the history of normal folk. This is essentially what all my history courses ended up focusing on--keeping us away from the Great White Men and their Famous Dates. We learned more about what lumberjacks did in the 1870s than the causes of World Wars. And when we had this discussion in CDNS 200, I mentioned the fact that the 401 highway between the DVP (Don Valley Parkway) and Trenton, ON, has been named "The Highway of Heroes."
What's going on? I asked.
I grew up in a generation whose heroes were generally everyday people: smart (but not super-smart), funny (but not comic), and everyday. I still remember doing a project in Grade 5, interviewing the Everyday Hero in your life. I chose my dad.
My point is, I've realized now that I was--in part--a product of my society, a society whose academic elites were shrinking away from the hypocritical heroes that their schools made them worship as children; instead, focusing on the less-idealized but somehow simpler (and perhaps purer-hearted?) guy down the street.
I am more likely to know Terry Fox and David Suzuki than the names of famous Canadian military leaders of the 20th Century.
But there are some issues.
1) Basic one is the naming of the 401 the "Highway of Heroes." I recognize the need to honour those who have died "protecting our country," but when did we start re-naming major landmarks for war purposes?
2) We used to honour our peacekeepers--Canada was a peacekeeping nation and its purpose was to represent a peaceful world (read: official multiculturalism). When did our focus change? Why don't we glorify peacekeepers anymore?
SOMALIA. For moments the door was open, soon shut by a backroom investigation--but in those moments Canadians saw fellow Canadians doing things that good, nice Canadians weren't supposed to do. Really nasty things. As Conrad put it: "The horror! The horror!"
But Canada never had a Vietnam, nor an "Apocalypse Now". It was like that plug was pulled before Canada as a nation could feel America's 1970s postmodernist angst. And what does that have to do with heroes? Well, no longer are we inundated with images of ourselves as peacekeepers. The covered-up hypocrisy of Somalia and the open hypocrisy of Afghanistan decries our cultural mosaic ideology as simply another story we tell ourselves: like the Great White Men and their Famous Dates.
And what did we do, instead of confronting these issues? We changed our self-definition and now one of the busiest highways in North America bears the name "Highway of Heroes". I have a feeling the children growing up today will have less of an idea what a hero is. The phrase "good people do bad things and bad people do good things" doesn't even seem to fit anymore. I feel like we've entered an age where there aren't "good heroes" or "bad guys".
There's just peanut butter.
It's peanut and butter. And you can't separate the two.
One's good for you. One's bad for you. But you can't even begin to separate them.
Is that okay? Should we let kids forget that peanuts actually ARE good for you?
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