Shadow

On a cold rainy November day, my thoughts are turning to Highlander. Not really sure why.

Which is why I'm going to take a post to talk about The Shadow.

I saw this Alec Baldwin superhero feature in the theater, and wanted to like it much more than I did. The reasons I had at the time appear clearer now, and more succinctly described: it's a Redemption story that's instead portrayed as a Hero story. Everything about the protagonist - the timing of the story, his more practical than moral methods, especially his unsavory origin - points to a Reactive character. These usually work best in redemptive plots, where the previous evil (original sin?) is overcome. While there are hints that this was considered, the story ends up more about how he Saves The World. Even there, though, he does it without any real sacrifice. In fact we might say that it's more of a Prophet story, where he succeeds through sheer moral superiority. In any case, it's a muddied resolution: too Bad at the start to just Be Good at the end, not bad enough to be Redeemed, not enough sacrifice to be Heroic.

I remember thinking at the time that it would have worked with a Highlander-like treatment of flashbacks to his earlier life, and his struggle to contain it - that the point is that The Shadow really does know the evil that lurks in the hearts of men. Found out later that - go figure - Mulcahy directed both. Ah, well.

Obama

At first, I didnt see Obama's re-election as having a lot of generational or Crisis overtones. Sure, there was plenty of "the most important election of our lives" rhetoric, and a surprising amount if allusion to 1776 and 1860. There's nothing as controversial as slavery or revolution being brought up - and then I realized that was probably the Republicans' mistake. Romney appeared to be - at best - a return to the Bush years. Whether you consider that to mean "when America was great" or "the same old failed policies" it wasn't enough to get a Crisis-era electorate enthused. Going in a more controversial direction - yes, like Ron Paul - might have enabled a redirection of energies from across the political spectrum. And that is what the Crisis is about, after all.