A Culture of Heroism and Violence

The first installment of The Hobbit film series, An Unexpected Journey, presented us with the Peter Jackson/Guillermo del Toro interpretation of Tolkien's classic adventure. But it was much more than that. It also represented an important example of the cultural crisis affecting American society. Along with other reboots such as JJ Abrams' Star Trek, An Unexpected Journey offers us an opportunity to see a narrative reworked for the values and audience of a different era.

When making The Hobbit, a decision was made to expand the story, bringing into the film things that were only hinted at in the book. In the process, new extra enemies were also introduced. In abstract, this is an understandable measure - one designed to make tangible the fears of the Dwarves and Bilbo, giving them common focus in a common enemy and add an element of coherent threat to two films that would serve largely as the journey to the third film's setpiece event.

However, that move also transformed certain contrasts: the contrast between the things that the Dwarves value and the things Bilbo values; and the contrast between the deep kindness of Bilbo and the harshness of life in the world. Instead of seeing Bilbo growing as a person through his kindness and pity, and those characteristics earning him the respect of others due to his willingness to help, Bilbo instead wins respect through an act of suicidal bravery and violence.

This stands in quite stark opposition to Tolkien's work, where Bilbo's bravest acts were nothing to do with violence - being instead epitomised by his choosing to pity Gollum, rather than take vengeance.

A similar kind of criticism has been levelled at JJ Abrams' reboot of Star Trek. Abrams sought inspiration in Star Wars, as writers and executive producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (2009) explain:

'what can we learn from Star Wars here? ...the key is that a modern audience is already going to be attuned to a much faster pace of movie - and Trek in its best form was always submarine warfare. ...I always think of ...Star Trek as beautiful classical music and Star Wars as rock n' roll, and felt like Star Trek needed a little bit more rock n' roll to connect to a modern audience'

The original Star Trek was a champion of heroic diplomacy rather than heroic violence. Yet the reboot ditches much of the philosophy for a faster pace. Long - and admittedly sometimes didactic - discussions on ideology, politics, science and ethics were dropped for exchange of witty barbs on the move.

The changes, to both of these franchises, play right to the heart of the cultural crisis that the United States is right now clawing its way through. Violence, as the literal manifestation of the heroic, is the definitive American trope. In isolation it acts merely as an effective metaphor, making extant the conflicts we face. But it comes with an unfortunate side effect: equating murderous competition with the struggle to gain the respect of others, and build respect for yourself.

Our culture represents only the beginning and end of a cycle through which our values and our behaviour are shaped. It represents the means by which a society expresses itself - but also acts as a mirror: reflecting back a condensed, often decontextualised, and romanticised version of itself.

An Unexpected Journey and Star Trek are mirrors that tell us something about the culture that shaped them. Amongst those things that we can see is an impatience for the long, slow, often complicated, process that comes with peaceful diplomatic resolutions, and a preference for the fast, simple and final catharsis offered by 'heroic' violence.

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+ JJ Abram's 'Star Trek'; Paramount, 2009. Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci quote taken from the Star Trek extra features: 'A New Vision', 2009.