Film characters (part 1)

The Main Character:

Most thrillers entrap their audiences with the main character. The ‘thrill’ of the thriller film comes primarily from the sense that you as a member of the audience is walking in the shoes of the main character, seeing what they see, hearing what they hear and experiencing what they experience. For this to be achievable the main character has to have a special quality that no other genre gives to its characters.  They have to be relatable, down to earth and or ordinary. Because to fall in sync with the protagonist the audience needs to first relate to them. Therefore when observing many thriller films we are introduced to the main character in a relatable way, maybe at home with their family, or at work being told off by their boss, or simply out for a walk.

Take the recent apocalypse film ‘World War Z’ we are first introduced to Brad Pitt’s character in his kitchen, his wife and children at the table and the news on their television. This is the first we meet this character and immediately believe he is like us, just a family man, ordinary.

The director keeps from us his abilities as an ex-army personnel so that when we do discover this we have already formed a link with him. This is the same in the film ‘No Country for Old Men’ where we follow the main character in what seems to be his everyday routine, roaming the countryside hunting animals. Now while this is not classically ordinary for the average viewer, we can still relate to this character as we are told through his reactions to special situations that he is not used to the life of drug dealings and cold murder.

So, an overview of the analysis of the main character. These characters are the driving force of the story, and on their shoulders is the responsibility to guide the audience from start to end through the film. To do this they need to be relatable, so the viewers will naturally fall in behind them and experience the narrative through their perspective. However, this isn’t solely their job, secondary characters, support cast and villains can also keep the motion of the story going. (secondary characters are main characters that the story doesn’t focus fully upon (see: the sheriff in No Country for Old Men.)) Just because the main character carries the story this doesn’t ensure their immortality. A major twist in the film Psycho is the death of the main character about half way through the film. And while the story still revolves around the, now deceased, main character, the role of carrying the story now falls on the shoulders of secondary characters and support cast.