This was part of a larger project last year where we had to make a website on a particular movie. We chose to do Hero - so we had to make up a 20 page website dedicated to just that. It was actually quite challenging...
The sword in Hero plays a very significant role in telling the story from Nameless’s retelling, to the actual story. The sword acts is an object with different uses throughout the story. Most significantly, as well as representing a weapon, it also represents art and skill. The dual uses of the sword- both as a pen and weapon – help to reinforce the idea in Hero that fighting with the sword takes much skill, and is comparable to art itself.
Objects in films can help to tell a story in relation to its ideas and message to the audience. In films, they can relate psychologically to the character, as in Hero, or they can be inanimate or relate to other objects or ideas. The use of the sword as an object in Hero is a major stylized technique, as it helps to show the viewer that art and writing is more important than power. The sword in Hero is a key factor in the movie that helps to tell the story, and convey the message to the audience – that there is even honor and skill in violence. The scene in Hero, where Broken Sword uses his sword to slice through a piece of wood as hundreds of other arrows are falling, shows that to use a sword takes immense skill and control, even though it is an object of power and violence. The scene in Hero where the old man in the calligraphy school is writing in the sand with an arrow(which also represents violence and power, like the sword), even though arrows are falling around him, also shows that art and writing surpasses power and ultimately portrays a message to the viewer – in which writing lasts forever, whereas power does not.
This conclusion is also emphasized at the end, where Nameless dies because of the characters ‘tian xia’, meaning our land - which Broken Sword uses to persuade him to not kill the king. The fact that Nameless does not kill the king because of these powerful characters shows that words are much more powerful than art. This message is ultimately the main idea of the story, where the sword acts as a representation of power and violence. The technique of using objects as a psychological and representative device in Hero is important in conveying the message of the story, as well as acting as driving the movie forward.