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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 5, 2020 5:09:14 GMT
From Wikipedia : An antihero or antiheroine is a main character in a story who lacks conventional heroic qualities and attributes such as idealism, courage and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actions that are morally correct, it is not always for the right reasons, often acting primarily out of self-interest or in ways that defy conventional ethical codes.
Could get some good mentions in noir and Westerns and looking for females too.
Kicking things off with Marlon Brando in One-Eyed Jacks (1961) - which has all the elements - betrayal, revenge, love, guilt.
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Post by Martin Stett on Mar 5, 2020 5:56:31 GMT
Chuck Tatum in Ace in the Hole -- Does this need an explanation? Antonio Salieri in Amadeus - The agony of inferiority has never been played with such conviction as it is here, both in Abraham's acting and in the writing of Salieri as a man doing evil to spite the God who tortures him. I hold this to be one of the great films on faith, on the basis that Salieri's rebellion is that of man against his Creator, fighting the Divine because It exists. To quote C.S. Lewis: "that there should be gods at all, there is our misery and bitter wrong." Antonio Salieri could say much the same thing. Paul Biegler in Anatomy of a Murder -- A good man who uses underhanded methods in service of a cause that is... well, arguable in its morality. One of the most fascinating antiheroes ever put on screen. James Bond in Casino Royale -- The story of a man who gains his own soul, and loses it. Bond's trajectory from someone who has destroyed his morality and slowly gets small pieces of it back is a perfect example of how to use genre storytelling in service of a greater story. Ivan Bonderev in Ivan's Childhood -- Hatred. Unbridled, all-consuming, focused. In the body of a twelve year old, as he seeks to punish the Germans in any way possible. Rynn Jacobs in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane -- Rynn's actions are some of the most tragic ever put on screen: her evolution from the lost little girl who believes her father's guidance to a young woman who has learned to question his teachings at great personal cost has been done since (I'm thinking specifically of Hanna), but not with such heartache at opportunities lost. Lorna in Lorna's Silence -- I could put just about any Dardenne protagonist here, but Lorna has the most genre trappings. Abel Morales in A Most Violent Year -- "Stop. Now. Have some pride in what you do. And stop." Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl -- "Me, I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly, it's the honest ones you have to watch out for, because you never know when they're going to do something incredibly stupid." Homura Akemi in Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion -- Conflict doesn't always come from without. One of the most intriguing character arcs I've ever seen is watching Homura almost literally do battle with herself and her own conflicting convictions: her 100% held belief that she is doing the right thing and her 100% held belief that she deserves eternal damnation for her actions, her 100% held belief that her god would never hurt her and her 100% held belief that her god wants to see her suffer. Homura is a walking paradox of someone who cannot reconcile their sin with their faith, and it is amazing to watch her try to find her way. Song Lian in Raise the Red Lantern -- No list of antiheroes is complete without this. Karol Karol on Three Colors: White -- Capitalism. "To capitalize." Nobody does that quite like Karol, starting as a bumbling oaf and becoming an underworld kingpin.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 5, 2020 11:18:30 GMT
Paul Biegler in Anatomy of a Murder -- A good man who uses underhanded methods in service of a cause that is... well, arguable in its morality. One of the most fascinating antiheroes ever put on screen. ******************************************************************************************************************** Not only a great pick - but this film is - on an acting level - one of the most important and most influential American films ever made. Actors of all different backgrounds and training - the old and the new and not just Stewart - but all 4 of the main players (Remick, Gazzara, Scott also) and all interacting seamlessly across complex and contradictory characterizations. One of the best ensembles ever.
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Post by ibbi on Mar 5, 2020 11:41:06 GMT
Naomi Watts in Diana comes immediately to mind.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Mar 5, 2020 16:03:07 GMT
Just take a gander at my avatar.
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cherry68
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Post by cherry68 on Mar 5, 2020 17:33:08 GMT
The leading character (played by Claudio Santamaria) in Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot is the emblem of this.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2020 17:40:16 GMT
Naomi Watts in Diana comes immediately to mind. I've been a bad bitch.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 5, 2020 18:27:28 GMT
He's anti a name even :
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Mar 7, 2020 1:43:03 GMT
Gosling in Drive
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Good God
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Post by Good God on Mar 7, 2020 1:45:43 GMT
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Post by hugobolso on Mar 12, 2020 3:02:07 GMT
Antihero- Hans Landa in Inglorious Bastards (2009) Antiheroine- May Welland Age of Innocense (1993)
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Post by Mattsby on Mar 14, 2020 0:53:55 GMT
Another Western perf, but a recent one and I think a great almost textbook example of an anti-hero... Tommy Lee Jones in The Homesman (I might be its only fan???) That shot above is how we're introduced to him, a petty reprobate who is coerced into taking up a job of escorting a couple of mad women to a madhouse. So he's stuck, an idler of a man given a lot more responsibility than he's ever had, and for this extremely bleak movie he centers it with his wavering sympathy, how he sometimes aligns with the merit of his task, or how he drifts, and there's a good amount of rough-hewn humor to him, right to the ending shot, a capsule of the graceless old West, his drunken jigging while a promise sinks....
