hancock and obama

i dont think it's any coincidence that the best superhero movie i've seen so far with will smith in the starring role comes at the same time that a black man has been nominated for president. the crowds calling for hancock to save them ring with the same fervor as obama's supporters at a rally.

fiction - any kind of fiction, whether it is presented in a short story, a play, a novel or a movie - always tells us something of the truth about ourselves and the world we create for ourselves. like the tarot, it holds up a mirror and dares us to really See. i think this happens because in printed fiction, the words are used to create images in the mind, and in movies and plays of course, the story unfolds in images directly.

what is amazing about this movie is that its hero's angst is genuine. this is no namby pamby peter parker plagued by self-doubt. hancock knows exactly what he can do and does it with a devil-may-care panache that leaves billions of dollars of damage in his wake. wow, i thought, the real people getting creamed in this movie are the property/casualty companies... which may be yet another reason i found the movie so supremely enjoyable. go hancock.

and unlike all the other superheros, who predictably rise from ashes both literal and metaphorical to accept their superhero roles, hancock has no memory of a past other than waking up in a hospital with nothing but a couple of ticket stubs to a movie which was playing at the time - frankenstein.

hancock, with his deep sense of isolation, identifies on some level with frankenstein's monster, and therefore, behaves monstrously, until a chance encounter with someone named of all things (in my universe at least) ray (ick) - but as in sun ray, i think - leads him to the light. but the juxtaposition of the monster, which was more human than its human creator, and composed of many parts, and hancock underscores, at least for me, this connection to obama - a man who is frequently presented in the news, at least, as someone both familiar and foreign all at once, a man made up of many parts.

in the end, hancock embraces his destiny and the world becomes a better place. i suppose we can only hope for a similiar outcome in the fall.

and furthermore, the war must end. blessed be.