Political Meaning and Criticism
This film has faced criticism, as well as praise from abroad as a perceived pro-totalitarian and pro-Chinese reunification subtext. Critics also cited as evidence the approval that had been given to the film by the government of the People's Republic of China. These critics argued that the ulterior meaning of the film was triumph of security and stability over liberty and human rights, analogous to the "Asian values" concept that gained brief popularity in the 1990s.
The film's director, Zhang Yimou, purportedly withdrew from the 1999 Cannes Film Festival to protest similar criticism. Zhang Yimou himself had maintained that he had absolutely no political points to make.
Read more about this topic: Hero (2002 film)
Famous quotes containing the words political, meaning and/or criticism:
“Truly men hate the truth; they’d liefer
Meet a tiger on the road.
Therefore the poets honey their truth with lying; but religion-
Vendors and political men
Pour from the barrel, new lies on the old,”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“Ideas improve. The meaning of words participates in the improvement. Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. It embraces an author’s phrase, makes use of his expressions, erases a false idea, and replaces it with the right idea.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)
“It is ... pathetic to observe the complete lack of imagination on the part of certain employers and men and women of the upper-income levels, equally devoid of experience, equally glib with their criticism ... directed against workers, labor leaders, and other villains and personal devils who are the objects of their dart-throwing. Who doesn’t know the wealthy woman who fulminates against the “idle” workers who just won’t get out and hunt jobs?”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)