Montag, November 28, 2005
About 'super heroes'
Yesterday I went to see ‘The Legend of Zorro’. And once again I have to say that I really like this kind of super hero stories! It’s not only about fascinating fighting scenes and heartbreaking love stories, the main reason for my enthusiasm, no matter if it is Batman, Spiderman, Superman or Zorro, is the very clear picture of who is good and who is bad, who is doing the right and who is doing the wrong thing and, of course, the guarantee that Good will prevail over Bad and that there will be a happy ending. In a world where black and white became a blur of gray and everything can be either good or bad or a bit of both that is a very refreshing thing! Probably that’s why all these stories have been successful over the last couple of years. People are tired of not knowing whom to trust and being suspicious all the time when they go and see a movie.
Maybe just like in real life, where people who pretend to be ‘saviours’ regularly turn out to be frauds… At the moment South Africa is about to lose one of those ‘heroes’. His name is Jacob Zuma and he used to be the Deputy President of the country. Because of a huge corruption affair he eventually had to leave this position. Nevertheless people are still supporting him (because it was his partner who was charged for corruption and not him… the campaign ‘100% Zuma, innocent until proven guilty’ (I mean how much more prove do they need?!) seems a bit ridicules from my perspective but of course there is a lot of politics and tribalism behind it as well. Ja, that’s what I mean with ‘gray’ and that people are very confused these days…
I know that it’s not a solution to watch movies and to wait for the moment when one of them (preferably not Zorro, since he wouldn’t be a big help with his whip and his sword in times of nuclear weapons and globalization…) steps out of the screen and does something about our problems like poverty and injustice and protects us against all the evil that is around. Nevertheless I think that these kind of movies have a function and can help people to recognise what is good and what is not and by the same time encourage them to do ‘the right thing’ themselves. Something like: teaching values and norms in times where people tend to be selfish and greedy.
All right, maybe I’m expecting a bit too much from simple action movies… and maybe I tend to be a bit disillusioned these days… but I really like to imagine that it could be as simple and easy as that :-)
I know that it’s not a solution to watch movies and to wait for the moment when one of them (preferably not Zorro, since he wouldn’t be a big help with his whip and his sword in times of nuclear weapons and globalization…) steps out of the screen and does something about our problems like poverty and injustice and protects us against all the evil that is around. Nevertheless I think that these kind of movies have a function and can help people to recognise what is good and what is not and by the same time encourage them to do ‘the right thing’ themselves. Something like: teaching values and norms in times where people tend to be selfish and greedy.
All right, maybe I’m expecting a bit too much from simple action movies… and maybe I tend to be a bit disillusioned these days… but I really like to imagine that it could be as simple and easy as that :-)
# posted by Carolin @ 12:47 PM 
