Lyrics
I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day
We can be Heroes, just for one day
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day
We can be Heroes, just for one day
And you, you can be mean
And I, I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers, and that is a fact
Yes we're lovers, and that is that
And I, I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers, and that is a fact
Yes we're lovers, and that is that
Though nothing, will keep us together
We could steal time,
just for one day
We can be Heroes, for ever and ever
What d'you say?
We could steal time,
just for one day
We can be Heroes, for ever and ever
What d'you say?
I, I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
Though nothing,
nothing will keep us together
We can beat them, for ever and ever
Oh we can be Heroes,
just for one day
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
Though nothing,
nothing will keep us together
We can beat them, for ever and ever
Oh we can be Heroes,
just for one day
I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be Heroes, just for one day
We can be us, just for one day
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be Heroes, just for one day
We can be us, just for one day
I, I can remember (I remember)
Standing, by the wall (by the wall)
And the guns shot above our heads
(over our heads)
And we kissed,
as though nothing could fall
(nothing could fall)
And the shame was on the other side
Oh we can beat them, for ever and ever
Standing, by the wall (by the wall)
And the guns shot above our heads
(over our heads)
And we kissed,
as though nothing could fall
(nothing could fall)
And the shame was on the other side
Oh we can beat them, for ever and ever
Then we could be Heroes,
just for one day
just for one day
We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
We're nothing, and nothing will help us
Maybe we're lying,
then you better not stay
But we could be safer,
just for one day
Maybe we're lying,
then you better not stay
But we could be safer,
just for one day
Oh-oh-oh-ohh, oh-oh-oh-ohh,
just for one day
just for one day
"There is no accounting for taste" can only get you so far. If you compile a list of the best pop/rock music, you really need to have a David Bowie song among the first 50, or at least the first 100. Personally I find it even stranger that Radio 2's listeners somehow didn't choose Space Oddity as Bowie's highest placed song.
I am not a particularly great fan of Bowie, but he is without a doubt one of the most influential and important musicians of the 20th century. He was certainly one of the most progressive, I am not greatly familiar with issues of gender and sexuality, but now that queer identities become more visible in mainstream culture and society, it is pretty clear to me that David Bowie was far ahead of his time when exploring his (sexual) identity. And perhaps the same thing can be said about Freddie Mercury. These artists forced the audience to accept them on their own terms. And their identity was an inherent part of their art, which you could not escape if you wanted to enjoy/interact with it. The 'dominant' culture/society had to adapt to them.
Anyway, I'll write more about this once I discuss one of Bowie's songs dealing directly with these issues. The movie I chose has nothing do with that. I just chose it because Heroes plays an important role in it.
The Movie: The Perks of Being A Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky, 2012)
The Perks of Being A Wallflower is closer to Ordinary People, than to Juno. This is not a coming-of-age film, but a drama about Charlie (Logan Lerman) a deeply troubled teen, The film takes his problems seriously, and is often surprisingly dark as it dives inside Charlie's mind and tells it from his point of view. Chbosky, who adapts his own book, is not an especially great or imaginative director. Especially the flashback scenes are rather clumsily handled. Chbosky has filmed them as if he wants to hold crucial information back, waiting to reveal it at the end of the film. The reveal doesn't come as a surprise though, besides there is not much dramatic reason for Chbosky's approach. Having said that, it is quite clear that Chbosky is a really intelligent writer, who truly understands his lead character and his problems.
Chbosky does above all make great use of voice-over, especially when Charlie tells us about his newfound friends Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson). Charlie is a rather unreliable narrator, in what he tells us really does happen, only he interprets it quite clearly in a wrong way. When Patrick makes fun of a professor, Charlie tells us, that he did it, not because he is a 'bad guy', but to entertain the freshmen. Patrick is indeed not a bad person, but his act was purely for himself, to forget his own troubles. He is a closeted homosexual who has problems of his own. Charlie may see that and realize it, but he needs to tell/delude himself that his friend is a perfectly normal person. Similarly Charlie tells us that Sam, on whom he has a crush, used to be drunk constantly and sleep with a lot of different men, but that he won't judge her for that. That narration makes, first of all clear that Charlie certainly does judge her for it, but is afraid someone might find out, which might ruin his friendship. Secondly, Sam's behavior may not have been quite exemplary, but it was certainly not awful. There is not that much to be judgmental about. But by making it sound more awful than it is, Charlie braces himself for a possible end of their friendship. If it does happen, he can comfort himself in the belief that he didn't lose that great a person.
