![]() ![]() Take the military trial movie A Few Good Men. Often, bad guys are convinced that they're really good guys, and that it's the rest of the world that's got things backward. But villains - when they're not just operating on autopilot, as great whites are - judge themselves by other standards: by how much they've suffered, by how no one listens to them. We tend to judge villains by the havoc they wreak. Other villains do it because they must, because it's hard-wired, and they're predators, whether they're Terminators or aliens or great white sharks. Iago is just nasty - the Elizabethan equivalent of a mean girl in high school. What does Iago get out of doing so? Nothing. But our eye goes regularly to his lieutenant who is so intent on falsely convincing him he should mistrust his wife. And his torment is engaging on a certain level. Othello's motivations are clear: He thinks his wife has been unfaithful. Which is not to suggest there aren't still plenty of miscreants today who announce their villainy in no uncertain terms: Hannibal Lecter, The Joker, Darth Vader, Cruella de Vil, the denizens of Mordor, that HAL 9000 computer that refused to open the pod bay doors for Dave.Įvery actor who has ever played Shakespeare's noble Othello has been upstaged by the double-dealing Iago whispering in his ear. There was no question they were bad guys, or that the hero would ultimately beat them up.Īs film narratives became more sophisticated, villains did too. In early silent films, they barely had a few minutes, so silent villains twirled mustaches while demanding the rent or tying the heroine to the tracks. This sort of narrative shorthand is useful to moviemakers, who today have about two hours to tell their stories. Just drop a house on her, as Dorothy does in The Wizard of Oz. Though you can't actually vanquish evil in the world, it is possible - even easy - to vanquish a villain. Is there evil in the world? The villain personifies it, makes it easier to deal with. Villains are where the fascination lies for audiences.Ī villain, after all, is shorthand. But goodness, in itself, does not make them compelling. As much as we don't like to admit it, heroes are boring.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |