Movies/scenes that make you sympathise with the bad guy

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iconogassed
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Re: Movies/scenes that make you sympathise with the bad guy

Post by iconogassed »

It was a deliberately skewed and limited reading, like yours. Because of course you completely ignored the part about your entire argument being based on fabrications and/or snoozing. I repeat:

iconogassed wrote:
Sun Sep 20, 2020 6:38 am
Since I wrote the above, I have viewed The Witches of Eastwick, and I can say your characterization of it bears even less resemblance to the actual nature of the film than mine above to Taxi Driver. Particularly silly is the witches' supposed culpability in the "murder". They very clearly did not know what they were actually doing, and are horrified to discover it, and immediately cut off contact with Nicholson's character, who then besieges them with plagues. How can you possibly begrudge them protecting themselves and their children from a man who made them complicit in murder without their knowledge, and then tormented them for the crime of not fucking him after he did so?

Oh, right. That's how.

iconogassed
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Re: Movies/scenes that make you sympathise with the bad guy

Post by iconogassed »

Why don't we just go to the tape, Larry?



Presented with the problem of Felicia's meddling, Sukie suggests they simply stop having sex for a while. Darryl cannot abide this, so he instead manipulates them, or more precisely, Jane, into helping cause Felicia's death, completely without their knowledge.

This is followed by a scene in which the women arrive at Felicia's house and see her body being carried out. They are horrified at what has happened. Sukie has to convince them that they "weren't just words", underlining their lack of complicity. They cut off contact with him. Though Jane still desires to see Darryl to talk about it, she does not. She avoids him until she discovers she is pregnant, then leaves for good after she comes to his home and, unbeknownst to him, discovers his true nature. Then Darryl torments them for not fucking him, and so on.


ShogunRua
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Re: Movies/scenes that make you sympathise with the bad guy

Post by ShogunRua »

iconogassed wrote:
Mon Sep 21, 2020 9:33 am
It was a deliberately skewed and limited reading, like yours.
What? You made a purposely false, poor interpretation of a completely different movie because you thought my intrepretation of this film was bad?

What was this supposed to show? How does this make any sense?

If it was meant to be a half-baked comparison, it fails miserably. No one would deny that the Witches of Eastwick attain a very happy ending in the movie. (And decidedly not in the novel) The same is not true for Travis Bickle.
iconogassed wrote:
Sun Sep 20, 2020 6:38 am
Since I wrote the above, I have viewed The Witches of Eastwick, and I can say your characterization of it bears even less resemblance to the actual nature of the film than mine above to Taxi Driver. Particularly silly is the witches' supposed culpability in the "murder". They very clearly did not know what they were actually doing, and are horrified to discover it, and immediately cut off contact with Nicholson's character, who then besieges them with plagues. How can you possibly begrudge them protecting themselves and their children from a man who made them complicit in murder without their knowledge, and then tormented them for the crime of not fucking him after he did so?

Oh, right. That's how.
It's been about 20 years since I last saw the movie, so I don't perfectly recall the circumstances of every element of Daryl's magic. Obviously, the movie can't make the female trio fully aware and approving of every horrific murder. No audience would go for that. Well, at least not in 1987.

But unless I'm recalling the movie very incorrectly, they're certainly aware of other malovelent uses of his magic and are perfectly happy to go along with it.

What is the argument here, anyways? Two groups both practicing the dark arts for their own selfish ends, and because one goes a little further than the other, he's the bad guy and they're the good guys? Hardly. At least in being an unabashed villain instead of a hypocrite AND being punished rather than rewarded for his crimes, Nicholson comes across as more sympathetic than the trio, which is what myself and a previous poster had noted.

That this is a very feminist tale can't possibly be denied either, since John Updike himself claimed this was true of his book, and the movie adaptation magnifies it a hundredfold.

iconogassed
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Re: Movies/scenes that make you sympathise with the bad guy

Post by iconogassed »

Image

ShogunRua
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Re: Movies/scenes that make you sympathise with the bad guy

Post by ShogunRua »

Gif isn't displaying, dude.

td888
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Re: Movies/scenes that make you sympathise with the bad guy

Post by td888 »

ShogunRua wrote:
Tue Sep 22, 2020 12:25 am
Gif isn't displaying, dude.
For me it does.

Haven't seen you around here in a long time ;)

ShogunRua
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Re: Movies/scenes that make you sympathise with the bad guy

Post by ShogunRua »

td888 wrote:
Wed Sep 23, 2020 2:54 pm
ShogunRua wrote:
Tue Sep 22, 2020 12:25 am
Gif isn't displaying, dude.
For me it does.

Haven't seen you around here in a long time ;)
Heh, likewise, man. Hope life is going as well as possible for you in Current Year!

td888
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Re: Movies/scenes that make you sympathise with the bad guy

Post by td888 »

ShogunRua wrote:
Wed Sep 23, 2020 8:16 pm

Heh, likewise, man. Hope life is going as well as possible for you in Current Year!
Yes, personally very well. But otherwise we have to see what else 2020 has in store for us. Take care.

Stewball
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Re: Movies/scenes that make you sympathise with the bad guy

Post by Stewball »

(Shogun! you still living in California?)

My list:
The Music Man
3:10 to Yuma
American Hustle (everybody, but especially the Governor)
Before I Fall (Dittos)
The Brave One--my fave
Death Wish, all of em
2001--Hal
JC Superstar--Judas
Destination Wedding--the most likeable "bad guys" (to each other) ever
Dr. Strangelove--several, topped by Maj King Kong
Evita
Imitation Game
Little Shop of Horrors--the Plant of course
Leaves of Grass--little brother
Phantom of the Opera
Ratatouille--Ego
The Vanishing of Sydney Hall

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