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Heroes for Sale

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Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, william a. wellman, richard barthelmess, aline macmahon, loretta young, gordon westcott, robert barrat, photos & videos, technical specs.

During World War I, Lieutenant Roger Winston is assigned to capture a German prisoner. Overcome by fear, he hides in a foxhole while Tom Holmes, another soldier from the same town, carries out the mission. On the way back, Tom is struck by a shell and Roger returns with the prisoner. Roger is promoted and decorated for bravery. Returning to America after the war, Roger meets Tom, who he believed to be dead. Tom's life was saved by the Germans, but in the prisoner of war camp, he took morphine for his pain and is now addicted to the drug. Roger gets Tom a job in his father's bank, but his addiction gets him fired. He is sent to a sanitarium where he overcomes his addiction but in the meantime, his mother dies from the disgrace. Tom goes to Chicago to look for a job and there he meets Ruth, a young woman who works in a laundry. They fall in love, marry, and have a child. Max, a socialist who lives in the same roominghouse, invents a laundry machine. Tom, who is now employed at the laundry, convinces his fellow workers to invest in the machine, but when the benevolent laundry owner dies, the new owners use the machine to lay off workers. The fired workers riot, Ruth is killed, and Tom is sent to prison for five years, even though he tried to prevent the mob from attacking the laundry. Max makes a lot of money from his invention and gives half to Tom as his share. Tom will not touch what he calls blood money and turns it over to Mary Dennis, the owner of his roominghouse, to feed the jobless. Believing Tom to be a Communist, the police drive him out of town, and he becomes a homeless wanderer unable to find a job. On the road, he meets Roger, whose father's bank failed because of mismanagement. Although the police drive them back on the road, the two veterans express hope that President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal will improve the lot of the poor.

Berton Churchill

Grant Mitchell

Robert Mcwade

George pat collins, james murray, edwin maxwell, margaret seddon, arthur vinton, robert elliott, john marston, willard robertson.

Douglas Dumbrille

Tammany Young

Hans furberg, howard bretherton, leo f. forbstein, louis jennings, robert lord, wilson mizner, james van trees jr., james van trees.

Heroes For Sale

Heroes For Sale - Richard Barthelmess Stars in William Wellman's HEROES FOR SALE on DVD

Heroes for sale - richard barthelmess stars in william wellman's heroes for sale on dvd.

The working title of the film was Breadline . Warner Bros.' production records in the file on the film in the AMPAS library indicate that the film had a shooting schedule of twenty-four days and cost $290,000. According to press notes, director William Wellman used real hoboes for the fight scene and real laundry workers for the laundry scenes. The war scenes were shot on the Warner Bros. Ranch in CA. This was Wilson Mizner's last script. He died from heart disease shortly after finishing the script. A news item in Film Daily notes that Guy Kibbee was being considered for an important role in the film, but he was not in the viewed print and his participation in the final film has not been confirmed.

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"We waste our money so you don't have to."

"We waste our money, so you don't have to."

Movie Review

Heroes for sale.

US Release Date: 06-17-1933

Directed by: William A. Wellman

Starring ▸ ▾

• Richard Barthelmess ,  as
• Thomas 'Tom' Holmes
• Aline MacMahon ,  as
• Mary Dennis
• Loretta Young ,  as
• Ruth Loring Holmes
• Gordon Westcott ,  as
• Roger Winston
• Robert Barrat ,  as
• Max Brinker
• Berton Churchill ,  as
• Mr. Winston
• Grant Mitchell ,  as
• George W. Gibson
• Charley Grapewin ,  as
• Robert McWade ,  as
• G. Pat Collins ,  as
• Leader of Agitators
• Edwin Maxwell ,  as
• Laundry Company President
• Ward Bond as

Aline MacMahon, Richard Barthelmess and Loretta Young in Heroes for Sale .

Heroes for Sale is another Pre-Code William Wellman picture with a social conscious. It tells the story of one Tom Holmes, from his capture by German troops during the First World War, through the 1920s and into the Great Depression years. Richard Barthelmess stars as Tom, a noble everyman who seems to encounter bad luck at every turn.

To begin with Tom is captured because a fellow soldier turns yellow. This coward’s lies wind up getting him decorated with the medals that rightfully belong to Tom. During his time as a POW Tom becomes addicted to morphine. His junkie status causes him to lose his postwar job at a bank. The very same bank owned by the father of the cowardly soldier (a former friend of Tom’s that begs him not to reveal his true actions on the battlefield).

Tom eventually gets clean in rehab, heads to Chicago and starts a new life. He marries (Loretta Young) and has a son. His enterprising ways allow Tom to work his way up in a laundry company. He helps an eccentric communist neighbor patent a laundry invention. Just when things are going swell, tragedy strikes when Tom gets mixed up in a protest rally that turns violent. There is a shocking death and Tom serves 5 years in prison.

Made during the depths of the Great Depression, Heroes for Sale paints a bleak picture of the American Dream as seen through the treatment of one returning war hero. Richard Barthelmess is quite convincing in the role. Although he sometimes had a tendency to overact he pulls off the role of Tom Holmes quite nicely.

Robert Barrat gives a properly broad-stroked reading to his showy role of the hypocritical inventor neighbor, Max Brinker. One minute he’s condemning capitalism and the next enjoying the financial benefits of it, while callously turning a blind eye to the needs of the poor right in front of his face. At one point Tom says to him, “You used to hate the capitalists.” Max replies, “Naturally. That was before I had money.”

Loretta Young brings a touch of homespun class to her role as the devoted wife and mother. But character actress Aline MacMahon gives the finest performance of the movie as the kindhearted Mary Dennis, landlady and best friend to the Holmes family. She was as adroit at delivering a sassy quip as she was at affecting an emotional expression. Sharp eyed viewers may spot the ubiquitous Ward Bond in a bit part as a communist protestor.

The plot is a bit episodic and at times overwrought but Wellman stages the rally strike masterfully. It features a brutally realistic riot sequence that holds up beautifully all these decades later. Heroes for Sale is a fascinating, if flawed, Message Picture from one of the era’s most prolific directors.  

Photos © Copyright Warner Bros. Pictures (1933)

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Produced by, released by, heroes for sale (1933), directed by william a. wellman.

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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

Characteristics, related movies.

Heroes for Sale (1933) Review, with Richard Barthelmess, Loretta Young, and Aline MacMahon

Published by danny on august 12, 2010 august 12, 2010.

