Volume 17 - Say Anything...and The Indomitable Dreamer

You might not realize this when you read my rambling prose, but I consider myself to be something of a perfectionist. I'm not the kind of perfectionist that wants everything in my life to be perfect - I'm no dummy, I know what the real world can do to us all - but when I set my sights on something I want it to be perfect. That's why it takes two or three or four weeks for me to write one of these ridiculous double features, because I'm not willing to do less than my best when it comes to movies I love.

In this double feature, we're going to talk about a couple of my favorite moves, and a couple of my favorite young heroes. They also have a perfect idea of what they want to do with their life. They both approach life from different angles, but they're both pretty lovable and work hard to overcome their flaws.  They're the kind of people I want to be when I grow up, with a couple of reservations that we'll talk about as we go on.

This double feature starts with a timeless love story - something that's far from my expertise or my personal experience - and yet still it's a film that says something profound to me. Let's check it out.

Say Anything...

1989, Directed by Cameron Crowe

The tagline for this movie calls it "A Lloyd meets girl story," which sounds incredibly stupid until you meet Lloyd Dobler. I'm not sure there's ever been anyone on film quite like Lloyd Dobler, a one of a kind hopeless romantic. He doesn't seem one of a kind from a distance - we've all seen a white boy who thinks this girl is perfect and he must have her - but when you get to know him you can see why he's so special

Lloyd Dobler, as played by John Cusack, is a high school graduate/aspiring kickboxer who decides he wants to go out with Diane Court (Ione Skye). Diane Court is also a high school graduate, but is not a kickboxer. She's the class valedictorian, set for a bright future, and Lloyd decides that he's destined to be a part of it. The catch is that Diane Court barely knows who Lloyd Dobler is.

One of the common misconceptions when people talk about Say Anything is that Lloyd is a loser or a nobody when he starts to reach out to Diane. Watching the movie closely shows that's clearly not the case. Lloyd has friends, he's welcome to hang out with most anyone he knows, he's a caring brother and uncle, and he's trusted and kind of admired by almost everyone he meets. If you could walk into the beginning of this film and walk up to any character that knows Lloyd, I don't expect you would hear a single bad word about him. Even star-crossed lovers like his friends Corey (Lili Taylor) and Joe (Loren Dean) are both on good terms with Lloyd. I can't picture a scenario where Lloyd is bullied for anything he would do, because he always seems to be walking around with his head held high and his mind made up. He's someone who accepts others as they are, who dreams about what he wants to be, and who is willing to be straight-forward, honest, and respectful toward anyone he meets. In short, he's a real great guy.

So then, the question becomes this - why doesn't Lloyd accept that he's great and move on with his life and just be happy? That's when the perfectionist in Lloyd comes in to play. The thing about someone like Lloyd is that he's not really happy being liked by everyone - he wants to be loved by someone. And he doesn't want just any someone, he wants the someone he's decided is perfect to him. 

I once sat in on a presentation about stalking behavior where one of the first quips the presenter made was "We see stalking in the media all the time, like in John Cusack movies." While I understand that presenter's perspective, I still think they missed the mark entirely. Lloyd Dobler certainly is presented as being enamored with Diane Court, and you could argue he becomes obsessed as the film goes on. But to classify his actions as stalking is certainly a discredit to how much he cares about Diane's wishes, not to mention a slap in the face toward suspension of disbelief. Movies are a dramatic medium, and the behavior of this fictional character should not be looked at as suggestion of real world behaviors. If the argument that horror movies make people more violent is unfair (and I believe it is), then the argument that John Cusack could make people become stalkers is unfair too.

Lloyd does make some dramatic gestures to get Diane's attention - the iconic boom box pose that you see on every single Say Anything poster represents the biggest of them - but it's worth remembering that the little gestures Lloyd makes throughout his relationship with Diane are the ones that stick out to her. He thinks she needs a man who makes grand proclamations and plays a love song (OK, it's the song from the first time they had sex and yeah, that is a little stalkery) outside her window, but the more we get to know Diane the more we see that she's interested in some of his smaller actions. When she has to explain what she likes about Lloyd to her father - played by John Mahoney, who does not get near enough credit for how good he is here - she mentions a moment where Lloyd points out some broken glass in a parking lot and gently guides her to a safe path around it. Other moments where we can tell she's totally enamored with him include his attempt to convince a group of senior citizens to watch Cocoon (Fox had to keep trying to sell their own movie, this was the VHS era after all) and when he checks up on her from across a crowded party. Diane sees how important she is to Lloyd as he does these things, and those are the moments that make her fall more in love with him as the film goes on

