C11 ... Best Anti-Heros
Submitted by Infomaniac on Sun, 02/17/2002 - 06:31
Tags:
- Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) - Hannibal
- Kaiser Sosa (Kevin Spacey) - The Usual Suspects
- Marcellus Washington (Ving Rhames) - Pulp Fiction
- Vinnie Vega (John Travolta) - Pulp Fiction
- Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) - Reservoir Dogs
- Kurt Dussander (Ian McKellen) - Apt Pupil
Author Comments:
I'm using the term Anti-Hero in the context that the person is bad or evil, but you're kinda supposed to root for them.
Are anti-heros (in your definition) a subset of villians, mutually exclusive, or neither?
I've been struggling on this one.
Here's my criteria:
1) They need to be bad guys.
2) You need to root for them.
3) It helps if they are the protagonist.
Basically, they are mutually exclusive, so I need to address Hannibal. In Silence of the Lambs, Hannnibal Lecter was the villian, plain and simple. He WAS evil, Starling was the hero.
In Hannibal, however, he was the protagonist, and you (were supposed to) want him to win. So in this instance he's the Anti-Hero.
Does that make sense? I'm still massaging the concept, as you can see by the characters on the two lists.
Yeah, that makes sense. It's one of those areas where it's tough to draw the line, but it's a good start.