7/22 update....
My wife has been out of the country for 5 days now and I think I'm ready to have her back home...and the cats are too.
Watched the Dark Knight a couple of nights ago with theProf...wow...to utilize theDiscourser's parlance, "My Face has been ripped off". An intelligent exploration of the Hero and Villain psyche. Impressed with the movie on soo many levels. Will Heath Ledger get a nod for best actor this year because of this role?...I think YES.
Rarely in cinema do villains come across as truly evil and/or "villainous". I believe you can group most bad-guys in the following general categories:
1. Near comical caricatures where often times viewers find themselves rooting for the bad-guy to escape or succeed or prevail: most Action Film genre Arch Enemies fall into this category.
2. Bad-guys with the stereotypic tragic past/childhood...and in some small way we can understand why they've come to be who they are: Micheal Myers, Jason Vorhees, Carrie, The Ring, a majority of Japanese horror genre characters, etc.etc.
3. Then there are the serial killer genre Bad-guy who, despite being scary and frightening, are in the end much more interesting and strangely fascinating then they're Good-guy counterparts: Hannibal Lechter, Seven, Saw, Anton Shugar and the rest...and they're particularly good at entertaining us with their always creative ways of killing people.
4. And of course there are the Monsters...and being Monsters, there's NO NEED to justify their bad behavior: Vampires, Werewolves, Mummy's, Zombies, etc.etc. I mean you can't fault a Zombie for eating you simply because its in their nature to eat you.
5. Then there are the Criminals and crime-bosses. They do what they do for power, wealth, notoriety, or fame. They're quite easy to understand really.
6. Then there are the supernatural Bad-guys who, again, need no explanation re. why they are who they are. Demons are demonic, Devils perform deviltry, Ghosts are....ghostly? Honestly, this is one groups that actually scares me at times...and I'll tell you why: you can takes steps to defend yourselves against the rest of the bad guys on this list (even defeat them), however crazy these steps might be. But their is no defense against Possession or an attack from an ethereal enemy. Viewers are left to feel vulnerable and helpless. Furthermore, Satan and his minions can't be bargained with...they exist to be Evil. But their impact on the viewer is mostly related to Fear, and not much else. Also, their very nature (being not of this world) allows us to take several psychological steps away from accepting them in any way as REAL.
But then there are that handful of truly frightening Bad-guys. Yes, other Villains might have higher body counts but what makes the most disturbing villains evil is that they choose to be Evil. Furthermore, there is a senselessness in the way they kill and cause pain. They don't do it to make ANY POINT, or do it because it makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside, or do it for reward or payment or power, or do it to corrupt the pure, or do it because they're hungry, or do it for vengeance, or do it to praise Satan, or do it because its in their nature. The best Villains are those who can't be understood...where viewers are invited into the madness hoping for a payoff or punchline or harbor from the insanity, but in the end, there is none. And the Joker comes damn close to being that great Villain.
I believe the best villain in cinema history was Ammon Goeth from Schindler's List...and absolutely NOTHING comes close. I hate him more than I've hated any character or real person in my entire life. I could not identify with any aspect of his personality. There was absolutely no meaning to his cruelty other than to demonstrate how much of a bore and a chore it had become. Of course what is most frightening about him is that he was a real man. Ammon wasn't some crazy schizophrenic, or Frankenstein's Monster, or crime boss, etc whose motivation to do evil is clearly understood. Ammon didn't even CHOOSE to be evil. What I find completely and utterly terrifying about him is that he was a bi-product of that society, a necessary cog in Nazi culture...and the mind-boggling bottom line being; Ammon believed he was doing GOOD, as did many Nazi's.
There was one particular scene in that movie that chills me to the bone to this day. Ammon's cabin was perched on the edge of a hill overlooking the quarry he was assigned to manage. Within the quarry were thousands of enslaved Jews moving in single file groups from one work station to another. A new resident was about to walk across the large open space when he was stopped by a veteran prisoner of the death camp. He warned him not to walk any faster or slower than any other worker, and never look up or STOP for any reason. High in his cabin, Ammon Goeth was taking aim deciding who to shoot with his high-caliber weapon. The words of the prisoner made sense then...Goeth wasn't shooting anyone in particular, just anyone that stood out to him...and then he killed anyone that stopped to help the fallen. He killed this way before breakfast and he was having a pleasant conversation between reloading...no affect, no glee, no remorse, no anger, no joy. The act was akin to his morning shave.