Lloyd thinks he needs big words and big actions to impress her, and when he gets too focused on trying to do this he does turn a little dramatic and even loses his cool at times. During the film's darkest scenes, when things aren't working out, he utters the now famous rain-drenched decree "I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen" and it's a moment where we could think Lloyd is being a dope. Yet we, like most everyone else he knows, can see that he's a great person. He just doesn't believe it unless the thing he is focused on is going well for him.

One of my favorite moments to observe Lloyd is when he's confronted by his school guidance counselor about his future plans and offers a fantastic reply about how he's looking for a "dare to be great situation" when he is pressed to make a decision about what he wants to do. 

"How many people really know what they want though?  I mean, a lot of them think that they have to know, right? But inside, they don't really know, so, I don't know.  But I know that I don't know."

Lloyd doesn't really know what he wants to do with his life, and that's fine. That's not Say Anything's concern. This movie's concerned with introducing us to Lloyd and Diane - who also deserves recognition as one of the strongest and smartest female characters in teen cinema - and how much Lloyd is willing to give himself to the idea of being with her. 

The film's title, Say Anything..., is kind of obscure as it applies to the story. The two characters who tell each other that they "can say anything" during the film are Diane and her father. That's one more part of what makes Lloyd such an endearing character, because once you get to know him you know he's the kind of person who never has to be reminded that he can say anything. He wears his heart on his sleeve and says what he needs to say and lives fearlessly as he attempts to win over Diane. He could have accepted the good life he had, but he saw someone he thought was perfect and he put his entire being into making it happen

If Lloyd Dobler is one of a kind - which I already said he is - then it seems like it would be pretty hard for me to find a double feature partner that meets the high standard he sets. But a lot of the things I love about Lloyd and how this film portrays him are present in a lot of other characters I love. Let's take a look at a few things about Lloyd and see if we can find those in another lead character.

• To simply sum up some of my thoughts on the character, I think Lloyd's biggest flaw at times is having a narrow focus. He's so interested in Diane that he lets other parts of his life - planning for his future and spending time with friends and family are two examples - slip to the wayside. This doesn't really effect Lloyd, because he's easy going and doesn't let it get to him. But you can see that others look at Lloyd a little differently because of his singular focus, and that makes his relationships with others and future prospects a little more difficult.
• That bigger picture is of little interest to Lloyd, and that's fine with him. To him, time spent with Diane is the enrichment he's looking for in his life right now. The flip side of the narrow focus problem is that Lloyd is happy with what he's doing. That's pretty admirable. His approach to life fits pretty well with the central philosophy shared by the lead character in the film we're about to discuss. 
• One thing that does have an effect Lloyd is his perception that Diane represents some kind of perfect or ideal being. Lloyd lets Diane define his world. If he's with her, he's happy. If he's not, he feels like he's failed.  This part of his character is what leads him to some internal conflict, because he won't accept anything less than what he believes she is. Lloyd's idea that anything less than perfection isn't good enough, makes it hard for him to understand the simple things that Diane already loves about him. This is a classic downfall of a dreamer, and one that shows up often for the lead character we're about to talk about

It's easy to find movies about high school dreamers who fall in love, but not easy to find ones with the same indomitable spirit that we see in Lloyd Dobler. The young man at the center of our next film is a little younger and a bit less stable than Lloyd - but he's got that spirit.

So let's talk about a young man named Max Fischer.

Rushmore

1998, Directed by Wes Anderson

"The secret, I don't know... I guess you've just gotta find something you love to do and then... do it for the rest of your life. For me, it's going to Rushmore."

When you're fifteen years old and in 10th grade, you don't necessarily have to be popular to be a big man on campus. That's the case for Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), who has very few friends but is involved in almost every extracurricular activity offered at the Rushmore Academy, including a number of clubs he started himself when bored with the school's other options. Max is not one of the cool kids - he's bullied by some and ignored by most - but he's someone who walks like he knows where he's going. Max thinks he's found the thing he loves most in the world - a school that lets him chase any dream that comes to his overactive mind - and he's happy to be a part of that.

