Sometimes in movies, the good guy isn't really a good guy; they can actually be bad guys or just regular guys and that's fitting, because life isn't always black and white enough to clearly delineate the good guys and bad guys.
Personally, I'm a huge fan of these kinds of characters - flawed individuals that you route for regardless of the situation. Whether they remind us of ourselves or are simply too compelling to truly despise as clear cut antagonists often are, there is something more enjoyable about a quality anti-hero than a cookie cutter good guy. At least in my books.
On that note, welcome to today's Rundown.
Top Five Cinematic Anti-Heroes
5. Rob Gordon, High Fidelity
John Cusack took Nick Hornby's record store owner and gave him life on screen, creating a first rate anti-hero out of the relationship sabotaging Rob Gordon.
No one caused Rob's problems; he brought them unto himself by being afraid of his relationship and unhappy with his station in life. Raise your hand if you know what that's like.
For the record, my hand is raised... and I'm guessing at one point or another in your life, you should have been raising your hand too.
4. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
Let's get one thing clear: robbery is against the law and in the real world, those who commit these crimes are not the type of people you openly route for.
That being said, it's damn hard to not cheer fro Paul Newman and Robert Redford in these titular roles when the chemistry and charisma they exhibit ranks right up there with the best in movie history.
3. Nick Naylor, Thank You For Smoking
Aaron Eckhart's character in this way too under-watched flick is the chief lobbyist for the tobacco industry, a villain if ever there was one. He's the guy who tries to convince people that there is no actual proof that smoking causing cancer and things like that.
The problem is that he's so damn charming and easy to like that you can't help but root for him, even though he spends half of the movie (and the book from which it was adapted) looking for ways to promote smoking, like having movie stars smoke more in their films.
You want to beat the hell out of the anti-smoking guerrillas who kidnap him at one point (sorry if I just spoiled part of the movie, but you should have seen it already) despite the fact that we all dislike the real life version of Naylor, the guy who spins research into a favorable light for "Big Tobacco" to help them make money off misery, addiction and possible death.
2. Hannibal Lector, The Silence of the Lambs
He is a murderous cannibal who eats his victims, yet we're still completely enthralled with Anthony Hopkins' on screen creation. Admittedly, I laugh at the brilliance he displays in escaping confinement so that he may go out, kill and consume Dr. Chilton, the arrogant and off-putting asylum director.
Creating a monster that audiences can become at the very least ambivalent to incredible, and Thomas Harris accomplished just that in the novel, while Hopkins more than did the same in the film.
In fact, he did it so well he took home an Oscar for the role.
1. Tyler Durden, Fight Club
Can a figment of your imagination be an anti-hero? I would say he can when that figment is as entertaining and enjoyable as Brad Pitt's frantic fantasy character from Edward Norton character's mind.
He does deplorable things that we laugh at, like pissing in the lobster bisque and splicing shots of big hair nutsacks into kids movies. Ultimately, he serves as the vehicle for what would be the destruction of the entire financial system the country operates on.
And we love him the entire time.
Who is Tyler Durden? The greatest anti-hero of my cinematic generation...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Rundown: The Anti-Hero List
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Paul Newman (1925 - 2008)
We lost a legend last night and Heaven gained one of the greatest talents ever to grace the screen.
Paul Newman lost his battle to cancer. He was 83.
If you've never listen to anything I have said here over the months that I've been doing this thing, listen just this once:
Go to whatever movie store you rent from, even if you don't rent movies anymore, and grab as many of Paul Newman's old classics as you can. Make no plans other than spending the day watching greatness at work.
Get Hud.
Get The Sting.
Get Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.
Get The Hustler and Color of Money.
Get Cool Hand Luke.
Pop some popcorn, grab whatever cold beverage you favour and just sit back.
Watching Newman at work, in everything, but especially along side Redford as Butch opposite Sundance and in The Sting and you'll wonder why we have to suffer through the scores of horrible movies Hollywood sends us each year.
The answer, in part, is that they don't make them like Paul Newman any more.
Enjoy a two minute glimpse at greatness here... best fight scene ever.
Thank you Mr. Newman.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Where Have Movies Like This Gone?
Someone needs to answer this for me because after spending the last year working at Blockbuster and watching the good, the bad and the ugly that Hollywood and everywhere else has to offer, setting in with Butch & Sundance last night was the best movie experience I've had in a long time.
I can't believe no one ever mentions this as their favourite movie. It's now officially mine. How could it not be?
Newman and Redford are a perfect match and play off each other better than any tandem we've seen on the screen in a long time. They are what every buddy movie pairing aspires to be and so very few actually capture.
And if that's not enough, this movie has current era tie-ins that should force anyone who claims to like movies to pick it up.
Sundance, as in, the film festival. I wonder where it got it's name?
Mallrats fans, this is where the daunting Mall Cop LaFours - he's got four kills! - comes from, name and white skimmer hat included.
At the end of Hot Fuzz, when they're shooting it out with the bad guys? Butch & Sundance.
Besides, it's two of the best ever running around robbing banks and slinging jokes on screen for two hours. If you've sat through Atonement, then you sure as hell can spend a night with Mr. Parker and Mr. Longbaugh.
And if you don't want to watch the whole thing, do yourself a favour and watch the Knife Fight scene and the scene where they're stuck on a rock ledge, pinned in by LaFors above them and a river below them.
I pissed myself. You will too.
"The future is all yours, ya lousy bicycle!"
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