Movies, on occasion, are not stupid...sometimes.

Note: I wrote this years ago and meant to post it to my blog, but I forgot.
It sat here unpublished.
I have now published it.
That is all.

We're walking home along a major, four-lane road when we see the crazy man shouting at some trash. A discarded bag of chips has offended him in some way. He's arguing his point in a language known only to himself and gesticulating wildly. My wife pushes the stroller past the crazy man and gives a short nod and a smile. He stops shouting. I place myself between him and my family and meet his eye. There is nobody home. Empty, black eyes look back at me seeing something I cannot imagine. I hold his gaze just long enough to let him know that I see him as a threat. He's short, but burly. Years of living on the street have made him strong. He will likely hurt me quite badly if things become physical. I have resolved to push him into traffic if need be. He looks down and walks on. "STOP LOOKING AT ME!" he shouts after walking a few steps. We do not look back and he does not follow us.

There's a reason we need heroes. Most of us are not brave, not fit nor formidable. We're a doughy mass of television watchers, texters and fast food eaters. I sit at a desk all day and watch network traffic. That's the human condition circa 2011. So, it should come as no surprise that we are surrounded not just by heroes in our fiction, but super-natural heroes. Regular heroism just doesn't cut it anymore.

A hundred years ago a Sherlock Holmes or a Tin Tin captured the imaginations of the young and old alike simply by traveling around and talking to people. Very little action, lots of explanation. Characters visited foreign lands or lived in big cities when the average person worked a farm. If I lived with my family of eight brothers and sisters slopping hogs, I'd find the adventures of a quiet, solitary man who never had to pay for anything to be quite attractive.

After the first World War, adventure stories, and the films that followed, became bigger. Airplane dogfights, car chases and far-flung locations became more ubiquitous. Doc Savage braved the jungles of Central America and fought evil scientists in major American cities. The Shadow could use his eerie mental powers learned from Asian ascetics to cloud men's minds. It is at this time that we see the emergence of the "Super Hero". No longer content to fight evil with his mind or even using the powers given to mortal men, the Super Hero kicks butt with heat-vision, flight, indestructibility and...like...a shield that he can whip at your head. Over the next sixty years or so the Super Hero has largely supplanted the regular Joe hero. Cop shows are still popular, but they're are, on average, pretty over-the-top. Shows or books about someone who uses their brain to save the day are few and far between. Those that exist, like the cop shows, are far-fetched and ridiculous in their own ways. House comes to mind. If the hero doesn't travel to far off places, he travels inside your body and outwits cancer. Even doctors have had the bar raised for excellence. Sometimes it really is just lupus.

Now, I haven't seen any of the upcoming summer blockbusters because they are, at this point, upcoming. However, I have some thoughts on bravery and our ideals regarding heroes that I'd like to share. One of my all-time favorite movies is A Man for All Seasons. The fictionalized version of Thomas More presented in that film (and stage play upon which it was based) is my kind of hero. I still dig Batman, Superman, Spider-man (all the 'Mans), but the solemn dignity and adherence to a strict moral code that Paul Scofield presents is the type of person I would like to be. He doesn't travel to distant lands or fight robots, although he totally could. Thomas More stands up for what he believes is right despite the threat of torture and death. Some people feel like Thomas More is making a stand for Catholicism, and he is, but mostly he just cannot allow people to lie to or about him. He will not participate in a falsehood regardless of the station of those who perpetrate it. Consider this exchange between Scofield's Thomas More and the Duke of Norfolk:

The Duke of Norfolk: Oh confound all this. I'm not a scholar, I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not but dammit, Thomas, look at these names! Why can't you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!

Sir Thomas More: And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?

He's a badass! No shield, no cape (well, maybe a cape considering the time and place), no laser beams or cool sports car; just the coolest dialog and the strongest will. Indulge me one last quote, it is my favorite.

Sir Thomas More: You threaten like a dockside bully

Cromwell: How should I threaten?

Sir Thomas More: Like a minister of state. With justice.

Cromwell: Oh, justice is what you're threatened with.
Sir Thomas More: Then I am not threatened.

Jab, jab, haymaker...and it's over. Of course, Thomas More does not go free. The hero loses the battle and his life. All the best heroes lose something precious as part of their fight with evil. We expect it. It's how we separate the true men and women of conscience from the grand-standers. The message is always the same: sacrifice and win. Without that one little sentiment there would never have been one running shoe sold or one ounce of gatorade consumed. It's so much a part of our culture that we don't even consider it a real win anytime someone defeats all opponents without breaking a sweat. We recognize the skill, but it really is hollow somehow. We need a commitment from the winner to truly cap the victory. Blood will often do. Sometimes we'll accept a nice wounding. But we like effort and loss as much as we adore the champion. Make no mistake, we want our champion, but we also want the up-hill fight. Without it we feel cheated.

This summer we'll watch Thor battle Asgardian monsters and government goons. Eventually he'll do that while wearing his trademarked Marvel comics costume. But first he'll have to be cast down and whooped up on a little before we'll accept him. He has to start out as an outsider, humiliated, beaten, alone...then we'll like him enough to cheer his victory that is the forgone conclusion of the Super Hero film.

Later we'll watch the Green Lantern earn his place with an intergalactic police force. He, too, will start out alone and confused. Then he'll show his metal and crush evil with a huge, glowing, green jackhammer made of imagination and justice. That will be fun, I'm sure. Somehow I'll find myself wishing for a battle of wits between two well-matched adversaries. But, as I stated before, we've moved beyond all that. One's daily life is full of technology that has become common-place but would have passed for magic only a few years ago. Supersonic aircraft are everywhere, you can talk to anyone anywhere at anytime with a device that weighs less than a pack of gum and fits in your shirt pocket. Our heroes must be more that we are. An eight-year-old has access to more and better technology that was shown on the original Star Trek. James Kirk and crew had to get a makeover a few years ago just to keep up. Superman is bullet-proof, but so is your average Police Officer to a degree. We've got autonomous stealth drones that fly along the Pakistani border shooting bad guys. These things make Schwarzenegger's Terminator look like a punk. The bar is raised again.

The summer is going to wow us with high technology splendor.  Trucks will turn into robots to fight planes that turn into also robots. Costumed criminals will make life difficult for costumed supermen. Things will explode and the stakes will always be higher than they have ever been. But something will be missing, for me at least. The true power of the human spirit and the vast, awe-inspiring might of the human mind will be on display nowhere. I'll enjoy the explosions and the costumes and the robo-trucks and I'll write about them here, but I'll be looking for something deeper in every story. One day I will find it again and that movie will not be stupid, not at all.