Some Kind of Hero

Richard Pryor spent half a decade as a POW in Vietnam. Now he's back in the US, and he's a hero. Except that his wife has walked out on him, his mother is in a nursing home and they want more money, the Army is taking its time on anything except for using him in press conferences and the bank he asks for a loan won't grant it. The only person willing to actually help is Margot Kidder, a high-class call girl, and he names her profession baldly.

Watching Pryor in a straight role is interesting. He plays the same sort of character he does in his comedies, hapless and out of his depth, but without the air of hysteria that informs his comedy. The result is a telling satire of the growing disconnect between the promise of America and the reality.

I watched this fresh off maybe my third read of the source novel, so for me, the lack of character development really shows up. I understand it's difficult to fit everything covered in a 294 page novel, but this could of been a much better movie if it was lengthened by about 15 minutes, with emphasis on character development, along with more story of what drove Eddie to take the risks he did after the military turned their back on him. I especially missed seeing more of his interaction with his mom, and feel they glossed over Eddie's time as a POW. Richard Pryor performed well as a dramatic actor here, they shouldn't have insisted making the film into yet another comedy vehicle.

1982's Some Kind Of Hero kinda came and went at the box office. Was released, made a small yet decent profit, and hasn't ended up being one of the movies many talk about often when discussing Pryor's movie career.

Part of that, I suppose, had to do with when the movie was released and within the context of Pryor's total filmography. Back then, Pryor was known pretty much exclusively for his comedic roles, which made sense because up until 1982 the vast majority of the movies Pryor had appeared in were either flat-out comedies or movies in which Pryor had a comedic role.

Some Kind Of Hero wasn't a comedy, which is to say the plot, characters, story and settings weren't necessarily funny in and of themselves. The movie, based on an adaptation of the 1975 novel of the same name, wasn't originally conceived as a comedy. Made sense, because the book wasn't written with an emphasis on humor, either. The backstory on the movie involves the flick being in development for several years, only being green-lighted when Pryor eventually agreed to star in it following the smash success of the 1980 movie Sitr Crazy. After Stir Crazy, Pryor was seen as a highly bankable movie star, thus having his name attached to Some Kind Of Hero made sense to the production company, Paramount Pictures, from a fiduciary standpoint.

All of which could seem workable in a cursory or glancing manner, until one thought a little deeper. By the time the movie was in production in 1981, it was already a couple of years after a spate of far superior movies depicting the Vietnam War as experienced by American GI's (in the form of 1978's Coming Home, 1979's Apocalypse Now, 1978's The Deer Hunter, 1977's Rolling Thunder, all very serious in tone and intent) both during the fighting and after returning home had been released. The 1981 production of Some Kind Of Hero also took place just a bit before the 1980's glut of Vietnam-centric or themed movies (1982's First Blood, 1986's Platoon, 1987's Full Metal Jacket, 1989's Casualties Of War, along with all those mid-80's Chuck Norris shoot-'em-ups and the 1985 First Blood sequel, Rambo) got rolling.

Looking back on it, Some Kind Of Hero getting released in 1982 seemed like a movie that had come out a few years too late to catch the late 1970's cinematic wave and several years too early to catch the mid-1980's deluge in terms of public interest. While hindsight is indeed 20/20 re: the 1980's stuff, one tends to doubt in 1981 there was a general sense that the public was clamoring for another movie concerning Vietnam, and certainly not one starring Richard Pryor.

Although one can look back and say the movie had perhaps languished in development limbo a bit too long to capitalize on the late 1970's Vietnam Movie Boom, it does also bring up the question as to if Pryor in 1981 was the right actor to be attached to the film in terms of starring in it, regarding the film as both an artistic statement and a commercial venture.

Some Kind Of Hero could certainly be classified as a Richard Pryor movie in the sense that he is in virtually every scene of the film. However, the same could also be said for the 1982 Pryor movie Live On The Sunset Strip, a film of one of Pryor's stand-up comedy shows. The difference being that the latter showcases what audiences wanted most from Pryor, which is to say his inarguable skill and genius as a comedian.

The rub, as mentioned, being that of Some Kind Of Hero not created as a comedy film yet ending up with a star essentially looked upon as a comedic actor with the emphasis of his roles in previous films having smartly been placed upon the comedy vs, dramatic acting.

So, was Some Kind Of Hero the right movie for Pryor to star in? Or, conversely, was Pryor the right actor for Some Kind Of Hero?

As it worked out...sort of.

