What does it mean to be a hero? In this blog post I will discuss the personality qualities that make Harrison Ford (David Halloran) a hero and the qualities that make others question him as a hero. This movie is set during the Second World War where Ford plays an American pilot stationed in England. While there he meets a young British nurse during an air raid on London. This old-fashioned love story is one of love at first sight and also of sacrifice. American Pilot Halloran is forced to reflect on the real motivations to live and how his choices affect him. Halloran’s one true love in this story is Margaret Sellinger who has also got a lot of contradictions and choices to make because she is already married; a secret she keeps hidden from her American lover Halloran.
In the first 15 minutes of Hanover Street, you see Halloran’s attitude when seeing someone take advantage of a line and he decides to teach her a lesson. The heroic part of this initial scene occurred after “winning” and getting on the bus, he sees Margaret pretend to be pregnant and jumps off to help her. I think that this scene shows his sense of humor, which is one of the characteristics of a hero. The first really big act of a hero was when after meeting up with her again an air raid comes and they are separated. Halloran risked his own life to save the life of an anonymous woman. This is not a common act that most people will do. He runs towards the flames to find her and then when he did there was no going back. He now had something to lose.
In the beginning of the movie we see Ford acting nonchalant about issues faced during a mission. They were hit and the propeller was basically blown to bits, however, Halloran didn’t turn around because he was not afraid of loosing anything. I think the parallel and progression of the propeller analogy is very well demonstrated in the movie. When going to the briefings Halloran acts facetious towards the general who wishes he could be going with them. I think that Ford was portraying with his acting that wishing and doing are two very different things. Halloran is not the kind of man to make mistakes. As soon as he started to have feelings for Margaret his previous characteristics of bravery, risk taking and fearlessness that labeled him as a hero were weakened.
Out of guilt for his lost friends after he allegedly heard something wrong with the engine/propeller, Halloran ferry’s Paul Sellinger to France to drop him in the war zone. After being shot down behind enemy lines, Halloran decides to help the British agent complete his mission. In a way, I think that Halloran just seeing Sellinger trip and hurt his ankle was all her needed to offer his help. They have to work together even after Halloran finds out that Sellinger is Margaret’s husband. This demonstrated his sacrifice and the pattern that keeps forming when he refuses to admit that he is a hero, however he keeps on putting himself on the line for others. Sellinger described Halloran’s heroic nature as, “You are one, you can't help it. When the boy falls through the ice...you save him. I'm the one who gives you my coat to wrap him in.” In this scene Ford doesn’t speak much but is able to convey a lot with his facial expressions about how he feels when being told he is a hero. It was interesting to watch his acting thrive.
The final ultimate demonstration of his heroic talents is in the final fight and run to freedom. The bridge scene. Sellinger is shot down and even when he tells Halloran to leave him, Halloran refuses because he wants to make sure that Margaret doesn’t loose her husband. The sacrifice needed to turn back and help Sellinger get across the bridge is why I enjoy Harrison Ford because even though the movie is filled with cheesy lines and bad film making, Ford is still able to make it believable. The final sacrifice is in the hospital when Margaret finds them both; Halloran is able to give her up in order to make her happy. This, in my opinion, is the epitome of heroic nature.
As Pfeiffer and Lewis state in their book The Films of Harrison Ford, He may have been embarrassed about this movie but it allowed him to discover the art of kissing someone onscreen and of chemistry between two characters. Harrison Ford does a lot of action films that were big blockbuster films; it was new to see him doing something that helped him hone his skills.
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