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SYMPATHY FOR THE BOND VILLAIN
After watching Javier Bardem's brilliant portrayal as Silva in the classic Skyfall, part of me was moved by the character's motivation for revenge after being "burnt" by M in Hong Kong and given over the Chinese for torture. In particular the interrogation scene in the cell where he details the pain he went through. Does any one else agree and are there other villians that people can at least feel a modicum of sympathy towards ie Max Zorin (born to concentration camp parents who were subjected to Nazi experiments). Another example could be Trevelyan who's parents were betrayed by the British. Perhaps a new incarnation of Ernst Stavros played by the right actor could even add a new layer of emotional vulnerability! Or maybe that's going too far!
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Comments
I found Silva quite sympathetic also, but how about Jinx and May Day ?
Very different and yet the same, they keep us viewers on their feet. Essay coming soon.
You sort of lost after the opening sentence. I thought Silva portrayal was too silly to be taken seriously, especially when he was in the isolation cell. I could not remember if I was watching the Joker or Hannibal Lector The larger answer is no. Mass murder is rarely justified.
I really don't understand why there is this desire to explore "emotional vulnerability". It is not that interesting to me.
I felt sorry for Elektra too and it's what makes her one of my favourite villains. Gets captured, M and her dad abandon her and eventually she turns out even more evil than the man who kidnapped her in the first place.
I felt sorry for Bond when he was forced to shoot her too because it wasn't her fault that she was this evil, manipulative bitch trying to cause a nuclear accident; she'd been moulded into that by the people around her.
Same with Silva really. Yeah he's a psychopath but it was M that made him one, so it was fitting that she died at the end and paid for what she'd caused (like it was fitting that Elektra's dad died in TWINE).
I think SF is pretty much a Craig era version of TWINE. Lots of similarities there.
If done well. When I was reading FRWL, I felt that both Red and Rosa Klebb were not sympathetic at all and they seemed to be sufficiently scary.
Indeed. Nowadays many people seem to think one needs to find some virtues to the villain to give him character. It can be the case, sometimes, but one can be irredeemably evil and that will make him very menacing. it does not mean there is no notion of wishful fulfillment played between the reader (or the viewer) and the villain.
Because the more three dimensional the character is often the better the actor is. It also often explains the motivations of the villain for doing such things.
Le Chiffre was the one I felt for the most. You could sense his desperation as the world moved from under him ie the poisoning, torture etc. He had good reason for his actions.
I think we might be talking degrees. Of course I would prefer a three dimensional character villain, however, I do not like the psychobabble associated in current films.
I love it. It makes the characters more interesting.
It does indeed. Although I think TWINE still easily takes the cake in the psychobabble category.
I actually do feel sorry for Elektra. Nice, innocent girl, ruined by terrorist and latent "daddy issues".
Unfortunately they deleted the scene where Apted yelled "Cut!" after Brosnan uttered "one last screw" and I jumped in as his stunt double and made passionate love to Sophie :) Well, one can hope, right? :))
I agree with most of this. The fact that one has faced hard times and/or been mistreated is no excuse for inflicting mass misery on innocent people. I've heard people use this sort of "reasoning" to justify the 9/11 attacks, and it is a moral monstrosity. So no, zero sympathy for any Bond villain.
No, it was Silva acting as a renegade agent that triggered his demise. M simply did her job as head of MI6.
Or to "humanize" him. It's all part of the dreadful fallacy that no villain is so vile that he must be destroyed. Rather, we must "understand" him and attempt to "rehabilitate" him. Bollocks. Pernicious bollocks.
No, he was a crook and a financier of terrorism. He got his just desserts.
It renders the screenwriting insipid and pretentious.
Or three dimensional? Otherwise its just flat.
LeChiffre was a great example. Sure, we think "Oh no!" when things go wrong for him but we know he got himself into this. And though he bleeds from his eye, there is something attractive about him... again, putting us off balance. It works great here.
I noticed that in a few of the villains actually. The more attractive they are, the scarier it can be. That may be the way the character is written and portrayed, sure, but I think there is something relating to our general acceptance of good looking people.
My thesis on the banality of evil surely applies to Le Chiffre!
Elektra ended up much more annoying as well. I was waiting for Bond to give her that bullet. I feel sympathy for Renard in the sense that his character was not realized to its full potential.
Well, depends what they mean by "humanized". I like the villains to be rounded, believable characters, thus humans in that sense, not pantomime or caricatures. But sympathizing with them takes the menace off them. I want their motivations to be believable, I want to understand them in that sense, but never to the point of them losing their villainy. On the contrary, understanding has to confirm their villainy. People mentioned Silva as a villain one sympathizes with and I disagree completely. I understands Silva's motivations, I understand why he has this sense of entitlement, but that's what makes him evil. He was gifted, he used his gift to cause havocs, just because he could. His loyalty was destroyed by his vanity.
This. P&W did the brilliant Carlyle no favors at all. He got his paycheck, but I didn't get my monies worth out of him that I usually do.
Absolutely.... He should have been the main villain. It does feel like a rip-off.
An interesting post.