Proof That It’s a Pre-Code Film

• After a harrowing injury in World War I, Tom Holmes becomes a morphine addict. He attempts to buy from a drug dealer and finds the prices have increased; he must choose whether or not to steal to fulfill his addiction.
• The film is notably down on patriotism, including having several character disparage the first World War and call the medals “lousy ribbons.”
• We’re treated to the scenes of a men’s club, where one character is calmly sketching a picture of a nude woman.
• The character of Max (Robert Barrat), is a died-in-the-wool communist. He becomes corrupted by capitalism, eventually becoming a stuffy stooge himself.
• The police in the film are brutal enforcers of the social order, often acting on bad evidence and without mercy towards the lower class citizenry. I know, incomprehensible.
• The film has a pretty brutal death scenes for one of its stars, just blood everywhere.
• Multiple “Why you dirty son of a – “s.
• One of the really awful characters kills themselves off-screen, and Tom nods, “It takes a lot of courage to kill yourself like he did.” That is one of my favorite lines in any movie ever.
• One could say the film is extremely pessimistic about the existing power structures in place in the United States and only a last minute peon to the incoming Roosevelt administration prevents interpreting it as a call for a complete replacement of the current social order of the country.

Heroes for Sale: No Time to Breathe

“The country can’t go on this way. It’s the end of America.”

Heroes for Sale is a bravura piece of social commentary in a tightly wound seventy minutes of film. It’s something rarely seen before or since, a movie with so much to say that it simply can’t shut up.

It begins on a rainy night in the trenches of World War I. Tom Holmes is assigned to lead a suicide mission behind enemy lines to capture German officers for a prisoner exchange. He takes ten men, all he can afford to lose. One of those men is Roger Winston, who panics at the gunfire and who watches the men get murdered one by one. With only him and Holmes left, he refuses to leave cover, cowering in the mud. Holmes calls him a coward, bravely dodging gunfire and making his way behind the lines. He captures a German lieutenant and brings him back to Winston before being shot in the back.

Winston, still shaking, takes the German lieutenant behind the lines. A pair of Germans find Holmes still alive and take him back to Germany to sit out the rest of the war and recuperate, which also involves a good amount of morphine. On the way back across the Atlantic at the end of the war, Holmes and Winston meet again, Winston a decorated hero for supplanting Holmes’s heroism, and Holmes a morphine addict with a red POW mark on him.

Back in America, we find Holmes living with his mother, while Winston, the son of a wealthy bank owner, given parades in his honor. Winston is ashamed of stealing Holmes’s glory, and gets him a job at the family bank. However, the morphine addiction becomes too demanding, and, though Holmes never steals the money to pay for his addiction, once it’s uncovered, the bank owner dismisses him with a sneer (“It’s time for you boys to realize that the war is over!”), and Winston quietly complies.

And while the movie could almost end here as an indictment of the repulsiveness of bankers (and it’s nice to know some things never change), we’re barely ten minutes in. We continue to follow Tom as he makes it through rehab and quits cold turkey. He finds himself working in a launderers soon, making a small wage and the object of affection by both the owner of The Poor Man’s Diner downstairs and a lovely boarder a few doors down.

He’s also accosted by an eccentric German named Max who lives in the same boarding house. Max is a self proclaimed Communist who derides Tom’s working conditions (even though Tom is pretty happy with his job). This changes once Max invents a machine that automates much of the laundering process; they both agree to put in money towards it, and license it to the kindly man who owns the laundromat under the condition that no one will lose their job because of it.

This doesn’t last long, as the kindly old owner passes on and the new management, seeing their chance to increase profits and pad their own wallets, release most of the staff. The furious workers denounce Holmes and his invention, and march to the launderers to burn it down and destroy the invention that has thrown them out of work.

The ensuing riot puts Holmes, who’d followed the workers and tried to dissuade them, in jail for five years for incitement, and leaves him lost as his wife is killed by a policeman in the shuffle.

From the outside, Max brags about their new found wealth. His color has gone from red to green. When Tom asks him about capitalists, Max replies, “I hate them, I despise them! But I’m willing to make money with them.”

If that is lot of plot summary, it’s because this movie contains a lot of plot; it’s a dense, sour cocktail of the world of 1933. Made a scant four years after the crash of 1929, where most films at the time seemed to hold themselves to the drawing rooms of the rich and richer, this film wallows in the mud. Inside, it’s the story of a man who finds that every time he does a favor in pursuit of wealth or money that his life is shaken to its core, resulting in disgrace, dishonor, and the loss of his loved ones. It’s not until he does a truly selfless act, one of charity as he himself becomes dispossessed, that he begins to see the sense in the world.

There’s a final speech from Holmes about America and what Roosevelt said in his inaugural address; I won’t spoil the optimistic beauty of those words here, but it’s an interesting contrast to the more ominous notes taken a half a decade later by Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. Both Toms, both Holmes and Joad, vanish into the dark night, tumultuous men who promise to do some good in some way.

And in worlds of unbridled greed, unemployment, and misery, sometimes that’s a hell of a nice thing to imagine.

Screen Capture Gallery

Click to enlarge and browse. Please feel free to reuse with credit!

Other Reviews, Trivia, and Links

• Jay Carr at TCMDB explains:

If that ringingly pro-proletarian work, and soul mates like The Cradle Will Rock, seem bolder-contoured and more proclamatory, films such as Heroes for Sale — half-digested as they are, ring more true, more powerful, strike a deeper chord precisely because they are less self-consciously message films, and more like daily newspapers being slammed out under deadline pressure. They simmer with tabloid vigor, fielding the realities as they unfolded in America’s collective experience, with no time to digest them or reflect upon them. It’s very much reactive cinema, not reflective cinema. As such, it avoids the pitfalls of message-mongering, letting texture and details – not speeches — carry the message.

• Frank S. Nugent in the New York Times , like many other contemporary critics, disliked the film immensely. He berates Heroes for Sale by sneering, “Many a mystery is less bewildering than “Heroes for Sale,” which was not intended as a puzzler at all.” 
• Sheila O’Malley at the Sheila Variations has a great analysis and info for this one. An excerpt:

There are at least two more acts to go in Heroes for Sale, gritty and terrible, but Wellmann does not tip his action over into melodrama. This is a drama, end-stop. It shows its characters, flaws and all, and follows them on their bumpy journey through life, and through a time of great upheaval in American history. 1918 to 1933 saw a lot of changes, and the worst was yet to come, but Heroes For Sale, while it could be seen as a piece of propaganda (“Can’t we do better for ourselves? Can’t we do better for our returning veterans? Can’t we just treat people better?”), it is also an examination of the economics and transformations that went down during that time, all seen through the eyes of people we come to care about deeply.

