Geoff EganFilm's own Superheroes
August 25th 2008 03:17
I've recently come to the conclusion that film has invented a type of superhero that is completely different from the more famous comic book variety.
I'm not talking here the standard comic-to-film adaptions that have been coming out with more and more frequency recently, but a whole bunch of movies that have been popular for decades. While comic books have their heroes in spandex and bright colours, masking their faces and hiding their identities, these movie heroes are more desperate vigilantes, often acting out of their own selfish needs, in tragic and impoverished settings. They often come across less as a people's heroic watchman, and more of a wandering myth.
I'm basing this almost entirely around characters like Mad Max (aka The Road Warrior) or El Mariachi. Distinctive characters without superpowers, who act alone across a desolate landscape. Other examples could be the Boondock Saints or even Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name. They are all vigilantes acting either out of selfishness or a deranged sense of justice, people who are essentially psychopaths.
These aren't the prototypical movie or book heroes like Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins or Paul Atreides, these are people who do what they do in a far more morally ambiguous manner. These are what superheroes would be in real life: vigilantes who divide opinion, psychopaths and selfish soldiers.
I'm not talking here the standard comic-to-film adaptions that have been coming out with more and more frequency recently, but a whole bunch of movies that have been popular for decades. While comic books have their heroes in spandex and bright colours, masking their faces and hiding their identities, these movie heroes are more desperate vigilantes, often acting out of their own selfish needs, in tragic and impoverished settings. They often come across less as a people's heroic watchman, and more of a wandering myth.
I'm basing this almost entirely around characters like Mad Max (aka The Road Warrior) or El Mariachi. Distinctive characters without superpowers, who act alone across a desolate landscape. Other examples could be the Boondock Saints or even Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name. They are all vigilantes acting either out of selfishness or a deranged sense of justice, people who are essentially psychopaths.
These aren't the prototypical movie or book heroes like Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins or Paul Atreides, these are people who do what they do in a far more morally ambiguous manner. These are what superheroes would be in real life: vigilantes who divide opinion, psychopaths and selfish soldiers.
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