The film hero: a linguocultural aspect

Abstract

Background. The hero in a film text is not merely a plot element but a cultural model through which behavioural norms, ideas of duty, collective solidarity and socially accepted forms of emotional self-expression are articulated. War cinema is particularly relevant in this respect, since heroism is represented under conditions of risk, professional responsibility and the constant tension between personal feeling and collective duty.

Purpose. The article aims to identify the linguocultural mechanisms that construct the heroic figure in Leonid Bykov’s film Only “Old Men” Are Going to Battle as a representative example of Soviet war film discourse.

Materials and methods. The material is the film text considered as a multimodal unity of verbal, visual, intonational and musical resources. The analysis focuses on forms of address, call signs and nicknames, directive and mentoring utterances, humorous exchanges, the rituals of the “singing squadron” and song episodes. The methodology combines linguocultural interpretation, discourse-pragmatic analysis, stylistic description of character speech and multimodal analysis.

Results. The study shows that the film hero is constructed not through declarative pathos but through professional normativity, responsibility for others and an ethics of preserving humanity in an extreme situation. The “language of action” combines brevity, precision and disciplinary normativity, whereas mentoring and supportive speech strategies represent leadership as care. Call signs and nicknames function as markers of group belonging and value-based typification. Songs operate as a code of cultural memory and a means of emotional synchronisation. Thus, the heroic figure appears as a linguocultural construction in which speech, intonation, music and visual organisation jointly reinforce a humanistic understanding of heroism.