Superheroes in twentieth-century popular culture in the United States
The warriors were a focal point of admiration in every generation, in their lives and deaths. Their qualities were focused on one character, who was public example and savior and took on a mythical character. A particularly revered hero is a superhero, omnipotent, with superhuman powers. Throughout history the superheroes have undergone constant processes of change, created because they belonged to the popular culture of their time, which had particular characteristic and used the technological means at its disposal. The characters of the ancient superheroes, from the Bible and Greek mythology, became knights on horses in medieval societies and pioneers of aviation and fighter and space pilots in the twentieth century. At the same time there was a development in the storytelling technique: oral, written, printed, film, digital.
As reality became more complex, the need for mythical archetypes became more important. In the process of developing the popular American hero from the traditional Western hero to the cheap press adventurer and the superhero of comic books, we find a creative response to urbanism and social change that, however, retained deep-rooted assumptions of race, masculinity, and values shaped by European tradition and experience. The wild west dventure heroes have provided successive generations of readers with frameworks for coping, and ultimately for the adoption of changes, reinforced by the concepts of heroism that the white man imagined.
At each stage, the American superhero navigated the difficulties between barbarism and civilization and faced a sequence of hostile environments. The hero of the Wild West brought law and order and at the same time prospered in the atmosphere of freedom there. The Yellow Press hero has extended this order to the farthest and darkest corners of the globe, towards legendary time and the dangers posed by urban life. The Comics magazines superhero solved the problems created by urbanism by bringing fantastic situations to familiar backgrounds, in order to create a mythical framework for modern existence.
Repetitive processing of adventures around unchanging plot formulas, has allowed American superheroes to remain relevant to the hopes and fears of each generation.
The fictional superheroes in the colorful Comics books were very popular in the United States in the period between the two wars. Technological production constraints did not allow, until the 2000s, a convincing cinematic design of the vision necessary for presenting the Comic book superhero adventures. Around the early 2000s, with the development of computerized imaging technology, fictional superheroes became very popular in movies as well.
Knighty Fighter Pilot in the Golden Age of Hollywood Cinema
The superheroes of the comic books evolved in parallel with the character of the knighty fighter pilot, who was a product of the film industry. Cinema, as a multidisciplinary and multi-participant medium, is a place where the myth often appears, as both cinema and myth clearly appeal to as many common denominators as possible. This can explaine the large volume of films in which the myth of aviation and the pilot is prominent.
In Hollywood, three major aviation films were made between the two world wars. All three perpetuate the stereotype of the knighty fighter pilot. Dozens of imitations were made on them, including using unnecessary photographic materials. These three films are:
"Wings" (1927) - the first ever Oscar-winning film, at the first 1928 Academy Awards ceremony and the only silent feature film to win this award. The film deals with the young American fighter pilots of the First World War and features light-hearted romantic dialogues alongside dramatic aerial battle scenes. There is an impressive soundtrack of an uninterrupted Richard Wagner-style musical concerto throughout.
"Hell's Angels" (1930) - the prestigious production of billionaire Howard Hughes, the personality who is identified with the entire period, as a film producer and aircraft manufacturer. In the biographical film about him, "The Pilot" (2004) by Martin Scorsese, the individual and capitalist dimension of his character is shown, which is typical of American culture, which presented the character of the pilot in parallel to the character of the wild west hero. The plot of "Hell's Angels" is about two friends who fight as fighter pilots against the Germans, sharing love with the same girl. Long flight scenes show the bombing by airships and bombers, alongside classic air battles between fighter planes, featuring dozens of real planes. It was filmed several times, in part due to the transition to the sound film, which occurred during its production. Despite the lengthening of production and the increase in expenses it became profitable.
"Dawn Patrol" (1938) - a film that is unique in that the emphasis is not on the romantic and chivalrous pilot character, but on the many sacrifices demanded by the air front. The stars of the film, in the roles of senior pilots, were David Niven and Errol Flynn. The argument between them in the film about the necessity of sacrifice has a meaning that goes beyond the scope of the film: the pilots, as the superheroes of the skies, also have the highest moral authority to decide the fate of the tasks assigned to them.
