the incompetent (male) hero is a genre convention of comedy, in fact. the ones who initiate the "groundbreaking antihero revolution" (i think it's schatz, but i am recalling from memory here) are laurel & hardy. gloria monti On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 7:09 AM, William Brown <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > ---------------------- Information from the mail header > ----------------------- > Sender: Film and TV Studies Discussion List < > [log in to unmask]> > Poster: William Brown <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Re: QUERY: the incompetent hero > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > It is interesting that everyone has reached for comedy... I wonder whether > the student has been thinking about non-superhero superheroes - as per > films like Kick-Ass, Special (Specioprin Hydrochloride), and Super... Which > are comedies of sorts, but also not really... > > For what I wonder is whether an incompetent hero might not be much more > regular beyond the specialised lampooning of heroism that most of these > comedies involve... Chaplin, Keaton, Tati, Sellers: each incompetent is in > fact remarkably talented - physically above all. > > So the film that comes to mind for me is, perhaps surprisingly for some > people, Goldfinger. Whereas 21st century Bond can do parkour, somersaults > and superhuman jumping, in Goldfinger (and many early Bonds in general - > particularly the Roger Moore films), Bond can do nothing. He's got no idea > what's going on, he keeps fluffing up his invistigations, getting captured > - and he is each time rescued by others and barely manages to get out of > any of the scapes himself (electrocuting Oddjob perhaps aside). Here we > have a hero who is a bit incompetent, basically - and who never quite works > out what he's supposed to be doing... > > So while incompetent heroes are often comic - the Don Quixote tradition - > they often are not. And their incompetence can have disastrous consequences > - the tradition for me here would be someone like Pierre Bezukhov in > Tolstoy's War and Peace, who attempts to liberate his serfs but basically > messes it up and arguably causes more harm than good... > > Anyone else think of any incompetent heroes that are not necessarily comic, > then? > -- gloria monti, ph.d. assistant professor radio-TV-film CSUF, fullerton, CA [log in to unmask] _____________________________ ---- Learn to speak like a film/TV professor! Listen to the ScreenLex podcast: http://www.screenlex.org