Heroic Hollywood: American Exceptionalism and the Hollywood Hero
by Russ Dvonch
Bitter Gun-Clinger – and Hollywood Hero
For nearly a century now, Hollywood has inspired generations of Americans with the central truth behind the American Dream: in this country, people are free to choose their own destiny. It’s the moral message found in every film that features the classic Hollywood Hero. Here’s a look at how our movie heroes were shaped by American values, a personal look at how the Hollywood Hero can inspire our lives, and the belief that, despite the rise of explicitly anti-American movies, the Hollywood Hero will continue to ride to the rescue.
The late Stanley Kubrick awakened my interest in films. But it was a one-eyed fat man that launched my career in the movies.
The first time I started thinking about films as something more than Saturday afternoon’s amusement was in 1968 with the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was a Midwestern boy in the 8th grade at the time, and it was the first film I kept thinking about after I left the theater: Who made it? How was it done? What does it mean?
2001 was unconventional, modern filmmaking and I was fascinated by it, discussing it endlessly with friends and family. Yet, as much as I admired and was intrigued by what Kubrick had done, the film held no personal message for me.
The following year, however, I saw a very different type of movie that did have a message…an inspiring call to action that changed my life.
Unlike 2001, this movie was conventional – even retrograde – Hollywood moviemaking and I was ashamed to let anyone know I was going to see it. As I stood in line at the box-office near my high school, I furtively scanned the crowd, hoping none of my classmates would see me. My social crime? I was about to buy a ticket for a John Wayne movie.
True Grit was released in June of 1969. In those days, we still wore onions on our belts and the “New Hollywood” was just getting started, fueled by the rise of the “New Left.” At that time, the New Left was a catch-all phrase for the youth movement, the counter-culture movement, the anti-war movement…in sum, the entire political shift of the left towards radical social activism. In the 60s, the New Left was a minority, but they understood that influencing the culture was key becoming a majority.
Hollywood, of course, was one of their targets. Films that featured heroic figures were replaced by a surge of anti-hero movies such as Bonnie & Clyde and Easy Rider. In the growing counter-culture, a movie like True Grit was hopelessly old fashioned and out-of-date. Not only did the movie feature John Wayne – considered by New Hollywood to be an embarrassing cultural and political throwback – but the picture was a western.
By 1969, the western, once a staple of Hollywood, had become a threadbare, dying genre fit only for radicalizing, like the shocking bloodlust featured in The Wild Bunch released the same year. The only other picture with a cowboy I remember from that year was Midnight Cowboy, which tells you a lot about the times!
This is a cowboy. This is not a cowboy.
What drew me to the movie that day was actress Kim Darby, who in the newspaper ads looked very much like a girl I had a crush on at the time. It was her I was going to see, not John Wayne. Aside from Darby, I was certain I would hate True Grit, but the movie turned out to be a revelation to me.
The story and characters were terrific, both Wayne’s part as an old, disreputable yet cagey U.S. Marshall called Rooster Cogburn and Darby, who played the part of a girl named Mattie who hires Cogburn to find the man that killed her father. What made them fascinating was that both characters had different moral perspectives, yet the same unyielding strength at the core of their personalities. Rooster was a heavy-drinking, violence-prone lawman, and Mattie was raised as a Christian moralist. The central characteristics of each, however, were perseverance, resolution and courage in the face of danger. Both characters showed true grit in the course of the movie…and it was inspiring to see.
The moral theme of the movie was the importance of fortitude, as reflected in the title. No matter if you were an old man or a young girl, sometimes only fortitude – the strength of mind that enables one to endure adversity with courage – will get you through the rough spots in life. Watching the film was an exhilarating experience, and for the first time it struck me that writing and directing movies was something I’d like to do…and the inspiring message of True Grit gave me the courage to pursue it. Walking out of the theater, I knew I was going to be a filmmaker.
Fill your hand you son-of-a-bitch!
But, of course, I couldn’t tell that to anyone. How shameful it would have been to admit to my friends in 1969 that I was inspired by a John Wayne movie. How doubly shameful to admit that I was inspired by a 15-year-old girl! And yet I was inspired, and I wasn’t the only one. At a time when John Wayne and what he represented was considered by many to be corny and embarrassing, True Grit came in at #3 overall at the box office that year and Wayne won a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance.
My point is that nearly everybody – even sophomoric 15 year olds – needs the emotional and ethical inspiration that the dramatic arts offer. When asked about the success of her book, and later hit movie, Seabiscuit, author Laura Hillenbrand said “I think people need to see examples of individuals succeeding in spite of all the obstacles in front of them.”
In other words, people need heroes. In Hollywood, the films that make the most money are usually the ones with just this type of heroic inspiration.
Take a look at the all-time world-wide box office champions here. Nearly every one is a Hollywood movie and nearly every one features a heroic main character who succeeds, despite all the obstacles in front of him. Even the lightweight comedies on the list such as Night at the Museum features a main character who succeeds in changing his life for the better after a heroic showdown with his antagonists.
