Lawyers, Guns & Money

J.D. Johannes explores the “End of the War Hero“, at least in nihilistic Hollywood:

In the latest round of war movies the heroes are not the Soldiers and Marines who every day fight and defeat a vicious and barbaric enemy–the heroes are reporters, lawyers and activists.

And since every story requires a villain, the real enemy–Mohammedan Jihadists–are replaced by neo-cons, politicians, Soldiers and Marines.

This substitution of the traditional mono-myth away from a hero who faces physical danger and conquers an enemy is a result of cowardice of the modern story tellers.

The human mind craves the same narrative–this was illustrated by Joseph Campbell…also, we all want to be the hero.

But when confronted with a real life situation–like the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and larger war on terror few will step up to be heroes.

The many who do not have the ability to step up fall into two categories–those who acknowledge their inability to be heroes and those who do not.

Being a hero is not a job for everyone, many accept this and give credit to those who are willing to take the challenge.

But there is another group for who the sting of their own cowardice is too much to bear. They are not willing to accept that they cannot be heroes.

They cannot accept that, even if they were younger or had the physical ability to confront a violent villain, they would shrink from the challenge.

To alleviate their guilt they invent a new villain–Halliburton, Cheney, neo-cons, politicians, military officers, Soldiers, Marines–in short, anyone who will not physically harm them.

Not the least of which is this imaginary terror.

<B<Related: More at Power Line, which references Richard Lester’s Cuba, “one of Sean Connery’s least-seen films”, and one of a series of pro-Castro movies that Hollywood seems to alternate each year with an anti-McCarthy and/or anti-blacklist movie. (Sense a theme?)

To be fair though, Cuba at least had for eye-candy a gorgeous-looking young Brooke Adams, thus making it somewhat passable entertainment with the sound down and fast-forward button at the ready.