Awards, Accolades & Availability

• This film is in my list of Essential Pre-Code Films .
• This film appeared in the List of Pre-Code Films .
• This film is available in the second Forbidden Hollywood DVD collection , which also includes the films Other Men’s Women , Midnight Mary , The Purchase Price , Frisco Jenny , and Wild Boys of the Road .

More Pre-Code to Explore

Danny is a writer who lives with his lovely wife, adorable children, and geriatric yet yappy dog. He blogs at pre-code.com , a website dedicated to Hollywood films from 1930 to 1934, and can be found on Twitter @PreCodeDotCom .

Andrew · August 13, 2010 at 12:10 am

You had me with the screencap you chose for the main page, you kept me with those opening paragraphs, and cemented me with the ending.

I’m plopping this on the Queue post-haste.

Danny · August 13, 2010 at 12:40 pm

It’s on the same disk as Wild Boys of the Road, whose review is coming up soon too. Both of those are 9s for me, so I hope you like ’em!

Erich Kuersten · May 16, 2013 at 10:54 am

I love Wild Boys because it has such a natural believable progression. The kids make the best decisions they can and no matter what they at least have each other. This film always struck me as way too contrived, how fate conspires to deny Barthelmess any shot at happiness, being screwed over time and time again mostly to make jaundiced points about the evils of capitalism et al. But your review be fair and true

Danny · May 16, 2013 at 6:56 pm

I agree with you about Wild Boys, and think you make a really good point about it. However, I still have to give Heroes props for trying to do so much in so little time. It’s an encapsulation of two different eras, and represents both the pain of all that was lost and the hope for the future. There’s a good bit about the movie in Thomas Doherty’s Pre-Code Hollywood book if you ever get your hands on it.

James Kruszon · May 1, 2021 at 4:25 pm

One of my favorite pre-code movies that more people need to know about. Richard Barthelmess is excellent as Tom Holmes who life makes Job’s look easy. Aline MacMahon, who deserves more recognition, has one scene that is heartbreaking. The movie touches on themes that films today won’t. And it’s all done in a little over an hour!

Comments are closed.

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Heroes for Sale

Loretta Young (Ruth Loring) Richard Barthelmess (Thomas 'Tom' Holmes) Aline MacMahon (Mary Dennis) Gordon Westcott (Roger Winston) Robert Barrat (Max Brinker) Berton Churchill (Mr. Winston) Grant Mitchell (George W. Gibson) Charley Grapewin (Pa Dennis) Robert McWade (Dr. Briggs) G. Pat Collins (Leader of Agitators)

William A. Wellman

A veteran fights drug addiction to make his way in the business world.

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Beautiful, interesting, incredible cinema.

HEROES FOR SALE

The saga of Tom Holmes – a man of principles – from the Great War to the Great Depression. Will he ever get a break? His war heroics earn fame and a medal for someone else, and his wounds result in a morphine addiction that costs him a job, his reputation in his home town, and months in a clinic.

Heroes for Sale (1933) Stream and Watch Online

Watch 'heroes for sale' online.

Fancy watching ' Heroes for Sale ' in the comfort of your own home? Hunting down a streaming service to buy, rent, download, or watch the William A. Wellman-directed movie via subscription can be a challenge, so we here at Moviefone want to take the pressure off. We've listed a number of streaming and cable services - including rental, purchase, and subscription options - along with the availability of 'Heroes for Sale' on each platform when they are available. Now, before we get into the nitty-gritty of how you can watch 'Heroes for Sale' right now, here are some specifics about the First National Pictures drama flick. Released June 15th, 1933, 'Heroes for Sale' stars Richard Barthelmess , Aline MacMahon , Loretta Young , Gordon Westcott The NR movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 12 min, and received a user score of 70 (out of 100) on TMDb, which compiled reviews from 23 knowledgeable users. You probably already know what the movie's about, but just in case... Here's the plot: "Tom Holmes is someone guided by honesty and moral rectitude, a heroic veteran of the World War I marked by the unbearable suffering caused by his battle wounds, a traumatized but courageous man who will experience, in the years to come, the pain of misfortune but also the happiness of success and hope and love for other human beings." 'Heroes for Sale' is currently available to rent, purchase, or stream via subscription on TCM .

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• Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Dennis Schwartz A satisfactory but vexing populist social conscience film from the Depression-era.
• Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) John Beifuss An astonishment: a no-punches-pulled social history of America from World War I to 1933 that covers trench warfare, drug addiction, Communism, automation, labor riots, false imprisonment, xenophobia, bread lines and more.
• Nick's Flick Picks Nick Davis A Pre-Code Battle in Seattle... Heroes for Sale is not a perfect film, and not particularly interested in perfection, but really and truly, pretend this isn't a clich: they don't make 'em like this anymore.
• New York Times Frank S. Nugent Many a mystery is less bewildering than Heroes for Sale, which was not intended as a puzzler at all.
• Chicago Reader Ben Sachs This is also bracingly egalitarian, attacking the hypocrisy of communists and capitalists alike.
• CinePassion Fernando F. Croce Not a gram of fat in Wellman's crazy, urgent, ribald Depression pamphlet
• Parallax View Sean Axmaker The schizophrenic tone twists as much as the plot... but Wellman's gritty sensibility makes it simmer.
• TV Guide A hokey melodrama that is too far from reality to be enjoyed.

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Heroes for Sale

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Product details

• Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.32 x 4.19 x 1.12 inches; 6.13 ounces
• Release date ‏ : ‎ September 1, 1998
• Date First Available ‏ : ‎ February 9, 2007
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Young, Macmahon
• Studio ‏ : ‎ MGM (Warner)
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 6302208890

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The 25 Best Movie Heroes of All Time, Ranked

"We can be heroes, just for one day."

Villains are great and all, driving conflict in a way only they can and giving more noble characters something to resist or fight against. A great bad guy (or gal) will often steal the show, but just as valuable is a heroic character for the audience to root for. If the villain’s great enough, the hero can admittedly be just about anyone, but if an equally compelling hero is placed against them, movie magic often ensues.

The following characters can all count themselves among the very best and most memorable heroes in movie history. They’re prominent characters within the films they’re featured in – usually the protagonists – and, even though some have their flaws, all show great bravery, go through interesting character arcs, or stand up against terrifying villains . Sometimes, they do all of the above, and are ranked below, from great to greatest.

25 Marge Gunderson

'fargo' (1996).