In the classic sense, a hero is defined as somebody who commits an act of remarkable bravery or who has shown great courage, strength of character, or another admirable quality. In a dramatic sense, the hero is the main character of a story who is “good,” that is, he exhibits some admirable moral quality that relates to the moral theme of the work.
The character doesn’t have to be (although he frequently is) a hero in the classic sense, that is, someone who has remarkable bravery or great courage. But he does have to possess some quality that the author defines as “good” and this “good” quality must impact the choices he makes in the story, ultimately supporting the moral theme of the work. In True Grit, Rooster and Mattie had their faults, but the ethical choices they made – especially the choice of fortitude – achieved their goal of bringing justice to a murderer.
Don’t forget that the author’s purpose of drama is to answer the question What should I do? for the audience. Heroes serve as a clear and vivid example of what the audience should do…and why.
One of the reasons movie heroes move our emotions so strongly is because film is a potent medium for identification, that is, the attribution to yourself of the characteristics of another person. Most films are constructed so that we experience the drama though the eyes of the main character. We get inside the character’s thoughts and emotions, and so we judge things the way the character judges them.
As a result, when heroes like Indiana Jones feels frightened, we feel frightened. When Indy feels angry, we feel angry. When Indy acts bravely, we feel brave. Most dramatic works allow identification with its characters, especially its main character. So it’s not surprising when, after experiencing the same thoughts and emotions as the main character, we understand and agree with the ethical actions and moral conclusions that the character expresses at the end of the story. Identification leads to emulation – this is one of the methods by which the author gets us to agree with the moral theme of the work and to adopt the theme in our own lives.
Cinema seems to heighten our emotional identification because film is paradoxically both highly realistic and highly stylized. On screen, the photographic image of Indy makes him appear real to our eyes, yet he stands two stories high. We can hear him speak just like a real person, yet he has his own theme song whenever he appears. This combination of realism and stylization heightens the emotional impact of film. We feel the bravery of Indy deep inside our hearts in a way that a mere textbook description of bravery could never accomplish.
Now, it is quite possible that anti-heroic films can be inspirational to you, if you live in a culture where anti-heroism is celebrated. From the late 60s to the mid-seventies, large segments in America were in a distinctly anti-heroic mood, thanks to the cultural and political turbulence of the 60s followed by the malaise-ridden, downsized expectations of the 70s. Many films reflected this anti-heroic mood back to their audience with characters and plots that argued that life is absurd, the good times are over and it’s useless to struggle against the collapse of the American Dream. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Jimmy Carter!
But this is, after all, America – where anti-heroic inspiration is a passing fad for most people and of enduring interest only to the leftist elite. The need for heroic inspiration re-asserted itself and the spell was finally broken in 1977 with the release of Star Wars. After that, heroes were in fashion, again. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ronald Reagan!
I don’t think it was a coincidence that, in the wake of Jimmy Carter, America embraced as president a figure from the movies who exemplified the iconic American hero: the cowboy. Paraphrasing Yankee Doodle Dandy, Ronald Reagan was the whole darned country squeezed into one pair of cowboy boots.
I have to laugh at European intellectuals who sneer at cowboy movies, and think they insult Americans when they call us “cowboys,” call Bush and Reagan “cowboy” presidents, or complain about a “cowboy foreign policy.”
They don’t get it. They don’t understand that most Americans – indeed, most of the non-elite of the world – love cowboys and what they represent. To be called a cowboy is a compliment. It means heroic qualities such as individualism, integrity, risk taking, strength, courage and…well…fortitude.
Even commies like cowboys.
Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev meets The Rifleman.
John Wayne was a film star, not only in America, but around the world. His films sold tickets and inspired millions of people in every country where they ran. European films about nihilism or the absurdity of life inspire hardly anyone, which is why there aren’t any Nihilist film stars of comparable fame.
Cowboys hold our imagination because they are the embodiment of the American sense of life. That’s no accident. Hollywood movies were not born in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America or the Middle East. They were not born in Canada or Mexico.
They were not even born in Hollywood.
The first “Hollywood” movie was shot 3000 miles away from Hollywood in New York City and in the countryside of New Jersey, in 1903. It was called The Great Train Robbery and it is considered by many to be the world’s first narrative movie.
What made it a Hollywood movie was not the location it was shot, but the moral theme it expressed. It was born in America because, at that time, the people in America were the most likely to express that moral theme. And that first dramatic film was – significantly – a western. Few genres are more up-front about their moral values than the American western.
In an image that startled audiences in 1903, a bad guy
from The Great Train Robbery draws a gun
on the audience and shoots! The effect was
so sensational that nearly 100 years later
the moment was commemorated on a postage stamp.
The film only lasted 10 minutes, but it managed to establish most of the vocabulary of the classic Hollywood western: horses, hold ups, dance halls, posses, shoot-outs – and the beginning vocabulary of classic film technique: parallel editing, location shooting, pan shots and so on.
Just as importantly, however, it established the moral vocabulary of the western and the Hollywood movie in general: good guys, bad guys, the moral choices they make and the consequences of their choices. In short, it created the Hollywood Hero.
