Blog Response- The American Anti-Hero

The American-Anti hero seems to be a contradiction within itself because they "will perform acts generally deemed 'heroic', but will do so with methods, manners, or intentions that may not be heroic." This was a popular intent of film makers at the time period, which was around 1945 because World War 2 had a large influence on people and directors at the time, so they had to create films to appeal to their audience. The characters being portrayed and films seemed to rival the harsher time period that America seemed to adopt during the time. America at the time was not innocent at all and "Americans wanted their heroes to rebel against the status quo like they, the American public, were rebelling." America through different films, audiences can understand the context of what is going on at the country's time because films do not present irrelevant material. Many times films rival, the society at the time as shown during this period, and through war-films politics and soldiers minds were constantly questioned. An example of the anti-hero more recently is brad pitt in fight club, where his gritty character contradicts him aiding many people in a violent outlet of fighting.

The Anti-hero contradicts the Classic Hollywood Ideology because Anti-Heroes motives seem to be more defineable than those of Classic Ideology. Anti-Heroes are "Rebels... who fight authority figures no matter what the cost." This is true in almost all anti-hero stories where you can predict the actors motives and intentions through the time period. Also you know what to expect out of the character and their motives are more hostile than the typical "hero" portrayed in Classical films.  A film we recently saw shows how the anti-hero is far different from a classical hero, who does not have as many psychological issues as the anti-hero does. Travis constantly faces issues within his own mind allowing the audience to question his sanity.