Just about everyone in 1996’s Fargo is an idiot, but not in a way that makes the film itself feel stupid. The Coen Brothers were honestly kind of genius for tackling this sort of story and making it funny, tense, and ultimately strangely heartwarming, all the while having it feature greedy characters who scheme above their weight, and start ruining everything as a result. That is, until Marge Gunderson steps in and basically fixes everything.

She’s a determined Police Chief who steps in to investigate the entire series of events that transpired earlier, and it shifts the entire film, with a competent, clever, and good-natured character swiftly bringing an eventual end to Fargo . It’s satisfying seeing her take down some great (but, again, somewhat stupid) villainous characters , and that she also does all this while heavily pregnant just makes her even more admirable.

Watch on Max

24 Tony Stark/Iron Man

'iron man' (2008).

Tony Stark is an interesting hero among other superheroes, because he’s really not too far off being a villain when he’s first introduced in Iron Man . Okay, sure, he’s not evil necessarily, but he is self-centered and doesn’t seem to care too much about the effects his work as a weapons manufacturer has on the world. 2008’s Iron Man sees him have a change of heart (kind of in more ways than one), and over the next 10 years of MCU movies, he continually becomes more heroic .

This culminates in Avengers: Endgame , where it’s unequivocally apparent that Tony Stark is perhaps “the” hero of the MCU, or at least the one that all future main characters will be compared to. He never lost his sarcasm or willingness to be snarky , but the character arc he goes through in his first movie is impressive, and the one he undergoes across 10+ years of movies even more so.

Watch on Disney+

23 Zatoichi

The 'zatoichi' series (1962-1989).

Zatoichi is the titular character of an iconic and long-running samurai movie series , though he himself is not a samurai; more a lone wanderer who possesses the skills various samurai warriors have. He devotes himself to wandering around Japan and helping different downtrodden people in just about every movie he appears in, even though he’s blind and without a true home, in the traditional sense.

Across 25 movies that were released between 1962 and 1973 (plus a 26th in 1989), Zatoichi helped too many people to count, and was consistently selfless while also being charming and rebellious in his own way. He’s also the kind of hero who doesn’t always resort to violence , given his high level of intelligence and ability to read what people are thinking/feeling, even without being able to lay eyes on them, on account of his blindness and all. But when situations get physical, few can fight their way out of such altercations armed with a sword quite like Zatoichi can.

Watch on Criterion

22 Harry Potter

The 'harry potter' series (2001-2011).

A fantasy series that reigned supreme throughout the 2000s (and a little into the 2010s), there were a total of eight Harry Potter movies based on seven books, with the final book getting split into two movies, and was fashionable – not to mention profitable – at the time. The titular character is the undisputed hero of the whole thing, obviously, an unlikely chosen one who finds himself thrust into a magical world and at the center of a drastic battle between good and evil.

Harry grows considerably, both physically and emotionally, as the series progresses, with the entire saga also being something of an unusual coming-of-age story, beginning with Harry as an 11-year-old and ending with him almost being a young adult. He defies alarming odds and stands up to much evil throughout the series , being a positive role model and something of an inspiration both in the series' universe and outside it.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

21 virgil tibbs, 'in the heat of the night' (1967).

In the Heat of the Night was a Best Picture-winning crime/mystery/drama movie from 1967, touching upon themes regarding justice and prejudice that were topical back then, and remain so to this day. Certain things it deals with prove complex, but the story is very straightforward as far as movies about murder investigations go, and it has a clear hero in protagonist Virgil Tibbs, played by Sidney Poitier in a career-best performance.

Tibbs is assigned to look into the story’s central murder, which has taken place in a town with some rather racist inhabitants who don’t take kindly to the fact that Tibbs is African-American. Yet he does his job despite the pushback, stands up to those who are particularly prejudiced, and does it all while being very charismatic, too (largely thanks to Poitier’s charisma and dominant screen presence as an actor) .

In the Heat of the Night

Watch on Tubi

20 Frodo Baggins

'the lord of the rings' trilogy (2001-2003).

Epic movies don’t get much more epic than The Lord of the Rings trilogy, three films that add up to approximately nine hours of movie (or more like 11, if you watch the extended versions). There are numerous great characters throughout, and various different kinds of heroes. Aragon’s one of the best, as is Gandalf, and even someone more flawed like Boromir (who does redeem himself somewhat) stands as a memorable character.

But to pick the biggest and most prominent hero of the trilogy, one would have to turn to the hobbits. It might sting a bit to put Samwise Gamgee in second place (he might be the best companion/sidekick of all time), but it is Frodo Baggins who ultimately has to sacrifice the most before eventually saving Middle Earth . Despite his size, he braves the odds of his perilous journey and allows the epic trilogy to end on a triumphant – albeit slightly bittersweet – note .

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

19 will kane, 'high noon' (1952).

The Western genre was one typically filled with clear heroes and villains, though revisionist Westerns eventually became popular, and started to make things a little more realistic, not to mention murkier morally. High Noon , as an early revisionist Western , does get a little darker than some others of its time, but nevertheless features a clear hero – not to mention an admirable one – in Marshal Will Kane.

A character John Wayne was considered for , it’s certainly for the best that the role ended up going to Gary Cooper , because it feels like the sort of character Cooper was born to play. The film sees him struggling to get anyone to help him deal with an oncoming threat (a criminal seeking vengeance on Kane), forcing him to stand his ground and take on the film’s villains alone. As far as Western movie characters defying the odds and boldly facing adversaries go , few do it more heroically than Will Kane. Do not forsake him (oh my darling) indeed .

Rent on Apple TV

18 Foxy Brown

'foxy brown' (1974).

Pam Grier’s basically the epitome of cool , and especially so during the 1970s, thanks to starring roles in iconic action/crime films like Coffy and Foxy Brown . Of the two, the latter sees Grier playing the most iconic lead character of her career (besides perhaps Jackie Brown , a couple of decades later), with Foxy Brown being about the titular character taking revenge and wiping out some vicious mobsters in the process.

It was even less common to see women front and center in action/crime movies back in the 1970s, so Foxy Brown was likely revolutionary for the time, and much of it feels like it still holds up to this day . The film might have some flaws, but seeing Grier take no prisoners and fight back against criminals is a blast to watch, with the character and Pam Grier being the two main reasons Foxy Brown is worth watching.

17 Norma Rae

'norma rae' (1979).

