In many ways, "A Modern Hero" reminds me of one of Spencer Tracy's best and most forgotten great films, "Edward My Son". Both films are about men who are bent on success at all costs and who channel all of their love and energy into their sons...and end up destroying them in the process.
When the film begins, Pierre (Richard Barthelmess) is a nice guy who performs at the circus. However, his mother is just awful...and she teaches him that love is nothing nor are women. Not surprisingly, he internalizes this message and spends the rest of his life using people and striving for money and power. After leaving the circus, he buys a bicycle business and soon moves into the burgeoning automobile business at the turn of the century. During all this time, his only thoughts are about money and power and slowly you see the nice guy disappear and a jerk replace him. He marries a woman...but is cold and indifferent towards her. Later, however, he learns that a boy he fathered out of wedlock lives nearby...and he spends the rest of the film heaping gifts and attention on the boy...and expecting nothing in the way of responsibility. Ultimately, by the end of the film, Pierre has really achieved nothing...and the brutal scene when he returns to his mother is one of the most cynical I can recall!
Overall, this is a very well made film--a modern morality tale about the pursuit of riches that can consume a man's soul. Not quite as hard-hitting as "Edward My Son" but the pair of films would make a terrific double feature! Well worth seeing and very well written. It's also all the more striking because Barthelmess was such a boyish looking guy and so easy to like...and seeing him in this sort of role sure packs a punch.
When the film begins, Pierre (Richard Barthelmess) is a nice guy who performs at the circus. However, his mother is just awful...and she teaches him that love is nothing nor are women. Not surprisingly, he internalizes this message and spends the rest of his life using people and striving for money and power. After leaving the circus, he buys a bicycle business and soon moves into the burgeoning automobile business at the turn of the century. During all this time, his only thoughts are about money and power and slowly you see the nice guy disappear and a jerk replace him. He marries a woman...but is cold and indifferent towards her. Later, however, he learns that a boy he fathered out of wedlock lives nearby...and he spends the rest of the film heaping gifts and attention on the boy...and expecting nothing in the way of responsibility. Ultimately, by the end of the film, Pierre has really achieved nothing...and the brutal scene when he returns to his mother is one of the most cynical I can recall!
Overall, this is a very well made film--a modern morality tale about the pursuit of riches that can consume a man's soul. Not quite as hard-hitting as "Edward My Son" but the pair of films would make a terrific double feature! Well worth seeing and very well written. It's also all the more striking because Barthelmess was such a boyish looking guy and so easy to like...and seeing him in this sort of role sure packs a punch.