I remember learning in high school that ancient Greek plays were usually tragedies, where a noble hero, over the course of events of the play, becomes ruined.  But American cinema today is almost always the other way around, where some schmo rises up and becomes the unlikely hero.  To be honest, I think I’d prefer it if more movies were made in the Greek way; there is more pathos there, and I think more things for the human heart to identify and connect with.

(I know Asian movies are less likely to have happy endings, due to the more prominent belief that a hero’s noble actions will be rewarded karmically in the next life)