A film that feels more topical than ever in light of recent events , Norma Rae takes a look at the arduous tasks involved in unionizing a workplace, here being a factory that mistreats its employees: various textile workers. Unionization and fair workplace arrangements have been covered well in documentaries before , with Norma Rae being a strong example of how it can be tackled within a drama film (one that was loosely inspired by real events).

Sally Field plays the titular Norma Rae, and won her first of two Academy Awards for the performance. She’s great at being a central figure who represents determination, with Norma’s plight and struggles still ringing true. It’s a film that matters, and should continue mattering, and will arguably only run the risk of ceasing to matter once every worker in the world feels like their employer compensates them fairly for the work they do .

Buy on Amazon

16 Bruce Wayne/Batman

'the dark knight' trilogy (2005-2012).

Coming out the same year as the aforementioned Iron Man , The Dark Knight is a groundbreaking film within the superhero genre, and a movie that expertly explores the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman. Though it’s fair to also highlight the other movies in the Dark Knight trilogy, with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises also being significant in their own ways, with Christian Bale portraying the character across all three movies.

It's never easy to pick the best Batman in film history, but Bale’s certainly a contender , and it helps that his version of Wayne/Batman did a great deal across three lengthy and jam-packed movies. As a hero, he has his flaws and downsides, but admirably sticks to his principles no matter what, and does what he can – sometimes, with great desperation – to continually protect the city of Gotham from a myriad of dangerous individuals and criminals.

The Dark Knight

15 jefferson smith, 'mr. smith goes to washington' (1939).

Frank Capra specialized in making movies about everyday people and underdogs dealing with injustice; not exclusively, but he did these things well, and that’s particularly noticeable with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington . It’s one of James Stewart’s best roles/movies, too , following a man named Jefferson Smith as he begins to get involved in the wild world of U.S. politics, following his appointment to the Senate in Washington D.C.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington balances being a comedy and a drama well, having some good-natured humor/satire while also exploring politics in a sometimes serious and critical way. The titular Mr. Smith defies odds and sticks to his unwavering sense of morality throughout , and appears even more heroic because so many other people around him in Washington D.C. are shown to lack the same good qualities he has.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

14 peter parker/spider-man, the 'spider-man' trilogy (2002-2007).

As far as the Marvel side of the superhero genre goes, there’s a good argument to be made that Peter Parker/Spider-Man is the greatest of all superheroes. There’s another Batman -like dilemma, however, that comes with picking the best of all the cinematic Spider-Men. At the risk of annoying some, it might well be Tobey Maguire’s depiction of the character from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, though he’s a character who’s heroic in just about any form, really.

Peter Parker’s a great hero because of how relatable he is , and his superhero persona, Spider-Man, works in part because of the compelling fantasy inherent in imagining having powers like he does. He’s an ordinary guy who’s capable of greatness, and the fact he perseveres through a world that seems to genuinely hate him ( especially in the masterful Spider-Man 2 ) just makes him all the more endearing and worth rooting for.

Spider-Man (2002)

13 sarah connor, 'terminator 2: judgment day' (1991).

An iconic series created by James Cameron , the Terminator films have their fair share of iconic heroes, including Kyle Reese from The Terminator (1984) and the reprogrammed T-800 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day . But the best and most memorable of the heroic characters in the series might well be Sarah Connor, particularly because she shines across multiple movies, particularly the first and second (the two best films in the series).

But it’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day where Linda Hamilton really gets to shine as Sarah Connor. She put up an amazing fight for survival in The Terminator , especially near the end, but she’s a full-on/no-nonsense machine of a character in the second, grappling with trauma brought about by the events of the first movie while also succeeding in kicking tons of ass. She gets a decent amount to do in 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate , too, but Terminator 2: Judgment Day remains the film where Linda Hamilton and her character make the biggest impression .

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Watch on Paramount+

12 John McClane

'die hard' (1988).

Across five inconsistent movies , John McClane was consistently himself: a wise-cracking, relatable, flawed, but ultimately heroic individual constantly caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, but nevertheless doing the right thing in such situations. The best showcase for McClane’s heroism would be the Christmas classic that is the first Die Hard , which also gives him the most growth as a character.

1988’s Die Hard helped cement Bruce Willis as a movie star, making him so much more than “the guy from Moonlighting ,” and his character, John McClane, is also significant for what he represented for the action genre as a whole . McClane showed that heroes in such movies didn’t necessarily need to be larger-than-life and ridiculously muscular, with the character being a different kind of masculine, and a somewhat different – and, many would say, more interesting – type of action movie hero.

Watch on Hulu

11 Rocky Balboa

The 'rocky' series (1976-2006).

Similarly everyman in nature to John McClane, especially in his first movie, the title character in Rocky is an essential movie underdog, and at the center of one of the best sports movies of all time . Rocky Balboa is down on his luck and not really going anywhere, but then gets an opportunity to make a name for himself by fighting a much more well-known opponent, setting in motion a series of training montages and determined attempts to better himself as a person while he prepares.

Sylvester Stallone put everything he could into Rocky , himself being an underdog within the film industry who shot to fame and dominated cinema for decades to come, much like how his character, Rocky, grows in prestige and popularity within the film series he’s central to. Rocky Balboa is inherently likable, and his perseverance is almost unmatched, making him the sort of hero one can’t help rooting for .

10 Rick Blaine

'casablanca' (1942).

Few Humphrey Bogart movies endure the same way Casablanca endures , and Bogart himself is a big reason for that. He plays Rick Blaine, the lead character in a film that’s packed with hugely memorable supporting players, and a man jaded by a love affair that ended prematurely. His world’s turned upside-down when his past lover re-emerges, only now, she’s with someone else, and that person – a resistance leader – just so happens to need Rick’s help.

Set in World War II, Casablanca is primarily a romance film, and one of the all-time best , even if it’s ultimately about letting go of somewhere you love for the greater good, instead of living with someone happily ever after . Rick’s sacrifice in this regard ultimately makes him a hero, as he does what’s best for the world – and, arguably, his ex – while changing who he is fundamentally, emerging at the end of the film as a less cynical and much more morally sound individual.

9 Oskar Schindler

'schindler's list' (1993).

A great many movie heroes who make a true impact are fictional, but Oskar Schindler was a real person whose heroism during World War II is covered in the epic biographical movie that is Schindler’s List . Running for over three hours, it’s a daunting yet essential film that showcases the horrors of the Holocaust while depicting how Schindler used his fortune to save more than 1000 Jewish lives during that dark chapter in human history.

