'HEROES'.........GIDGET, THE FONZ & HAN SOLO........

Heroes (1977)    We deeply apologize for the cheap, facile title of this post........

              But what the hell........it got your attention, right?

             

             Clearly, Sally Field, Henry Winkler and Harrison Ford are not playing the iconic characters they're so well known for........"Heroes" was all about stretching the acting muscles....

               But in Winkler's case, a role meant to showcase his versatility only backfired.......showing only the severe limitations of an acting range with a low ceiling. 

                         

              Turning popular TV stars into movie stars always proved a dicey, hit-or-miss proposition......

               (Back in our video store days, we remember that girl-rock-band movie "Satisfaction", designed to to propel TV's  Justine Bateman into the movie front ranks. Nobody remembers poor Justine, but everyone had their eyes on the redhead with the big hair named Julia Roberts......oh yeah, and that tall skinny guy, Liam Neeson.....)

               "Heroes", is an earnest, wobbly concoction that borrows chunks of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" for its tale of a PTSD-afflicted Vietnam veteran (Winkler) who hits the open road for his chosen quest - starting a worm farm with a few of fellow vets.

               Throughout the movie, Winkler, a natural comedic sitcom ham, takes obvious, strenuous efforts to duplicate Jack Nicholson's singularly unique blend of charm, anger and dangerous psychosis.  

                He shouldn't have.........

                Every moment of his performance rings false......the work of a skimming TV actor pumping out loud imitations of primal emotions, rather than inhabiting them.  It's more acting out than acting......and as colorful as it may be to watch, you never believe it's anything more than the Fonz pretending he's a dramatic actor. 

                Field and Ford, actors later to become famous for digging deep into the internal workings of their dramatic roles, fare much better here.........unlike Winkler's over-the-top, "look at me" work, they add enough unspoken sub-text to their characters to make you wonder more about them.  

                 Most telling: in a supporting role with limited on-screen time, Ford creates a far more vivid and honest portrait of a war-damaged young man than Winkler could ever hope to create with all his screaming and aggressive quirky behavior. 

                And as we pointed out at the start of this post.......star-making movie vehicles never quite achieve their desired effects.   After an even worse film that further displayed his one-note approach,  "The One And Only", Winkler wisely retreated to TV, where he continues to enjoy a long, beloved career.  Sally Field and Harrison Ford......well, you know the rest.

                2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2).........and that's only because Field and Ford ultimately become the real heroes of "Heroes".....