Dean Christakos: The No Retreat, No Surrender Cliché

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April 10, 2007

The No Retreat, No Surrender Cliché

This is related to 300, which I've been talking a lot about, lately, but not directly. There's a scene in 300 where King Leonidas, inspiring his troops, reminds them that the Spartans live by a code of "Never Retreat, Never Surrender." Yes, it sounds moving, except that those of us who remember the movie Galaxy Quest can't help but picture Tim Allen, playing a washed up science fiction TV actor, starting to take seriously his own character's parody of a motto "Never Give Up, Never Surrender!" That sort of declaration is so cliché that it's pretty much a punchline. It's the perfect thing you would expect a bad actor in a cheesy adventure show/movie to say. And yet-- they put very similar words in King Leonidas's mouth! Apparently the words "Never Give Up, Never Surrender!" hit their nadir when Sean Connery said them in the movie First Knight, described by one of my brother's friends as "the worst King Arthur film (ever, in the history of filmmaking)." (Given the existence of 2004's King Arthur, starring Clive Owen, I find this difficult to believe, but there it is).

But wait! There's more! I grew up in New Jersey, so obviously, as far as I was concerned, Bruce Springsteen is one of the most famous rock stars ever. Yet, at the same time, he's ingrained into the public culture and consciousness enough that you cannot actually quote Springsteen lyrics without a certain amount of irony. Or rather, Springsteen songs are to be enjoyed by completely forgetting about the fact that you're a jaded hipster. The song "No Retreat, No Surrender" is great, but in 2007 you can only enjoy it as a nostalgia piece. It reminds you, "oh yeah, I used to listen to stuff like that. Good times." Just to remind you, in case you forgot, the lyrics went:

We busted out of class had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a three-minute record than we ever learned in school
Tonight I heart the neighborhood drummer sound
I can feel my heart begin to pound
You say youre tired and you just want to close your eyes and follow your dreams down

We made a promise we swore wed always remember
No retreat, believe me, no surrender

As Cary Tennis said about Springsteen:

all those beefcake butt shots and that precious Telecaster that seem to say that Foucault and Derrida never really existed, and even if they did exist he could blow them away in a blast of burned rubber on hot asphalt

So, yeah, it's something to be enjoyed, and he really was a great pop culture giant of the 80s, but, seriously, I would advise anyone trying to be a "tough guy" not to entitle one's book No Retreat, No Surrender as indicted Republican Congressman Tom Delay seems to have done. He's a middle aged politician. He comes across as someone's out-of-touch father trying to act cool. Or, at the very least, a washed up guy spouting clichés that are at least 15 years out of date... kind of like Tim Allen's character in Galaxy Quest.

Posted by Dean at April 10, 2007 9:36 PM

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But do you really need ironic detachment to listen to Springsteen? He is after all the guy who wrote Glory Days..

Posted by: Omri at April 13, 2007 4:55 PM

But do you really need ironic detachment to listen to Springsteen? He is after all the guy who wrote Glory Days..

I don't think you need ironic detachment to listen to him in general, but at this point, in 2007, the lyrics to "No Retreat, No Surrender" seem played out, even though I nonetheless enjoy the song.

Posted by: Dean at April 14, 2007 8:12 AM

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Dean Christakos

Technology, Travel, Music, and general attempts at keeping track of interesting things I come across

April 10, 2007

The No Retreat, No Surrender Cliché

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