Part of the problem was once Pryor was attached to the movie, Paramount Pictures naturally insisted rewrites should be undertaken to punch up the script with humor. In terms of the box office, this certainly made sense, far more sense than making a flat-out drama starring Richard Pryor. With respect to what one feels the original script was going for, these brief yet frequent comic interludes as executed on film come across being out of place. Especially since the better parts of what ended up onscreen, to me, are the more dramatic aspects of the movie...of which there are many. From Pryor's character being incarcerated in a POW camp for 5 years to his return to America and subsequently finding out his wife gave birth to his young daughter (her pregnancy a fact Pryor's character was unaware of both before his capture and during the entirety of his imprisonment), to THEN finding out his wife has hooked up with another man during his absence to THEN finding out his wife and her new man blew through all of Pryor's savings in a failed business venture while he was in Vietnam to THEN finding out his mother had a stroke while he was away and is in a nursing home which is getting ready to relinquish her housing if her nursing care bills aren't paid to THEN finding out that the US Army is holding up his back pay accrued during his half-decade captivity because of bureaucratic red tape...Prior's character spends 5 years in a prison camp to return home and find out his marriage is over, he has a daughter he has never met who calls another man 'Daddy', he has no money, no source of income, can't get a bank loan...none of which brings to mind the phrase 'comedy gold' re: situational premises.

The upside is that Prior does infuse many of the scenes which clearly call for a dramatic response with a believable amount of ability strictly in terms of the acting. That isn't to say it was an exceptional amount of ability, however, but certainly more ability than his previous movie roles had evidenced. Overall, though, while Pryor is rightly praised as a comedic genius and a highly effective comedic actor that doesn't therefore mean Pryor was an all-around great actor: he wasn't. I will say that perhaps given more time and more dramatic roles Pryor could have went on to be a highly effective dramatic actor, but that was never where his strengths lay and as a result the many dramatic scenes in Some Kind Of Hero end up coming off as ones that were merely...passable, sort of lightweight drama at best. Since these scenes far outweigh the comedic ones, it makes the specific comedy bits inserted to play to Pryor's strengths out of step with the movie itself (and it should be noted few to none of the comedy bits are howlingly hilarious, comedy obviously being subjective). What the movie ends up being is something that is neither as impactful as it might have been in dramatic terms were it approached more as a straight drama with a more capable dramatic actor in the lead role nor as comedically effective as it might have been had the comedy been not so tempered in order to emphasize the dramatic aspects.

As other reviewers have mentioned - and something I have long found to be true, also - It is also highly noticeable that right around the halfway mark where Pryor meets the Toni Donovan character (a high-priced prostitute played by Superman The Movie's Margot Kidder...although Kidder certainly turns in a good performance, Lois Lane as a hooker?) the movie loses steam. The last reel meanders into a convoluted series of robbery and black-market fencing scenes that come across as neither plausible nor skillfully connected with the first half of the movie. The ending scenes in particular have the feeling of several scenarios clumsily slammed together in order to give the flick an upbeat ending.

Made for a budget of $8 million and taking in $23 million in 1982 USD, Some Kind Of Hero was by no means a flop but was at best a minor success at the box office. After this, Pryor went back to his bread and butter, which was screwball comedy. On film, post-1982 he never again quite attained the comedic heights nor the box office success of his apex, 1980's Stir Crazy. He DID, however, subsequently go on to make one movie which blended comedy and drama a bit more effectively than Some Kind Of Hero. That came in the form of 1986's semi-autobiographical Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling.

Additionally, for whatever interest it may be to film buffs, the opening Vietnam War scenes in Some Kind Of Hero were shot at the Indian Dunes film ranch in California a little more than a year before the infamous 1982 helicopter accident on the Twilight Zone: The Movie production set took place in roughly the same location.

For years, Some Kind Of Hero was only available for home viewing on cable tv or VHS in 1.33:1 or Fullscreen aspect ratio. In the mid 2000's, it finally became available in a widescreen dvd format. In 2015, Olive Films put out a Blu-ray version in 1.78:1 Widescreen aspect ratio, the version of which is very bare-bones (literally a single title screen with only Play and Subtitle options and no extras of any kind) but having owned all other previous home video release types of the flick I can say the 2015 Blu-ray version is the best in terms of watchability.

Ultimately, an at times mildly humorous and mildly effective dramatic comedy/comedic drama that also becomes a slight endurance test in the 2nd half of the movie to get through with a bit of an underwhelming conclusion.

I enjoyed the movie, but it made me feel disgusted about how the army and the citizens of America treated a POW.

This film starts off like an extremely poignant drama. The bond between Richard Pryor and Ray Sharkey in the POW camp is seamlessly acted. The musical score by Patrick Williams is outstanding and very sad. The films middle is just as good, with very moving parts with Pryor returning from war to deal with problems with his mother, his wife, and his life. However, after this the film goes awry. The films keeps its respectability however, because Pryor is such a good actor.