I've always known that I'm drawn to certain characters. It takes a lot of thinking to identify all of them, but I'll try my best. I'm very character based so I'm sure a lot of this will be related to the sorts of characters involved, rather than themes.
Characters
The Intelligent Villain Absolutely love this guy. Nothing draws me to a movie more than a truly interesting villain with a head on their shoulders. It makes them formidable and ups the stakes tremendously. They're masterminds and the viewer has no idea how the protagonist will possibly overcome them. The actors who get hired for these roles are always top notch as well which surely affects how much I enjoy them.
- Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter)
- Hannibal (Hannibal Lecter and Mason Verger)
- Fracture (Ted Crawford)
- King Lear (Edmund)
- Dirty Harry (Scorpio)
- Batman Begins (Ra's al Ghul)
- Richard III (Richard III)
- The Dark Knight Rises (Bane)
- Les Miserables (Javert)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (HAL 9000)
- Skyfall (Silva)
- Die Hard (Hans Gruber)
- Se7en (John Doe)
- Die Hard with a Vengeance (Simon Gruber)
- The Usual Suspects (Keyser Soze)
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Nurse Ratched)
- Breaking Bad (Gustavo Fring)
- Gangs of New York (Bill the Butcher)
- Wall Street (Gordon Gecko)
- The Merchant of Venice (Shylock)
- Speed (Howard Payne)
- Inglourious Basterds (Hans Landa)
- RoboCop (Clarence Boddicker)
The Psychotic Villain This goes hand-in-hand with the intelligent villain, although the psychos aren't always masterminds. Sometimes they're unhinged buckets of chaos, products of a society that abandoned them long ago. They're usually accompanied by tremendous amounts of pain or suffering which makes for a deep, sympathetic character. However, sometimes they have no emotion at all. So this group varies a lot, but I never cease to be mesmerized by them.They are the monsters under our bed. Only, they're not easily dismissed as a supernatural force. They're very real and usually based on real people, making them all the more terrifying. They make me feel terror more than any ghoul or zombie.
- The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter and Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb)
- Red Dragon (Francis Dolarhyde and Hannibal Lecter)
- Gangs of New York (Bill the Butcher)
- No Country for Old Men (Anton Chigurh)
- The Dark Knight (The Joker)
- Batman Begins (Scarecrow)
- Breaking Bad (Tuco Salamanca, Hector Salamanca, and the Salamanca Cousins)
- The Shining (Jack Torrance)
- Schindler's List (Amon Goeth)
- A Clockwork Orange (Alex)
- American Psycho (Patrick Bateman)
- Cape Fear (Max Cady)
- Fargo (Gaear Grimsrud)
- There Will Be Blood (Daniel Plainview)
- Basic Instinct (Catherine Tramell)
- A Few Good Men (Nathan Jessup)
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Martin Vanger)
The Antihero I'm sure you're seeing a trend in my favorite characters: Villainy. It's not that I love criminals or killers or anything. Far from it, but there's something about the depth that these characters show when they're well written and well acted that draws me to them. The most disturbing and gripping villain is one that is the protagonist. Somehow, they're done in such a way that we invite ourselves along with them in their crimes. We're made into accomplices and no matter what they do, we still somehow achieve this warped sense of rationalization for their actions.
- Macbeth (Macbeth and Lady Macbeth)
- King Lear (King Lear)
- Richard III (Richard III)
- Breaking Bad (Walter White)
- A Clockwork Orange (Alex)
- There Will Be Blood (Daniel Plainview)
- American Psycho (Patrick Bateman)
- Taxi Driver (Travis Bickle)
- Dog Day Afternoon (Sonny Wortzik)
- Pulp Fiction (Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega)
- First Blood (John Rambo)
- Hannibal (Hannibal Lecter)
- The Godfather Part II (Michael Corleone)
The Guy Who Isn't There I love any sort of entertainment that uses the motif of a ghost or a figment of imagination that can be seen by a limited amount of people. Whether it's for comedy or drama, the ghost throws in a very unique psychological aspect that is very powerful for me.
- Next to Normal (Gabe)
- Ghost Town (Frank and nearly every other character)
- Ghost (Sam Wheat)
- Jake's Women (All of the Female Characters)
- The Sixth Sense (Malcolm Crowe)
- Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice, Adam, and Barbara)
- The Shining (Delbert Grady)
The Quirky People This is more for comedies, but I'm drawn to the weird characters that say strange things. With female characters, this makes them incredibly attractive to me. The male characters are usually some of the most quotable people ever.
- The Big Lebowski (Donny)
- Fargo (Carl)
- Vanilla Sky (Sofia)
- Juno (Juno)
- The Office (Dwight Schrute, Andy Bernard, Creed Bratton, Michael Scott)
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Charlie Kelly)
- Anchorman (Brick)
Genre
The Perfect Mix This is what I refer to as the perfect mix of comedy and drama. It's my favorite sort of movie that blends comedy and drama together seamlessly. They're hilarious, but they have a strong realistic emotional core to them. There's something about being able to laugh and cry within minutes of each other that really makes something memorable for me.
- Little Miss Sunshine
- Crazy Stupid Love
- American Beauty
- Clerks
- Clerks 2
- Catch Me If You Can
- Man on the Moon
- The Truman Show
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Scrubs
- Away We Go
- Good Will Hunting
- Rain Man
Psycho Thrillers As is evident with my character list, I relish a good villain, but I'm not a huge fan of supernatural forces like Freddy Kruger or Jason Voorhees. No, the creatures that go bump in the night that terrify me are the ones who could be living right next door, under your nose. There's something chillingly possible about it all that sends shivers down my spine.
- Se7en
- The Silence of the Lambs
- Hannibal
- Red Dragon
- The Shining
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Cape Fear
- No Country for Old Men
- Breaking Bad
Mind Manipulators I don't necessarily mean movies that feature manipulative characters but rather those sorts of films and TV shows that don't ever leave your brain. They take over and you think about them for days, weeks, and months. How can you not love a movie that infects your psyche?
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- El Orfanato
- Breaking Bad
- Chinatown
- Pan's Labyrinth
- Vanilla Sky
Themes
Betrayal and Revenge Since villains are important to me, movies about betrayal and revenged intrigue me. There's always a bad guy and there's always a really clear quest to kill that bad guy. The traits of both protagonist and antagonist are always so well defined. The story is so clear and exciting that you can't help but to need to know the end. There's nothing more gratifying than when that villain is finally conquered.
- Django Unchained
- Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
- Braveheart
- Hamlet
- Gangs of New York
- The Lion King
- Gladiator
Rebirth Most characters change in films. If they don't, you probably have a pretty bad film on your hands. However, when I say rebirth I mean the complete reinvention of the way a character does things. It's usually a conscious decision by the character to change the way they live, drastically. Sometimes they're fighting against social norms and I love that. It's that moment when they declare, "I'm not going to take it anymore!" They don't do what's expected of them and as a result, the viewer doesn't know what to respect either. It's wonderful. It often includes a character who's miserable and finds happiness through rebellion.
- American Beauty
- Into the Wild
- Breaking Bad
- Office Space
- Lost in Translation
- Garden State
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