Review of Hero

Hero is without a doubt one of the most visually striking film I've seen in a long time. Imagine Crouching Tiger as a Kodak film commercial and you've only begun to do it justice. As a good friend put it, you could take a still frame from nearly anywhere in the film and hang it on the wall. No one would question its beauty. Just as sublime is the story, a welcome retreat to the good ol' days of honor, sacrifice, discipline, vengence, and the high arts. We watch the events of the story unfold from three perspectives, each arriving closer to truth and revelation than the last, until the final telling reveals the spirit of the film, similar to the effect of a haiku. While this lends a poetic charm to the film and succeeds in providing a gratifying sort of philosophy-in-process, this approach does burden (if only slightly) the movie with an episodic feel. We're left to ask ourselves how much of a stronger emotional plane could have been achieved if the whole (un)reliable narrative question had never been raised. As a whole Hero, while very good, never quite reaches greatness, in part due to its rather elementery (gimmicky?) story construction. We don't move with the characters in any steady direction long enough to grant them our full emotional attachment. Consequently, the Qin king emerges as the richest, most truly human character, despite the fact that he doesn't physically move an inch (well, more than a few feet anyway) throughout the entire film. The rest engage in dramatic fight scenes and roam country sides, but their journeys are their own, never fully ours. The end result is a beautiful, entertaining, serious, and noble film that doesn't fully engage.