Schindler’s List doesn’t shy away from the fact that Schindler was a flawed man, especially before he realized what was actually going on as part of the Nazi’s Final Solution. The film depicts a man changing his outlook on the world and taking steps to do what he can to fight a great and overwhelming evil . It’s true to life in that Schindler does not – and indeed, cannot – save everyone, but the film shows he made a difference and celebrates that, all the while being honest about how destructive and terrible the Holocaust still was overall.

Schindler's List

Watch on Amazon

8 Atticus Finch

'to kill a mockingbird' (1962).

Atticus Finch is commonly regarded as one of literature’s greatest heroes, so it follows naturally that the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird – which is a well-regarded adaptation – also ensures he’s an all-time great movie hero. The story revolves around a dramatic criminal case that sees Atticus Finch defending a black man who swears he’s innocent, all the while everyone else seems convinced that he must be guilty of what he’s been accused of.

It's a film of its time, in some ways, but in other regards, To Kill a Mockingbird feels timeless, and it’s one of the best releases of its decade for sure . Gregory Peck gave what might be a career-best performance as Atticus Finch, perfectly bringing the character to life, and helping ensure he was just as determined and admirable on screen as he was on the page .

To Kill A Mockingbird

7 clarice starling, 'the silence of the lambs' (1991).

Dr. Hannibal Lecter is an all-time great movie villain , and perhaps the most memorable character in The Silence of the Lambs . Clarice Starling, as the film’s hero, however, really isn’t far behind, and is equally important in ensuring the entire movie works as well as it does. Two great performances needed two great actors, and indeed, both Anthony Hopkins (as Lecter) and Jodie Foster (as Starling) won Academy Awards for their performances here.

Clarice Starling is involved with finding an elusive serial killer, and enlists the help of an imprisoned Dr. Lecter to help her get into the mind of someone as dangerous as the person she needs to find. Starling’s determined and willing to go to great lengths to do the task at hand , and endures much on both a physical and psychological level in order to achieve her goal.

The Silence of the Lambs

6 clark kent/superman, 'superman' (1978).

For as great as various cinematic depictions of Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Batman have been, it’s hard to look past Superman when it comes to crowning one superhero as the best and most iconic. Also, though other actors have done an admirable job at playing Clark Kent/Superman, Christopher Reeve is basically the gold standard for this character, bringing charm, warmth, and unabashed heroism to a character some sometimes see as corny .

Across four movies, Reeve embodied the legendary comic book character and showed he was essentially born to play the role, with Superman and its first sequel being particularly good . He’s the ultimate superhero in many ways, and could well be the first many think of when they hear the word “superhero.” As such, he more than earns the right to be considered among the most iconic of all movie heroes.

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Heroes For Sale

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Heroes for sale.

Directed by William A. Wellman

What good are medals on tortured breasts?

Tom Holmes is someone guided by honesty and moral rectitude, a heroic veteran of the World War I marked by the unbearable suffering caused by his battle wounds, a traumatized but courageous man who will experience, in the years to come, the pain of misfortune but also the happiness of success and hope and love for other human beings.

Richard Barthelmess Aline MacMahon Loretta Young Gordon Westcott Robert Barrat Berton Churchill Grant Mitchell Charley Grapewin Robert McWade G. Pat Collins James Murray Edwin Maxwell Margaret Seddon Arthur Vinton Robert Elliott John Marston Ward Bond Ronnie Cosby Douglass Dumbrille John "Skins" Miller

Director Director

William A. Wellman

Producer Producer

Hal B. Wallis

Writers Writers

Wilson Mizner Robert Lord

Editor Editor

Howard Bretherton

Cinematography Cinematography

James Van Trees

Art Direction Art Direction

Composer composer.

Bernhard Kaun

Costume Design Costume Design

First National Pictures

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

German English Italian

Alternative Titles

Breadline, Gloria y hambre, Eroi in vendita, 히어로즈 포 세일, 英雄何价, Fome Por Glória

War and historical adventure Crime, drugs and gangsters Military combat and heroic soldiers Enduring stories of family and marital drama Violent crime and drugs Riveting political and presidential drama Political drama, patriotism, and war Show All…

Releases by Date

15 jun 1933, 17 jun 1933, releases by country.

• Premiere Los Angeles, California
• Theatrical NR

72 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by theironcupcake ★★★★½ 5

"Remember my forgotten man You put a rifle in his hand You sent him far away You shouted: 'Hip-hooray!' But look at him today..." ( "Remember My Forgotten Man" musical number from Gold Diggers of 1933 )

(Warning: spoilers ahead.)

In deciding which film to watch on Memorial Day, I landed on Warner Brothers' Heroes for Sale, which has long been one of my favorite dramas made by maverick director William A. Wellman. Originally titled The Forgotten Man and Breadline in early drafts from co-screenwriter Robert Lord (who eventually finished the script with Wilson Mizner), Wellman's pre-Code programmer is a hard-hitting look at the adversities faced by veterans upon returning home from combat in World War I. Not only is it a…

Review by Owen ★★★★½ 2

A stunning film that seems to be getting a reputation as the epitome of pre-code hard hitting social reportage.

Barthelmes brave solider has the credit for his bravery stolen by a cowardly rich kid, picks up a morphine addiction in hospital, is thrown out of work by the same rich kid but manages to work his way up from nothing in the laundry business, only to get sold out by new owners, thrown in prison for demonstrating job losses as his wife is run down and killed by police horses and end up on the road as a hobo.

Again and again it explicitly deals with the idea of class in america and how the damage done by the first…

Review by Arsaib Gilbert ★★★★★

[ Favorites of 1930s ]

One of seven films William “Wild Bill” Wellman socked out in 1933 alone (including an uncredited effort), Heroes for Sale nimbly trots through a number of generic and thematic registers—wherein epigrammatic storylines often correspond to actual sociopolitical or historical events—by employing a cinematic shorthand that's rare even for the swift assembly-line moviemaking in the pre-Code era. Yet the film never feels rushed or choppy. Even more astonishingly, this mini-epic manages to create enough time and space for moments so intimate, tender and harrowing as MacMahon's quiet heartbreak, Young's violent demise, or simply the sound of the rain pelting on an overhead during a break in conversation. There are many more, and each leaves an impression. Although the…

Review by Gentry ★★★½

“If you smash the machines they’ll only build more.”

Nobody has seen an angel and the world is full of babies in this Roaring Twenties -adjacent, pro-worker pre-Coder.

