Postmodern Cinema and the Death of the Hero

Pollard, Tom, CineAction

Film heroes, or protagonists, fascinate and intrigue us today, just as they have since the invention of motion pictures. People never tire of reading or viewing narratives of heroic individuals struggling against overwhelming odds. Interest in heroes dates back to ancient times, when audiences flocked to Egyptian, Greek or Roman theaters and amphitheaters to attend plays featuring dramatic, tragic, or comic protagonists. Ancient audiences marveled at the deeds of Osiris, Perseus, Thesus, Heracles, and Odysseus as portrayed by amateur or professional actors. These early heroes eventually succeed, one way or another, sometimes by slaying dragons or other monsters. Just as often, though, heroes must slay other warriors instead of dragons, while at other times they must overcome far greater obstacles than these, including aliens, terrorists, and even entire armies in order to achieve their goals. Victorious, conquering heroes continue to evoke reverence and adulation today, whether they are military, sports, financial, political, or entertainment figures. In as far back as 1748 Thomas Morell wrote the familiar lines "See, the conquering hero comes! Sound the trumpet, beat the drums!"(1) echoing hero worship in his day. Many of today's heroes, by contrast, display flawed, all-to-human personas. Today's audiences increasingly encounter a very different category of heroes featured in films and television unknown in Morell"s era, yet the images projected by these media, as well as by fiction, poetry, and drama, reveal a flawed, doomed category of protagonists that I call "postmodern heroes."

The familiar "hero's journey" has long been mapped and plotted, as well as analyzed, psychoanalyzed, and deconstructed. Heroes and their deeds attract interest and attention whenever they are discussed or dramatized. Joseph Campbell, though, continues to be the one who most readily comes to mind regarding hero studies. Some writers and filmmakers adapted Joseph Campbell's stages of the mythological hero's journey that make their first appearance, according to Campbell, in ancient mythology and that continue to describe the adventures of contemporary film heroes. Stuart Voytilla, in Myth and the Movies: Discovering the Mythic Structure of 50 Unforgettable Films (Michael Wiese, 1999) adapts Campbell's stages to analyze the plot structures of fifty major films of the past. These stages, according to Campbell, include the "call to adventure," "refusal of the call," "meeting the mentor," "crossing the threshold," "belly of the whale," "atonement with the father," and "the road back," among others. Charlie Allnut's (Humphrey Borgart) refusal to assist Rose Sayer (Katherine Hepburn) in sailing the African Queen riverboat down the dangerous Ulange River for the purpose of torpedoing the German ship "Louisa," followed by his (reluctant) decision to go along, represents the initial reluctance of many modernist heroes. In this study we can find many examples of reluctant modernist heroes who go on to achieve dramatic victories against overwhelming odds--a scenario that in fact describes the plots of most Hollywood films. Audiences of these films expect to find rugged, determined, self-reliant heroes who, despite their initial recalcitrance, act in some way to protect society (or at least a particular segment of it) against dangerous villains who threaten mayhem and destruction. Over the past two decades, however, audiences have found themselves viewing films that increasingly portray quite different sorts of characters that fit the syndrome of the "postmodern hero." Postmodern cinema refers to neo-film noirs and angst-filled comedies as well as the ever-present blockbusters, where a new kind of hero is showcased--one who never quite achieves victory but ends up mired somewhere along Campbell's "road of trials." Instead of serving as great paragons of strength and determination, like Charlie and Rose in The African Queen, postmodern heroes are far more likely to be social misfits, outcasts, grifters, and losers, characters who usually end up blocked if not destroyed by powerful forces arrayed against them. Forced into action by a hostile world, postmodern heroes rarely succeed in their projects. Failures and misfits, many postmodern heroes fail to survive past the climax. The few that do somehow manage to survive hang on only by suffering tremendous personal loss. In fact, many postmodern films today feature not heroes in the conventional sense but "antiheroes," characters who have crossed a somewhat indistinct line between villain and hero. Protagonists of these films are not heroes at all in the conventional sense of the word, but characters that function essentially as vivid warnings designed to shock audiences out of their complacency. This is the situation I have in mind when I refer to the "death" of heroes, which has become an established pattern within the brief legacy of postmodern cinema. Aside from the obvious specter of physical death, there is frequently a kind of spiritual death brought about by massive social forces beyond the heroes' control. Doomed, maimed, or otherwise powerless heroes, of course, reveal a profound degree of pessimism and cynicism toward social institutions manifested by the makers of these films and, presumably, by their audiences. In fact, as mentioned above, many of today's postmodern heroes are really not "heroes" at all in the sense in which we usually use that term, but fall instead into the category of "antiheroes," or villains who function as film protagonists.

Modernist heroes, however, are far different than postmodern ones, being more on the order of the "Weberian hero," derived from Max Weber's theory of charisma and charismatic leadership, in which the hero/leader makes history by transforming society either as a prophet, shaman, magician, warrior, or revolutionary. In film, the Weberian hero usually assumes the warrior form, though he or she may on occasion emerge as a prophet (The Day the Earth Stood Still), shaman (Star Wars) or magician (Batman). In any case, to Weber the hero/leader is understood as a figure that stands apart, endowed with the vital quality of charisma and in some cases even with superhuman powers. This hero seems akin to Freud's description of certain gifted individuals who exercise great personal or intellectual influence over others. "Great men," Freud argued, typically receive the veneration of their contemporaries, "although their greatness rests on attributes and achievements which are completely foreign to the aims and ideals of the multitude."(2) Whether we define them as great men, gods, or supermen, modernist narrative heroes usually embody this more exalted view of the heroic ideal. The Weberian hero appears in modernist films like classical westerns that feature protagonists with rare skills and abilities to perform virtual feats of magic as they cleave a hangman's noose from 200 yards while riding a galloping horse or shoot holes in silver dollars thrown high into the air. Modernist heroes embody this Promethean ideal of "great men." No matter how many guns were arrayed against him, the classic western hero as portrayed by John Wayne, Gary Cooper, or Alan Ladd generally prevailed against horrific odds and ruthless, skillful villains.

Weber also observed that the modernist hero emerges during tumultuous times--a strong, creative leader who becomes a vehicle for social change through decisive action. Taken to extremes, this concept evokes Nietzsche's idea of an "Ubermensch" who can change society via the "will to power." …

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Publication information: Article title: Postmodern Cinema and the Death of the Hero. Contributors: Pollard, Tom - Author. Journal title: CineAction. Issue: 53 Publication date: Annual 2000. Page number: 40. © 2009 CineAction. COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group.

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