Film characters (part 3)

The Villain:

Villains provide the counterbalance to the hero as they are the ones who make the main characters journey into a struggle, whether it is for survival or freedom or an object of desire, the villain’s job is to give the hero a battle to fight. The villain must be almost the antithesis of the hero, equally matched if not better than the hero is. They must be smart, resourceful, determined, cunning and multi-dimensional. As to appropriately challenge the hero, forcing them to fight and grow with each encounter. Because of this, the villain must win almost every clash leaving the hero to either flee or fight harder for a draw or final victory. Jessica Page Morrell said that the villain must be worthy of the viewers hatred or fear, but must be multi dimensional so that the audience can be invited to have ‘sympathy for the devil’.

The villains of the thriller genre tend to also have a little extra (or less) when it comes to a psychological standpoint. Either they are a cold blooded killer, or an unhinged fanatic, or maybe they just follow a set of personal rules that the viewers can’t comprehend. Regardless, the villain role in thriller films are designed to put you on edge and make you feel uncomfortable. To make you want to seek shelter with the hero. Again looking at our ‘favourite’ film No Country for Old Men, the main villain here (Anton) is shown to be a peculiar person, very clever, but slightly unhinged. We can get this by looking at the type of weaponry he uses and his actions (besides just murder, because who hasn’t heard of a villain that kills people). First of all, his weapons are either modified or self built. When looking at his signature air pressure gun we can immediately tell that he is unusual as he carries a large air canister with him, and uses this device with incredible precision to do a number of tasks. This tells us that he doesn’t think in the same way that your ‘average’ person does, and alludes to the idea that maybe our villain is ‘different’. And for a long time writers and directors have used ‘different’ to alienate the villain for a long time.

To conclude, the role of the villain is to oppose the hero and make the viewers uneasy so they seek protection with the hero. Usually portrayed as unhinged or mysterious, the villain counterbalances the hero in almost every way. For an effective challenge the villain is well matched against most of the hero’s defining qualities, and in some cases the villain may be more skilled. For example the villain may be more elusive, more devious or cleverer than the hero, making his path a struggle. This is the case in the film ‘Seven’ where the villain (John Doe) out smarts the heroes all the way through the film, playing them all the way to the end.