In many American films we put emphasis on a type of “hero”. This hero can come in many forms in Robert B. Ray’s article “The Thematic Paradigm”, Ray categorizes the heroes of the movie as being either the “official hero” or the “outlawed hero”. According to Ray these heroes’ can be differentiated in categories such as age, society, women, politics, and the law. One character who is a hero, but differentiates from Rays categories of official and outlaw hero is Leonardo DiCaprio’s role of Billy Costigan in the movie The Departed who is a mix of the official hero and the outlaw hero. One attribute Ray uses to distinguish the official hero and the outlaw hero is by personality and age. Ray refers to the outlaw hero to be more childish in their …show more content…
Costigan is more similar to the outlawed hero in which he doesn’t seem like the type of man to get married and settle down. He especially plays this aspect when around the mob because it’s not safe to expose your loved ones if something happens. At the same time in the end when Costigan is in trouble he confides in a woman psychiatrist and is more truthful to her than his usual character who is very secretive. He also in the end leaves something special to her if he ends up dead or in trouble and even says directly to her that she is the only one he trusts. As well as the official hero attribute he does undertake a public duty that is very demanding and requires personal sacrifice. Getting involved in mobster gangs is truly sacrificing his life all for the country in which he serves to protect the city of Boston by working for the …show more content…
The sacrifices Costigan makes are so eye-opening to the audience because he shows this other aspect to our law system that surprises many. Although the character is very unreadable but for some reason throughout the movie you root for this character because of his courage and strength. This character also provides an aspect of freedom that is very interesting. The character is free to an extent that he isn’t held back by the law enforcement when he is an undercover cop. It’s almost like he gets an excuse because of his situation to kill and go against the law system as a way to protect his identity. I think that’s what makes this character so capturing is that he doesn’t follow these typical hero types. Costigan is a mixture of both the good and bad but overall he is a hero which is sometimes confusing when he works with the villains and spends most his time with them. Although Ray defines heroes into these two categorized stereotypes Costigan is a whole new subgenre where he could fit into both the official hero and outlawed hero which overall is very captivating as an audience
All of the qualities shown in these men are important in showing heroism. Heroism is having qualities that highlight someone's unique and noble abilities. Both of these men portray a massive amount of heroism in their stories.
Mr. Leo wrote this piece not only for informative purposes, but also to convince a particular audience that, whether intentional or not, characters have taken on harmful images some may find offensive. He is not speaking only to his fairly educated, loyal readers, but also to those who may have taken part in producing the movie. Mr. Leo makes visible to his readers what he believes to be stereotypes in the film. People may not have noticed these before, so he makes clear definitions and comparisons. To the rest of the audience, those who had a hand in making the movie, he makes a plea not to redevelop these characters in future films.
Like most things captured on film for the purpose of being marketed, the richness of gangster life, with sex, money, and power in surplus, is glorified, and thus embraced by the audience. And as a rule, if something works Hollywood repeats it, ala a genre. What Scarface and Little Caesar did was ultimately create a genre assigning powerful qualities to criminals. Such sensationalism started with the newspapers who maybe added a little more color here and there to sell a few more copies, which is portrayed in Scarface’s two newspaper office scenes. Leo Braudy denounces genres as offending “our most common definition of artistic excellence” by simply following a predetermined equation of repetition of character and plot. However, Thomas Schatz argues that many variations of plot can exist within the “arena” that the rules of the genre provide.
Humanity has created this “universal story” of what a hero is, or at least the myth of it, time and again. Different tasks and encounters with a variety of villains all lead the hero to the prize, to a new life (Seger). This person deemed the hero is as ordinary as the next but what makes them different is the drastic test that they must face. Individuals admire this character because the hero stands for something, something bigger than themselves. Whether it be the compassionate act of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games or the death of the oldest brother in Brother Bear, as an outsider, an individual sees the human side of these heroes and relates. Connor Lassiter from Unwind by Neal Shusterman is an ideal example of the myth due to the
Kesey’s novel proclaims a classic struggle between good and evil, or the hero and the villain. This contemporary classic was brought to life through the film version in 1975 and is considered “one of the greatest American films of all time” (Dirks 1). It was the first film to receive all the major Oscar awards. These included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. The same name as the novel was chosen so that it would appeal to contemporary audiences, which proved to be a big hit at the box office.
