Heroism In Iron Man

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Hero worship exists in almost every culture in various ways. Corresponding to the hero worship, heroism represents the pursuit of particular cultural value, and to a certain extent, it affects the development of the society. Largely reflected in the film and television, heroism is one of the most important themes in Western and Asian media markets. Admittedly, different culture has a different definition of heroism and different taste on the traits of heroes and each culture has its different ways of depicting the heroes. More specifically, Americans prefer heroes with bravery, righteousness, and sometimes superpower, which is most evident in the film “Iron Man”. On the other hand, Chinese prefer heroes with strong willpower, devotion and …show more content…

As a hero movie, Iron Man represents traditional American value, which is to help people out when they are in need. Tony Stark, in the movie, takes on more responsibility to save people and innocents who are in dangers. For example, when the villain in the movie attacks Air Force One and kidnaps the President while blowing a hole in the cabin, thirteen people are sucked out into the air. When Tony Stark, in the armor suit of iron man, is told that he can only carry out four of these innocents, he illustrates his responsibility and persistence as a national hero. By telling Heather, the first woman he saves, to calm down and stretch out her arms to grab other people in the air, Tony Stark gradually builds up teamwork and is able to get a hold of all thirteen people by having them grab onto each other like a human chain. Tony Stark’s initiative may not be saving the world, but he becomes a hero after saving as many people as possible along the way. However, on the other hand, Qiu in the movie “Qiushaoyun” is not that fortunate. When the incendiary bomb drops right next to him, Qiu is facing a dilemma, whether to risk to extinguish the fire on him by rolling into the stream nearby or not to expose his comrades by being burned to death without moving. Indeed, he chooses the latter and sacrifices his life for the army. However, the grief on his family for losing Qiu should never …show more content…

Tony Stark, in the movie Iron Man, is a perfect model of the American dream. Not only renowned as superhero, Tony Stark is also famous for his incredible intelligence as he graduated from MIT at the age of seventeen and for his successful carrier as he runs a huge weapon company and owns over ten billion wealth. Everyone wants to be such financially successful with genuine intelligence while possessing a deep sense of ethics like Tony Stark. Superhero like Iron Man pioneers the achievement of ideal individualism and the American dream and encourages everyone to pursue and work hard to achieve their values. On the other hand, Qiu, raised by traditional cultural values, is resolute on serving the collectivism as priority. He has been taught and asked to serve everything in necessary as long as it is beneficial for the group and for the country. Before the struggle for Hill 391, Qiu and his unit are trained to be silent and covert for more than twenty hours crawling on the ground with twigs as natural camouflage. No matter what conditions and accidents happen, no one in the unit is allowed to move and betray the position. When Qiu becomes trapped in the ensuing brush fire, in order not to betray the position of his comrades, he chooses to endure the agonizing pain. In the film, Qiu stuck his fingers deep into the soil as the fire keeps

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