When motion pictures were born at the turn of the last century, cinema was viewed as merely a curious novelty. People were entertained by movies the same way they were entertained by jugglers and magic acts. Moving images of trains, waves breaking on the shore, famous people and so on were new and surprising amusements, but nothing more.
Movies did not become a phenomena of mass entertainment until the filmmakers began to tell stories in film. Only then did people become passionate about cinema. That’s because the story contains the stuff we really care about, which means, it’s the stuff we can really get emotional about. Cinema was a new way of creating drama that expanded the vocabulary of storytelling.
Almost from the beginning, and certainly by the mid-1920s, America dominated world cinema. The classic Hollywood Hero was a potent inspirational figure because it represented a unique moral force in the world – American Exceptionalism.
American exceptionlism can been defined as:
…the idea that the Untied States and the American people hold a special place in the world, by offering opportunity and hope for humanity, derived from a unique balance of public and private interests governed by constitutional ideals that are focused on personal and economic freedom.
Freedom is fundamental to American Exceptionalism. The central moral idea of America is that individuals, by right, should be free to choose their own destiny and that the purpose of government is to insure the freedom of individuals.
And freedom is fundamental to the Hollywood Hero. Hollywood filmmaking assumes that the hero has free will. The Hero is presented with numerous moral choices during the course of the movie, just as we are faced with moral choices in life. When he makes the wrong moral choice, things go badly. When he makes the right moral choice…well, things may still go badly and it will be a tough fight, but in the end the good will win out.
The blessings of Freedom are the “opportunity and hope” that America Exceptionalism brings to humanity. And freedom is the inspirational message behind the Hollywood Hero.
As one example, there’s this 2005 shot from a huge protest rally in Beirut after Syria brazenly assassinated a Lebanese politician.
The two things I want you to focus on…er, ah…I mean the one thing I want you to focus on is the sign. It reads “They can take our lives…but they can never take our freedom.”
It is, of course, a quote from this scene in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. And it is one example of how the American movie culture influences politics – not just here in America, but across the globe.
Modern authoritarian leaders from Stalin to Hugo Chavez (aided by their useful idiots) understand the need to control the production of movies within their countries and limit the influence of American films. Why? Because they fear the call to freedom that the Hollywood Hero can inspire in their audiences.
Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush believed in American Exceptionalism. Both men believed that freedom can inspire the hearts of all humanity, whether they lived behind the Iron Curtain or the beneath the heel of despotic Arab/Islamic rule.
And what of the current President?
Barack Obama recently traveled overseas and was asked by a reporter if he believed in American Exceptionalism. As he so often does, he tried to please everybody with carefully worded nonsense.
First, he admitted that America has a leading role in the world by virtue of its political principles and past sacrifices. But the politician in him quickly followed up with boilerplate internationalist palavar, saying that Americans should be “humble” and create “partnerships” and “compromise” with other countries. However, he prefaced his remarks with the following, which tips us off to his real state of mind:
“I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”
Even a cartoon character knows enough to call Barbara Streisand on this political blather. Quoting from The Incredibles:
Dash: But Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of, our powers made us special.
Helen: Everyone’s special, Dash.
Dash: [muttering] Which is another way of saying no one is.
Obama doesn’t really believe in American Exceptionalism because every nation thinks it is exceptional, which as Dash rightly points out, means nobody is.
For Obama – as it is with all leftists – values are subjective and relative; one nation’s values are as good as another, which is why compromise is always the ultimate virtue. That’s why Obama has no misgivings about “fundamentally transforming” our nation away from it’s traditional American values and towards the values of socialist Europe. It’s better to be just another humble, compromising, partner nation of the G20 than a “shining city upon a hill.”
But even then, he gets it spectacularly wrong when he “suspects” all nations believe in their own exceptionalism.
They don’t. And that’s one of the things that makes America exceptional.
The Pew Research Center conducted a polls of 91,000 people in fifty nations and found that “Three-quarters of Americans say they are proud to be Americans; only one-third of the people in France, Italy, Germany, and Japan give that response about their own countries.”
And more: “Two-thirds of Americans believe that success in life depends on one’s own efforts; only one-third of Europeans say that.”
This is precisely why the Hollywood Hero was not born in France, Italy, Germany or Japan. We Americans take pride in the moral principles that guide our country and the Hollywood Hero is the cinematic expression of these American values. And since we believe that our success in life depends on our own efforts, we give our heroes a Hollywood Ending.
Along with “The American Dream” and “The American Way of Life,” “The Hollywood Ending” is a favorite epithet of intellectuals – both American and European – to heap scorn on the inspirational principles that shape the American experience.
That’s because the Hollywood Ending is the very definition of inspiration. The Hollywood Ending makes us feel that we want to do something and believe that we can do it.
When the guy gets the girl, it’s a Hollywood Ending, and it makes us makes us feel that getting the girl is worthwhile and we can get the girl in our own lives.
When the soldier wins the battle, it’s a Hollywood Ending, and it makes us feel that winning battles is worthwhile and we can win the battles against our enemies.
When Rooster and Mattie bring the killer of Mattie’s father to justice, it’s a Hollywood Ending, and it makes us feel that showing fortitude like Rooster and Mattie is worthwhile and we can call on fortitude in our own lives.