There are some obvious barriers that hold back a 15 year old from achieving all their dreams. Max got into Rushmore because he was a child prodigy who wrote one of the best essays that the school's head master (Brian Cox, giving a wonderfully grumpy performance) has ever seen, but now he's failing most of his classes and on probation with a stern warning that one more failed class will lead to him being expelled from the school he loves. One would think this would light a fire under Max - except he's currently enamored with a teacher (Olivia Williams) and more focused on ways to show her how impressive he can be and win her heart. 

That's creepy, of course, because she's a teacher and he's a 15 year old, but don't try telling that to Max. He's living in his own reality, where pursuits like saving Latin courses and building an aquarium on the school's baseball field are achievable goals. Max's determination helps him work toward making these lofty goals come true, despite the wishes of the teacher or the school he is a part of. Much like Lloyd Dobler, Max is someone who won't take no for an answer. Because his goals are so outlandish, this gets him into some trouble. 

It would be easy to present a character like Max Fischer, who clearly doesn't understand major parts of his life, as a joke to the audience. Lloyd Dobler's goal of dating Diane Court is a reasonable, albeit lofty, one in his reality. Max's goal of winning the affection of a grown woman while getting through school on extracurriculars alone is clearly not going to happen, which is fine because Rushmore wouldn't work as a movie if it allowed those goals to come true. Wes Anderson's film had two options - become a pure comedy by making fun of Max for his failure to understand life, or show us how he grows and uses the good parts of his personality to become a better young man than he was at the beginning of the film.

Thankfully for all of us, Anderson chose the second option. The choice to present Max as a mostly harmless dreamer - or, as a young man who's simply fighting through a life where he doesn't fit in with the big crowd - makes Max Fischer one of my favorite film characters and Rushmore one of my favorite films. Max struggles to make things right as he goes through his time at Rushmore and beyond, but he's a kid and even when he's wrong we know that his aim is true and his goals are noble. We can see how much he cares about doing what's right, and that matters a lot.

Neither Lloyd or Max really "gets it" when it comes to the big picture of life, but who among us - outside of fictional character's who've been edited and rewritten until they're perfect - really does get everything life throws at them? Neither film ends up with a clear picture of where life may take either of these young men, yet I've never really stopped to wonder about what happened to them down the road. I trust that they both are on the right path to working out their issues, and that their hearts will guide them in their pursuits as they move forward.

I identify so much with both of these young men, and I mentioned earlier that they're the kind of people I strive to be in my life. But I don't want to be the versions of Lloyd and Max we see in these films, I want to be the better people they grow up to be. I want to be the version of Lloyd Dobler who has learned that he can't just focus on Diane, but can give her love and attention while still succeeding in his dreams. I want to be the version of Max that has learned he has to focus on meeting the needs of others sometimes, and who is able to balance that with his own pursuits for enrichment and achievement. I want to be the best things about both of these men, and live with the same confidence and vigor that they possess.

Some might say it's unrealistic to try to be the perfect version of two fictional perfectionists, the same way people said it was unrealistic for both of these men to work toward the goals they have. I get that. But I think Lloyd Dobler and Max Fischer would be proud of me, or any person who views their films, for being willing to tackle life with the same confidence and spirit that they show.

There's a saying out there that suggest that "if you shoot for the moon, you'll land among the stars." Iconic football coach Vince Lombardi summed that up differently by saying "Perfection is unattainable, but if we strive for perfection we will catch excellence." Lloyd and Max might not have known that was what they were doing, and dreamers like me or any of you readers who have an adventurous heart might not know it either. As we head into a new year, as everyone is striving to better themselves and meet new goals and change their lives in a positive way, it's nice to have characters out there who show us what we can do if we don't allow ourselves to be defeated as we chase our dreams. 

Lloyd and Max might not be perfect, but they fight for what they want. Those of us who want something better out of our life could do much worse than following their lead. That's what this double feature represents to me, two people who won't put anything less than their best into the things they love and two people who won't stop fighting for what they want out of life. I truly love that about them, and I think you will too.

