What movie scenes best display "what it means to be a hero"?
I am putting together a youtube clip where I will create a compilation of movie scenes that tell the theme “what does it mean to be a hero.” Any ideas? The best response should have more than two scenes.
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I would have to watch the movies to pick out scenes @MetroGnome217 but a couple of films with characters that are definitely heroes in my book are To Kill a Mockingbird with Atticus Finch and Schindler’s List with Oskar Schindler.
Sorry I can’t give you specific scenes.
“The Devils Arithmatic”, near the end when she dies to save someone else. Obviously a hero.
You could probably find a lot in “Jacob The Liar” I don’t know a specific scene, but there should be some good ones.
There is no better ‘hero’ film than Steven Spielberg’s ‘Schindler’s List’.
Oskar Schindler is the man!
Also, Milk. With Harvey Milk.
You can find some great scenes from The Hurt Locker.
Legends of the Fall when Brad Pitt’s character Tristan tries to save his brother Samuel during a very sad war scene (sometime during the first hour of the movie).
Backdraft. Any compilation of heroic scenes should include firefighters. (I haven’t seen the movie in years, but I’m sure it can’t be too hard to find a scene from this film)
The end of Unforgiven, when Will takes on a barroom full of vigilanties.
When Matthew Broderick got off his horse to join his men in attacking the enemy fort by foot in Glory.
When Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid came out to shoot it out with soldiers outnumbering them.
When Clint Eastwood in Million Dollar Baby euthanized Hillary Swank.
When Robert de Niro shoots it out with violent pimps to save Jodie Foster.
When Richard Gere came for Julia Roberts at the end of Pretty Woman.
When Kick Ass defended a random guy against two thugs from being beaten. When Kick Ass came flying, firing two mini-Gatling guns to help Hit Girl.
When Leonardo Di Caprio gave Djimon Honsou the diamond back in Blood Diamond.
When Ripley went back for Newt in Aliens.
When Frodo stood up and says he will take the Ring to Mordor.
When Kirk’s father rammed his starship into the Romulan spaceship after his crew have evacuated in the latest Star Trek movie.
When Shelley Winters swam to help her fellow Poseidon survivors only to die of a heart attack afterwards.
When Maverick finally decides to engage in a dogfight in Top Gun.
When Gary Cooper stays in town to face the men out to kill him in High Noon.
I’d also recommend Schindler’s List. Gran Torino fits the bill, for me at least.
why did nobody mention ‘band of brothers’ or ‘saving private ryan’ or ‘the pianist’
You have to include John Wayne in there, legally.
John Wayne, John Wayne, John Wayne.
@augustlan He seems to have created, literally, what the hero is for America. Even though we don’t see him much anymore, it’s astonishing to me how much presidential candidates have to try to embody him in order to be considered a viable candidate.
@MyNewtBoobs That does ring true. From soldier to cowboy to prize fighter to father figure, he’s pretty much the original hero.
Boo Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird was a hero when he saves Scout from Bob Ewell.
The quiet heroes are the best,in my opinion :)
When Johnny, Ponyboy and Dally save the children from the church fire in The Outsiders.
Henry Fonda in Twelve Angry Men, as the one juror who doesn’t capitulate.
Meryl Streep in Silkwood.
Here’s someone’s list of the top 100. Not all would have been of my choosing, but you can poke around.
“Rocky Dies Yellow!” A scene unseen in Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
The offscreen execution of Rocky the gangster—after he meets with his lifelong friend, priest “Father Jerry” and is convinced of the rightness of ending the idolization of himself by a group of troubled boys.
Sidney Carton’s substitution of himself for Charles Darnay at the guillontine in A Tale of Two Cities (1935).
In the above, Carton must persuade others to help him make the substitution, must persuade Darnay to accept the sacrifice, and while he waits in the tumbril he comforts a young girl also facing execution.
He does it all for a woman he loves, for her greater good and that of her chosen love.
Just to throw in some Disney here: Hercules had to find out all about what it meant to be a “true hero” in order to become a god. The scene would be the one where he saves Meg from the Underworld after Hades breaks the deal he and Hercules made. The scene that follows shows Zeus telling Hercules the meaning of a true hero.
In the Angels with Dirty Faces film, one major scene is when Jerry asks Rocky to die in a cowardly fashion and Rocky refuses. However, he is heard offstage in the next scene doing just that. The last scene shows father Jerry with the boys as they discuss the newspaper headline “Rocky dies yellow, killer coward at end” and Jerry tells the boys, “yes it is true,” then leads them off to say a prayer for him.
The ending of Casablanca, because it displays sacrifice, something essential to qualify as a hero.
For me, (with a nod to Frodo) it’s Samwise Gamgee that’s the hero—to understand and love his friend so thoroughly that he knows Frodo isn’t himself and forgives him, to thoroughly respect and support Frodo’s mission to the point that it’s up to him to make sure the mission is accomplished, to pick Frodo up and carry him physically up the mountain, then step back and honor Frodo’s role—- that is the type of quiet hero I am inspired by. Not everyone can be the one on the highest Olympic podium, but none of the victors get there without their coaches.
This one A guy selling out and risking his own life to save another.
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