The potential loss of contact/friendship is what drives Charlie's behavior, and the movie itself. That fear informs basically every action he takes, never allowing him to truly relax, not even when he is genuinely happy and comfortable among his friends. In fact, especially not then. What if he says/does something stupid. During a game of Truth or Dare, he does and his greatest fears seem to come true. His decision is not smart. but it is one of the only times in the movie, he expresses his true feelings. If he did that earlier, he would not have to make a bad decision. Charlie's fear/insecurity is also the reason why he keeps talking about how wonderful 'the night at the tunnel was', when they elatedly listen to Bowie's Heroes, through a gloriously lit tunnel. It's the one night of which Charlie is absolutely certain that his friends loved it, so he cannot go wrong talking about it. The movie understands that this certainty is why Charlie loves that night so much, even more so than the greatness of the night itself.
The tunnel sequence is probably the most famous one in the film, partly because it's at the beginning and Emma Watson is introduced for the first time in all her glory. She benefits from the fact that she is seen from the point of view of Charlie, so she is shot in a very flattering way, emphasizing her beauty. Perhaps over-emphasizing, as Chbosky does want to make clear that Charlie's image of Sam is a bit too much of a fantasy. But camera tricks can only do so much. It's a star-making moment, and performance. It immediately squashes any doubts about Watson career after Harry Potter. As for myself, I saw the movie once before seeing it for this post. I hadn't, and still haven't, seen any Potter-film before the third. The first three didn't catch the tone/spirit of the books, leaving me uninterested in the rest. In any case I was absolutely gobsmacked, and paid more attention to her (role) than the movie's themes. I was convinced that she was going to be a star, and she is one now. That's deserved, she is obviously intelligent, and a very good actress. She is not as great as I expected though. She needs the right role. She deserved an Oscar nomination for The Bling Ring, but she was quite frankly awful in Noah. The other main actors here are quite good too by the way. Ezra Miller's bad luck is that Adam Driver exists.
The Perks of Being A Wallflower does have some significant flaws. Charlie is a self-centered character, for obvious reasons, who does not pay much attention to his friends problems. Considering much of the film is told from his point of view, it is logical that the film is to some extent guilty of the same, but Chbosky could have cared a bit more about them. Or he should have completely disregarded their feelings and focus entirely on Charlie. Now Chbosky, is also at times unfair towards his characters, especially towards Mary Elizabeth (Mae Whitman). Once she starts dating Charlie, the movie suddenly seems to turn her into an insufferable character, just because she is not Emma Watson. Now the fact that she is not Emma Watson, is in this context a pretty understandable reason to not want to date her, but the movie would have been better if it just admitted it. Lastly, this is a weirdly self-congratulatory film. Charlie wants to be a writer, and the film constantly reminds us that he can write really well and that he one day surely will become one. At times the movie plays as if Chbosky is telling his own origin story, 'How I Became A Superhero Writer'. In this regard there is one especially cringe worthy scene between Charlie and his English teacher Mr. Anderson. That the scene is cringe worthy is especially an achievement, considering Mr. Anderson is played by Paul Rudd. Still on the whole, this is a very good film. What it does well, it does extremely well.
The Perks of Being A Wallflower is closer to Ordinary People, than to Juno. This is not a coming-of-age film, but a drama about Charlie (Logan Lerman) a deeply troubled teen, The film takes his problems seriously, and is often surprisingly dark as it dives inside Charlie's mind and tells it from his point of view. Chbosky, who adapts his own book, is not an especially great or imaginative director. Especially the flashback scenes are rather clumsily handled. Chbosky has filmed them as if he wants to hold crucial information back, waiting to reveal it at the end of the film. The reveal doesn't come as a surprise though, besides there is not much dramatic reason for Chbosky's approach. Having said that, it is quite clear that Chbosky is a really intelligent writer, who truly understands his lead character and his problems.
