The death of the hero was a new thing in the late 60's early 70s. Easy Rider, for example.
I think this played more to the counter cultural audience. their experience of being heroic usually meant bad things happening to them: Marching for peace, and getting beaten, going south for voter rights, and getting killed. Their experience is not high noon, where the good guy wins.
The death of the outsider in contemporary culture is the death of the anti-hero.
I do not regard these things as the product of classic tragedy. There, too, the hero dies, but the hero was clearly flawed, and the flaw leads to their death. An 'aha' moment redeems the hero, but it is too late. The folks in Easy Rider, or in Butch Cassidy, are outlaws, but not bad people. On the contrary, they are already heroic: it is the law that is messed up, so living outside the law is the only thing a good person can do. (Outlaw Josey Wells).
Some Hollywood blockbusters still feature the death of the hero at the end. I watched The Castle last night (up way too late) which is James Gandolfini's bad guy Army prison warden vs. Robert Redford's good guy Army general sent to prison for disobeying an order. Redford leads the prisoners in a revolt to remove Gandolfini from power. Good film; Redford dies (kinda heroically).
The main character of Saving Private Ryan, played by Tom Hanks, also dies at the end (rather heroically).
Of course no one would expect "Saving Private Ryan II: Rangers take Japan" given the pedigree of the film. Maybe that's the real issue; film pedigree having fallen since they decided to make more money from sequels (thank you Mr. Stallone). Even though Clint Eastwood played essentially the same character in 4 different Westerns, none of them are sequels. Stallone milked it for an entire career.
Rocky is an interesting example because in the first one, he is tragic in that he loses the fight. But then in the sequels he becomes the cartoon character hero.
Watch Clint Eastwood's latest film, Gran Torino. It will undermine your claim.
Good examples all. I was also thinking about "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" wherein both Li Mu Bai the master, as well as Jen the heroine die.
Blood Diamonds is a true tragedy, moment of redemption and all.
Gran Torino is in a different category. There, Clint is a Christ figure. His personal flaws are obvious, but they do not lead to his death. Instead, the whole movie explains his transformation from bitter vet with problems to someone willing to sacrifice himself for others.
In the classic 60's vision, the death is a senseless act of violence, or no alternative. You cannot have a happy ending for those who challenge the system.
Like the Wild Bunch. Or Easy Rider. Or there was a movie I cant recall the name, where the counter cultural folks are on the run from the cops, massive chase, and they elude the pursuers, only to have a train run into them at the very end, *boom*, roll credits.
I'm not sure Jen actually dies at the end of Crouching Tiger, it seemed pretty ambiguous to me...
But in some of the more recent big blockbusters, the hero has died.
*SPOILER* The main character (Will Smith) dies in the theatrical release of I Am Legend (oddly enough, he survived in the original ending before test audiences disapproved and a new ending was shot). Other examples include Gladiator, Infernal Affairs/The Departed, etc etc
Maybe it's a post-cold war thing. With the spectre of global thermonuclear war diminished, maybe Hollywood decided heroes didn't need to die.
Best "counter-culture" hero who is killed at the end of the movie:
Cool Hand Luke
"I can eat 50 eggs."
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k...h?
v=kNyl6gXLMLQ ]
I'm more interested as to why unemotional is somehow a part of it. Emotions are very human. Certainly, given the dramatic scenes and events in a movie, emotional responses would be very much expected. Why is the opposite desired and/or admirable?
Hanno: That was 'Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry', and the ending was unintended irony--a take on the old writer's block cliche where everyone simply gets hit by a truck to end things. Peter Fonda can be seen looking weird in the title role, his head shrunken around where his brain used to be.
The train wreck scene re-appeared in the opening credits of 'The Fall Guy'.
Commenting by HaloScan
