Great Movies Come From Great Villains

We root for the underdog and we root for the home team.  We cheer on the hero.  But, as M. Night Shyamalan noted in his sleeping ode to comics, Unbreakable, the heroes are nothing without the villains.  Without a hero, you almost don't have a show.  But without a perfect foil for the hero, one with purpose and true lethality not only to the body of the hero, but to the mind and soul, a movie falls flat. 

Arguably the most interesting director these days is Christopher Nolan, and it isn't hard to see why.  His breakthrough film, Memento, gets a lot of props for it's inventive storytelling and twist ending.  But (spoiler alert) making the unwitting hero into the villain was a stroke of genius.  Then look at the Batman movies.  You can point to the villains, sure.  But the true villain is what can break him without touching him...crime and corruption themselves.  The villains are built on themes.  Fear in the case of the Scarecrow and Chaos in the cases of the Joker and later Two-Face.  They aren't just self-serving evil-doers.  Instead they are the embodiments of those primal elements, and that is what makes them so good to watch.  Excellent acting and direction help, but without those foundations deep in the human psyche, they wouldn't be nearly as interesting.

And then, of course, we have Inception.  Who is the real villain there?  Guilt.  A whole movie based around fighting guilt in a personified real form.  Again, another brilliant turn by Nolan.  If he continues this streak, I can't wait to see what he cooks up next.

But enough of singing his praises.  We need better villains.  We need people to write more intelligent bad guys.  Villains, not heroes, are what raise movies from B-rate action flicks, to memorable Oscar contenders.  Anyone can write a mob boss, a drug lord, or a terrorist as a villain.  And heck, we do need a few simple bad guys once in a while to sharpen our hero on, but the true nemesis will be the one able to break down a hero psychologically, emotionally, and philosophically.  They must have a real chance at destroying the hero or the plot isn't nearly as compelling. 

In the comments, lets hear about your favorite villains and why they were great.

Post your sci-fi ideas - or not

I dream.  As do most people.  I'm not talking aspirational dreams like world peace.  I'm talking funky talking marmoset as James Bond flying in a purple blimp dream.  You know the kind you have when you're asleep.  Often the make little sense when I'm awake, but in the early 30 seconds or so after I wake up, they seem to make perfect sense to me, and awesome ideas for movies.  Most of them would have to be some sort of science fiction because I'm pretty sure it is the only genre elastic enough to contain them.

I've had quite a few ideas for movies.  I even tried to write one down once.  I got two chapters in and was so bored, I canceled myself.  But that doesn't mean the premise of the plot was bad.  It just means that I should have taken more classes in creative writing.

Additionally, I've noticed that many movies are "based on an idea by" someone.  They take some crazy idea and build a whole movie around it.  And, given the fact that Hollywood may be out of ideas, I thought this could serve as a repository for great movie starts.  And we might get a few laughs jump starting our imaginations.

I'll go first with one I thought about today:

It's several centuries into the future.  Mankind has taken control of evolution by selecting the genetic traits it wants in its offspring and weeding out the genetic diseases and weakness.  We have engineered new genes that give us better advantages and fill in some of the genetic blank space in our DNA.  Only one problem...a disease attacks that mankind has evolved past and has not genetic code to resist.  Our only hope is to re-integrate with the luddites that resisted change and were persecuted almost into non-existence and genetically are almost another species.  Only they have the naturally evolved DNA to survive.  Themes of class struggle and trying to control nature could be explored.

If you're a movie exec or an author and would like to use my idea, get in touch and we'll do lunch.  (really, a nice lunch is probably all I need to sign over the rights.  That and maybe a good movie).

Post your own ideas in the comments. (although given the sparse comments so far, I'm not holding my breath)

P.S.  - rights belong to the commenter.  I won't steal your ideas.  I'm not sure how to steal an idea anyway.

What is it?

Some people just have it, but I'm not sure what it is.  Some people just ooze success and confidence.  They strike up conversations with people and put them at ease with natural smiles.  They are not supermodel beautiful, and as a matter of fact, some of them are very...um...homely.  But they have what it takes to understand people and make relationships easily.

What is it?  And why don't I have it?  I went to school with them and I made the mistake of linking to many of them on LinkedIn, which sends me regular postcards about their accomplishments and success.  My sisters seem to have it, too.

