Blog 6: Hero

                It is all too common for people when asked about who they idolize as a hero to receive the familiar answers of “my parents”. A person’s parents might truly be a role model… but what happens when that person disappears? You and your family might remember them as a hero, but what happens once you and your family disappear? And the family after that? The memory of your heroic parents will soon have disappeared along with all of the other “heroes” we have as parents. Although I believe the movie Hero expresses the idea a little differently, it is able to show the audience what the public views as a real hero, as opposed to one’s ordinary, average day parents or citizens.

                In the movie Hero, we are placed into the scenario of Bernie Leplante, a wise guy from New York whose criminal record for theft probably extends as far as Mexico. Just like any thief, Bernie possesses very unlikeable characteristics to the public. He only cares about himself, and his obsession with money has really given him a run for his luck. Our thoughts of Bernie however, have a slight change of heart when a plane crash delays him from visiting his nine or ten year old son (Bernie is not so sure of his son’s age himself either.) Just like the character Bernie is, he goes about complaining about his hundred dollar shoes as he’s saving innocent people from the burning aircraft. Not that this mattered to him however; he was more concerned about impressing a little boy whose father had gone missing during the fire, stealing a news reporter’s purse, and his expensive missing shoe.

                Just like any other criminal, Bernie doesn’t stick around unless there’s some sort of exchange of money involved and flees the scene without a trace. Only to realize that he had given his shoe away to a friendly hobo who helped him hitchhike home and that they were offering a million dollar reward to the hero who owned the missing pair. The hobo, John Bubber turns in the shoe instead, and Bernie’s luck just seems to spiral downhill from then on.

                The idea the movie portrays is not so much the fact of the modest action of saving people from a burning plane, but in fact what we want that person to represent. I mean, it’s no one’s fantasy to be saved from a burning plane by an unattractive short guy who’s too busy cussing and wondering about the contents of your wallet to care if you’re alright. What anyone would want is an honest (for the most part), giving, tall and handsome gentleman to come and save you instead. That’s exactly what John Bubber was. Although he was living in his car, he was a generous and caring individual, and that’s exactly what the people were looking for and represented what everyone wanted to be. A homeless man with nothing, turned into a celebrity and savior. Unlike Bernard Leplante, who always seemed to have just about enough from swiping credit cards and scamming people.

                The concept of this reality and how people choose to see what they want to see instead of accepting the truth is shown in several parts of the movie. Where the media and people chose to ignore the truth, even if it is evident and overwhelming, and in parts where Bernard questions people is they’d believe him if he told them if he was the real savior of the people on the plane. This can be seen when the news reporter and John Bubber are creating a reenactment of the tragedy for a news broadcast, and even though John Bubber is completely oblivious of the tactics Bernie used to save the people and is using all of the wrong motives, the news reporter chooses to disregard his mistakes by saying that she was probably just “too delusional” from the crash and fire to remember that he was much taller and his actions were different than before. Further still when the news reporter visits Bernie Leplante’s apartment and finds her missing award and purse, and her and her news team automatically assume and make up this story of Bernie somehow making up a scheme of blackmailing John Bubber, even with the overwhelming evidence of who the real hero is right under their noses.  A most especially good example can  be seen in the bar scene, where Bernie sits down with his close friend the bar tender and asks him the same troubling question of “What would you say if I told you I was the real hero who saved all of those people from the burning plane?” Where the bar tender simply answers him saying, “You and me, we just aren’t those type of guys. John Bubber has all of those heroic qualities that we ordinary guys just don’t have. [Adapted] “, not knowing that the real savior of all those people on that burning plane is sitting in front of him all along.  With this answer, Bernie finally comes to the realization that even if he had confessed about saving all of those people, he probably wouldn’t receive the same recognition because he didn’t have of all the admirable qualities (handsome, brave, inspiring, etc.) society look for in a hero that John Bubber possessed.

                It is no question that a hero really is what the people make of him or her. Unfortunately, a hero isn’t the person who commits the heroic action itself. Instead it is that person who possesses the qualities and ability to represent want everyone else wants to be.