美国电影中的英雄主义-以《蝙蝠侠》系列为例论文(3)

Movie, “Heroism is the indispensable topic of American movies that deeply related to the unique American culture”(155). Meanwhile, his article also portrays some reasons of the formation of heroism including character and history features. And Hu Bo s (胡泊) Seen American individualism heroism from The Dark Knight depicts the intimate relationship between heroism and cowboy culture and the long time worship of ancient heros that stimulates people struggle for survival. Therefore, the analysis of heroism would emphasize historical and realistic reasons (88).

3.1 Historical Factor

Compared to nearly 5000 years history of China, America is just a country with

only hundreds of year s history. The historical element still can not be neglected.

3.1.1 Puritanism

America, a country founded in 1774, has more than two hundred yeas history.

Before the independence of America continent, it used to be the colony of England. That is the reason why exotic culture can spread in this place.

The initial Americans were the puritans crucified by extreme England religion. They escaped and arrived at the North American continent to establish a wonderful and dreamy country. An Yang (安洋) and Wu Qiongxian s (吴琼贤) The Influence of Puritanism on American Values gives the brief introduction of Puritanism at that time and its impact on American society. “Puritans landed the ship in 1620 in the North American continent and established the first colony of Virginia. Meanwhile, they also brought Puritanism that rooted in this continent” (226).Those puritans had forceful strict doctrine and completely believed in the god s choice theory. “Depended on their intensive religious passion and crave for fabulous material, it only took American shortly one to two hundred years to transform the barren and backward America into a superpower country” (王淑琴 15).

Those facts all convince American to argue that they are the chosen people of

merciful God. They are supposed to like God, standing out to fulfil the redemption of human and disseminate the belief of pursuit of freedom to the whole world. The sense of redemption profoundly affected Americans hero complex. Thus, in American movies, those heroes always show up like a savoir or the representation of justice to accept the applause and acclaim of people. Even as the hero like Batman, who has

tolerated long time accusation and rebuke, he still does his utmost to save the Gotham and winning the appreciation of citizens.

3.1.2 Cowboy Culture

The emergence of cowboy can connect the unprecedented bloom of west area. The Westward movement started from the early time of 19th century and terminated in 1890, which sustained almost a century. During this time, the cowboys, who inhabited in the immense prairie, fought against the abominable living condition and their persistent struggle created the western boost myth. “Vast virgin land, plentiful natural resources, and the great potential for development of the west attracted people” (He Siying 286).

At first, the cowboy culture is not as grand and elegant as the modern conception. Originally, cowboys were hired by meagre salaries and their daily work was to supervise the grassland and those typical of the grassland dwellers as cow and goat. “Normal people can never envision how difficult, monotonous and boring this job was” (李青 89).

In this arduous condition, labours can only survive through assiduous work. Consequently, it gives rise to the worship and admiration of heroes. In order to produce a positive figure that can cater for people s imagination, the cowboys gradually began the heat topic and the description object in literature, and then in movies. So, with time passing by, the descriptions of cowboys are more close to the depiction of modern heroes. The strong western cowboys are respectful, but the more essential thing is their valiant quality. Actually, those western cowboys, as well as heroes are imagined by human beings. They are agile, tough and invincible. Superficially, they are the destroyer of regular law, because their behaviours are not restricted by law especially when they confront with evildoers. “As a matter of fact, they are the defenders of law, and they devote themselves to saving others carelessly due to the protection of justice, peace and honour” (杜可富 75). And those western heroes, their attitudes towards women could reflect their warm-hearted nature. In contrast with their atrocity to villains, they are gentle and meek in accordance with the heroic features mentioned above. The prevailing of cowboy culture originated from 18th century, which still has tremendous influence on portraying modern heroes.

3.2 Realistic Factor

The realistic reason can simply be divided into two parts: American individualism and their crisis and competition awareness. The discrepant characteristics decide the world outlook of American and the crisis awareness is such a significant feature to promote the production of heroic movies.

3.2.1 Americans Individualism

The American personality plays an important role in their work and life style. The prevalence of heroic movie attests that those popular movies can perfectly correspond to the core value of American.

It is well-known that a majority of American citizens are individualistic and independent. The Westward Movement aforementioned is closely bound up with the disposition of American. To resist the cruel environment, an increasing number of deplorable people are prone to be more self-reliant.

Individualism might penetrate in every aspect of Americans daily life and it is the foundation of American heroism. Those American people yearned for getting rid of the shackle of European tradition to build a free, democratic and civilized country at the time when the first batches of European immigrants flowed into North American continent. Th …… 此处隐藏：6085字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……