The modern hero is usually unusually handsome and in that way distances himself from the average man. His rugged features must show well on the screen because that is the preferred medium today. But writers know that their audience must relate to their\u00a0protagonist. A strange thing happens then in modern stories. In order to find some common ground with the average person watching the movie or reading the book, today\u2019s heroes are messy, angry, and broken in the name of realism.<\/p>\n
The argument goes something like this: Since we are all sinners, then the key characters of our stories should be as well. Anything else is unrealistic and unbelievable. Life is raw and anything less would be smarmy hypocrisy.<\/em><\/p>\n Here are a few examples.<\/p>\n In C. S. Lewis\u2019 Prince Caspian<\/em>, Peter is a young hero following a virtuous path. The wisdom and humility he displays are found from his elders, so even though he is young, Lewis\u2019 was not propping up a nascent youth culture. The same character in the 2008 movie walks onto the screen as an angry teenager with \u201cissues\u201d.<\/p>\n Tolkien\u2019s Faramir in The Two Towers\u00a0<\/em>is a model for my sons of justice, restraint, and discernment. Peter Jackson\u2019s Faramir in the movie of the same name is a petulant, self-aggrandizing post-modern. What model of virtue is impoverished more than he? Only Jackson\u2019s version of Frodo who\u2014can you believe it?\u2014rejects Sam in favor of Gollum. (Incidentally, Tolkien wrote Frodo as a 50-year old wealthy hobbit who nevertheless condescends with friendship to his faithful, lower-class, 35-year old servant. The cultural Marxists had to cut that dynamic as well when they rewrote the story.)<\/p>\n What would these kinds of writers do to Jane Austen\u2019s Mr. Darcy if they could? What would they do to the apostle Paul who lived from his conversion as a model of Christian piety (Acts 24:16)? We want our heroes exciting, but not convicting. They\u2019ve got to be mostly like us except with superpowers or else they will not make it to market.<\/p>\n Here is the rest of the series.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The modern hero is usually unusually handsome and in that way distances himself from the average man. His rugged features must show well on the screen because that is the preferred medium today. But writers know that their audience must … Continue reading \n