>> Speaker 1: Whether they are wearing capes or rags, fighting crime or
injustice, our heroes are some of our most influential cultural icons.
These are our picks for the 10 best movie heroes of all time.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: Kicking us off at number 10,
we wanna first ask ourselves what makes a good hero?
And sure, we could just rank them based on the broadness of their chest,
the prominence of their jaw, and the fervor of their fandom, but
that's not how we like to do things at Cinefix.
So we broke them down into flavors, and
the first one up is the extra powerful uber match.
This is your Hercules with his son-of-godittude.
It's Sherlock Holmes and his superhuman intelligence.
And it's Robocop and the Terminator with their robo-invincibility.
It's Moses and
Lian and Indiana Jones, all of whom have just a little bit of the secret sauce.
It's also every single super hero, pretty much by definition.
It's your ultra capable secret agents, Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt,
and it's our number ten pick.
>> James Bond: Bond, James Bond.
>> Speaker 1: Everybody wants to be James Bond on some level.
He's cool without the effort,
he's deathly without the noise He's invincible without the magic.
And that's kind of the crux of why this whole hero thing works.
We wanna be him and when we watch him on screen we almost kind of get to.
Filmmakers go to a lot of trouble to make sure we identify with their hero,
which basically means that they fire up our empathy and mirror neurons so
that we start to feel how they feel.
And how could it get better than feeling like James Bond?
He can get any woman, defeat any man, go anywhere, do anything, and
wear a tuxedo like nobody else.
When you watch James Bond you get to spend two hours as a mother [BLEEP] super spy.
It's pure wish fulfillment and
it gives audiences a glimpse of the kind of power that a hero like Bond wields, and
it feels fantastic, which is why we love watching it.
Sometimes it's not about the feeling of being awesome so
much as it is about the rush that comes with hard won success.
Consider the bootstrap hero.
In the beginning, they could be a nobody, a novice, a bum.
But they want something so goddamn badly that they're going to do
everything in their power to come out on top.
By the end of the film,
sitting there watching a projected version of yourself conquer the world despite all
odds, you walk out of the theater feeling like you can do anything.
Think Clarice Starling from Silence Of The Lambs, or
Shosanna Dreyfus from Inglorious Basterds or Anita Montoya from the Princess Bride.
But for our number nine pick, the hero that makes us feel
more like we're on the top of the world yelling- Adrian!
Than anyone else is Rocky.
He pulls himself out of the gutter by sheet force of willpower and
training montages alone.
It's a uniquely American message that anyone can be a champion and
no one is more lovable at that Mr. Balboa, except maybe Stallone himself,
who pretty much did this in the making of this movie,
writing and starring his way to the A list.
It's a rags to riches tale and
we love to live it with him, which is why it makes our list.
To quote Shakespeare, not everyone is born badass.
Some have badassery thrust upon them.
So for our number eight, we're looking at the everyday hero.
They combine the same humble beginingsness and
overcome-itude of the bootstrap hero with the victimhood and
accident-icity of someone who didn't even wanna be here in the first place.
This is John McClane and Katniss Everdeen and the Dude, Sarah Connor.
It's Fargo's Marge Gunderson, Washington's Mr.
Smith, and 127 Hours' Aron Ralston, and we don't wanna forget a single one of them.
However, our favorite version of this hero, and
number eight pick, is Ellen Ripley from the Alien series.
>> Ellen Ripley: [SOUND] Get away from her, you bitch.
>> Speaker 1: As a viewer, she's incredibly rewarded.
Watching Ellen seems to say to us, you can do this.
You can overcome this alien bitch, and Ellen, unsuspecting day job mid-tear,
every woman could be any of us.
We can watch Sigourney Weaver and see parts of her character inside us, and
parts of us inside her character.
Have you ever walked away from a film like Alien thinking, as strange as it is,
I wouldn't mind an adventure befalling me like that, I might even enjoy it.
I'd like to have something like that happen to me so I can be a hero too.
Well, it's thanks to Ellen Ripley and everyday heroes everywhere that
you get to experience that particular brand of escapism.
[SOUND] Of course, some heroes seem to save the day no matter how hard they try
to fail, it's almost like they can't not win.
