ABSTRACT
Philosophers and theorists from Plato to Joseph Campbell have put forward what it means to be heroic. They've talked about the hero's task, the hero's struggle, the hero's nature. Keeping it simple, people like to believe that the protagonists of ethical movies are good, that right makes might, that virtue triumphs. In the old days, the Hollywood publicity machines wanted people to believe that stars really were perfect and acted perfectly. The Hays Code was put in place so that movies would provide icons of perfect behavior. In the days of the Hays Code, films still had their share of sex and violence but they always ended with a moral. Many of the old films were exercises in suppression and the Hollywood publicity machine was hypocrisy itself, judging by the tell-all biographies published about those old-time stars. And yet there was something likeable in the innocence and bravado, the profound sense of goodness that inspired old-time movie audiences.
