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Is an “anti-hero” a character who, throughout the entire plot, openly opposes the “main hero”? Basically, yes. But is he necessarily an “anti-hero” in the traditional, emotional sense?
For example, a dozen films, after watching which you can’t immediately say: who was the hero, whether the plot antagonist should definitely be classified as “anti”. Yes, and the main character will seem such a darling, if his qualities are not emphasized by the negative of the “main anti-hero”?
10 Michael Corleone
Francis Coppola’s classic 1972 gangster action film adaptation is all about colorful characters. The protagonist of The Godfather, Michael Corleone (perfectly played by a young Al Pacino), is one of the main characters in the story. But is he a “hero” in the conventional sense?
Of course, Michael was a hero at the beginning of the story, fighting valiantly at the front. Even after demobilization, the young man tries to behave honestly and with dignity in civilian life. Alas, the traditional way of life and the system of life values of the family leads to the drift of moral principles. Does he remain a “hero”, gradually turning into a convinced criminal?
9. Mildred Ratched
Like Ken Kesey’s original drama, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) has become a world classic. Built on a direct and obvious confrontation between the main characters, the plot leaves no doubt “who will be bad here.”
One of the representatives of the “team of villains” is the head nurse. Her official duty, which has become a sincere goal of life, is the strict execution of the will of the head of the plant to turn people into obedient dolls.
Louise Fletcher played nurse Milred so convincingly that she won an Oscar for this role. Louise’s joke, which she let go, picking up the famous figurine, became a catchphrase: “Sometimes it’s great when everyone hates you!”.
8. John Milton
In 1997, Al Pacino again gets the complex role of the main anti-hero – a role in which you have to show the complexity and ambiguity of traditional ideas about morality and morality in the film “Devil’s Advocate”.
The enemy of the human race, by definition, cannot be human, right? But everything is relative. One has only to take a closer look at how vile indecency people often hide behind a screen of ostentatious piety, as doubts about the unambiguity of the concepts of “good” and “evil” begin to be sorted out.
7. Tyler Derden
In 1999, David Fincher brilliantly filmed the psychological drama Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. Actually, the protagonist of the novel and the script does not have a name at all. The story is told from his face, the moviegoer sees what is happening through his eyes. But the main character’s partner, his friend and comrade – and, at the same time, the antagonist and worst enemy – has a face and a very specific name: Tyler.
Brad Pitt flawlessly played the resourceful, deceitful, unscrupulous destroyer of the traditional values of the world of prosperous bipedal ruminants and their heartless overseers.
The more unexpected is the gradual insight of the protagonist (Edward Norton). He will have to be convinced with horror that his “anti-hero” is himself.
6. Percy Wetmore
In the same year, 1999, American producer and screenwriter Frank Darabont made the film The Green Mile based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. The protagonist of the drama is a convict awaiting amnesty – or the death penalty. The protagonist is strange, kind and charming – as befits a positive character.
Most of the participants in the story are ordinary people. Not without some flaws, with its own merits. Would they have turned out so bright if their dignity was not emphasized by the weakness of one of the participants in the drama?
Doug Hutchison got the unsympathetic role of “daddy’s boy.” Not knowing life, accustomed to prosperity and carelessness, a young man gains power over the fate and suffering of people – and cannot withstand this burden.
Stephen King is a master of such contrasts, and the actor had to play the role of the most vile bastard. He did it wonderfully, which only benefited the film.
5. Commodus
Roman emperors, for the most part, were generally unsympathetic characters. The emperor has such a difficult job – either his own sister will start a conspiracy against the ruling brother, or the military leader will rebel and wish to climb the throne. It is not surprising that on the screen they are usually pretty scoundrels.
Filming the film “Gladiator” (released in 2000), Ridley Scott offered the actor, music video director and musician, Joaquin Phoenix, the role of “the main villain”. Joaquin plays the role of Commodus, the son of the then emperor Marcus Aurelius.
In collusion with his own sister, the villain kills his own father and proclaims himself, his beloved, emperor. But not all courtiers approve of such liberties in the palace and convincingly oppose the self-proclaimed tyrant. Commodus copes with the opposition in the person of his best friend and comrade-in-arms, which convincingly proves his right to reign firmly and even cruelly.
Interestingly, the real emperor Commodus is unlikely to have killed his father. Moreover, he was known as a peacemaker and popularizer of humanism. For which he was killed by the courtiers, who were simply tired of “the emperor is slightly out of this world.”
4. Mrs. Carmody
Stephen King’s story “The Fog”, published in 1980, was filmed only in 2007. Frank Darabon, who had previously directed an excellent film adaptation of King (“The Green Mile”), took up the difficult task.
As with King it usually happens, the diversity, but the general humanity of the main characters and the characters of the second plan, is emphasized by one – but a bright character. In the plot of the film, which was released in Russia under the name “Mist”, this is a possessed religious fanatic (which is also traditional for the plots of Stephen King).
The role of Miss Carmody was vividly and convincingly played by Marsha Gay Harden. So bright that against its background, even the ethically ambiguous actions of some other heroes seem to be just examples of piety and humanity.
3. Anton Chigur
The 2007 film No Country for Old Men, directed by the Coen brothers and based on the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy, evoked a vividly mixed reaction. Both critics and the public were shocked by the abstract allegorical nature of the plot and the absence of a vivid opposition of a certain “model of good” to an unambiguous “manifestation of evil”.
Of course, the charming Tommy Lee Jones “can’t possibly be a villain.” But the role of a smart and fair sheriff is his role. He honestly fulfills his duty, catches the villains and brings them to justice.
But someone has to resist the hero. Anton Chigurh (played by Spanish actor Javier Bardem) is a professional assassin. This is also his work, which he does strictly and methodically. Anton is doing his job, and the sheriff, Ed Tom Bell, is following in his bloody footsteps.
The killer’s methodicalness can sometimes even seem excessive and nauseating to his “employers” and moviegoers. But that was exactly what the Coens did, which made it possible to shoot an incredibly exciting picture, besides, it makes you think about something.
2. Joker
Based on comics, films about the opposition of Supermen to all the forces of evil in turn, are necessarily based on simple and clear antagonists: the “good” Superman – the “bad” Villain.
But even in comics, villains are given human motives, villains are overwhelmed by emotions that are quite understandable to the layman. So in the film “The Dark Knight”, released by Christopher Nolan in 2008, a character named Joker personifies all the evil of the universe, which is valiantly opposed by the invincible Batman.
Heath Ledger got the role of the Joker. The character is unsympathetic, but – as it should be in the noir genre – desperately attractive. And he did well in the role! Not everyone manages to play such a charm of criminal sinfulness.
1. Hans Landa
Inglourious Basterds, released in 2009, describes the adventures of good saboteurs valiantly inflicting damage and causing turmoil in the ranks of the bad Nazi invaders. The team of paratrooper heroes is assembled from the world-by-string of the most desperate guys, each of whom has a personal account with the Nazis.
To resist the “gang of bastards” (as the Germans have already called them) is brought to the colonel of the Security Service, Hans Landa. Christopher Waltz had to play the antagonist of the main characters. His character, theoretically, should cause an unambiguous rejection in the viewer.
But Quentin Tarantino always has everything upside down – and the charming colonel with impeccable manners and academic education causes much more sympathy than the “main characters” themselves. After all, it’s not for nothing that their gang was nicknamed the Bastards. And the colonel just wanted to honestly do his job, live to see the end of the war and along the way earn money for a “house in the village.”