Heroes for Sale is a darkly honest depiction of a shell shocked 1920s America slowly becoming Greatly Depressed. The great war is a modern memory, the Armistice has been signed and Tom Holmes (Richard Barthelmess) is sent home in a post-war exchange of prisoners. On the way out, he’s given a package of morphine to dull his pain while his buddy Roger (Gordon Westcott), a coward, gets medals for false valor. Now addicted to pain pills, Tom is sent to rehab, only to come out clean and find his mother dead. Loretta Young…

Review by trolleyfreak ★★★★½ 47

'It takes more than one sock on the jaw to lick a hundred and twenty million people..' (Richard Barthelmess as Tom Holmes)

Brief Synopsis: The struggles of an American 'Everyman' (Barthelmess) who through no fault of his own is cheated out of his commendation for bravery when a fellow soldier (Gordon Westcott), believing his friend to be dead, takes the credit for his heroic actions. Returning to America after the Armistice, what does fate have in store for the now morphine addicted veteran?

Verdict: Straightaway, the title 'Heroes For Sale' announces this as one of Warner Brothers' 'social protest' stories and if there are any better, well, I'd like to see 'em! Released just a few months before director 'Wild…

Review by Carlos Valladares

I have to hand it to this movie: it refuses to settle into any narrative for longer than 5 minutes. It has no patience to develop a scene to its natural limit. It's a grab-bag of plots: jaded returning vet from World War I, drug addiction horror tale, screwball comedy with Aline MacMahon, social-realist exposé of homeless veteran struggles, rom-dram heartbreak (the best shot is a 15-second-or-so beat on MacMahon's silently closing the door and looking crushed when she realizes Richard Barthelmess's veteran will always choose Loretta Young over her), for about 2 minutes a happy and successful family drama where nothing can go wrong , then an unemployment saga, a dramatic labor strike setpiece, little-woman-caught-in-the-sweep-of-revolution tragedy, gratuitous orphaning, broad satire…

Review by Brian Formo ★★★½

One of my favorite things about watching early Hollywood movies is seeing the cinematic language be formed. The blocking of the crowded shots (war homecoming, labor protests) with gentle camera movements is sublime. An on-the-nose example that shows more thought than shooting a play (which a lot of old films are just that) is putting the WWI veteran who is addicted to morphine for his pain in a bank teller box that looks like a prison with the bars in front of his face. This crams WWI, drug addiction, labor practice, and the Great Depression into 72 minutes and it ends on a moment of explaining the heroism to the audience, but the details in how bodies move through the frame in an early talkie is a simple pleasure for me.

Review by Rick Burin ★★★★½

*SOME SPOILERS*

Thirteen months later and this film would have had no teeth at all, but in June 1933 Warner Bros was taking few prisoners: Heroes for Sale is all bravado and socialism, ticking off the references to marauding social ills as if they were quarrels in a rom-com or ditties in a musical.

Former silent star Richard Barthelmess, his face still somewhat immobile after a botched face lift, is Tom Morris, the most unlucky man in the world - and an emblem of the Lost Generation - who misses out on war hero status, gets hooked on prescription morphine, loses his job to his own invention, is jailed for trying to stop a riot, and then gets tagged as…

Review by HalloweenHenry ★★★★ 2

Box Set Fridays TCM Archives: Forbidden Hollywood vol. 3

"The ranting and raving of a dopefiend!"

An injured solider returns home with an addiction to pain killers. Manual jobs, are replaced with machines, resulting in chaos. Have to remind myself this extremely dark film, was released in 1933?!? Not 2023. "Same as it ever was

Review by Lencho of the Apes ★★★★

Remember My Forgotten Man: The Movie.

Review by hellohildy ★★★★ 3

William Wellman brings his no-nonsense approach to a drama that amounts to a male version of a 1930s weepie. Much like Irene Dunne, Joan Bennett and Kay Francis, who played tragic victims of injustices and cruel twists of fate heaped on them till they - and we - dissolve into puddles of tears, here Richard Barthelmess has misfortune after misfortune thrown at him till you just want to yell “enough already!” 

The script swings at a lot societal problems and lands a few punches. Wellman’s straight-forward style works to mitigate the all-over-the-place plot. 

Barthelmess gives a fine performance, vulnerable yet subtle. I was also very impressed with Gordon Westcott, who plays his spineless boyhood friend and army colleague. I’ve seen…

Review by laird ★★★½

I always try and imagine what these social problem films would be like if they were made today, and it's so difficult because Hollywood seemingly has zero interest in directly engaging with the real world. I guess it's commercially and politically too risky to make something so nakedly propagandistic as HEROES FOR SALE, but it makes for pretty good human drama, even when it's pounding its chest on a soap box (under a sign that says, "No religious talk.").

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My Hero Academia Season 7, Episode 3 Review: The UA Traitor is Revealed Amidst Heartfelt Tears

Tomura and All For One fight for power as Deku trains with his classmates. The UA traitor is finally revealed, and the heroes can make use of them.

The following contains spoilers for Season 7, Episode 3 of My Hero Academia , "Villain," now streaming on Crunchyroll .

Season 7 of My Hero Academia is now in full swing and the plot is already moving at a breakneck pace, which is exactly what the show needs. After Season 5's endless setup, Seasons 6 and 7 are delivering incredible plot twists one after another. For its part, Season 7 opened strong with Star and Stripe's battle against Tomura Shigaraki. Their fight is now over as of Episode 3, but the plot twists are still coming – and it's a delight to watch.

Episode 3, "Villain," explores the villainy of All For One in two different ways, some more compelling than others. Right now, All For One is competing with his own heir, Tomura Shigaraki, to determine who the real supervillain is, which may lead to a rather confusing narrative. Then again, All For One's plans also involve the UA traitor, a subplot that the My Hero Academia anime is finally exploring once again. It also helps that all of class 1-A is there to see it.

Episode 3 Muddies the Narrative For Tomura and All For One

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All For One was established as a great supervillain earlier in My Hero Academia 's anime, with him being the big bad of the Kamino Ward incidenta and almost defeating All Might in a fight the entire world saw. Like his heroic nemesis All Might, All For One is fading fast and needs an heir. Tomura Shigaraki is meant to be the villainous Izuku Midoriya, the heir to an older man's persona as a symbol for society, and he's more than happy to become the next symbol of evil whom all villains can look up to.

However, My Hero Academia has started contradicting itself about who the real supervillain is supposed to be. Tomura is less All For One's heir and more his living vessel, not unlike Orochimaru in Naruto hopping into new bodies to stay young and get new abilities. On one hand, it's on-brand for a villain like All For One to exploit people for his own selfish gain, including his heir. It's just like him to do such an exploitative and resourceful thing. Then again, it makes the story rather muddled. Who is the real villain My Hero Academia fans should worry about?