Volume 16 - Conan the Barbarian and the Heroes of the Past & Future

I want to be a hero when I grow up. I know that's a ridiculous statement, considering I'm already old and the heroes we see in books and comics and movies aren't realistic examples of what we can be in the real world, but I can't help it. I like some people, and I want those people to have someone who can help them when they need it. In my mind (and Bonnie Tyler's, so I know I'm not alone) that means they need a hero.

Growing up in the 1980s, there were a lot of heroes to admire in books and comics and movies. The most admirable of those, to me, is now and has always been Arnold Schwarzenegger. His first major starring role of that decade, though not as highly regarded as some of his later work, might be his most heroic role. It's one I love dearly, and it's the perfect starting point for this double feature.

HOW THIS WORKS
Step 1) I pick a movie.
Step 2) I tell you about the movie.
Step 3) I tell you what we're looking for in a double feature movie.
Step 4) Another movie!
Step 5) Victory!

Conan the Barbarian

1982, Directed by John Milius

Conan the Barbarian seems like a simple movie on the surface. A youngster, trained to believe in a god and a sword, sees his loving father and mother killed by a vicious cult leader. He grows up with vengeance in his heart while slaving away on the aptly named "wheel of pain," which makes him big and strong and angry when he sets out on his own as an adult. 

He's trained as a fighter, and famously indoctrinated that the answer to the question "What is best in life?" is "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women." In a drunken stupor, he sees a bunch of women of the night against a wall and blurts out "Sluts!" like it's the funniest thing he's seen in his life. He's...not perfect. Stay with him, though. He's going on a journey here.

Conan acts like a brute - because that's what he was raised as - but as he sets out on his own we start to see his character as he meets others who recognize that his heart is still that of the innocent child who had the life he wanted taken from him. These companions - a sly archer named Subotai, a female warrior named Valeria, and a playful wizard who has no name - are crucial in helping Conan work toward his goal, even if his background has made him far too stubborn to ever acknowledge it. He has meaningful conversations about religion with Subotai (allowing Arnold to chortle as he spits out one of the best lines in fantasy history, "Crom laughs at your four winds!") and ends up befriending and loving Valeria, yet he rarely allows himself to show his feelings. When he does, it's hard not to fall in love with him and his cause.

If my opinion of Conan sounds a little different than the consensus, that's because my experience watching the film is a little different too. The first time I really watched Conan the Barbarian in its entirety was on DVD, and I didn't realize at the time I was watching an extended director's cut. When the times changed and I watched the film for about the twentieth time, now on blu-ray, I noticed something odd...my favorite scene between Conan and Subotai was missing from the film's theatrical cut.

I just watched this scene four times. I couldn't stop. Man, it makes my heart soar. If you're not at a video watching location right now, here's a transcript. Yes, I'm THAT in to this scene.

"I remember days like this when my father took me to the forest and we ate wild blueberries. More than 20 years ago. I was just a boy of four or five. The leaves were so dark and green then. The grass smelled sweet with the spring wind...

...Almost 20 years of pitiless cumber! No rest, no sleep like other men. And yet the spring wind blows, Subotai. Have you ever felt such a wind?"

"They blow where I live too. In the north of every man's heart."

"It's never too late, Subotai."

"No...It would only lead me back here another day. In even worse company."

"For us, there is no spring. Just the wind that smells fresh before the storm."

First of all, I think this is one of the very best acting moments of Schwarzenegger's career. And I generally adore the man with all my heart. It's so human. So accessible. Sure, he says "other man" instead of "other men," but he sounds so sincere in the realization that he's spent his whole life on a ridiculous quest that has taken away so much from him. It ISN'T too late - even as he prepares for the battle in which he utters his famous prayer to Crom - and he could just walk away and try to start over. His heart has been broken for too long, and he realizes at the end...he has to face the storm that he's brought on through his choices.

I get why this scene was cut from the film originally - there's a tone shift that doesn't match the character's lack of emotion at other moments. In one of the film's best scenes, Subotai cries at the expense of another character and when asked why, he laments that Conan, the Cimmerian, can not cry. This deleted scene doesn't feature tears from Conan, but it's as close as we can get. It hit me so hard when I first heard it. I probably watch this scene on YouTube more often than any human should; I just love what it represents. The hero who's trying to take on the world realizes, as he prepares to put his well-being on the line one more time, that he's been fighting his whole life and has left the simple things that bring him peace long behind. And Subotai, who's been portrayed as Conan's heart for much of the film, just chuckles at Conan like he's a doofus. He knows what the man means, and he wishes it was that simple.