All of these are Hollywood Endings, that is, a story ending where the hero’s moral choices lead logically to happiness. Often the hero is fighting for more than his own personal happiness; he is fighting for the happiness of his loved ones, his friends or his country. And, as is often the case in real life, he will sacrifice himself for the sake of others. The deaths of Walt Kowalski in Gran Tornio and William Wallace in Braveheart are examples of the sacrifices heroes suffer so that others may benefit from freedom. It’s no accident that the final shout of defiance from Wallace before his death – Freedom! – is achieved by the film’s ending. The hero dies, but the audience still gets its Hollywood Ending.
There is one sense in which it is proper to sneer at a Hollywood Ending…when the ending is not justified by what has gone before it, that is, it is not a logical plot outcome. But then, that’s a knock on bad writing, not the Hollywood Ending itself.
The Hollywood Ending is identified with American movie making and American moral values. The Hollywood Ending is a reflection of the basic American optimism. It is not a blind optimism, which is a belief that things will work out no matter what, but it is a pragmatic optimism, which is a belief that things will work out if we apply ourselves towards that end. It’s the difference between an unjustified Hollywood Ending and a justified one.
Americans believe that individuals are efficacious, that is, producing or capable of producing an intended result. Because individuals are efficacious, the main characters are able to influence the outcome of the plot. This is the justification for the Hollywood Ending…because we are free to choose, we are able to influence the course of our lives. This is the central inspiration that the Hollywood Hero and the Hollywood Ending offers.
In many ways, the Hollywood Hero is alive and well today. He may no longer work as a cowboy, but he’s found new employment in dramas, police thrillers, science-fiction and fantasy movies. While modern film heroes often embrace conservative (and I would argue, fundamental) American values, the leftist filmmakers themselves are loath to admit it. (Remember the “Is Batman Bush?“ debate?) Creating a heroic character whose virtue is fortitude is something people want to see. But it’s hard to create an inspiring hero out of someone who wants to be “humble” and create “partnerships” and “compromise.” There’s Ghandi and…um…well, there’s Ghandi. That’s why leftist screenwriters in Hollywood always talk like Obama in public, but write like Reagan on their scriptwriting word processors.
I believe that Hollywood Hero will continue to thrive because there is something that Hollywood loves and respects more than leftist ideology.
It’s called money. You may have heard of it.
The producers of Hollywood can read the all-time top-grossing film chart as well as you. They know that the Hollywood Hero is a good bet, and they will continue to back that horse. After all, they won’t get to keep their front lot production bungalow if they keep betting the rent money on last-place anti-America nags like Rendition, Redacted, Syriana, and Stop Loss.
That’s why I’m optimistic about boss Andrew Breitbart’s belief that “The revolution must begin in Hollywood.” My advice to conservative/libertarian/Republican screenwriters is to simply keep writing the Hollywood Hero, with moral themes that emphasize conservative/libertarian/Republican principles that will inspire the audience. Remember: everyone in Hollywood talks like a socialist, but acts like a capitalist. Use that to your advantage.
Oh, and give your hero a Hollywood Ending…he deserves it, and so does your audience.
Enough theory! Next time, some practical advice on how to write your screenplay.
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84 Comments
Maybe I'm just too young to understand, but what in the world does "we still wore onions in our belts" mean?
John Wayne's turn in 'True Grit' was at a very interesting point in western culture. The anti-hero of Warren Beatty and Pete Fonda was the new centurion. Wayne's gruff individualist was at odds with the Vietnam-fueled crowd.
Yet he won an Academy Award for best actor… followed by George C Scott's equally potent portrayal of another rugged individualist George S Patton. So, despite the turbulence of left wing racial politics the country still embraced that 'what brung 'em'… the epitome of American exceptionalism.
We do not expect to see that portrayed on the silver screen anytime soon…
The true hero will always be sought after.
Oh, I finally was able to read all the way through Global village Idiot on my flight back from Scotland and I was laughing through the entire read. Good thing most of the people around me all had headphones on and were jacked into the prearranged entertainment. I do hope you get it it filmed one day soon.
That was a world class rant – measured, nice flow – you must feel cleansed. Good show, old chap.
One of the coolest things about the movie Tombstone was that it started with that iconic clip from The Great Train Robbery. Just a brilliant touch. Having Robert Mitchum doing the opening voice-over setup was classy too. That's my favorite modern western, right there. I think Powers Boothe is an under appreciated actor. He was brilliant in that.
Times have changed, which is good, because now even guys who play classical guitar can be cowboys. ;^)
BTW: That American Cowboy cover shot is the coolest photo of Reagan I've ever seen, and there are a lot of cool photos of that guy.
Nice string of thought, showing Hollywood to be a high expression of American culture representing our way of life. The 2/3 vs. 1/3 of Europe opinion of self advancement is so telling. They have been lulled into a lifestyle that will do to them what it did to their greatest ancestor, the Romans. Hopefully, we have created a different DNA as well as our history.
