Jerry is a seven-year-old boy who splits his time between his soon-to-be divorced and angst driven parents, Daniel and Sarah. He sees his father as a hero who tells him to never-ever lie. Daniel and Jerry are each other’s Batman and Robin - an inseparable dynamic duo. But Jerry’s hero worship for his dad is suddenly altered after he witnesses Daniel brutally beaten at the hands of Rascal - father of a classmate of Jerry’s. Daniel urges Jerry to keep the fight a secret from his mother, and this proves to be an even greater psychological burden for Jerry. Jerry acts out violently and is placed in harms way as a result. An unexpected hero emerges, but he too falls just as quickly and more tragically.

“People are born and married, and live and die, in the midst of an uproar that you would think they would go mad of it.” -- William Dean Howells, 1907

The above sentiment by this turn of the century novelist expresses one of the themes touched on in “Fallen Hero” - our society’s obsession with haste and urgency and the resultant angst associated with living a hurried life.

One of the thematic questions explored in “Fallen Hero” is “What are the consequences of living a hurried life as part of a culture of speed in today’s society?” Our need to consume and to process greater amounts of information, or to do more with less time, or to go from point A to point B in the shortest amount of time has consequences in our everyday lives; specifically as it relates to the quality of our relationships and how we communicate and relate to others in our world.

One consequence of living such a hurried life is the concept of Time Sickness, the obsessive belief that time is getting away, that there isn't enough of it, and that you must pedal faster and faster to keep up. Time sickness can also be a symptom of a deeper, existential malaise, so that in the final stages before burnout, people often speed up to avoid confronting their unhappiness. Speed, with the sensory rush that it provides, is our strategy for distraction, and this relentless obsession (or drive) to shave time into even smaller pieces can be considered a symptom of a deeper neurosis. (In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the cult of Speed, Carl Honoré)

In the case of “Fallen Hero”, we see this theme expressed in the way Jerry’s father seems to be hurried, pre-occupied, and distracted. Today, the most ubiquitous form of fast and easy communication is the cell phone or “smart phone” – everyone seems to have one. In “Fallen Hero”, it serves as a metaphor for some of the ways time sickness is manifested.

Another theme explored in “Fallen Hero” is this concept of a son’s hero worship for his father. Boys need someone they can look up to and admire, and the father is the first person the boy sees as that icon of masculinity. The boy naturally looks to the father to imagine what he, the boy, might become. He looks upon the father as a reflection, as the father does to the son. The father is the first person a boy looks to regarding every mystery of life, including sexuality and the physical world. When that reflection is blurred or shattered, the boy is lost and seeks out this psychic connection in others.

Without a human icon to emulate, a boy journeys inwards for his archetypal hero. It is dwelling within us, and sometimes they emerge through another medium: art, and in many cases, comic books, and most recently role-playing games and video/computer games. All of these hobbies are hero-orientated, and for the most part, male-dominated. These are valid expressions of hero worship, but as with any expression they can turn into something akin to a shadow in the absence of a stable male figure in a child’s life.

In Jerry’s case, we see how his father’s public beating and betrayal lead him to act out. And in the end we are left with reflecting on who the real hero is.

Production shoot dates: May 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th of 2008

Project Status: Completed