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Post by stephen on Mar 14, 2020 0:55:39 GMT
^ I really, really wanted to like The Homesman, and both Jones and Swank are utterly committed (and in Swank's case, might be the best she's ever been since her first Oscar win), but it all feels in service of a big pile of nothin'. It had so much potential and promise, and yet did nothing with it.
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Post by Mattsby on Mar 14, 2020 1:09:43 GMT
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Post by Mattsby on Mar 14, 2020 1:33:19 GMT
^ I really, really wanted to like The Homesman, and both Jones and Swank are utterly committed (and in Swank's case, might be the best she's ever been since her first Oscar win), but it all feels in service of a big pile of nothin'. It had so much potential and promise, and yet did nothing with it. I hear ya. I only rate it a 7.5, but it's got a great cast and some very good perfs from them - even James Spader pops up, proving with this and Lincoln he should be doing more period pieces, dammit. And Rodrigo Preito's cinematography - who started this a month after wrapping WoWS - is excellent, his use of space and composition, and the coloring. I think there's some purpose to how the movie skids against convention and "timeliness" - there's the luckless, bleak old West, suffocating to some, futile to others like the TLJ character and his loose state of flux. And with the Swank character where this could be seen as a feminist pic, until a point of no return (to put it lightly) - I can actually see some being offended by it. I have a bigger problem with the uneven structuring of the movie...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2020 1:41:57 GMT
Are we limited to film in our answers? Two choices from television would be James Gandolfini in The Sopranos and Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City.
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 28, 2021 16:00:26 GMT
I re-listened to Cate Blanchett on Marc Maron's Podcast (he's insufferable but has great guests - bastard) talk about how she liked Pacino so much in Heat again (even called him "sexy" - ok, whatever) and I thought of her in Mrs. America one of the great female anti-heroine roles - definitely of modern times - in which she acts the worst aspects with the most passion and zeal ........and Pacino's Vince Hanna where he plays the hero while on some level getting people killed or putting them at risk, manipulating suspects, bullying ruining his own marriages - exhibiting many of the same behaviors within his portrayal that a villain would.......arrogant, aggressive, acting in his own self-interests. Both of these are examples of how the characters are acted even more than how they are written .......
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Post by wallsofjericho on Nov 28, 2021 16:08:19 GMT
Popeye Doyle.
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Post by hugobolso on Dec 1, 2021 17:44:34 GMT
Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara.-
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Post by Martin Stett on Dec 1, 2021 17:54:14 GMT
The Man with No Name has been mentioned, but really, he had a name in Leone's films. But there is one in which he didn't, and that is the time he went to The lone stranger riding into town and ridding the "God fearing" folk of their troubles soon reveals himself to have a heroic code all his own, and nobody will stand in the way of his plans. It is one of the most spectacularly DARK characters ever put on screen.
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Post by michael128 on Dec 1, 2021 19:09:47 GMT
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cherry68
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Post by cherry68 on Dec 1, 2021 20:07:52 GMT
Jean Reno in Leon.
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Post by ibbi on Dec 1, 2021 21:21:36 GMT
Emma Corrin in The Crown, and... Kristen Stewart in Spencer To be cereal for a second, sounds like the perfect time to post a Bridget Gregory GIF
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SZilla
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Post by SZilla on Dec 1, 2021 21:41:35 GMT
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Post by Mattsby on Dec 1, 2021 22:03:05 GMT
The Man with No Name has been mentioned, but really, he had a name in Leone's films. But there is one in which he didn't, and that is the time he went to The lone stranger riding into town and ridding the "God fearing" folk of their troubles soon reveals himself to have a heroic code all his own, and nobody will stand in the way of his plans. It is one of the most spectacularly DARK characters ever put on screen. I love High Plains Drifter. Folks were still pickin the Rawhide outta their teeth, impressed to see the man off CBS and under Leone an even more striking genre icon. Next couple Westerns, they looked like leftovers or played for laughs. Clint's vehicle here was daring as hell, indeed-- it blasts tropes and makes it an Old West of haunt and contradictions. He tests on you the "heroic" archetype he'd already aced-- introduced to us as a menacing, murderous rapist. By the end, it's complicated. Is he upgrading or destroying the town? It kinda looks like both. Well then it's a proper anti-hero. John Wayne saw the character as so complex he wrote hate-mail to Clint and doubled-down that he would never work with the Man With No Name.
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