Writing is often the product of the time in which it’s written. This becomes especially apparent in films because they are created for an audience at that specific snapshot in culture. It becomes especially telling in terms of deciding who will be the hero of a particular story. In the 1980s, many heroes in film were muscle men determined to take on all sorts of bad guys. In the years since, culture and society have become more nuanced and conscious of the current status quo. That doesn’t mean action stars of the ’80s variety can’t still shine, but films like Glass Onion have shown audiences that, sometimes, heroes can be tailored to a specific generation.
The main antagonist of Glass Onion is Miles Bron (Ed Norton). Many have compared him to eccentric billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. He’s certainly a quirky individual who is seen to have wild ideas and spends money on absurd notions. However, it’s revealed at the end by Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) that he is, in fact, an idiot. All of his ideas come from someone else. He’s merely made money off of using the right people to further his ends.
Meanwhile, his undoing comes from a very humble school teacher named Helen (Janelle Monáe). She’s female and African American, which furthers their divide. Many critics of today’s stories might criticize her race and gender as pandering to today’s audiences, but that misses the bigger point of her character, which is class. Miles rode his success off of Helen’s sister’s back, who is perhaps the smartest character in the entire story. But even without her sister’s smarts, Helen was able to overcome Miles and triumph in the end. It is this victory of a working class woman of color that beats Miles on an ideological level then makes her an ideal hero for today’s age.
Glass Onion is now screaming on Netflix.
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