Product Description

A CAGEY CROOK LEARNS A LESSON IN LIFE WHEN AN IMPSTER TAKES CREDIT FOR HIS ACT OF HEROISM.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19675 in DVD
• Brand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
• Released on: 1999-05-25
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Full Screen, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Georgian, Chinese, Thai
• Dubbed in: Portuguese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 118 minutes

Amazon.com
Dustin Hoffman plays a lowlife who happens upon a plane crash and rescues the passengers, but doesn't really care about the value of his deed or the attendant publicity when the media starts searching for the hero. Another fellow (Andy Garcia) steps into the gap and claims credit, and as his life changes for the better he takes on a messianic glow. Geena Davis is the cynical television reporter who pushes the latter's fame in order to keep her story alive, and this film, directed by Stephen Frears (Prick Up Your Ears), takes a few familiar jabs at a manipulative and voyeuristic press. This is essentially an unofficial remake of Meet John Doe, though it is less dramatic and forceful in the end than Frank Capra's classic. Chevy Chase has an oddly anachronistic part as Davis's editor (maybe he thought he really was in Meet John Doe), but the film belongs to Hoffman, who makes his character a slightly cleaned-up version of the actor's own Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker
Stephen Frears' new movie often feels like a remake of something from the thirties or the forties. Its plot premise-an ordinary man is lionized by the media for a courageous act he didn't perform, and the actual hero can't get anyone to see the truth-provides the sort of material that Preston Sturges and Frank Capra liked to work with. And the script, an original by David Webb Peoples (who also wrote "Unforgiven"), even borrows from John Ford: in a sense, this picture is a screwball-comedy take on "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." The movie is fascinating to watch, but most of the time you're sitting there wondering why this ingeniously constructed script isn't playing better. Simply stated, Peoples hasn't written many funny lines, and Frears' attempts to create comic business visually feel strained and unspontaneous. The filmmakers fail to supply the incidental pleasures and the joyous sense of immediacy that screwball farce-even ironic, subversive screwball farce-can't do without. Dustin Hoffman, who plays the real hero, doesn't get any kind of rhythm going until the movie is almost over; and Andy Garcia, as the faker, can't quite rise above his cryptically written role. But Geena Davis, as a hot-shot TV reporter, is smashing: she strikes a lovely balance between warmth and satiric precision, and holds it in the midst of the general chaos. Also with Joan Cusack, Kevin J. O'Connor, Stephen Tobolowsky, Tom Arnold, and (unbilled) Chevy Chase. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

underrated
Hero is really a gem. It features consistently good performances and is sharp, thought-provoking, and is touching without approaching sappiness. You get Geena Davis while she was still making good movies, Dustin Hoffman without much visible ego, a solid Andy Garcia, and the always-fabulous Joan Cusack.

This movie was SO underrated. I remember reading that Quentin Tarantino said this was a movie he wished he'd had a chance to direct because it could have been so much better, that in this movie you see a director reaching the extent of his abilities, and while I was glad to see that someone was recognizing it in any way, it also really made me mad that Quentin Tarantino, not like the most consistent or productive director, should say that about Steven Frears, who directed My Beautiful Laundrette, Dangerous Liaisons, and this. Really! This is for me up there among the best movies of the past 10 years, certainly among the most underappreciated.

Of Heroes and the most unlikely Heroes...
Bernie Laplante (Dustin Hoffman) is not necessarily the kind of man to be nominated 'Role Model of the Year'. He's divorced, a liar, a cheat, a thief, and headed for jail. On the way to pick his son to the movies, he is the lone witness of a plane crash and very unwillingly saves the lives of all those on the plane after a boy begs him to save his father. He leaves the scene complaining at the loss of his shoe and his car which is now a wreck. Driven home by a homeless guy named John Bubber (Andy Garcia), Bernie gives his one remaining shoe to the guy, saying he'll never stick his neck out for anybody again. Gale Gayley (Geena Davis), a tv news reporter who was saved from the crash, is bent on finding the mysterious man who saved everyone on the plane. The media builds the mystery man up, calling him 'the Angel of Flight 104'. Gale's tv station offers a $1 million reward and much to Bernie's consternation, the homeless guy he had spoken to claims to be the 'hero'! Since no one got a good look of the 'hero' and John has the other shoe which matches the one left at the wreckage, who's to claim otherwise? And anyway, who would believe Bernie to be the hero-type?

A very satirical story, "Hero" is not necessarily about 'real heroes'. Instead, I could say that this film should have been named "The Ideal Hero" (nods to the Oscar Wilde play, "An Ideal Husband"). Both take the idea of the 'ideal', in this case the ideal hero: just how ideal is ideal? Is ideal just what we see on the surface? Because the surface can be deceiving... This film cleverly gives a very insightful look on how deceiving it is about what we 'want' to see and what the 'reality' is.

Dustin Hoffman is such an incredibly 'unlikable' fellow that we can't help but start to 'like' him, thus created more of an irony to the story. As the story progresses, you can't help but start sympathizing with him, at the same time just wanting to hit him over the head and tell him what to do to make things right! Geena Davis also gives a solid performance and she handles her role of the tv reporter with a hidden, soft heart professionally. Andy Garcia's character may seem 'too good to be true', but in fact I think that's what the whole point was. Is too good to be true real?

All in all, a delightfully ironic story with a subtle message. Rated PG-13 for strong language which is quite unfortunate since it may have been better received if the language had been toned down a bit. Highly recommended for older teens and adults.

HOFFMAN'S CHOICE
HERO is a film that wants to have it both ways, and succeeds in doing so. What is heroism is perhaps shaded with sentimentality and mush, but even when it's spoken by Andy Garcia and Dustin Hoffman, it makes this movie work.
Hoffman plays Bernie Laplante, a down on his luck, selfish, and deceitful father and crook. One night while on his way to take his 9 or 10 year old (Hoffman's never sure) to a movie, he witnesses a tragic plane crash, and in spite of his reluctance to help, he ends up rescuring everyone from the plane. Since he is in trouble with the law, he doesn't come forth to accept any credit. He tells his story and gives his one remaining shoe to a homeless man played with grace and sincerity by Andy Garcia. Garcia comes forward to claim the honor of the hero, and the media makes him into a saintly miracle worker, and everyone loves John Bubber. Hoffman ends up in jail and can't convince anyone that he is the real hero. Smack dab in the middle of all this is Geena Davis as the news reporter who Hoffman saved on the plane, and she's falling madly in love with Garcia.
The movie's resolution comes while Garcia and Hoffman are perched on the ledge of a skyscraper, and this is where the movie serves both sides: Garcia is a liar and deceitful, yet he has done so much good with his heroic aura that the audience doesn't really want to see him pay for his deceit; meanwhile Hoffman has been such a sleazeball for most of the movie, that you don't really want him to usurp Garcia, but at the same time, Hoffman's turn of heart makes you want to see him be recognized, especially for his ex-wife and son's benefit. How it works out is a little forced, but it satisfies both sides.
Hoffman is brilliant in this role, bringing a touch of humanity to an otherwise scumbag role; Davis does a good job as Gale, her best performance in some time; Garcia is great as John Bubber, a man caught in his lie, but afraid to come forward; Chevy Chase has an uncredited turn as the news station's director, and Joan Cusack as always lends solid support in the role of Hoffman's ex-wife.
HERO isn't one of the greatest films, but it is pleasantly told and skillfully directed and acted. One could do worse for a couple hours entertainment.