The effete intellectuals and the wannabes all come back from Europe or college stinking of Derrida and Foucault, rank old cheese like Sartre and Genet dripping from their conversations. Their problems were they actually fell for the derision of "les cowboys" talk and thought it was about them. Once they saw the buildings and sampled the cuisine, the rest is easy, we're not the greatest because we don't have old buildings and great escargot ! Well, no one hs ever gone rooting around for people in the basements of our buildings and dragging them out inthe streets to string them up, chop off their heads, or otherwise massacre them. Protestants against Catholics, Hindus against Moslems, everybody against Jews. That somehow marginalizes the splendor, don't you think ?
Outstanding essay.
Thank you.
Absolutely excellent piece, my man. I already put this in my favorites. Thank you.
Now I'm off to Beirut to get that chick's number.
Hey, Reagan wasn't a real cowboy, and John Wayne was a chickenhawk and '24' is fiction and you all need to grow up.
The most American movie I've seen in years was Taken, which wasn't an American film! It made me want to stand up and cheer, for all the reasons you describe in your essay.
I sure hope people noticed how much money this low- or medium- budget thriller made and how enthusiastic the crowds were, and drew the right conclusions. If they do, it could end up the turning point at which Hollywood starts giving us real heroes again.
True. Why aspire to seek the approval of the Smirking Class?
"Just as importantly, however, it established the moral vocabulary of the western and the Hollywood movie in general: good guys, bad guys, the moral choices they make and the consequences of their choices"
Did cowboys torture unarmed men?
yeah, and Matt Damon is a wuss, Tina Fey is the ugly bizarro world Sarah Palin and Sean Penn is- well, short… both in stature and verbal acuity.
Excellent piece, I'm glad there are some bight spots in Hollywood. Maybe one day my script will get picked up. I love the quote "Hollywood talks like a socialist, but acts like a capitalist". But I still can't understand why an industry so completely dependent upon money and individual effort, that thoroughly glorifies the individual effort in awards such as the SAG awards and the Academy, can embrace liberal socialist views. Are awards about to become awards for collective efforts?
Excellent piece, I'm glad there are some bight spots in Hollywood. Maybe one day my script will get picked up. I love the quote "Hollywood talks like a socialist, but acts like a capitalist". But I still can't understand why an industry so completely dependent upon money and individual effort, that thoroughly glorifies the individual effort in awards such as the SAG awards and the Academy, can embrace liberal socialist views. Are awards about to become awards for collective efforts?
all you repuglickin's just don't understand that only trailer trash people like John Wayne. I mean there are people who will spend money on collector plates of this geezer.
No self respecting liberal would ever spend money on a commemorative piece of trash like that, right? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2ECtj-ViHM
although, interestingly, you'll see far left academics in Germany and Italy who give year long courses in the films of the American western- it's the typical European love-hate thing…
Movies ARE collective efforts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No the Indians did that, who were the embodiment of a socialist state.
You are right…ummm…correct in that an actor can't make a movie all by their little ole lonesome…..but how many people stand up on stage when the best actor and actress winner is giving a lame "shame on Californians for voting against prop 8" speech. ONE.
I thought it was a reference to an episode of The Simpsons titled "Last Exit to Springfield." Mr. Burns needs some strikebreakers so he calls in Grandpa Simpson and his buddies. Burns asks how they plan to get rid of them. Grandpa Simpson answers:
"We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don't go anywhere – like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say.
"Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones…"
Your mileage may vary of course.
It's a Simpson's reference, and a darned good one.
Can't believe I missed that! I love the cut of that man's gibberish.
Nope, but they were known to beat the stuffing out of a bad guy or two.
And unless he or she is a prick they thank all of the people involved in the COLLECTIVE effort.
A socialist and totally dysfunctional group. imagine making your women go into the wilderness to give birth by themselves !! what losers. Right on, great call. And this poor sap antifascist has his panties in such a bind about torture. A metrosexual nightmare indeed,betcha he wants Christian Bale to whip him !
Personally I want Lloyd Bridges to waterboard me,underwater with scuba gear !!
Novels are written by individuals; movies are made by collectives.
I wonder if these highly touted liberal, extremely well paid actors share their wealth with the all the COLLECTIVE that worked to make the film?
Just like your namesake, you just don't get it.
I wonder if these high paid actors that win awards for their collective effort, share their wealth with everyone in the collective effort?
Capitalism its every where.
The Borg make movies? This explains so much.
Yep. Cahiers du Cinema, France's most respected film magazine, ranked "The Searchers" as the 10th Best Film of all time. "Rio Bravo" came in 12th. Village Voice, which is American but liberal, put "The Searchers" at #4.
You are obviously a pencil-necked geek that has never been off the pavement. I would love to bust your eyebrow.
I remember Lee Van Cleef winging a wanted man that was running away in "For a Few Dollars More', then standing stock still as the moron kept shooting at him and missing. Just as the criminal got within range, "Colonel Mortimer, from the Carolinas" center-punched his brain. I also remember Clint beating the snot out of another wanted fella before the slime reached for a gun and ended up taking a couple. Manco wasn't interested in listening to anyone whine about his being too brutal, either.
Indio used to shoot unarmed people for the giggles of it. And the guy that turned him in the first time? Indio murdered his whole family just to anger him enough to follow through on a gunfight. Real Islamofascist.