The film industry was, from the beginning, an important source of employment for Air Force personnel around the world, after being discharged from military service. They have been integrated into this industry in all fields and levels. Film actors with civilian pilot licenses have joined the ranks of Hollywood Studios' star gallery. Well-known examples of superstars combining pilots activity are: Jimmy Stewart, Chuck Norris, Clint Eastwood, John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford. Their flying hobby has helped cultivate a brilliant, long-lasting and stable film career of leading protagonists roles.
Aviation and Sixties Culture
After World War II, public enthusiasm for flying in the United States helped create excessive expectations of the air force among its many supporters. Articles in the popular press praised the future guaranteed by American air supremacy. Senior military figures, radio-TV anchors, popular comic book characters like Steve Canyon and movie stars like Jimmy Stewart, played key roles in the evolving campaign. Hollywood films have provided the public imagination with moving images that have confirmed what has become the accepted wisdom: that America's security against the Soviet threat can best be guaranteed using air power, along with nuclear capability.
At the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century, humanity began to break through the boundaries of the earth towards outer space, thereby changing the worldview of humankind. In the international arena, there was a significant escalation in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, as part of the "balance of terror" of intercontinental missiles carrying atomic warheads. At the same time, a civilian space race was held, beginning with the launch of the "Sputnik" into space by the USSR and culminating in the Apollo 11 spacecraft from the United States, in which the first man landed on the moon.
Most of the manned spacecraft pilots, for example Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong, came from a fighter pilot background. In this way, the important place in the media occupied by the fighter pilot was naturally filled by the spacecraft pilot after World War II. The missile and the spacecraft became a major theme of "The Electronic Tribal Fire," which is a popular nickname for the television with the few channels of the period.
It was a period dominated by a limited number of secret politicians and generals, in which the fear of an atomic surprise war was a tangible fear that was also reflected in the horror science fiction films of the period and the ''Film Noir'' genre. The sense of irrationality of the arms race has spread among young people in every corner of the globe. It created the postmodern society, which is based on alienation, despair and skepticism towards the establishment, while at the same time relying only on the self and the search for an alternative culture.
The Vietnam War was a clear hallmark of the period. Hundreds of thousands of young Americans were sent to a country in Southeast Asia to fight for a corrupt regime and many of these young people sacrificed their lives there. The war took place while it was known in advance, as early as the early 1960s, that it could not be defeated in the way it was conducted. The war was waged in a limited way by the United States, without full military force, with extensive use of aircraft and without success in the ground. The Americans used helicopters to transport forces, carried out field attacks using fighter jets and carried out strategic bombings using heavy bombers. A new central battlefield was the aircraft against the surface-to-air missiles, in which for the first time secret unmanned aircraft were also used extensively.
As the Cold War and the Vietnam War continued, criticism about the connection between aviation, government and the media began to appear in film and television. The images of heroism and patriotism have been replaced by satire, with films such as "Dr. Strangelove" (1964), "Catch 22" (1970) and the TV series "MASH".
Most of all the 1960s decade is remembered thanks to the permissive youth culture that developed in North America and Europe, also known as the "Flower Children" culture. This culture, pacifist and anti-capitalist, rejected the values of the parent generation and publicity. The "Sixties" became a term used to describe the counterculture and the revolution in social norms in dress, music, drugs, art, social customs, feminism and more, which characterized the decade and their considerable influence continues to this day.
One of the manifestations of the youth protests in the Sixties was the independent cinema, created outside the big studios, which were perceived as part of the outdated political system. These studios at the time created low-quality commercial films. A new generation of creators aspired to create films that will express their world. Their skills brought them to Hollywood and they changed the method in it. Independent cinema began to penetrate the heart of corporate Hollywood, creating the "new Hollywood," through directors like Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola, Brian de Palma, Robert Altman, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg and others.
George Lucas, an aviation film buff, belonged to this group of creators. He, too, was given relative freedom of action to create his original cinematic works, which were popular and profitable.
In 1976, the United States celebrated the 200th anniversary of its independence. At the time, Lucas conceived the ''Star Wars'' film series, which offered, starting in 1977, a compromising cinematic alternative in the field of aerospace and aviation.
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