Conan's journey in the film is long and winding, which is appropriate when you look at the journey to the big screen that the character took. Conan was created by author Robert E. Howard, and first appeared in a story in Weird Tales magazine in December of 1932. It would be 50 years before he made his debut on screen, and opinions on how well John Milius' film represents the character - who had been adapted by numerous other authors throughout those years - are varied.

Having not read the stories that Conan originated from, I tried my best to find sources that compare the film to what the author created. You'll find kind words about the final product on sites like Wikipedia and IMDB, alongside admissions that writer/director Milius took liberties combining elements of different Conan stories. On the other hand, I found a couple of fans of Howard's stories to ask them their opinion about how well the movie captured his character, and their answers were less positive. One admitted to liking the film for what it is, while pointing out that things like the importance of Conan's sword and the role of Thulsa Doom are sharp breaks from Howard's legend, while another simply thought that the film was an embarrassment compared to the author's work.

The film opens with a famous on-screen quote from Friedrich Nietzche, stating "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger," and I think that's a fair statement to sum up how I feel about Conan the Barbarian as a film. The film has some problems as an adaptation, but they're covered up so well by all the things I love about it. The cast is perfect for their roles, and behind the brawn and muscle there's a sweet heart reminding us that Conan's fought hard to get to this point in his noble quest. Though his goal is revenge, he seeks it because he needs to heal his heart. I really love that about him, and this film.

It would be easy to stick with the swords and sandals as we pick a double feature partner for Conan, but taking the easy route is just not what he would want us to do. We're gonna take a leap to another place and time with our next film...but we're also gonna talk about one of the original Conan's contemporaries. Let's take a look at the reasons I picked this double feature.

• Conan may not resemble the details of his 1930s origin tales in this film, but the set up of the film does. Much like modern super hero films, Milius used his film to introduce the character and build him through an origin story, tacking on narration at the prologue and epilogue that would set up a series of films. Only one direct sequel ever got off the ground (so far), but the serial nature of the film feels like something from the era in which Conan was born.
• At the same time, Conan the Barbarian also is at home in the excessive style of early 1980s cinema. In the wake of Star Wars, studios were doing their best to create grand universes that could cover several films, and the sci-fi and fantasy genres were homes to many of them. (In fact, Star Wars creator George Lucas tried to buy the rights to adapt the character we're about to discuss, and only after he failed at this decided to create his space opera.)
• As I noted above, Conan's quest wouldn't work without the cast around him, a diverse and eclectic group of characters who light up the screen when the hero - who was still working on his English - was unable to carry the film's dramatic and comedic load. So I want another supporting cast that lifts the film to new heights.
• Conan the Barbarian's greatest strength might be it's musical score. Basil Poledouris' score for this film...might be my favorite musical score for any film of its type. It's a jackhammer, and it's also got these beautiful interludes that feel like what I think the spring winds in that scene I talked about above would feel like. None of this makes sense because I don't understand music, but I'm still looking for a double feature where the music elevates the film to another level.
• Above all else, we - and by we, I mean you, and me, and Bonnie Tyler - need a hero.

That hero's name is....

Flash Gordon

1980, Directed by Mike Hodges

There's a pretty fundamental difference between the movies Flash Gordon and Conan the Barbarian, just like there are major differences between the characters each of the films are named after. We'll get to those in a minute. First, let's take a look at a rather obvious connection between them.

Producer Dino De Laurentiis, wanting to capitalize on the success of Star Wars on film and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century on TV, brought Flash Gordon to motion picture screens in December of 1980, just over 18 months before Conan was released. De Laurentiis also backed Conan into existence, though he let his daughter Raffaella be the on set producer of that one. The Italian producer gained a level of cult fame with his 1976 remake of King Kong; waxing romantically in an interview with Time magazine that "when the monkey die, people gonna cry." That film has gone down in the history of cinema as something of a miss, but the producer's romantic and kinda charming ideas on what audiences are looking for from big budget spectacle paint a picture of the kind of properties he we would try to create with both Flash Gordon and Conan the Barbarian.