Sergio Leone knew what a cowboy was.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present our winner for the "Non Sequitur of the Day"!
You get a pie from Auntie…
So I told her, that is the last time I everu pogo stick with your brother.
I can do it too!!
LOL
I have no idea where he was going with that but I really wish i did.
[...] nobody@flickr.com (traqair57) added an interesting post today on Heroic Hollywood: American Exceptionalism and the Hollywood HeroHere’s a small readingBitter Gun-Clinger – and Hollywood Hero For nearly a century now, Hollywood has inspired generations of Americans with the central truth behind the American Dream: in this country, people are free to choose their own destiny. It’s the moral message found in every film that features the… [...]
4294967295 replies? Is IntenseDebate acting up again?
The weird thing is that this is the SAME number that showed up last time.
Great post, and the link in the worlds mind to courage and true grit and hollywood is really a message for us all. The people of Lebanon really were facing a William Wallace situation, knew the violence was real, rose to the occasion and used hollywood phrases to express their real guts.
I was fooling with a script based on some of our special ops troops in Afganistan in the winter of 2001-2, some of whom I knew from SF and SOG in the south east asia war. I thought the Rooster Cogburn character was a truly apt composit, and the valley scene very apt to their totally outnumbered/outgunned situation with the Taliban/AlQ brotherhood opposition. Knowing that Dennis Hopper was in "True Grit", I wrote it with the SF/CIA old guy as Hopper (Most appropriate, you have to know some of the real guys) starting the ops looking at the ID picture of OBL saying "Fill your hand, you s-o-b". For me, a dramatized version of real life and real people who really did rise to the occasion, with guys who really do quote from the movie.
Yeah imagine my surprise.
I really thought i was on to something.
And better than bigddan can, too!
Yours at least had some sense in the message. It hasn't a thing to do with the subject, but in itself it makes sense. That other mess…ow, ow, ow, ow, brain hurts, brain hurts, brain hurts…
"The cookies fried raw, and I put transmission fluid in the tire. Are your circuits registering properly? Your ears are green. I like tater tots!"
Thanks, and keep writing these (although it doesn't look like you need my encouragement. I'm working on a little something right now, and these posts of yours help immensely, and even if they didn't they're highly inspiring.
Just keep 'em coming as fast as you can! The wait between them seems like a small eternity.
Terrific essay. I have the book "True Grit" by Charles Portis, and it reads like a dream. Besides the massacre in the field, my favorite scene is at the end, when Mattie is putting flowers on her father's grave, and asks Reuben to lie next to her for eternity. Glad to see JW still influencing people 30 years after his death.
[...] “Swine Flew via TOTUS ; Rooster Cogburn via Big Hollywood [...]
Dvonch,
Chuck Connors, 1st Base, Brooklyn Dodgers
You play the position even better than he did !
Much Respects
[...] Todd placed an observative post today on Heroic Hollywood: American Exceptionalism and the Hollywood HeroHere’s a quick excerptBitter Gun-Clinger – and Hollywood Hero For nearly a century now, Hollywood has inspired generations of Americans with the central truth behind the American Dream: in this country, people are free to choose their own destiny. It’s the moral message found in every film that features the… [...]
"But he does have to possess some quality that the author defines as 'good' and this 'good' quality must impact the choices he makes in the story, ultimately supporting the moral theme of the work."
The word you're casting about for is "virtuous." This was all covered by Aristotle many moons ago in his Poetics. I recommend it highly.
It used to be that films and television held out to us ideals to be emulated. Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet, for instance, portrayed the kind of ideal families and lives the American people aspired to. The idea was not, as is charged by the revolutionary barbarians who deride them, that the Cleavers and Nelsons represent families as they actually exist. The idea was to hold up an example to be followed. But the barbarians hate that. They want to insist, as the true servants of the devil they are, that we're all scum and we'll all only ever be scum. They point to Married With Children and say, "See? That's what you really look like. You can never be any better than that, so don't even try. Embrace the darkness." In this way, they make Married With Children the new ideal to be emulated.
So it was with Westerns, which featured clearly delineated good guys and bad guys. It's truly sad that rooting for the guy in white is considered hopelessly naive today by those who think that rooting for the guy in black is somehow ipso facto superior. You have to wonder whether such people ever reflect upon exactly what they've done, which is merely substitute evil for good–vice for virtue–as the object of their admiration.
It's telling that the only modern movie that has really succeeded in portraying virtue in a positive light (besides overtly religious movies like Passion of the Christ)–because it's the only one that has been allowed to–is Forrest Gump. That's what Forrest Gump is about: it's a story of virtue and the triumph of virtue. And that's why Forrest had to be a simpleton in the story; because our contemporary cultural mavens would never allow an everyman to be portrayed as sympathetically as he is. "Too simplistic." "Lacking in moral nuance and shades of grey." That's what they'd say if Forrest was a normal man. But as a mentally deficient man, he could get away with being good. What a very sad commentary that is on the moral state of our literati today.
No one ever said Regan was a real cowboy or that 24 was for real, and John Wayne was blocked from serving due to a mis-communication w/ the studio he was legally bound to.
