Heroes and Villains in movies!

 Movies are and will always be studied by researchers as a cultural institute in itself. To state the obvious, movies play a significant role in molding the behavior of people across ages.

The young generation, especially, visibly idolizes or is influenced by fictional characters that they see or watch in any media. Cinemas, among other media, have a more significant influence comparatively and can effectively reach more people.

Cinemas can alter or modify a character and portray the character differently and still make it convincing.

For example, how the movie Joker whitewashed the DC iconic villain. Joker in the movie was a victim of circumstances and society, which somehow justified his crimes. As a result, many youngsters were seen trying to imitate the Joker and somehow relate to the character as they believed the character was actually good but misunderstood just like they think of themselves.

So, does cinema alone set standards for good and evil? Does cinema set rules or patterns for bad people and good people? Let's discuss!

Villains and heroes

Heroes typically suffer from internal conflict, and villains are just confident people. A hero is rarely shown as confident from the beginning to the end of the movie. However, on the other hand, a villain has a clear objective and would do anything in its pursuit.

Even if he is retired, a hero would still fight on his last day of duty although he would still come out bloody, broken, and victorious. There would be some textbook-ish moments for the hero when he finds out that his "own" people are involved. The villain somehow puts a compelling argument: the bad guys were just victims of circumstances, or somewhere in-between the movie is fired or no longer needed for the job.

The hero still pushes forward and fights, even though his family is worried sick. Needless to say, he rarely gets any recognition in the end. The villain would be focused, determined, and hell-bent on his objective!

A good backstory for the villain always works as how they became what they are now. Obviously, he would lose in the end! Even if the hero is a retired low-ranking office and the villain is a decorated, educated, and extremely accomplished character.

The villain is the hero

We live in an era where it's a fantasy to play the role of a villain, and if it pays, the actor would claim how he struggled to get into the character, and even after finishing the shooting, he still struggled to get out of the character.

One of the most famous villains, the MCU Thanos, was given a glorious purpose. He killed Avengers and Avengers, well, avenged back! But the Avengers never proved Thanos wrong! They nowhere did say that Thanos was wrong, and his action resulted in an over-allocation of resources (if that's even a word!), which made the balance worse than before.

This made me think if that was not by chance but by design. It was as if Thanos should remain to be right even after the movie finishes. Similarly, Batman never countered the Joker when he was saying things that somehow made sense.

So are villains written that way? You tell me.

The hero's inner conflict

The inner conflict is the hero's USP any day. The hero lands in a situation where he has a decision to make when he just learns that his people are involved! Now, the bad-inside man tries to strike a deal and asks the hero what this job ever gave them.

The hero struggles inside only to decide that he is not as corrupted as his partner or colleague. A similar situation arises when the villain starts questioning the hero and everything the hero stands for. The hero punches his way, nevertheless.

Be it John Mclane of Die Hard or Ethan Hunt, they were wronged, falsely accused, went against their own people and somehow came out looking good.

A lone brooding hero, please!

A hero flies solo! Their tragedy makes them super cool - from Batman to John Wick. Either the hero never finds true love, or if he does, they just die or disappear or sometimes betray, say sorry, and get shot!

So are damaged heroes more desirable? Why can't they have a good romantic partner till the end? Maybe, because many people still believe that a brooding and loner character has more chances to be a cool hero than a family man.

Even the villains are kept away from love - Joker, Bane, Thanos, Magneto, etc. All iconic heroes and villains are pushed towards a chance of living with true love and then yanked away!

What do you think?

Often, the hero is similar to the villain; it's just their duties or ideologies that contradict. From Moriarty to Sherlock or Joker to Batman, the villain is usually just the hero's twisted version.

What do you think of the article? Let us know in the comments!

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