Like Kong and Conan, Flash Gordon was born in the first half of the 1930s, first appearing as a comic strip character in January of 1934. A polo player turned space traveling hero, Flash is kind of an anti-Conan. Where the Cimmerian is pushed into action because of the troubles that plagued his life, Flash just kind of stumbles into a hero role in his journeys by getting caught on the wrong plane and, subsequently, the wrong rocket ship. If Conan represents the everyman hero who has to fight through life, Flash - who the film updates from polo star to "quarterback, New York Jets" - is the white collar hero who's been given all the tools he needs.

Though the real world well-to-do are usually quick to stomp on the little guys, Flash Gordon is fictional, and is thus the rare "pure" rich hero. There's no real motivation for him to act heroically to protect Earth from Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow, who would also make a brief appearance as the good King Osiric in Conan the Barbarian), he's just a good guy who stands up for us because he wants to. He's a naive and simple character, and the actor who brings him to life, Sam J. Jones, doesn't inspire much applause for his depth as an actor, but looking at him as a product of the 1930s that has been brought forward to the 1980s helps us understand why he is the way he is.

Like Conan, Flash is able to maneuver through his journey to defeat Ming with the help of a unique group of friends. The biggest standouts are Prince Vultan of the Hawkmen, a boisterous bearded character who seems to enjoy challenging Ming because it's humorous, and Prince Barin, the suave ruler of a forest planet who has his eyes on Ming's devious daughter, Aura. They're played by two very different British actors, Brian Blessed and (future James Bond) Timothy Dalton, who play perfect opposites easily. Aura, played by Ornella Muti, is the film's most complex character - which is a low bar to hurdle - because she gets to balance on the line between helping her father and falling for the handsome spacemen who come into his kingdom. The other major standout in the cast is charismatic Israeli star Topol, who's performance as Earth scientist Hans Zarkov is cheeky and winning and full of pop culture references.

Each of these supporting performers help make the film far more light-hearted than the operatic tone of Conan the Barbarian, which is where Jones and Melody Anderson (who plays Dale Arden, his romantic interest) come back into the picture. I made a backhanded comment about Jones' depth earlier, yet he's perfect for reprising a role that was initially played in serial films by Olympic athlete-turned-actor "Buster" Crabbe. A couple of more famous actors were near landing the part of Flash Gordon in the film, including Schwarzenegger(!) (who was rejected due to his strong accent) and Kurt Russell (who rejected the film because he thought the character lacked personality), and though they're two of my favorite stars in the world - I'm kind of OK with Sam Jones ending up in this role. Russell is probably right that he's not right for this role, because the wooden nature of the hero only boosts up the performers around him. Kurt Russell movies are best when he's allowed to be the charismatic scene-stealer. That's not who Flash Gordon is, and Sam Jones is able to slide into the movie, be heroic, and let everyone around him shine without stealing their spotlight.

Conan the Barbarian and Flash Gordon are both films about 1930s heroes made with 1980s mindsets, and it's the difference in those 1980s tones that really makes this double feature pop for me. For example, I mentioned how much I love Conan's booming musical score, and I also love how the musical score takes Flash Gordon to another level. The difference is that the film that keeps its swords and sorcery on an earthly plane has music by an orchestral composer, while the film that takes its swords and sorcerers into space has a musical score by iconic future rock band Queen. (Yes, I believe Freddie Mercury and friends are from the future and that we haven't seen the last of them yet. Don't stomp on my dreams.)

Conan the Barbarian and Flash Gordon are a perfect pairing in how they represent the hero's journey and do so in such dramatically different ways. With a few omissions, you can boil both films down to the same idea - an honorable hero, alongside those who will help him, tries to take down a ruthless oppressor. But unless you think about that point specifically, you'd never think to put Conan and Flash in the same sentence, because the worlds and the tones are so far apart.

Yet here they are. Created less than two years apart during The Great Depression, and brought back to life by a rich producer at the beginning of a decade of excess. They're odd partners - I don't know how Conan and Flash would get along in a time-traveling crossover project, but don't you kind of want to find out? - but they represent the same things. They stand for honor, valor, and love. They stand for the little guy who can't stand up to the oppressor themselves.

Though they stand in different times places, they come from the same kind of hearts. And, as Queen's theme song points out about Flash, they're "for every one of us." That's the kind of hero I think we all need to be, wherever and whenever we are.