2008 Woodie Awards
Action hero list too mainstream, omits film legend from 'Scarface'
Erich Pilcher: Outing what's in (A&E opinon)
Brandon Williams
Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: A&E
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Explosions, jumping out of a plate glass window, saving the world and getting the hot bodacious babe at the end of the day, is the life of a Hollywood action movie legend.
But that is just a fantasy world. The "fine" reporters of Entertainment Weekly recently rated the top 25 action stars of all time and the number one star was… John McClain from the, "Die Hard" series. I beg to differ.
The problem with this list is out of the top five stars, Neo from "The Matrix" Mad Max, Indiana Jones, Ripley from the "Alien" quadrilogy, and John McLain, all of them needed sequels to finish beating the bad guy. I'm sorry my action hero did not need a sequel, he finished the job in two-hours and a tub of popcorn.
Tony Montana from the 1983 blood, drug and profanity laced cult classic "Scarface" is not just an action hero but also an American hero.
Now, before you go into the moral issues of how Montana earned his money, that is not the case here. The fact is, here is a man who closed the film by taking on over 30 Bolivians with assault rifles. Instead of running he did a line of coke, grabbed a rocket launcher and yelled, "Say hello to my little friend." And then proceeded to take out half of the group in a cocaine induced rage before falling to a shotgun blast to the stomach. If that does not ooze action hero, then what does?
Ripley could take on aliens but a pack of angry assassins with guns; please she would kill herself to avoid that. Although Montana did not survive the attack he proved that the "bad guy" was one tough dude.
The other aspect of the Pilcher Action Hero System is patriotism. Now, Montana was not a patriot, that is for sure but the fact is he lived the American dream. Montana came here with nothing, was working in a dead end dishwashing job and became a very rich and powerful man, had a beautiful wife and respect across the world. That is about as American as apple pie.
Many will state that Montana had no reason for breaking the law. In the "Die Hard" or "Dirty Harry" movies the lead characters had a personal attachment to what was going on and thus the audience would say "It is okay that he killed that man because he was bad."
In the last 25 minutes of "Scarface" Montana kills his best friend for marrying his sister, watches his sister die due to several bullets in the chest and had his mother tell him he was worthless and still he fights through his assassin with gusto and bravado that could only be action hero esque.
The fact that Montana was not a morally devout individual should not eliminate him from being an action hero.
But that is just a fantasy world. The "fine" reporters of Entertainment Weekly recently rated the top 25 action stars of all time and the number one star was… John McClain from the, "Die Hard" series. I beg to differ.
The problem with this list is out of the top five stars, Neo from "The Matrix" Mad Max, Indiana Jones, Ripley from the "Alien" quadrilogy, and John McLain, all of them needed sequels to finish beating the bad guy. I'm sorry my action hero did not need a sequel, he finished the job in two-hours and a tub of popcorn.
Tony Montana from the 1983 blood, drug and profanity laced cult classic "Scarface" is not just an action hero but also an American hero.
Now, before you go into the moral issues of how Montana earned his money, that is not the case here. The fact is, here is a man who closed the film by taking on over 30 Bolivians with assault rifles. Instead of running he did a line of coke, grabbed a rocket launcher and yelled, "Say hello to my little friend." And then proceeded to take out half of the group in a cocaine induced rage before falling to a shotgun blast to the stomach. If that does not ooze action hero, then what does?
Ripley could take on aliens but a pack of angry assassins with guns; please she would kill herself to avoid that. Although Montana did not survive the attack he proved that the "bad guy" was one tough dude.
The other aspect of the Pilcher Action Hero System is patriotism. Now, Montana was not a patriot, that is for sure but the fact is he lived the American dream. Montana came here with nothing, was working in a dead end dishwashing job and became a very rich and powerful man, had a beautiful wife and respect across the world. That is about as American as apple pie.
Many will state that Montana had no reason for breaking the law. In the "Die Hard" or "Dirty Harry" movies the lead characters had a personal attachment to what was going on and thus the audience would say "It is okay that he killed that man because he was bad."
In the last 25 minutes of "Scarface" Montana kills his best friend for marrying his sister, watches his sister die due to several bullets in the chest and had his mother tell him he was worthless and still he fights through his assassin with gusto and bravado that could only be action hero esque.
The fact that Montana was not a morally devout individual should not eliminate him from being an action hero.
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