Man, I'm feeling really dark this morning. Anywayz, gotta go.
Watched the Dark Knight a couple of nights ago with theProf...wow...to utilize theDiscourser's parlance, "My Face has been ripped off". An intelligent exploration of the Hero and Villain psyche. Impressed with the movie on soo many levels. Will Heath Ledger get a nod for best actor this year because of this role?...I think YES.
Rarely in cinema do villains come across as truly evil and/or "villainous". I believe you can group most bad-guys in the following general categories:
1. Near comical caricatures where often times viewers find themselves rooting for the bad-guy to escape or succeed or prevail: most Action Film genre Arch Enemies fall into this category.
2. Bad-guys with the stereotypic tragic past/childhood...and in some small way we can understand why they've come to be who they are: Micheal Myers, Jason Vorhees, Carrie, The Ring, a majority of Japanese horror genre characters, etc.etc.
3. Then there are the serial killer genre Bad-guy who, despite being scary and frightening, are in the end much more interesting and strangely fascinating then they're Good-guy counterparts: Hannibal Lechter, Seven, Saw, Anton Shugar and the rest...and they're particularly good at entertaining us with their always creative ways of killing people.
4. And of course there are the Monsters...and being Monsters, there's NO NEED to justify their bad behavior: Vampires, Werewolves, Mummy's, Zombies, etc.etc. I mean you can't fault a Zombie for eating you simply because its in their nature to eat you.
5. Then there are the Criminals and crime-bosses. They do what they do for power, wealth, notoriety, or fame. They're quite easy to understand really.
6. Then there are the supernatural Bad-guys who, again, need no explanation re. why they are who they are. Demons are demonic, Devils perform deviltry, Ghosts are....ghostly? Honestly, this is one groups that actually scares me at times...and I'll tell you why: you can takes steps to defend yourselves against the rest of the bad guys on this list (even defeat them), however crazy these steps might be. But their is no defense against Possession or an attack from an ethereal enemy. Viewers are left to feel vulnerable and helpless. Furthermore, Satan and his minions can't be bargained with...they exist to be Evil. But their impact on the viewer is mostly related to Fear, and not much else. Also, their very nature (being not of this world) allows us to take several psychological steps away from accepting them in any way as REAL.
But then there are that handful of truly frightening Bad-guys. Yes, other Villains might have higher body counts but what makes the most disturbing villains evil is that they choose to be Evil. Furthermore, there is a senselessness in the way they kill and cause pain. They don't do it to make ANY POINT, or do it because it makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside, or do it for reward or payment or power, or do it to corrupt the pure, or do it because they're hungry, or do it for vengeance, or do it to praise Satan, or do it because its in their nature. The best Villains are those who can't be understood...where viewers are invited into the madness hoping for a payoff or punchline or harbor from the insanity, but in the end, there is none. And the Joker comes damn close to being that great Villain.
I believe the best villain in cinema history was Ammon Goeth from Schindler's List...and absolutely NOTHING comes close. I hate him more than I've hated any character or real person in my entire life. I could not identify with any aspect of his personality. There was absolutely no meaning to his cruelty other than to demonstrate how much of a bore and a chore it had become. Of course what is most frightening about him is that he was a real man. Ammon wasn't some crazy schizophrenic, or Frankenstein's Monster, or crime boss, etc whose motivation to do evil is clearly understood. Ammon didn't even CHOOSE to be evil. What I find completely and utterly terrifying about him is that he was a bi-product of that society, a necessary cog in Nazi culture...and the mind-boggling bottom line being; Ammon believed he was doing GOOD, as did many Nazi's.
There was one particular scene in that movie that chills me to the bone to this day. Ammon's cabin was perched on the edge of a hill overlooking the quarry he was assigned to manage. Within the quarry were thousands of enslaved Jews moving in single file groups from one work station to another. A new resident was about to walk across the large open space when he was stopped by a veteran prisoner of the death camp. He warned him not to walk any faster or slower than any other worker, and never look up or STOP for any reason. High in his cabin, Ammon Goeth was taking aim deciding who to shoot with his high-caliber weapon. The words of the prisoner made sense then...Goeth wasn't shooting anyone in particular, just anyone that stood out to him...and then he killed anyone that stopped to help the fallen. He killed this way before breakfast and he was having a pleasant conversation between reloading...no affect, no glee, no remorse, no anger, no joy. The act was akin to his morning shave.
Man, I'm feeling really dark this morning. Anywayz, gotta go.
posted by supergoober at
1:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home