\n\tFor a book that not many people know about or have read, James George Frazer\u2019s The Golden Bough (1890) has had quite an impact on cult cinema, particularly in the \u201970s. For reasons that would take too long to go into here \u2014 and thanks to its influence on Joseph Campbell\u2019s 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces \u2014 it turns out that Frazer\u2019s non-fiction investigation of religion, mythology, folk tales and the subsequent journey to science has since shaped films as seemingly far afield as The Wicker Man, the very first Star Wars, and Apocalypse Now. Well, you wouldn\u2019t necessarily ever put those three films on a triple bill, but, once you see it, there is a certain overlap, mostly in the concept of the unwitting hero, a man chosen by fate, and not necessarily for the better.<\/p>\n
\n\tWith that in mind, Greek-French director Romain Gavras<\/a>\u2019s Sacrifice<\/a>, his English-language debut, comes at a very interesting time in the world\u2019s history. Though outwardly a blunt comedy (of sorts), it\u2019s a film that, through its central character, asks questions about seeking out actual heroism within the fog of tokenism. <\/p>\n \n\tThat character is Mike Tyler (Chris Evans<\/a>), a Hollywood star recovering from a recent nervous breakdown and attending a garish eco-friendly charity party for the super-super-rich that\u2019s being held in a fantastically austere Greek mine. Tyler, conflicted even about his own attendance, is sceptical about everyone else\u2019s motives and says so, calling out the event\u2019s star guest, environmental billionaire Ben Bracken (Vincent Cassel), on a live video stream for his hypocritical politics, condemning the mining of fossil fuels yet happy to exploit the sea for energy.<\/p>\n