Jack Burton Hero or Sidekick?

 

 

So, is Jack Burton the hero or the sidekick in Big Trouble in Little China? I first saw Big Trouble in Little China when I was about 10 years old, 1988/89 on VHS. Over the years my favourite movie has changed many times, but I’m now at an age when I have seen so many movies, and I keep coming back to Big Trouble in Little China as my favourite, second favourite is Die Hard.

I had always thought of Jack Burton as the hero of the story. It wasn’t until the DVD came out, on the extras and the commentary this question comes up and I started to think about it.

On the DVD original extras Dennis Dun who plays Wang Chi describes, Jack and Wang are like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid they are both the heroes of the story. Which I agree with. There is a new release of the film with new extras and interviews which I haven’t seen yet, but on YouTube there is a short clip from a new interview with Dennis Dun and he says that John Carpenter kept tell him that he was the hero of the story.

If you check out my YouTube channel Bigger Trouble in Little China, I have put the video in my playlist which I have made public lots of other Big Trouble in Little China videos on the list.

I like this movie so much because it doesn’t follower the rules of which most movies do. This question doesn’t come up about other movies. If you take the end of the movie, where Jack doesn’t kiss Gracie Law goodbye. Which is fantastic and breaks many movie rules, getting the girl and riding off into the sunset. Jack could walk away at any time in the story but doesn’t, he says he’s there just to get his truck back, but he’s there to help his friend Wang Chi.

Jack Burton thinks he’s the hero of the story, but he isn’t, he is the sidekick which makes the movie so funny and fantastic! I do think everyone would think of themselves as the hero of their own story, no one thinks of themselves as the sidekick. If you take all the characters from the movie, they all probably think of themselves as the hero, Wang Chi, Egg Shen, Gracie Law, Eddie Lee, Uncle Chu and even Margo. I would love to hear your thoughts about this.