This month I begin a long and complicated writing project that has its foundation firmly in a life-long habit of mine... being more interested in the villain of a story than the hero.
Thinking back, I cannot pinpoint exactly when I decided that Dracula was more interesting than Harker or Van Helsing, or that Jack the Ripper had far more appeal than Sherlock Holmes, or that Erik the opera phantom really just needed to improve his aim with a chandelier. Villains have always just seemed to be more complex to me. Even now with a growing trend of bad-boy heroes and "darker" super-beings, I still find that the designated black hat is the one I'd like to have a dinner dates with.
It's not that I particularly agree with the motives, just that they generally have a much more interesting way of looking at situations. One of my favorite on-screen villains of all-time is John Kramer/"Jigsaw" from the Saw series, whose philosophy and pre-planning abilities are amazing although quite firmly rooted in solid logic. And how quick people are to label him as crazy! Yeah, he's crazy like a fox.
Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker was crazy, but by no means uninteresting. Although Jigsaw didn't particularly like the results of his games, I do appreciate seeing black hat characters who genuinely enjoy what they do (even if it is downright awful.) Rob Zombie's Firefly family in House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects being a wonderful example of this.
But even more interesting to me are the villains who truly believe that what they are doing is right, more so than those who just don't give a fig that their actions are wrong in the eyes of the law or humanity.
I look forward to tackling a very classic villain this year.
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1 comments:
The dynamic of the bad-guy has almost always been misunderstood. However, it takes more work to compose the reasonings behind the black hatted villian so the audiance won't figure out the plot in the first 30 minutes of a movie. Most times it's gets completely glossed over by the general audience because they know the story will progress whether they take the time to analize him or not. But what if you had an interactive movie that wouldn't automatically think for you? What if you had to choose the motive and the actions to take in order to come to an ending? The "Thinking Man's" movie. Imagine that. ;) -M.
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