Hardnosing

It's very hard indeed to get people to call to mind the unsentimental aspects of their heroes. A discussion on a De Long thread that ignores the Roman coldness for nearest and dearest, despite
ACT IV
Scene I. A house in Rome.

Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, seated at a table

Antony
These many, then, shall die; their names are prick’d.

Octavius
Your brother too must die; consent you, Lepidus?

Lepidus
I do consent—

Octavius
  Prick him down, Antony.

Lepidus
Upon condition Publius shall not live,
Who is your sister’s son, Mark Antony.

Antony
He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him.

They just didn't go in for the "Lepidus II; this time it's personal" kind of stuff. If anything, there wouldn't have been all this fuss in Gladiator about Maximus' wife and kids because she would simply have remarried to someone on the winning side as soon as the question came up.

and I remember having a hard time to persuade friends that The Wild Bunch werenm't persecuted for no reason, that, for example, Crazy Lee killed the hostages --despite a good tag line -

Hostages escaping)

Hey, stop. (shooting two times)

Feathers flew like a turkey!

Well, they shouldn't have run.

- because people get reclassified into heroes or villains, and heroes can't have done certain things. And this Christmas I was the only one of a Barrie-loving family who remembered the line from Peter Pan about Peter having to thin out the Lost Boys from time to time...

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