It's possible that this confusion is the point as Tomura and All For One fight over the throne, but it actually makes the narrative a bit less compelling, as Episode 3 of Season 7 shows. This sort of struggle would have been more appropriate in the My Villain Academia story arc, when Tomura had an antihero training sequence and took on the Meta Liberation Army's leaders to realize his potential as the new symbol of evil. MHA 's story is now in its endgame -- it's a bit late for the villains to have a power struggle like this and force fans to juggle both Tomura and AFO as the potential demon king.

Class 1-A Reunites For the Final Battle, But It's Nothing New

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After Tomura's and All For One's scene in Episode 3, the plot switches back to its heroes -- more specifically, class 1-A. With Star and Stripe out of the picture, it falls to class 1-A, and presumably class 1-B and the UA " big three", to take on the Paranormal Liberation Front's remaining members in the next battle. Some pro heroes are still active and ready to fight, like Endeavor and Best Jeanist, but any shonen fan would know that it's the relatable teenage heroes – not the pro heroes – who will deal the final blow in the battle to come.

To set that up, Episode 3 spends some time showing everyone in class 1-A practicing with their Quirks yet again, from Deku and his shonen-style rival Bakugo to Mina, Mineta, Kyoka Jiro, and Eijiro Kirishima. On the downside, this short training montage doesn't say anything new about class 1-A's members or what they can do. It's just a refresher on everyone's Quirks and personalities, from Mina's acid to Momo's Creation and Denki's lightning powers. No major personal growth takes place here either, with the dialogue being token "we're in this together" sentiments and the like.

Still, class 1-A's scene does reinforce the fact that Deku cannot defeat the supervillains on his own despite his power with One For All – even if One For All has extra Quirks built into it. Deku's 19 classmates won't be the one to finish off either All For One or Tomura Shigaraki, but they can still play a supporting role in the final fight with the power of friendship, and that's exactly what Deku will need. The days of the Dark Deku persona are over -- class 1-A is in this together, and it's nice to see, even if it was 100% predictable.

Episode 3 Delivers Heartbreak With the UA Traitor Subplot

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My Hero Academia anime fans have wondered for years who the suspected UA traitor might be, a plot point that the series first brought up all the way back in Season 1. Not long after the villain attack in the USJ complex, UA's teachers have suspected a traitor gave Tomura Shigaraki inside help, but the anime seemingly forgot that subplot for a few years. Finally, Season 7 brings that subplot back to the fore, and with good timing, too. Author Kohei Horikoshi didn't forget this subplot -- he just needed the right context for it, and that context is right here, when the heroes are at their most desperate.

All For One boasts about his many plots and minions, saying that even if some fail in their mission, plenty more are availble to help AFO reach his goal one way or another. Right now, AFO's best bet is the UA traitor, and Toru Hagakure, class 1-A's goofy invisible girl, finally stumbled upon the truth. Toru finds Yuga Aoyama having a tense discussion with his parents in the forest surrounding UA's campus, and then Deku arrives to intervene in Episode 3's second half. The truth is made clear with rather blunt but also fascinating exposition -- that Yuga Aoyama was born Quirkless, just like Deku himself. The episode also builds strong emotional and thematic resonance with Yuga and Deku on this topic, since Yuga has always sympathized with Deku as a fellow kid born Quirkless. True, the first My Hero Academia movie did feature the Quirkless Melissa Shield , but this subplot does far more to move the story forward.

Yuga's desperate parents turned to All For One to give their son a Quirk of his own so he wouldn't be so horribly different, to mixed results as the exposition in Episode 3 states. Yuga fit into Quirk-based society with Navel Laser, but that Quirk strained his body and it came with strings attached. Now, Yuga and his parents are AFO's tools, giving him insider information about things like USJ's security and the timing of the forest training camp with the Wild, Wild Pussycats. None of the Aoyamas enjoyed this, nor did they identify as villains at first, but Yuga internalized it to the point he now calls himself a villain out of sheer guilt. He's confused about whether he's a hero in training or just a criminal, but resolving this will have to wait for future episodes.

This subplot helps remind My Hero Academia fans about the strong humanistic themes that make the anime so compelling. Quirks aren't just an excuse to make everyone an X-Men hero with cool powers and enable fight scenes in every arc. MHA features strong commentary about how such powers would reshape society and people's perceptions of themselves and each other, and it's quite effective. It's a resonant comment about how far some people will go to meet society's expectations for them and not be "weird" or "wrong" according to societal norms. It's another argument that Quirks are more of a curse than a blessing for the human race. Even after generations of Quirks, people have not fully reconciled these supernatural gifts with what it means to be human.

Episode 3 Ends on a Tense But Hopeful Note With the Aoyama Family

My hero academia season 7: deku is far from the spotlight in episode 1, and that's where he should be.

​​​​​In his own mind, Yuga Aoyama is a villain who doesn't deserve the trust or friendship of his classmates at school, but Deku and the rest of class 1-A feel differently. They still believe in the power of friendship, which brings Yuga to slightly happier tears during this emotionally turbulent time in his arc. Fans can think back on Yuga's moments of genuine kindness and support for his classmates, like his selfless moment in the provisional hero license exam or subtle emotional support for Deku as a fellow Quirkless person deep down.

Class 1-A's members are shocked that Yuga Aoyama was forced to be All For One's double agent, but they won't give up their friendship with him, anda they can even make use of him to make Yuga a force for good this time. Class 1-A's members and their adult allies can't easily find All For One with their current resources, but Yuga Aoyama and his parents may change that. Class 1-A urgently needs to strike the first blow in the inevitable battle that lays ahead, so to get the intel they need, class 1-A will use Yuga himself. Through him, the heroes may lure All For One into a trap or find his location, or anything else they need to get the upper hand for once.

It's not yet clear exactly how class 1-A will do this, but the situation feels cautiously hopeful as Episode 3 ends, getting My Hero Academia fans pumped for what comes next -- with Yuga Aoyama the traitor/friend at the center of it all.

My Hero Academia Season 7, Episode 3

Tomura and All For One grapple for the title of demon king while class 1-A prepares for battle. Meanwhile, the UA traitor is revealed at last.

• Class 1-A comes together as friends, just like in the good old days.
• UA traitor reveal has strong emotional and thematic depth.
• Ending gets fans excited for how class 1-A will use the traitor to their advantage.
• Confusing about who the real villain is supposed to be.
• Training scene is routine and says nothing new.