I Can’t Be Your Superman [movies, tv]

I’ve noticed something strange lately, not just in movies, but also in tv shows. It’s the rise of the anti-hero. Hancock, Hellboy II, The Dark Knight, The Hulk, all of them featured to some (or a large) degree, an anti-hero. Hancock’s the easiest example, as the movie basically shoves the concept of an anti-hero down your throat (get it, he drinks, he’s rude!), but I thought The Dark Knight did a good job of showing that Batman/Bruce Wayne is by no means a hero (and to a larger degree, there are no real heroes in Gotham), something that often gets kinda…lost in the many translations that Batman has undergone over the past however many years. But watching Hellboy II, I realized that Hollywood as a whole is kind of uncomfortable with that notion…leaving an anti-hero completely alone. The movie bothered me because Hellboy wanted so badly to be liked, to be normal, and sure this is a hallmark of almost EVERY superhero movie, but the way it’s shoved down your throat (just like the inevitable redemption of Hancock in his own eponymous movie) shows there’s an uneasiness that movies have with leaving a “bad protagonist” alone in the sense of bigger, blockbuster flicks (even though this convention gets flipped all the time in smaller, indie arthouse flicks).

It’s funny, b/c television is a whole lot more comfortable with leaving the bad good guys well enough alone. It’s weird to say, but lately television’s been…well, kinda awesome (if you need proof, check out our drafts below, which are still going on). But with the rise of shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, The Shield, Rescue Me, hell even Lost to a degree, the protagonists are comfortable being bad guys, or at the very least definitively “not good.” If you’ve been paying attention, you’d also know that my favorite new show is Mad Men, and for all the reasons to love the show, the depiction of the 1960’s, the dialogue, the humor, the dense plot, the great characterization, I think I love it the most because the two central characters are two horrendously flawed men, one being Don Draper, a man who does things like leave his daughter’s birthday party to get the cake and doesn’t bother to return until after dark, piss drunk with nary an explanation; and the other being Pete Campbell, a sleazy, ambitious exec who cheats on his wife and uses blackmail to try to climb the corporate ladder. In fact, everyone in Mad Men is horrifically flawed, and yet you still cheer for (most) of them (fwiw, AMC’s other scripted show, Breaking Bad, employs similar tactics in a much more grizzly fashion, it’s about crystal meth for god’s sake).

When I think of movie heroes, I hate to admit it, but I think of Superman.* The shining, pristine image of a hero who does no wrong, and whose conflict often comes from trying to do the right thing even when the wrong “easy” path would be easier. I mean, the “do good, avoid evil” good guy goes back to Luke Skywalker (or if you’d prefer, y’know, that Jesus guy), and yet for some reason, Hollywood lately seems to want to cash in on the seemingly cynical nature of the world, while simultaneously being unable to shake that notion that the hero has to be redeemed, has to be likable, has to still want to, or at the very least try to do good. Television, something that’s more current and topical, seems to be content in letting us live out episodic doses of true anti-heroes, people who don’t do good, or don’t necessarily want to do good but feel forced to often for plot device or comedic effect.

I guess a better question is: do we still need heroes? I’ve been dancing around it this whole summer, but I have to admit, as much as I’ve hardly ever been moved by a Superman movie, I miss the guy. I think in a way, that’s why Iron Man was so much fun (yes I’m still plugging its greatness, months later). The hero there was a guy who relished being a hero, and though he was armed with a smart mouth, he was a good guy (y’know, after the near-death event, but whatever…stay with me). I miss having the hero that zooms by and people don’t mildly recoil in fear or confusion. I miss the clearly drawn lines of good and evil, the good guy is the one with the tights and a cape who can fuck shit up, but still watches out for innocent bystanders (I’m looking at you Hulk). Sometimes, superhero movies are about that: belief in that big symbol, that as cynical as we can become the older we get, it’s still nice to feel like there’s good in the world even for 90 minutes (or…uhh…..170 minutes).

Television’s there everyday, as a means for us to get by on a daily basis. Could you stand it if there was some dude with a sparkling smile standing proudly in front of the American flag every fucking day? I’d lose my shit. On a day to day basis, we are here to survive. The daily dip of escapism would leave us worse off when we wake up the next day and realize we have to go back to sitting in a cube. So the dripped in realism is only to be expected, and along with that comes crushing, bitter cynicism. We like it dirty. Television’s quick, it’s the girl you meet at the bar when you’ve had one too many martinis, and forget about come Sunday. Movies are about the experience, the escape, it’s the girl you fall in love with because she makes you forget how shitty the world can be. She’s got that power to make you believe that good is still necessary, both on the screens and inside our souls.

So I’m just saying, Hollywood. You’re already toeing the line with these half ass “heroes,” time for the real deal…or at least something very much like it. It’s been a while since I believed….

* if you’re a regular reader of the site, you know that much to the chagrin of LD, I’m not the biggest Superman fan. I’m more a Batman guy myself.