Culture Wars: Han shot first, and the emasculation of heroism

**Posted by Phineas

In this episode of Afterburner, Bill Whittle looks at how George Lucas has bowdlerized one of the great scenes in the original Star Wars and what it tells us about the cultural elite’s perceptions of heroism and manhood:

It’s not for nothing that people still respond to heroes actors like John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, or Gary Cooper, whose heroic characters didn’t wallow in angst before doing what had to be done.

And George, stop lying. Han shot first.

(For the record, I detest the modern habit of powerful directors to re-edit their original work that people loved and somehow “improve it.” Spielberg and “E.T.” is another example.)

UPDATE: Edited to correct a lack of clarity pointed out by a friend on Twitter.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

Comments are closed.