Been There, Done That

Here's three blurbs from IMDB; see if you can name the movie:

• In the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, a cynical drifter agrees to help a small, gasoline rich, community escape a band of bandits.
• Post-apocalyptic America. What begins as a con game becomes one man's quest to rebuild civilization by resuming postal service.
• A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.

Stories of the loner sacrificing the comfort he knows, even his life, to save humanity go back at least as far as the New Testament. Or, in other cultures, from when Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man.

No, this isn't a rant at Hollywood's lack of originality--let's face it; it's show BUSINESS, and we consumers crave the familiar. If we didn't go see them, they wouldn't keep making them. Plus, I've heard that children ask for the same story at bedtime every night for weeks at a time, and that this helps build synaptic connections as they grow.

And major stars like Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner and Denzel Washington want to play the guy who makes that ultimate sacrifice. Hell, Kevin Costner did it twice (WATERWORLD), three times if you count DANCES WITH WOLVES. Will Smith did it with I AM LEGION.

But the coolest example is when Pixar turned the tables and used a cute lil' robot as our hero yearning to make a connection (WALL*E).

I just wish the future didn't always looks so damn bleak.

p.s. The blurbs above: the first is for MAD MAX: ROAD WARRIOR (1981). The second is for THE POSTMAN (1997). The third: THE BOOK OF ELI (2010).