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I Need A Hero!Sep 19 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line This is a prescription to counter the horror and shock of last week. After the recent events, my first reaction was to plant myself in front of the television or the computer, staring in horror at what was unfolding before my eyes. Unfortunately I was also suffering from a head cold at the time so what I really needed to do was collapse someplace and sleep. After 4 days of being horrified by the news and harangued by customers who assumed it was my sole fault that there were no New York Times at 3 in the afternoon, I succumbed to the need to rest to rid myself of the vicious virus. So I flopped on the couch and watched movies. Action hero movies. I needed a hero and I needed a neat ending. My object with this list is to share with you the films that came to mind that would provide me with the psychic remedy I needed after seeing those horrible images over and over again. I am not belittling what happened, nor am I trying to present the "best" movies. I’m just offering suggestions if you too find yourself in need of a hero. The list is in no particular order. Jurassic Park A perennial favorite of mine when I'm sick anyway, but also happens to provide a great hero in Sam Neill’s character, Dr. Alan Grant. Dr. Grant uses his book knowledge to protect 2 kids from dinosaurs. He’s smart, he’s honest and he’s got integrity. My favorite scene is when Grant starts to leave Lex on the ground so he can go into the tree and rescue Tim in the car in the tree. She starts stammering, "He-he left us." Grant grabs her by the shoulders, looks her in the eyes and deliberately says, "But that’s not what I'm going to do." Over all it’s a good movie with great effects and, most importantly for my needs, it had a neat ending. (And considering the last 2 movies, they should have stopped there.) Clear & Present Danger or Patriot Games This is why Harrison Ford is a perfect action hero. He stumbles, he flails and he makes funny faces. I tend to refer to this entire segment of Ford’s career as the "that guy" movies, as in "that guy who is a good husband and a good father until someone threatens his family and he has to go above and beyond to protect them." I actually watched Clear and Present Danger this time, but either would have sufficed. The pinnacle moment for me in this film was when Jack Ryan and the Colombian contact had gone into the jungle to find the Marines that Cutter abandoned there. They find one and that one screams at Ryan, "Who’s responsible for this?" Ryan, very tense and very frustrated, says, first loudly and then repeats in a quieter voice, "I am … I am." I like man who can take responsibility, even when it’s not entirely his fault. Rob Roy Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange got so robbed. This movie is so much better than Braveheart it’s embarrassing, but Mel Gibson has made a lot more money for Hollywood and Rob Roy touches an uncomfortable topic. The price women pay for men’s wars. In the course of the film Mary MacGreggor (Mrs. Roy) is raped as strategy. It happened, it happens, it will happen, but nobody wants to think about it. I'm actually more impressed by Mary’s actions in the film than by Rob’s (if you haven’t seen it, you should, just don’t show it to the kids.) There are so many good scenes in this one, it’s hard to pick a favorite. The scene where the money is being stolen. The scene right after Mary is raped. The scene where Rob is confronted in the pub. The scene where… well, never mind. My favorite line from the movie is: "You are so fine to me, Mary MacGreggor." The Last of the Mohicans Hawkeye is another perfect hero. Not as perfect as Harrison Ford’s heroes, but really good in any case. Basically, Hawkeye is an honorary Mohican, his ‘father’ and ‘brother’ are the last. He falls for a British aristocrat in the middle of the French and Indian Wars and takes her side, if not the British side. He’s honorable, he’s clever, and he walks into a hostile village and offers to trade himself for her. Now that’s a hero. The bad guy was played by Wes Studi who was absolutely marvelous and who played the title character in Geronimo. The Princess Bride (which I include because Ruin13 insisted) If you haven’t seen it, The Princess Bride is a fairy tale about pirates, true love and a sick little boy (played by Fred Savage.) Trying to give a real plot summary is likely to give both of us a headache, just trust me and see it if you haven’t. Geeks the world over have memorized the entire film and when Ruin13 and I started talking about it we immediately when into riffing lines. "My name is Diego Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." I didn’t want to include this one simply because of my first thoughts when I was told upon reaching work that not one, but 2 planes had hit the WTC. And they weren’t little single passenger dealies, they were large, transcontinental jets. Ruin13 may have actually resorted to the words "big planes" when she saw the total non-comprehension dawning in my eyes. The first thought that bubbled to the surface of my congested mind was "That's inconceivable!" Followed immediately by "You keep using that word. I don’t think you know what it means," which is from the movie. You could say it’s just got an unpleasant connotation for me now. Still, it’s a great movie, definitely worth watching and good fun for the whole family. True Lies I put this in as an add on, because I haven’t seen it in years and yet it hangs with me. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a federal agent who’s under such deep cover that his wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) thinks he does something incredibly boring and she’s completely unimpressed. Well, his cover gets blow and that’s the movie. Great movie, slightly farcical, good action sequences. Like I said, it’s been a while since I saw this one, but I was getting the feeling that my list was historical heavy. Also try Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (the Kevin Costner version), Excalibur, Enemy Mine, Witness, Good Morning Vietnam, Stargate (an almost great movie that doesn’t quite make it) maybe you can fine a copy of the TNT The Odyssey with Armand Assante. Judge the tenor of your own mind for what you can take. I would avoid things like Independence Day (but I wish I’d had avoided that one in the first place), Air Force One, Saving Private Ryan. Stay warm, shop at the local Middle Eastern Merchants, don’t allow some jealous guy half a world away to dictate your life, and find yourself a hero.  |
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