NEXT!
*MissQuinn*
[...] Ima Wizer put an intriguing blog post on Heroic Hollywood: American Exceptionalism and the Hollywood HeroHere’s a quick excerptBitter Gun-Clinger – and Hollywood Hero For nearly a century now, Hollywood has inspired generations of Americans with the central truth behind the American Dream: in this country, people are free to choose their own destiny. It’s the moral message found in every film that features the… [...]
Russ,
That was really a great essay..very inspiring. I hope that Hollywood does keep the Hollywood hero alive. "Gran Torino" was a surprise appearance of that American icon. Great film. I look forward to your next article. Keep up the great work !!
Great Essay Russ! True Grit was a superior movie a real Hollywood experience, and you’re right when you left the movie you felt a little stronger, a little taller, a real American experience. Along with Midnight Cowboy, other westerns in 1969 were Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Support your Local Sheriff, The Undefeated, Paint Your Wagon, amongst others the western genre was still well represented in 69. 2001 was a definite Wow! I was very young when I first saw it and a lot of the “meaning” escaped me, but I knew instinctively that I had seen something cinematically unique. But to your greater point about American Exceptionalism you are so right, and is what Americans want to see a great Hollywood ending, even 2009. Again an insightful read.
no kidding- they trash 'W' for being a cowboy and then turn around and worship the genre… go figure.
[...] (d)N0T – dream not of today added an interesting post on Heroic Hollywood: American Exceptionalism and the Hollywood HeroHere’s a small excerptThe first “Hollywood” movie was shot 3000 miles away from Hollywood in New York City and in the countryside of New Jersey, in 1903. It was… [...]
It's interesting. As much as I liked Married with Children (I suppose Seinfeld would fit into that category as well), I don't watch shows like Gossip Girl or 90210 for the same reason. While MwC and Seinfeld were (I thought) hilarious… with the teen dramas, it's like, "Why would I want to watch a show about a bunch of overprivileged, oversexed, know-nothings whining about their problems?!"
When I watch TV, heroes and villains are great. But a little gray doesn't hurt now and then. As much as I enjoy watching people I wish to emulate (like Capt. Kirk), sometimes it's nice to see someone a little lower on the social totem pole (like George Costanza). As Samuel Goldwyn said, "If you want to send a message, use Western Union."
And I loved Forrest Gump, too.
Maybe its a phone number 429 496 7295.
Great read, but have one petty correction. "The Great Train Robbery" was shot in rural BROOKLYN not, NJ.
Russ… you wrote:
"But even then, he gets it spectacularly wrong when he “suspects” all nations believe in their own exceptionalism.
They don’t. And that’s one of the things that makes America exceptional."
That is, for sure, one of the most poignant observations I have read in a long time. Itis so very true, true, true.
I would love to have Obama go through the streets of London, or Berlin, or Madrid, or Paris… and ask the average citizen, "Tell me what makes your country great." What would they say? Hmmm… what would those countries say? There's not really much about them that makes them great. Because… well… they're NOT great.
Don't get me wrong. They're all fine nations. They're all really good… and they all have good ethnic cuisines, and neat histories, and valuable contributions to humanity! But… "exceptional"? I don't think so.
Keep putting the Finger of Truth in the eye of the World, Brother.
Patiently awaiting the New Hollywood.
I doubt any armed men have been "tortured".
Yep, that's right, don't even acknowledge the point the writer is making, just immediately bring up torture and other current issues that have nothing to do with any of this. Honestly, I think you'd be better off making pies and leaving the attempts at thought to people who can handle the strain.
Holy spicoli! I've never seen so many replies. I wonder if Intense Debate got spammed?
Great piece, Russ! Very close parallels to my own, too. My first big mind-expanding movie was 2001 as well. Saw it when I was eight years old in 1968. Also love True Grit. One of my faves. Like you and Kid Rick, I too am a cowboy
It was apparently shot at Edison's New York studio and in New Jersey.
Link to AMC Website.
http://www.filmsite.org/grea.html
"One of the milestones in film history was the first narrative film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), directed and photographed by Edwin S. Porter – a former Thomas Edison cameraman. It was a primitive one-reeler action picture, about 10 minutes long, with 14-scenes, filmed in November 1903 – not in the western expanse of Wyoming but on the East Coast in various locales in New Jersey (at Edison's New York studio, at Essex County Park in New Jersey, and along the Lackawanna railroad)."
If you can bring heat, there's little need for the off speed stuff. Keep bringing it. Look forward to your next post!
Not sure I'd call Midnight Cowboy a western…
Thanks for the article.
But I have a small disagreement with the poll.
You mention, "The Pew Research Center conducted a polls of 91,000 people in fifty nations and found that “Three-quarters of Americans say they are proud to be Americans; only one-third of the people in France, Italy, Germany, and Japan give that response about their own countries.”
I will have to disagree with at least one country mentioned. The Japanese are extremely proud individuals, proud of a national identity that reveres its history, cultural practices and ancestry like no other country I've ever seen. So, I'm not sure where Pew polled in Japan. If they went to a very liberal section of nightclub Shibuya, Tokyo, sure, I can see that. But that's like polling Americans on their view of Cowboys from the folks in sticky floored Times Square theaters of Joe Buck days.
