While the plot and the music sort of gives it an inspirational theme, Hero is actually more subversive than that. Over everything is the recurring theme that it's all playing in front of cameras. People acting as heroes in front of the camera, people lying in front of the camera, people avoiding the camera, people trying to have a confidential discussion in front of cameras and hundreds of people watching below. The camera makes everyone act weird because it scares them or it turns them on. I think what puts off most viewers is the syrupy music, heroic, uplifting, telling people how to feel and I can feel myself being manipulated. I personally think it's a very, very sly choice. It goes to show I can't believe anything I see in the news, and I can't believe this movie either, because it's manipulating me too by telling me not to believe. My son watched it, and I asked him, okay, who's the hero? The jerk who saves hundreds of people or the the liar who, when given the chance, goes forth to inspire and help people anyway? Both of them are undercut by their actions. I guess they both are. And I guess none of our heroes are really clean. They probably hide some sins in their pasts. Which makes the theme, if that were the theme, more realistic to me.
Review of Hero
