From: bew@brahms.udel.edu (Ben Williams)
Subject: HERO
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 02:24:24 GMT

Why has there been so little discussion of this movie?  I thought this was
a GREAT film.  In fact, I hereby nominate it for the best film of 1992
(well, Howards End was pretty good so how about best _American_ film :-).
Here is something I wrote up about it back when I saw it in November:


This is my kind of movie.  And this is the kind of movie I would like to
make.  This movie is trying to teach people something about our culture.
One problem I had with this movie, believe it or not, was I think it didn't
take itself seriously enough.  The people who made this obviously wanted to
avoid at all costs any criticism that it took itself too seriously.  Well,
I think maybe they went overboard.  I think this film deals with really
important issues (In case you haven't seen it, there are spoilers coming).



First of all, Dustin Hoffman is great in this picture.  I don't mean so
much that his acting is great (which it is as usual) but that the part
written for him to play is perfect.  Here is this guy Bernie who is at odds
with the world, who practically hates people, and he ends up becoming (sort
of) a hero.  The scene with him standing in front of the crashed plane with
his $100 shoes and very reluctantly getting himself to go over to help the
passengers in the plane is great (and hilarious)!  The guy who picks him up
in his truck (because Bernie's car broke down) and befriends (?) him ends
up becoming the 'hero' because Bernie gave him (let him have) his remaining
shoe whom this guy said he was going to give to this one-legged man.  When
TV-reporter Geena Davis recovers Bernie's first shoe and puts out a
$1000000 reward for the 'hero' who owns the other shoe, the truck driver
(whose name I can't recall, sigh) proclaims himself the 'hero' that the
TV-viewing village is now clamoring for.  This guy is then sought-after and
royally-treated, and in fact is transformed before our eyes into a real
hero (unsung Vietnam, performs miracle).  During the Reagan-Bush years
(which we are now thankfully leaving), there was a tendency, I think, to
want to view the homeless and unemployed as less-than-people.  Well, what I
love about this movie is that it is saying that not only are they regular
people, but they are even potential heroes.  Here is a guy who is a
"nothing" who is suddenly transformed into a celebrity.  Is this guy a
different person from the one who was driving around in and living in an
old truck and recycling cans to pay for gas?  At the end he says (which I
think is pretty profound) that he thinks we are all heros, and its all a
matter of being in the right place at the right time.  Another great thing
this movie shows is how what we see on TV has very little to do with
reality, but is rather a construction (I don't know how many people out
there actually believe they can get a true picture of the world through
TV).  And Dustin Hoffman's final summing up of it all is great:  "As you
get older you realize that there is no 'truth', there are just layers and
layers of bullshit, and you just pick out the layer you want to believe
in."  or something along those lines...

Ben.

-- 
Ben Williams
bew@brahms.udel.edu

               What we got here is a failure to communicate... 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies