I’ve always been a sucker for movies about someone who’s getting old. Not necessarily movies about old people, although A Man Called Otto wrecked me, but movies where the hero is a badass but also a little past his prime. Think the Rocky movies where Stallone’s a bit older, or Cars 3, or even Jeff Bridge’s Rooster Cogburn (I’m sorry to offend by not saying John Wayne, but I haven’t watched the og one. Please don’t stone me).
Here I am watching Seinfeld, and I think I’m just gonna write a bit and see if I can figure out why I like those aging hero films so much. It’s kinda hard, because one: I genuinely don’t know why I like those movies so much, and two: I never watched much Seinfeld until now, and it is super funny.
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the NFL. My main hobby was watching the games, watching analysis shows, collecting football cards, and playing Madden. I was abnormally invested for such a young kid.
Whenever I saw my uncles I would talk about all the different players and teams all day, because most of my friends were not nearly as knowledgeable. I read stat books for fun. I was insane lol. (But don’t try to talk to me about the NFL now because I will have no idea what you are saying and will feel sad that I can’t keep up anymore).
Of course I had my favorite players, but none that I idolized like Brett Favre. I saw this guy, who had humor, great charisma, and was an absolute gunslinger. He’d do anything to keep a play alive. (Part of the reason that he led the NFL in interceptions haha). But on top of all that, my guy was old, 40 years old, with multiple serious injuries through his career, especially at the end, and still just going at it.
I thought that was so sick. So cool that I even would wear a Favre Packers jersey, while growing up in Bend, Oregon, ignoring the fact that it was dangerously close to the colors of the Oregon Ducks, who I hated immensely (I swear it felt like I was the only Beaver in the whole state).
Interestingly, the same things that made me idolize an NFL quarterback are the things that cause me to become invested in a movie character. Give me any story about the old guy still going at it, and I eat it up. Honestly, you don’t even need to make it a great film and I’ll watch it.
One thing that comes to mind is that these stories typically involve the character digging past what their physicality would allow. There’s something about the aging hero pushing past actual physical pain that is so inspiring. In modern culture, a lot of people see injury or pain, even if it is rather minor, to be ample cause to quit. Someone gets hurt so they get to just stop and call a timeout. We’re a bunch of wusses. But deep down, we all dream about what we would do if we just had to keep going. If we got shot in a firefight, but had to keep going; if we broke our leg but had to make it out of the woods; we want to know if we have it in us.
In these movies we get to see what happens when giving up is not an option. We get to speculate about how we would push through if we weren’t wusses. There’s something about the blood dripping from the mouth, the determined limp, that gets me way too invested in movies about the aging hero, even if its really just a mediocre film about a grumpy old bastard.
I also get to see the classic story of prideful youth combatting wisdom of years. There’s something so satisfying about seeing the old man casually beat the shit out of a stronger, cocky kid. Wisdom and grit trumping pride is a classic tale as old as anything. An old man once told me that as life goes on, you learn that true grit is often the thing that will win the day. I don’t know if he meant watching the film, or actually having grit, but I’m gonna go with both.
Something about the aging hero beating the youthful villain also strikes the justice meter. I think all too often, we see the 20-somethings disrespect and disregard their elders and their advice. So when a youthful villain thinks he can’t get one over on the hero because he’s getting old, it pisses me off because I see that pattern in real life all the time. And I crave the justice of seeing the aging hero win.
I’ve always been a sucker for things that focus on hope, and the hope of these stories is universal, because they offer vision around getting old. And everyone gets old unless they’re really unlucky, and I don’t want being old to suck. These stories take a lot of stabs at what it is to find meaning in the golden years of life. Whether by the hero just bucking up and still killing the bad guys even though his back is broken, or by taking on the role of the mentor.
This leads me to one last idea, which is I think something about the aging hero pulls on this loyalty kick I have. I am subconsciously, but desperately motivated to root for the old guy because others would count him out. I feel the sacrifice he has made over the years, and I refuse to count him out just because he’s a little slower or whatever.
This is not the most intellectual thing I’ve ever written, and I don’t think I’ve really answered my question of why I like these stories. But it’s a good start I guess. I imagine that as I age myself, I’ll have an easier time understanding my appreciation of the aging hero story. Regardless, this has taken way too many episodes of Seinfeld to write, and I gotta stop. I really liked the episode where George passes on the NBC deal lol.
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