The Heroic Vision

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by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

Publicity shot from The Magnificent Seven (1960)

There are two kinds of heroes.

One is the man or woman who responds to an immediate crisis, and in rising to the occasion discovers who they really are. This used to be called “the testing of one’s mettle.” It’s the classic Hero’s Journey wherein a character arcs to a transformation.

The second kind of hero responds to a crisis because of a moral vision. The arc is not so much one of transformation but of vindication.

The first hero represents the triumph of an individual, which inspires the community.

The second represents the triumph of a vision, which inspires and strengthens the community. (Where there is no vision, the people perish. – Proverbs 29:18).

Many stories—both fictional and real life—involve the immediate response to a crisis. Think of Sully Sullenberger, who saved an entire plane of passengers by landing his suddenly incapacitated ship on the Hudson River.

Then there are examples of the heroic vision. I would define this as a view of life which combines duty, honor, and courage. Every civilization that manages to survive has told stories of heroic vision. Some of the best movies ever made have it.

One of my favorites is Sergeant York (1941) starring Gary Cooper in an Oscar-winning role. It’s the true story of Alvin C. York, a poor boy from the Tennessee hills who had to hunt to help his family eat, and in the process became a dead shot with a rifle. Drafted during World War I, he sought an exemption based on his Christian beliefs, but was later became persuaded that he had a duty to save lives in a just war. During a battle in France he used his rifle skills to take out a German machine gun nest that was mowing down American soldiers. Single handed he killed 25 of the enemy, and captured 132 more. For this he was awarded the Congressional Medal of —wait for it—Honor.

Another favorite is The Magnificent Seven (1960), the classic Western starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and Eli Wallach. A re-vision of Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai, it’s the story of a group of gunfighters hired by a poor, Mexican village to save them from the plundering of a bandit gang.

At first, the seven take the job because the age of the gunfighter is over, and there’s nothing but menial jobs for them in town. But as they get to know the villagers, the heroic vision begins to take hold. It’s seven against forty, but they stay and fight because it’s the right fight. It is reminiscent of last stands like the Spartans at Thermopylae, and the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto.

The movie has terrific dialogue, too. Like in the scene where Calvera (Wallach), the leader of the bandits, first encounters the gunfighters. He rides in with his men and finds Chris (Brynner), Vin (McQueen) and Britt (James Coburn) waiting for him. Calvera, not looking overly concerned, remarks on the new walls. “They won’t keep me out,” he says.

“They were built to keep you in,” says Chris.

Calvera mulls it over, and offers to make the seven equal partners. When asked about the poor villagers, Calvera answers with a vision (decidedly unheroic) of his own. He says to Chris, “I leave it to you. Can men of our profession worry about things like that? It may even be sacrilegious. If God didn’t want them sheared he would not have made them sheep.”

Oh heck, it’s better if you watch it:

So in your work, consider giving your Lead characters a heroic vision. Ask yourself some questions:

  • What do they believe about duty, honor, and courage?
  • Who or what would they die for?
  • What will their stand cost them? (A good source of inner conflict)

And flesh out your villain with a vision of his own. Why does he think he’s justified? Calvera has to feed his men, and these villagers were born to be sheep. The clash of visions makes the denouement all the more satisfying. (If you’d like to see how the seven answer Calvera, you can watch the rest of the scene here.)

Comments welcome.

15 thoughts on “The Heroic Vision”

  1. The heroic vision is why westerns were and are my favorite. However, it’s easier to apply heroic vision to an action story and not quite as cut & dried when writing a story featuring characters whose life is quite a bit more mundane. I’m still learning how to apply these questions to characters whose lives are much more subtle. There are times I’ve gone too far and made the characters too moralistic. And on the other extreme I’ve had characters that seem to be just drifting through the crisis to the solution with no evident applicant of heroic vision principles. It’s tricky finding that middle ground where the characters seem neither over the top nor boring.

    • You’ve identified the right issue, BK. These stories don’t need moralizing, but a transformation at the end which implies the vision. What has the Lead learned? It’s shown in what they do, usually in the very last scene.

  2. Fantastic post on the heroic vision, Jim.

    Terrific scene, one of the best, and the Magnificent Seven is one of my favorite films, a terrific movie. The Great Escape is another one I love, which is also filled with heroic vision. Hilts deciding to join in the mass breakout, despite the risks, after losing his Scottish friend. Big X, who wants to keep taking the fight to the Germans. Hendley, determined to get his friend, the Forger out with him, despite Blythe’s blindness. So much duty, honor and courage on display here.

    Like BK, I’ve learned to apply this to all sorts of situations. My down-and-out hero Mathilda Brandt, who just wanted to take care of her ailing grandmother and her two younger sisters, develops heroic vision over the course of the series, going after a conspiracy that threatens the world. My sleuth-heroine of my new series, wants to do the right thing, solve the mystery, and essentially restore order.

    Hope you have a wonderful Sunday.

  3. You’re hitting on the primal allure of stories. As a Christian, I believe morality is written on our hearts—it’s something deeply embedded, so an external problem bringing it to the surface is a profound experience. Readers therefore react positively and knowingly to a reflection of the true, the good, and the beautiful. Even in violence, there’s a satisfaction in seeing regular, weak people doing The Right Thing.

  4. Thanks for the reminder that we sorely need heroes today, Jim. Duty, honor, and courage have become quaint, old-fashioned notions.

    In my new thriller, Deep Fake Double Down, the female lead goes way out on a limb to help an unjustly accused woman b/c she was once in that same position herself. The male lead is an attorney committed to mitigating damage done by his former partner to a young Native American client who was killed while wrongfully imprisoned. Both leads veer into legal gray areas that could get them arrested and cost the attorney his license.

    The villain is the prison warden who covered up the murder to protect his illicit profiteering. He justifies his actions b/c he’s stealing to provide a good life for his autistic child who will never be able to live on his own. If the warden’s crimes are uncovered, he will be disgraced, go to prison himself, and lose access to his son.

  5. Great post, Jim!

    I think my favorite all-time movies are It’s A Wonderful Life and Braveheart. Both are examples of heroes who came to the point of a decision which would make or break the hero and those around him.

    And one of my favorite Teddy Roosevelt quotes feeds into this discussion:

    In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

    I don’t want any do-nothing “heroes” in my stories.

    Happy Sunday!

  6. Thanks for this post, Jim. We’re in great need of heroes right now.

    I’m looking forward to hopping on the treadmill later today to watch The Magnificent Seven. That video clip you included is –well– magnificent. And that bit of dialogue: “If God didn’t want them sheared he would not have made them sheep.” A villain’s entire persona defined in thirteen words.

    My hero is a young woman pilot whose main interest is helping a beloved uncle who was assaulted. But when she reluctantly agrees to assist local law enforcement solve the mystery behind the assault, she stumbles onto an even deeper mystery: the possible murder of a young girl forty years earlier. Her determination to uncover the truth of that murder propels her into a final confrontation with evil.

    Thanks for an inspiring start to Sunday morning.

    • Thanks, Kay. Enjoy the movie. There’s so much more we could say about it. How each one of the seven has a story that unfolds. I even shed a tear at one of them….I will say no more except to whisper the sacred name Bronson.

  7. Charles Bronson and Richard Boone are/were two of my favorite actors. In my next book the antagonist wants to stop a dam from being built that will take the land (through eminent domain) that has been in his family for over a hundred years.

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