it "swooningly beautiful, furious and thrilling" and "an action movie for the ages." Charles Taylor of Salon.com took an especially positive stance, deeming it "one of the most ravishing spectacles the movies have given us". Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote: "Filled with meticulous set pieces, including a showdown between Snow and Moon set among swirls of golden-yellow leaves, Hero is easy on the eyes, but it's too segmented to gather much momentum and too art-directed to convey much urgency." Dargis was impressed by the beauty of the actors and their compelling performances, "whose passions erupt as fiercely as any of the film's fights though often to more devastating effect." She concludes: "less than the sum of its attractive parts, it's nonetheless generally pleasurable." Derek Elley of Variety called it "A dazzlingly lensed, highly stylized meditation on heroism." Nevertheless, there were several film critics who felt the film had advocated autocracy and reacted with discomfort. J. Hoberman of The Village Voice deemed it to have a "cartoon ideology" and justification for ruthless leadership comparable to Triumph of the Will. Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post wrote an otherwise positive review but concluded: "The movie, spectacular as it is, in the end confronts what must be called the tyrant's creed, and declares itself in agreement with the tyrant." The film also has been interpreted as a nuanced investigation into the relationship between culture on one hand, and political or military power on the other. In this approach, the film comments not only on China and its position in the world, but also on the ongoing erasures of languages and cultures under globalization. Zhang Yimou himself maintained that he had absolutely no political points to make. Accolades In 2014, Time Out polled several film critics, directors, actors and stunt actors to list their top action films. Hero was listed at 77th place on this list. See also House of Flying Daggers Jet Li filmography List of martial arts films References External links Hero at LoveHKFilm.com 2002 films 2002 martial arts films Miramax films Chinese action adventure films Chinese epic films Chinese martial arts films Cultural depictions of Qin Shi Huang Fiction with unreliable narrators Films directed by Zhang Yimou Films scored by Tan Dun Films set in the 3rd century BC Films set in the Warring States period 2000s Mandarin-language films Wuxia films Hong Kong action adventure films Hong Kong