But I do agree with your sentiment and the points you are making. It's just that my 'work' takes me to places around the world quite a bit, and Japanese culture, modern and ancient, is what I can call, perhaps without enough humility, an expertise.
Thanks.
Oh, man. I think I just saw Rod Serling step in from the wings.
Is that the best you can come up with? Other trolls come on here spouting conspiracy theories and accusing us of being Fascists and all sorts of nonsense. At least they TRY to offend. That was just halfhearted and pathetic. If that's the best you can do we've already won and you need to go find a real job.
Definitely not, that was Russ who said the only other movie at the time with a cowboy hat was Midnight Cowboy, there were a few others I could think of.
Russ!
Once more you have done a wonderful job of pulling all the information together, saying what many of us have thought, putting it into context and reporting so well.
Keep up the great work! We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Jane
Then call me trailer trash. I'm my way to Tru-Value right now to pick up those pink flamingos.
[...] Brouhaha Acton Institute PowerBlog: PBR: Conservatives and Hollywood Russ Dvonch, Big Hollywood: Heroic Hollywood: American Exceptionalism and the Hollywood Hero Michelle Malkin: The resurgence of left-wing extremism and Video: Janet Napolitano’s Extremist [...]
Sorry–from your quote "Along with Midnight Cowboy, other westerns in 1969…" I thought you were lumping it in with Westerns.
All thru True Grit Much was made of a lawyer not seen very end, one J.Noble Daggett. And you would that thought this fellow was bigger than life, in the end its an actor by the name of John fielder, a shrimp next to the Duke, and a fine actor. It was the J. Nobles of the world that was taken over, Just a nice little twist if you paid attention. Duke Wayne is gone, True Grit will be 40 + years since it was released. Hollywood, left me a long time ago I didn't leave hollywood. I don't go to the movies as much as I use to, Now it maybe 3 times last year, there was a time I would go twice a week if the Movies were worth going to .
Maybe the best explanation of why American movies are so popular I have ever read. Also a great explanation of the American character and American exceptionalism. I really learned a great deal reading this. Thank you.
"Identification leads to emulation"
That's right. And this is why I don't agree with the argument that media doesn't influence. We see it everyday, in our youth and their choices of clothing, behavior, music style, etc. They emulate what they identify with. They identify with those 'heroes' they see in our media: celebrities.
Cool!
As a former resident of both NJ and NY, I feel pride. Hooah!
Funny, I was just thinking of that Sammy G. quote. I always loved it.
It is puzzling isn't it? But then again, I've always contented that the real reason they hated W was not his politics, since we know he did many of the same things Bill C. did.
It was his style of not caring what they thought, i.e. cowboyish. He had his own walk (swagger), they hated that, and they hated when he joked about it.
They hate anyone who can be themselves no matter who is around. Because many on the left are stuck, confined into their self made prisons of behavior monitoring, political correctness in speech, etc. that for someone to come along and not give a hoot about all that stuff, including polls and newspapers such at the gray lady, was something to be reviled and stamped out.
It wasn't the politics. We know that. It was the man. It was what he represented.
Every argument and insult against him falls flat when you examine it.
War monger, rich family, privilege, Yale, avoided war service. C'mon. Leftists admire those 'traits/flaws' in any one else, yet in W they hated them and used them as the basis for ridicule. Utterly ridiculous.
Haven't you ever wondered why Communist and Socialist leaders have all those ribbons and medals on their uniforms, so many it looks like they'll fall over. Same thing.
Don't go to Canada. They'll chew your ear off about how they are the cat's meow.
Dash: But Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of, our powers made us special.
Helen: Everyone’s special, Dash.
Dash: [muttering] Which is another way of saying no one is.
The Incredibles. I've said it before, I'll say it again. An excellent movie on so many levels. It's really incredible that it got made.
But, if you notice, Pixar consistently stresses these ideals, these very American, wholesome messages, whereas their competition, Dreamworks focus on toilet humour and the obvious joke, not to mention some worrisome messages like inflating animals and tying them up into knots like balloons and letting them float away into the sky.
And that's supposed to be funny?
Great topic, here. Sure is. I love this kinda stuff. In fact, you've said it here. So who needs the rest of us to write anything? I'd rather just sit back and read your stuff. Plus I won't catch any more flak. Ok, where'd I put my coffee?
Good point. I've often been amused by seeing the photos of Russian military leaders with the billboard size rack of awards. But, don't forget what Napolean said "A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon."
you're only right… the very values that embodies the cowboy ethos- individual accomplishment, self-reliance, stoicism and grace under pressure- things Bush had in spades- is what really hacked off his foes. We think that it is because he was self-contained, “hired to do a job” as he put it- is exactly why, in today's 'me first' society he was reviled. He didn't want 'to feel their pain' over his policy decisions… same with Europe. Being coddled for the last 50 years has given them a sense of superiority and entitlement that has lured them in to
a false sense of security… which will soon be shattered, much to their chagrin.
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