It's like spicy food - sometimes you have to tone it down so more people can enjoy it.
I think if you play a character that is fearless, then it's boring. I think that's what was so incredible about Harrison Ford, is that he always seemed like he was never going to survive it, he's always scared, and yet he always does survive it somehow.
In recent decades this symbolic or metaphorical lyric has given way to one which leans toward metonymy.

