Sanderson - Hanover Street

Sellinger calls Halloran a hero because he sees the way he handles combat and reacts to danger. Sellinger’s idea of a hero would be what you would imagine as a generic hero. He thinks of them as a large, brave man who kills off all the bad guys and always comes out on top. In this case Halloran does fit the bill for most of the film.

            In the beginning of the film, Halloran is shown to never blink even when enemy fire is all around his plane. He even scares his own men because he waits so long to drop the bombs because he wants to drop them in the perfect place. As the movie goes on and Halloran falls in love with Margaret he begins to change the way that he thinks and acts in combat. His decisions are much more well thought out and he is a lot more careful in his preparation and while he is flying. He realizes that he has someone to live for beside himself and he feels a sense of responsibility to stay alive for Margaret and with that responsibility he can’t act carelessly anymore.

            Sellinger on the other hand isn’t the image you think of when you think of a hero. He is more of a guy who sits behind a desk. His lack of adventure in his life drives him to act as a “hero” would. He decides to go on this dangerous mission because he wants to prove to Margret that he can be brave and heroic. This decision nearly gets him and Halloran killed. While watching the film I couldn’t help but think that Sellinger was crazy for acting as a Nazi and stealing those documents. What he did was stupid but also very brave. Those papers were very important and he never strayed from the mission to get the papers no matter what. Again, he was acting this way for another person in many ways. Sellinger was doing this mission to prove to himself and Margret that he was man enough to handle himself in combat.

            Although Halloran takes care of Sellinger and keeps them alive, he still doesn’t consider himself a hero. He thinks he is just keeping himself alive. But what makes him a hero is that he does things even though he is scared. For example, when he saves Sellinger from falling off the bridge he is terrified to go back but he does it anyway. In the beginning, Halloran may have seemed brave but he was just brazen, in the end he is acting out of courage because he knows what’s at risk and he does it any way.

Patrick Sanderson