As a society we value and admire heroes who represent the idealized version of ourselves whom we stride every day to become. This is why they are sometimes scrutinized, unless they are an anti-hero, of course. The anti-hero is also admired by some even if he utilizes unlawful methods to achieve his goal, because he represents the good in a corrupt world. But this is not always the case as it is seen in some Noir stories. In Noir stories, the anti-hero is supposed to be a modern knight. Transgressing society's corrupt rules in order to reaffirm for its male audience the need to act justly do rightly; however, the anti-hero through this false nobility and sexism reinforces the social problems that plague contemporary society.
For many years the American Hero has filled the silver screen and wide screened television sets, along with shelves of countless bookstores. Audiences love to see the protagonist overcome great odds, defeat the forces of evil, and save the beautiful girl at the last second. The character of the American Hero however, is not a new idea. James Cooper, in the 1800’s, created the archetype of the American Hero. Natty Bumpo, also called Deerslayer, embodied many qualities of the great American Hero. Modern day heroes are simply following the example set by Cooper’s creation.
Being one of the world’s most popular art forms, it was inevitable that these archetypes would find their way into film as well. In this essay I will argue that the films Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver, Watership Down, and Trainspotting are all versions of The Hero’s Journey, consequently demonstrating just how prevalent these archetypes have become in modern cinema. And that mythology and storytelling are important parts of each culture because they prevent the darkness in our hearts from spreading.
Like Jordan Belfort who follows his own code, Scorsese often makes movies with protagonists who live outside mainstream norms (Connelly). Howard Hughes (the aviator) is another example of Scorsese’s work in which he demonstrates the eccentric protagonist character of Hughes and his contribution in the aviation history. Other Scorsese films, such as The Departed— about an undercover cop and his battle with the Irish American mafia— is also about the exceptional way that the cop character, also played by DiCaprio, acts outside conventional police work in order to perform...
The only real way to truly understand a story is to understand all aspects of a story and their meanings. The same goes for movies, as they are all just stories being acted out. In Thomas Foster's book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor”, Foster explains in detail the numerous ingredients of a story. He discusses almost everything that can be found in any given piece of literature. The devices discussed in Foster's book can be found in most movies as well, including in Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic, “Pulp Fiction”. This movie is a complicated tale that follows numerous characters involved in intertwining stories. Tarantino utilizes many devices to make “Pulp Fiction” into an excellent film. In this essay, I will demonstrate how several literary devices described in Foster's book are put to use in Tarantino’s film, “Pulp Fiction”, including quests, archetypes, food, and violence.
In “The Thematic Paradigm,” Robert Ray explains how there are two vastly different heroes: the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero has common values and traditional beliefs. The outlaw hero has a clear view of right and wrong but unlike the official hero, works above the law. Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. The morals of these heroes can be compared clearly. Films that contain official heroes and outlaw heroes are effective because they promise viewer’s strength, power, intelligence, and authority whether you are above the law or below it.
Because of the outlaw hero’s definitive elements, society more so identifies with this myth. Ray said, “…the scarcity of mature heroes in American...
In "The Thematic Paradigm", Robert Ray explains how there are two distinctly different heroes, the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero embraces common values and traditional beliefs, while the outlaw has a clear sense of right and wrong but operates above the law (Ray). Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. "The attractiveness of the outlaw hero's childishness and propensity to whims, tantrums, and emotional decisions derived from America's cult of childhood", states Ray. (309) Ray also says, "To the outlaw hero's inconsistence on private standards of right and wrong, the official hero offered the admonition, you cannot take the law into your own hands." (312) The values of these two traditional heroes contrasts clearly. Society favors the outlaw hero because we identify with that character more. We see ourselves more so in the outlaw hero than in the official hero. The outlaw hero has the "childlike" qualities that most of us wish we had as adults. To civilians it may seem that the outlaw hero lives more of a fantasy life that we all wish to have.
In this paragraph I will be stating a couple reasons why Montag should be considered a ‘good guy’ or a hero. My first reason is when Montag and Clarisse are walking on the sidewalk she tells him that she has to go to a psychiatrist. Before they split up and go their separate ways she tells him that she sometimes forgets he is a fireman because of the way he acts around her. On page twenty one Clarisse starts to tell Montag that he isn't like the other firemen because when she talks he looks at her and listens while other
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...