Heroic Hollywood: American Exceptionalism and the Hollywood Hero

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? (more…)

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Tags: 2001, herosim, john wayne, Kubrick
Posted Apr 28th 2009 at 1:47 pm in Entertainment | 1176706 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/rdvonch/2009/04/28/heroic-hollywood-american-exceptionalism-and-the-hollywood-hero/Heroic+Hollywood%3A+American+Exceptionalism+and+the+Hollywood+Hero2009-04-28+20%3A47%3A29Russ+Dvonch