Here in Australia, this was released as Accidental Hero, but as the majority of readers are American we will stick with the simpler American title Hero. It is a Stephen Frears satire starring Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis, and Andy Garcia. It was not a commercial success, and received fairly average reviews. I feel that time has been kinder to it than the audiences of the time.

Bernie LaPlante (Hoffman) is a pickpocket and petty criminal facing incarceration for his latest misdeeds. He witnesses a plane crash into a bridge and, being the first person on the scene, saves the lives of more than 50 people including television journalist Gale Gayley (Davis). When Gale’s television network offers a million dollars for the mystery “Angel of Flight 104” to reveals themselves, Bernie thinks his luck is changing at last – until he is beaten to the money by homeless veteran John Bubber (Garcia), who claims credit for saving the passengers for himself.

There is a wonderful cynicism to Hero, and it plays out through some quite pointed and brutal satire. Davis’ Gale Gayley is introduced while interviewing a man committing suicide. As Bubber, Garcia talks to the talk of being a national folk hero, but it is all based on opportunism and lies. Even Bernie LaPlante, played with a wonderful gravelly cadence by Dustin Hoffman, is about as reluctant a hero as somebody could be: saving lives, but bemoaning the loss of his hundred-dollar leather shoes in the process. He is not a likeable protagonist, but he likes to think himself to be. He lives a life in paradox, constantly kvetching about his poor fortune while living a criminal life that actively makes that fortune happen. The film generally pushes to find some sort of Capra-esque inner nobility in Bernie; Hoffman plays against that goal with wonderful pettiness.

John Bubber seems to exist in a precise opposite: he does something fraudulent and cheap in masquerading as the mysterious “angel”, but then actually does genuine good in the role society makes for him. Garcia brings a lot of charm to the character, despite his motives.

Part of the film has its eye on those snappy 1940s comedies, where Chevy Chase’s fast-talking network news head would fit right in alongside Geena Davis’ plucky reporter. It jars against the film’s other elements, but there is something interesting going on in that space between the artificiality and the weary cynicism. It is not a perfect movie by any stretch, but with the passage of time it has become a more interesting work. It certainly benefits from a number of underrated supporting players, including Stephen Tobolowsky, Kevin J. O’Connor, and Joan Cusack.

It has decent elements and less effective ones and it hits the right note as often as it misses, but it remains a well-played comedy and has one of the pitch-perfect endings of its time. Hero is worth more attention than it received, and perhaps a few re-viewings to give it a second chance.