Chbosky does above all make great use of voice-over, especially when Charlie tells us about his newfound friends Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson). Charlie is a rather unreliable narrator, in what he tells us really does happen, only he interprets it quite clearly in a wrong way. When Patrick makes fun of a professor, Charlie tells us, that he did it, not because he is a 'bad guy', but to entertain the freshmen. Patrick is indeed not a bad person, but his act was purely for himself, to forget his own troubles. He is a closeted homosexual who has problems of his own. Charlie may see that and realize it, but he needs to tell/delude himself that his friend is a perfectly normal person. Similarly Charlie tells us that Sam, on whom he has a crush, used to be drunk constantly and sleep with a lot of different men, but that he won't judge her for that. That narration makes, first of all clear that Charlie certainly does judge her for it, but is afraid someone might find out, which might ruin his friendship. Secondly, Sam's behavior may not have been quite exemplary, but it was certainly not awful. There is not that much to be judgmental about. But by making it sound more awful than it is, Charlie braces himself for a possible end of their friendship. If it does happen, he can comfort himself in the belief that he didn't lose that great a person.
The potential loss of contact/friendship is what drives Charlie's behavior, and the movie itself. That fear informs basically every action he takes, never allowing him to truly relax, not even when he is genuinely happy and comfortable among his friends. In fact, especially not then. What if he says/does something stupid. During a game of Truth or Dare, he does and his greatest fears seem to come true. His decision is not smart. but it is one of the only times in the movie, he expresses his true feelings. If he did that earlier, he would not have to make a bad decision. Charlie's fear/insecurity is also the reason why he keeps talking about how wonderful 'the night at the tunnel was', when they elatedly listen to Bowie's Heroes, through a gloriously lit tunnel. It's the one night of which Charlie is absolutely certain that his friends loved it, so he cannot go wrong talking about it. The movie understands that this certainty is why Charlie loves that night so much, even more so than the greatness of the night itself.
The tunnel sequence is probably the most famous one in the film, partly because it's at the beginning and Emma Watson is introduced for the first time in all her glory. She benefits from the fact that she is seen from the point of view of Charlie, so she is shot in a very flattering way, emphasizing her beauty. Perhaps over-emphasizing, as Chbosky does want to make clear that Charlie's image of Sam is a bit too much of a fantasy. But camera tricks can only do so much. It's a star-making moment, and performance. It immediately squashes any doubts about Watson career after Harry Potter. As for myself, I saw the movie once before seeing it for this post. I hadn't, and still haven't, seen any Potter-film before the third. The first three didn't catch the tone/spirit of the books, leaving me uninterested in the rest. In any case I was absolutely gobsmacked, and paid more attention to her (role) than the movie's themes. I was convinced that she was going to be a star, and she is one now. That's deserved, she is obviously intelligent, and a very good actress. She is not as great as I expected though. She needs the right role. She deserved an Oscar nomination for The Bling Ring, but she was quite frankly awful in Noah. The other main actors here are quite good too by the way. Ezra Miller's bad luck is that Adam Driver exists.
The Perks of Being A Wallflower does have some significant flaws. Charlie is a self-centered character, for obvious reasons, who does not pay much attention to his friends problems. Considering much of the film is told from his point of view, it is logical that the film is to some extent guilty of the same, but Chbosky could have cared a bit more about them. Or he should have completely disregarded their feelings and focus entirely on Charlie. Now Chbosky, is also at times unfair towards his characters, especially towards Mary Elizabeth (Mae Whitman). Once she starts dating Charlie, the movie suddenly seems to turn her into an insufferable character, just because she is not Emma Watson. Now the fact that she is not Emma Watson, is in this context a pretty understandable reason to not want to date her, but the movie would have been better if it just admitted it. Lastly, this is a weirdly self-congratulatory film. Charlie wants to be a writer, and the film constantly reminds us that he can write really well and that he one day surely will become one. At times the movie plays as if Chbosky is telling his own origin story, 'How I Became A Superhero Writer'. In this regard there is one especially cringe worthy scene between Charlie and his English teacher Mr. Anderson. That the scene is cringe worthy is especially an achievement, considering Mr. Anderson is played by Paul Rudd. Still on the whole, this is a very good film. What it does well, it does extremely well.
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