Something I've noticed recently is how in many movies with a character out for revenge, if the hero is the one seeking vengeance it is generally for something done to someone else who is close to them, but if it is the villain then it is generally for something done to them personally. I believe this is because the common belief is that avenging someone else is noble but getting revenge for yourself is somehow selfish or unwarranted. Two popular movies I can think of off the top of my head that show this perfectly are Skyfall and American Assassin, as both movies have protagonists and antagonists with this exact motivation.Skyfall - Raul Silva (played by Javier Bardem) is out for revenge against MI6 because they allowed him to get tortured and he wants to avenge himself; James Bond for the second Half of the movie however wants to avenge the death of his girlfriend/ love interest, and never brings up anything that was done to him personally by silva.American Assasin - Taylor Kitsch's character similarly wants revenge at the U.S. government for letting him be captured and tortured during a mission and leaving him to die. Mitch Rapp on the other hand is driven by the death of his girlfriend and never once mentions that he himself got shot and almost died as well.A movie that does a great job subverting this trope and changed how I felt about the villain is Kingsman 2, Where Pedro Pascals character Whiskey is found to be working with the enemy to allow her to poison every drug user on earth. When we find out his intentions though it is not because of something that was done to him, but that a drug user killed his pregnant wife and daughter. When you hear these personal details you still want him to lose, but I felt sorry for him and didn't hate him the way one would with most villains.Can anyone think of any other examples that hold up to this or subvert it? via /r/movies https://ift.tt/38oEU5M
No comments:
Post a Comment