I recently found myself scrolling through the internet when I saw a new documentary titled "Sly" about the great Sylvester Stallone. After spending the next 15 minutes kicking my little feet with excitement, I stood up, gave my "Rocky IV" poster a kiss on the cheek and went off to hit the gym so I, too, could be jacked like my hero, Sylvester Stallone. After the workout of a lifetime, I came to the conclusion that we need more action in our movies— here's why:
No more action heroes
We are running out of action heroes in modern-day media. I can only think of four remaining action heroes: Tom Cruise, Vin Diesel, The Rock and Keanu Reeves. Two of the four actors are in the same franchise, "Fast and Furious." To be honest, no one watches the series anymore, especially when they shoot cars into outer space or launch them out of planes with parachutes.
Now, you may be thinking, "Daniel, you haven't mentioned Marvel!" My response to you is this: not one single actor in any of the Marvel movies is an action hero. When you think of action heroes, you think of "Rocky," "Rambo," "The Expendables" and the other 40 movies in which Stallone absolutely destroys bad guys with any weapon he can find, including his own fists.
Too scared for the R-rating
Action movies these days have gone soft in an effort to try to be family-friendly. It's an action movie; people die in these movies, and you want them to be more accessible to children? I want to see the blood fly off someone's face after they get punched. But that's not even the best part about action movies. We action fans love suspending our disbelief for an hour or two to watch Bruce Willis run through glass barefoot and murder a bunch of evil Russians. When Quentin Tarantino was making "Kill Bill," not once do I think he considered that it wouldn't be suitable for kids to watch because that's not the audience it was made for.
Senseless violence
I am not condoning or asking for senseless violence in movies; that's just dumb. I know some say kids shouldn't see violence, but I truly believe that kids are smarter than we think and we have over-sensitized them to media. For example, when I was a little kid and watched my first "Indiana Jones" movie, I wasn't thinking about how the titular character impacts others. I was thinking about how cool it was to watch him hunt down artifacts in a race against the bad guys. I found myself pretending to walk through temples, weigh bags of sand and steal the idol, not recreate violent death scenes.
No, I am not saying to show your 10-year-old R-rated action movies. In fact, leave those for us big kids— 10-year-olds can have Marvel movies. However, I am saying that I miss the action movie genre, where action heroes had something to fight for or against. I'm talking about mistreatment after the Vietnam war, an evil alien that sees people as prey, big explosions and unrealistic things like a firehouse mounted to a wall that can hold John McLane's weight without instantly snapping.
We want to root for action heroes and sit back with relief in moments like John McLane kissing his ex-wife or Rocky delivering a heartfelt monologue to his kid. We want to see heroes we can root for on the edge of our seats.
Daniel Gorbett is a freshman at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnist do not reflect those of The Post. What are your thoughts? Let Daniel know by emailing him at dg371822@ohio.edu.