I'm not dumb.  I'd like to think that my intelligence is above average (having actually taken an IQ test once, I will only state that I'm almost 2 sigma above average) which isn't bad.  But intelligence isn't enough.  As a matter of fact, it might be a problem if not used properly.  But I can't figure out how some people can just walk into a situation and control it.  I don't thaw out until I've been in a group for a while.  I have good ideas, but I'm often too shy to express them.  Or too slow.

Self-confidence and charm.  Those are the weapons that conquer the world.  Everything else is pointless without them.  It's what nerds wish they had.  It's why the jocks rule.  It's what the executives that know jack have and why the brilliant peons toil.  You can't fake those, at least not for long.

Rant Complete.  End Transmission.

Principles

Now I would like to turn my (and your) attention to the notion of a principle-centered life.  In order to do so, I must first define what I mean by “principle” and it’s simply this: a rule that governs my actions.  There are plenty of synonyms such as mores, laws, and traditions.  What I don’t mean are habits.  And I generally don’t include self-interest, although Gordon Gecko certainly makes a good argument to call it a principle. 

 

There are plenty of ways principles show up in our lives.  They are not the exclusive domain of religious people, either.  Joss Whedon, an avowed atheist, once said that atheists have an even greater imperative to live by principles since they don’t have their principles given to them (and I’m paraphrasing that).  While I don’t necessarily agree with him about the magnitude of principle-centered living that an atheist does vs. a religious person, it did give me food for thought.  What does it mean to live by a principle?

It should be noted that principles are slightly different than values.  Values are generally the basis for a principle.  For example, I value cleanliness, so I have a principle that I take a shower every day.  You can get into an argument about which causes which.  Do people salute the flag because the respect it, or do people respect the flag because they salute it?  I believe it can go both ways.  Things which we persist in doing can cause us to value those things, and things that we value can cause us to create a rule.

Principles help us make decisions.  You can think of them as shortcuts.  As with the above shower example, I take one whether or not I think I need one.  Perhaps I don’t need one because I didn’t get dirty, or perhaps I do because, although clean, I can’t sense my own body odor.  Regardless of what I might think about a situation, my principle cuts out the rationalization and I submit to a shower.

Principles are not always rational.  For example, my sister-in-law has a principle where she will not allow herself to touch another person’s wedding ring if they offer it to her directly.  (Apparently this is a common superstition where she is from.)  They must first put it down and she will pick it up.  The purpose here is the irrational idea that touching it directly will somehow cause the marriage to sour and cause a divorce.  The value is good (a sound marriage), but the principle itself is faulty.  (At least to me it is.)  Such is the way of most superstitions; they spring out of good intentions but have no logical connection.

Principles can also be good, but based on a less than noble value.  For example, my daughter learned how to go to the bathroom by being bribed with candy.  Her value of candy was greater than her value not to wet her pants.  If suddenly she were to devalue candy, what would happen to her principle?  It would become hollow and probably soon disappear.  Other times there are principles that have no value at all – just the skeletons of a forgotten value.  These often take the form of hollow tradition.  Take for example “knocking on wood”.  Society has largely forgotten why we do this: it is to make noise so the devil won’t hear what we’re planning and interfere.  But we keep on doing this.  I’m sure there are plenty of other principles you can think of that are based on little or no value.

Principles can also be bad.  Take racism for example.  It is a bad value based on faulty logic and a bad principle that builds out of it.  Most prejudice falls into this category.  They are rules that govern our behavior and eliminate decision making.  In this case, having principles may not be such a good thing.

Principles, as stated before, are not the domain of only the religious.  They are just as important to moral relativists.  They are stakes in the ground that we plant and say this is where I will build my character.  They form the basis of our moral compass.  The difference between atheists and theists is that the theists believe that their principles are established for them pointing north, while atheists are left alone to choose north for themselves.  I'll let the reader decide which is better.  It should be pointed out, however, that if a religious person doesn't examine their God-given principles and create an underlying value, they will whither away.  Where we don’t have principles, the ground is always shifting and each encounter is subject to either our thought process or our appetites.  In some cases, that may be a good thing, such as when we meet new people.  Instead of judging them out of our principles (read prejudice), we should judge them on their own merit.  However, the world is too complex for us to judge every situation and so some principles should be established to guide our actions in certain situations so that we can focus what free processing capacity we have on those issues that are too new or important to have a principle.  And on occasion, we should check our principles to see if they are in keeping with our values and having the desired effect.  We should reflect on whether they are based on real values or simply the remainder of something now past.

