Summary

Hámos' fascination with the cultural mythology of the hero culminates in this witty, elaborately crafted drama, which was produced for European television. Hámos intercuts two parallel narratives to tell his story: a cartoonish, campy science fiction adventure, shot on video; and an elegant, cinematic political thriller, shot on film. Hámos blends the two genres into a tragicomic tale of the role of heroes, their immortality, and the catharsis of a heroic death. The science fiction melodrama features a comic book superhero, Hurry Cane, who saves the earth from the evil Emperor Argon; in the film noir, hired killers have a contract out on the hero Cane. Hámos' analysis of the myth of the hero is articulated in his collusion of the two stylized dramas and their contrasting representational modes..