The American Anti-Hero

The American anti-hero "reshaped American cinema." The rise of the anti-hero occurred for four reasons, each indicating that "American culture is not really influenced by its cinema. American cinema though, in some ways, is a reflection of the culture."


Firstly, after World War II, America had essentially become a new country: "the era of the Sergeant York's and Mr. Smith's was washed away by the bloody surf at Normandy and the shockwave of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. America had lost its innocence for good and needed new kinds of heroes to lead the way." Just as the country itself had evolved, so too did its peoples' ideals and desires.


Additionally, as the people began to rebel more and more against social norms, they wanted their influences to rebel just as much. America's youth "began to become disenchanted and cynical with the very idea of being good, especially when faced with overbearing authority figures. This all leads to a revolution of the father figure, thus altering heroic concepts all together." 


Furthermore, audiences began to crave more realistic protagonists. Whereas earlier films had focused on characters solving large-scale problems, films of the Anti-Hero Golden Age concerned characters with smaller sights: solving their own issues, with less emphasis on valor. Anti-heroes "gave back to the audience a sense of something tangible
lost or gained" and would "come to represent America's growing uneasiness and skepticism about true courage and heroism." Although many such protagonists failed in the end, their refusal to go down without a fight struck a chord with audiences.


Lastly, anti-heroes came to represent the true American spirit, good or bad. Pioneers of the anti-hero understood that "people in general do wrong, but understanding how someone we like can do wrong reflects our own misgivings and failures to do the right thing." Anti-heroes, in their reflection of the average American, delved deeply into the true meaning of being an American.