Tragic Hero Excellence

Rating: 10/10 (20 September 2008)

In Hero, Nameless is portrayed as an exceptional assassin whose talents for martial arts and guile exceed that of his friends and enemies. His stealth allows him to always be one step ahead of them. By orchestrating an extraordinary plan to restore peace and unity between the people of Qin and Zhao, Nameless fabricates multiple stories of his having killed the greatest assassins in the land; all for the objective of getting nearer towards the king of Qin. By moving nearer towards the king in his own palace, Nameless comes closer to killing the kingan objective which, if fulfilled, will seemingly abolish tyranny and restore unity in China.
However, I will not endorse Nameless' tragic flaw as being that he did not succeed in killing the kingthat would be too obvious. In fact, I do not believe it was ever Nameless' intention to kill the king; he is too intelligent to not know that violence does not solve violence. Although it may have appeared that this was his objective, I argue that he only had to make the king think that he was going to kill him. By doing so, Nameless then creates the façade of having those around him think that he is dangerous. Since anything that appears dangerous before the king must be eliminated, Nameless must be eliminated.
Nameless thus becomes the sacrificial lamb of the filmthe tragic hero. He knew what he was doing when he first entered the palace; he was the author and finisher of his fate by sealing it with his own blood. No one could take his life from him other than his freely giving up his life for the cause of establishing unity in the land. However, he knew he had to be made an example for everyone else who attempted to defy the king. If Nameless could not succeed in overthrowing the king, no one could. I mean, should we really think that he couldn't have killed the king if he wanted to? Furthermore, should we really think that his death by arrows couldn't have been prevented by all of his cool flying and dodging tricks? I doubt so. Nameless did not change his initial objective: to help the king realize that he had to kill the greatest assassin in the land, namely Nameless. He succeeded in developing this realization inside the king. Thus, the only tragic flaw in Nameless is that he dies before witnessing the reformation of the peace and unity which subsequently followed his death. His fate is sealed in his death because he inevitably followed through with his plan independent of anyone intelligent enough to thwart him. It was a brilliant finish to his well laudable and pitied feat. I say 'pity' because his actions were truly heroic and yet we have no way to thank him for his courage and loyalty to the land.
Nature is beautifully captured in this film to help support the internal/external theme of the struggling characters: only when the inner vessel is in harmony will the outer vessel (nature) be too in harmony. In other words, the inner struggle between the characters who want the king dead versus those who don't is a reflection of the outer and current state of their society as a wholea divided mess. Zhang Yimou helps emphasize this internal and external struggle by using immaculate colors to dress the scenes. Each color gives a certain emotion that we are to feel towards how each character is changing. Just as each character wants to reconcile differences and restore peace, the land (nature) also wants reconciliation. The land is like a metaphor for what is taking place inside the characters. If the land is unified, the people are unified and vice versa. This is the reason why there is so much imagery of nature in the film; it's as if Yimou is trying to say that the land and the people are one in the same, both trying to establish peace and unity.