We like to call these types the accidental hero, the man or
woman who saves the day by virtue of well timed clumsiness in a dash of luck.
They're usually found in comedies.
Think the Three Stooges, Inspector Clouseau, and Forrest Gump.
They're a blast to watch because they always seem to pull it off in the nick of
time, whatever it is.
And Buster Keaton played a pretty damn good version of this.
But for our number seven,
it's hard to beat our favorite lovable vagrant, The Tramp.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: Developed over the course of his career,
but really peaking in City Lights and Modern Times,
Charlie Chaplin Hitler's with a Hat is the master of the right place,
right time, a silent well meaning indigent with a romantic charm.
And while he often manages to luck his way back into trouble as easily as he gets out
of it, there's no denying that he's a classic hero of the early film era.
>> [NOISE] >> Speaker 1: Now, this is all well and
good with your wholesome goody two-shoes lovable rogues and Rocky Balboas, but
what about those prickly anti-heroes?
Nobody wants to be them, do they?
Well, if you're talking about awesome anti-heroes like The Driver, Bill Money,
and Micheal Corleone, the Man with No Name, or Jewels from Pulp Fiction,
the answer might not be no.
First remember that half of being an anti-hero is the hero part.
So most of these guys have some uber mince juice to start.
But we have a second theory too, for our second theory we have to consider our
number six Pick, Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver.
Travis is solitary, disenfranchised, even homicidal.
His power's been stripped away from him and he's taking a violent,
socially unacceptable route to get it back with rage and violence.
Yet these are very real urges,
urges that are mostly suppressed by functional members of our modern society.
But identifying with an anti-hero provides us with an acceptable
outlet to express these darker desires and live out these unacceptable lies.
Berry blowout valve for the darker more repressed parts of ourselves.
And they allow us to live out a very human evil without being a very human evil,
which is exactly why they're important.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: [SOUND] For number five, we wanna talk about catharsis.
There's nothing quite like walking out of the theater after a particularly moving
film, feeling like you've been changed by it.
It's like you've grown over the course of the film.
It's one of our favorite feelings, and
one of the most incredible things about a good movie.
And then a few hours later, it kinda goes away.
You didn't really change, but you sure felt like it at the time.
So what happened?
Well, you probably just spent a few hours watching a hero grow and change and
you took your own self along for the ride with it.
Think Phil Connors, Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X.
Think Erin Brockovich, Will Hunting or Walt Kowalski.
This is textbook George Bailey from It's a Wonderful Life and
Kikuchiyo from Seven Samari.
And we all love those heroes.
But for our number five pick,
there is none better than Rick Blaine from Casablanca.
>> Speaker 4: Well, Rick, you're not only a sentimentalist but
you've become a patriot.
>> Rick Blaine: Maybe, but it seemed like a good time to start.
>> Speaker 1: From jaded cynic to noble patriot,
Rick puts past wounds behind him and does the right thing.
And of course, it doesn't hurt that he looks so cool doing it.
He's a pleasure to root for and
it's a feeling of utter triumph when he comes around in the end.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: Now we're certainly not the first people to try to break down the hero
from Aristotle's tragic hero to Lord Raglan's absurd 22 rules.
Heroes have been catching the attentions of serious scholars and
top ten YouTube list makers for centuries and/or since 2005.
But a man name Joseph Campbell noticed a pretty cool trend in
heroes that seemed to go on a journey.
>From Jesus to Buddha to Odysseus, Campbell found that some of the greatest heroes all
seemed to depart their every day world, cross the threshold into the unknown where
through difficult trials they are transformed, before eventually returning,
changed forever, to their everyday world.
In movie terms, this is Chief Brody from Jaws, it's Neo from The Matrix, and
it's definitely Frodo from The Lord of the Rings.
It's Luke Skywalker, Dorothy, even Harold and Kumar.
But our favorite hero on a journey has to be TE Lawrence from Lawrence of Arabia.
>> Speaker 6: All right, Dryden.
You can have him for six weeks.
Who knows, might even make a man out of him.
>> Speaker 1: While this is very similar in experience to the changed hero,
there's something special about this case that Campbell discovered.