Personally, I am evaluating my values and seeing if they line up with my principles.  I see a lot of behavior that is simply be guided by my appetites, which are fickle and can lead to inconsistent behavior.  In those cases, I’m looking to see if it is significant and whether it violates some of my values.  And I’m looking at my behavior to see if new principles need to be established or re-emphasized to myself because I believe that a principle-centered life will lead me to less personal stress, more adherence to my values, and an easier overall existence.

The Blah-g

After taking a tour of a few other blogs out there, I've noticed that mine is rather plain.  Others have personal details and pictures.  They are spritely and humorous.  Mine is not.

Since I write this mostly for myself, it doesn't bother me, but I can't help but wonder if people would like a more personal touch?  If you are reading this for any reason, then you need to know - I'm plain.  This blog is a reflection of me.  If you want to get to know me, then what you see should be an accurate reflection.

Anecdote: My freshman year in college I had a huge corkboard that I could put posters and fun stuff that reflected my personality.  Everyone had tons of stuff pinned to their boards.  Mine was blank.  Completely.  I'm not sure why.  Perhaps I liked the austerity of it to contrast with everyone else.  Perhaps I was too lazy to do anything.  Perhaps I was making a statement.  (The lazy theory sounds best.)  Finally some friends cornered me about my lack of flair.  To which I took a precision screwdriver and threw it across the room to stick in the board like a mercenary hurling a dagger.  It remained there and I was never challenged again.

Wanna see if I can still throw a screwdriver?

Digging

You're not supposed to dig up the past.  People that do so in movies end up finding out horrible things about their spouse, which they were happy not to know.  In real life, all you end up doing is infecting yourself with tons of "what if" questions that can plague you for days.  Curiosity got the best of me though.  I Googled some old acquaintances (ok...exes) that I had wondered whatever happened to them.  The good and decent part of you hopes they are doing well, but deep down in the darkest corners of your heart you hope that they are miserable.  It somehow validates your self-worth to know that someone was better off until you left their lives.  It's as if you're the X factor that made them great while you knew them.

The fact is, both of the people I went looking for have gone on to live successful and happy lives.  At this point, the paradigm of you being the X factor turns on you.  You must have been what was holding them back.  In the end, they were better off without you.  Then you start to question your current relationships: "Am I holding others back right now?"  It's a downward spiral based on a faulty premise, but it makes for a heck of a soul searching shower.

The fact is, there are too many variables in life to know what might have been.  The lives we touch and those that touch us bounce around like lottery balls.  You can't look at someone's life and say why they are successful.  Or unsuccessful for that matter.  You can't even do that with your own life.

My point is multiple:

1. Don't dig in the dirt.  It's better to think of all those that have lost touch with you cursing the day they ever lost your influence in their lives.  Ignorance is bliss.
2. If you disregard point 1, it's better to think that you were the launch pad for their happiness.  They may have left you behind, but they never would have got where they are without you.
3. If you don't want to look back 10 years from now and wonder what might have been, cherish the relationships you have and don't let the lines of communication go dark.
4. The real point is: Judge not.  Neither yourself nor others.   

On Twitter

Have you ever watched a Ken Burns documentary film?  I could watch his Civil War documentary every day.  He sprinkles in eye witness accounts of the events that occurred, usually from personal letters and it never ceases to amaze me the beauty and poetic nature of the letters.  Did people actually talk that way back then?  Or are the letters that he quotes three standard deviations from the norm of "Cot me anuther polecat last nite an' fried it up wit duh grits."  (my attempt at hick in print)  I don't know, but a well worded letter is a truly endangered art form.  I can't remember the last time I sent an actual personal letter.

Of course this is nothing new.  Email was only the beginning.  It wasn't fast enough so it got replaced with Instant Messaging, which still wasn't good enough because people might not be at their desk, so Text Messaging took over.  Newspapers were replaced with blogs, which were replaced with Facebook, which was replaced with Twitter.  The world has moved to an immediate information fulfillment economy.  The problem with this is that in our quest for ever faster information, we have lost something.  The elegance of speech has been replaced with crazy contractions and emoticons.  Once words were woven into a textured tapestry.  Now they are blurted and spurted into existence for all the world to digest like a Chicken McNugget.  We are captivated by sound bites instead listening to a speech in its entirety.  What passes for noteworthy is often banal and our thoughts have become so raw and unformed that Twitter, with its 140 word limit, is probably the best place for information.  The world has ADHD.

And what is the cure?  Feel free to speculate on it in the comments while I check on my phone for updates...