Steven Spielberg explains how he crafts heroes: “they’re everyday types of people”
Crafting a truly iconic hero is no easy task. They must be at once relatable and unencumbered by the anxieties of normal people. They should be ambitious but not self-involved; honourable but not without fault; kind and generous, and yet ruthless when the need arises. That’s one hell of a tall order, but Steven Spielberg, director of such films as Jurassic Park, Jaws, and E.T., has created an array of magnetic heroes who, for the most part, have stood the test of time.
So what is it that makes characters like Indiana Jones such great heroes? The protagonists of the old Greek myths are often semi-divine characters who possess superhuman characteristics and abilities. Consider Hercules – an illegitimate son of Zeus with the strength of 20 men.
Then you’ve got more relatable heroes like Odysseus, the protagonist of Homer’s The Oddysey. The Ithican lord possesses all the qualities ancient Greek society deemed most valuable: intelligence, courage, leadership and wit. Indeed, Odysseus is the perfect example of a hero being used to reflect an ideal, one that even ordinary people can aspire to. You can’t aspire to have the strength of 20 men, but you can certainly aspire to be a brilliant leader or a crafty tactician.
Characters like Indiana Jones function in much the same way. Jones is an ordinary professor who is forced into heroism almost against his will. This is a recurring feature of Speilberg’s heroes. During a 1982 interview with The New York Times, the director described his heroes as “common, everyday types of people to whom nothing really happens until I come along. In the movies I’ve made, I’ve tried very, very hard to take the bystander, toughen him up, thereby robbing him of his innocence, in order to combat the forces that are against him.”
That brings us to another key feature of a good hero: their enemy. Every protagonist must have an enemy who is somehow stronger than they are. This forces the hero to overcome or reveal something about themselves, creating a sense of character growth. “I love movies where there are opposing forces and they’re stronger than the hero, and the hero must succeed either by finding a way around or straight through,” Speilberg said.
So you can see how Speilberg’s characters are very much a product of the Homeric tradition. While they possess innate heroic qualities, these characteristics are only revealed in reaction to a threat. Like Odysseus, Indiana Jones, Captain Miller from Saving Private Ryan, and Alan Grant from Jurassic Park are all ordinary people just trying to find their way home against the odds.