The journey to the crossings of thresholds may tend to perfectly coincide with our
own internal developmental journey.
And the myths serve as guidance and relief for those going through it.
In Lawrence's case this is from outcast to leader, and back to outcast again.
Again, which is really the classic journey of man.
>From son, to father, to eventual obsolescence, and
there's no doubt he returns a changed man.
Heroes clearly spend a lot of time providing wish fulfillment on a personal
level, but for our number three we'd like to honor heroes that seem to be more about
cultural envy than anything.
When bad things happen we tend to conjure up heroes we wish could save us, and
when this happens on a national level, icons emerge.
Consider Brian Mills' showdown against Arabs amidst the 2008 US political
landscape, or American Sniper's portrait of a 21st century American war hero.
Harry Callahan was a strong, violent ward in the face of 70s urban crime.
Aragorn is technically the fantasy version of a hard counter to German fascism,
AKA Mordor.
And Rambo was a reclamation of American masculinity after failure in Vietnam.
Think of V in a British context, Lester Burnham in a suburban context,
Mr India in an Indian context, and Godzilla in a post bomb Japanese context.
They're all really fascinating.
But for our pick, it's hard to beat Superman.
>> Speaker 7: Go, Jim, go.
>> Superman: Excuse me.
>> Speaker 7: That's a bad outfit.
>> Speaker 1: [SOUND] Superman was originally conceived in comic form as
a mythic character fighting for
social justice, righting the wrongs in a New Deal America.
He's invincible and a bastion of optimism,
which is probably something America was aching for again in the post Vietnam,
post-Watergate 70s when he arose in film and eventually landed on our list.
Closing in at number two, there's another kind of godlike ubermensch that doesn't
include superpowers, or super smarts, or super gadgets.
This is the moral superhero.
They might not be able to leap between buildings in a single bound, but
they always know to do what's right.
There's Zorro, and Abraham Lincoln, and Atticus Finch, and Juror Number Eight.
But for our number two pick, could it be any other than Robin Hood himself?
>> Speaker 9: I walk right to you and appeal for the king's justice.
>> Robin Hood: I have better right than you have to misuse it.
>> Speaker 1: Is there anything cooler and
more enduring then the hero who steals from the rich and gives to poor?
Maybe a pair of green tights, if we are being honest.
Watching him, identifying with him.
is an opportunity to be on the right side of something.
We get to rail against an evil that is clear and plain to see and
far simpler than the shades of gray that color our daily conflict.
It's thrilling and self affirming, and actually has a good message,
which is why we're happy he's the second to last on our list.
And finally, at number one, we'd like to talk about what we think is the most
important criteria for herodom, self sacrifice.
Across all cultures and stories and religions and
films, there is no more highly vaulted hero than the one who risks everything.
We call him the true hero.
Think of Spartacus, Cool Hand Luke, or the Iron Giant.
It's Lassie or William Wallace or Severus Snape.
It's Captain John Miller and Mad Max, and Oscar Schindler.
And sure, they're obviously so well loved because everyone worships the martyr.
But what of the psychological effect on viewers here?
Surely there is no great vicarious relief in letting oneself die.
But it turns out there is.
There is nothing more universal than the terror of death.
It is the ultimate fear, the inescapable inevitability and
yet these heroes have the bravery to face it head on.
And then one of two things happens.
They either survive and win, conquering death and vanquishing our fears, or
they sacrifice their life for the sake of another but
live on forever as a symbol and transcend death in the process.
So who is our pick for the greatest true hero of them all?
Why it's none other than Han Solo.
>> Han Solo: Yahoo! >> Speaker 1: We hardly need to
explain why.
He could have stolen almost any other category on this list.
He's a super heroic every man and a changed anti-hero, and
he risks his neck in his ship many times over to show for it.
Hell, he practically dies and
comes back which makes him sort of an intergalactic Jesus.
And he knows we love him.
Which is why he's our pick for the best hero of all time.
So what do you think?
Do you disagree with some our picks?
Did we leave out one of your favorite heroes?
Let us know in the comments below and
be sure to subscribe for more Cinefix movie lists.
>> [MUSIC]