Top Ten Character Portrayals

So today because I’m still trying to sort out what movie I’m going to pick next, I’m going to review my top ten character potrayals. What do I mean by this? I mean the person you mostly think of when someone mentions the name of a character. For example, which actor do you think of when I mention a classic character’s name? When I mention the Huntchback of Notre Dame, do you think of Charles Laughton or the Disney adaptation?

So let’s get to it…

10. Errol Flynn as Captain Blood.
I know, some people may be shocked that I put him so low on the list. But there are only two other movies that portray Captain Blood and while they were more plot driven and less prancing around in tights, they were also lower budget and the character was less likable. So sorry, but Errol Flynn get’s this one.

9. Sebastian Shaw as Anakin Skywalker.
Be honest, how many of you said “who?” when I mentioned his name. Well I put him on the list because there are at least 4 different people who play this character… IN ONE MOVIE SERIES! We have Hayden Christiansen, James Earl Jones, David Prowse, and Shaw himself. Shaw made two appearances and they were in Return of the Jedi. First they showed him right as he died when Luke took the mask off, and second right before the end credits. To me, this was an unbelievable perfomance that was ruined in the newer version that hacked the ending to death. In the original, Shaw appears at the end of ROTJ. He has a look of both happiness and sorrow on his face as he looks at his children. This to me was the most powerful scene in the movie. Then they took him out and replaced him with piss acting Christiansen who just stares blankly at them. What was Lucas thinking?

8. Fess Parker as Davey Crockett
I put this one fairly low on the list for two reasons, first because not many people know who Fess Parker is anymore, and secondly because while Davey Crockett: King of the Wild Fronteir is definitely the most beloved of all Crockett portrayals, it’s nowhere near the most historically accurate one. But everyone still knows the old theme song and the character has been permanantly engrained into our memories.

7. Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh
Though again, not historically accurate to the real Lt. Bligh, none of the film adaptations are. However it several portrayals, Charles Laughton is the only one to really stands out. He and Clark Gable easily carry this movie, however I’d say that Laughton is definitely the more celebrated in the role. There are some actors that are naturally skilled at playing the villain and he is definitely one of them. I saw this movie once ten years ago and could never forget his big line towards the end, “Mr. Bayum, I wouldn’t lose you for a flagship!”

6. Laird Cregar as Captain Henry Morgan
Yet another Pirate portrayal and not the last by a long shot. From the movie, The Black Swan, Cregar portrays Morgan both historically accurate (YES, Captain Morgan was an actual person and not just a character for mediocre rum), and the way everyone expects him to be; a jovial, emotional, pompous man who wears a smile well, but isn’t someone you want to be near when he get’s mad. He made this movie all the more enjoyable to watch… in fact I think I’m going to watch it right now. I put him fairly high on the list because there are several other Henry Morgan adaptations out there and I can’t rate any of them over terrible! Don’t believe me? Watch Pirates of Tortuga.

5. James Mason as Captain Nemo.
So now we’re getting into the cream of the crop, the top 5. Who better than James Mason as the legenday Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. If you read the original Jules Verne description of the Character, Nemo is of arab descent, but he is fair skinned and possess no detectable accent. Mason successfully hides his english accent to give off the same illusion. Though you rarely see him show much emotion, when they do a close up of the man, you can see the rage in his eyes and the suffering wrought by the people who had wronged him so long ago. He also get’s high marks for being able to stand out as a rather passive character next to the ever bombastic Kirk Douglas as Ned Lande. Not an easy thing to do.

4. Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan.
I know my father and a lot of Tom Clancy fans are going to disagree with me on this one. Most people seem to favor Harrison Ford’s portrayal. Normally there is no way Alec Baldwin could ever compare to Ford, but for some reason Ford just doesn’t seem to live up to the role as much, he plays the passive Jack Ryan, but I would say he does it too well, he’s a little too soft spoken for my taste and I just found his performance somewhat bland. Alec however stood out in The Hunt for Red October and that is saying a lot considering he was working with a cast that included Sean Connery, James Earl Jones, and Sam Neill.

3. Dustin Hoffman as Hook.
I never understood the critical thrashing this movie got. I thought it was great… even if Michael Jackson was originally going to play Peter Pan… no I’m not kidding. Robin Williams is his normal over the top self, but Dustin Hoffman? He pulls off this role perfectly! As someone who grew up with the Disney version and the musical play that I have been unable to erase from my memory, Dustin Hoffman did not disappoint me. He incorperated the previous characters while bringing his own personality into the role. Where the rest of the cast was satasfactory at best (still not over the idea of Michael Jackson as Pan), Hoffman really carried the movie.

2. Michael Cain as Scrooge
This is one of the most beloved characters I’ve ever seen. When ever I think of the classic… Halloween/Christmas Crossover that was the Christmas Carol, I think of Michael Cain… yes I know Patrick Stewart did a powerhouse performance of the character, but to me… it just wasn’t as good. Stewart is awesome when he’s playing the entire cast, but one character just doesn’t work as well. Plus he gets points as this is not a serious adaptation of the role. This movie is done by Jim Henson’s Muppets! So we’ve got a relatively unknown (at least at the time) B class actor in a kids movie, pull of the greatest representation of a character from a timeless classic… what could possibly in a million years be better than that? Well believe it or not, there was one better.

1.Robert Newton as Long John Silver
Oh my God… This is one most people who know the Walt Disney adaptation of Treasure Island (Island, not planet) done in the 50s with Bobby Driscoll would agree with me on. Not only does Robert Newton embody the role of Long John Silver, but it almost feels like Robert Lewis Stevenson wrote the role just so he could play it. His performance is spot on and the movie is a wonderful addition to my pirate collection because of it. Among other things you can say about his role, he created the archetype of the Pirate. Watch Pirates of the Carribean, Peter Pan, … … … Cutthroat Island… among others and watch when the pirates go Ahoy Matey, Arrr. Top of the Mornin to ya, On deck you swabs, Poppin Jay says you, I think differen’t says I, or avast ye lubbers! Where do you think they got it from? It was all adaptations of this one performance, that’s right, Robert Newton became the Archetype for all pirates that followed him.

Character Complexes

Okay, so I know I’ve mentioned different complex characters have and I’d like to try to explain them the best I can, so let’s get started.

1. The Obi Wann Kenobi complex
Star Wars certainly didn’t invent this one, but it’s definitely the most well-known, hense the name. This complex belongs to a character, usually of advanced age who is the moral “right” in the movie. S/he usually takes on the mentor role and provides words of wisdom to our main hero. The problem with this character is that he is actually a detriment to the main hero. This is because the main hero can not truly grow and become strong as long as he is still under the mentor’s wing. Thus this character will almost always die.
Examples:
Dumbledore (Harry Potter)
Mufasa (Lion King)
Qui Gon Jinn (… Episode 1)
Whistler (Blade)
Yoda (Star Wars)

Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez (Highlander)
One could argue that Gandalf from LOTRs also had this complex as Frodo thinks he’s dead, but he actually survives, so I kept him off the list.2. The Darth Vader Complex
This is a term I give only to the most dynamic villains, so while many villains are great, not all would be considered dynamic. An example of this would be the Joker from “The Dark Night.” He’s evil, and that doesn’t change. The type of villain that suffers from a Darth Vader complex isn’t inherently evil. They possess both a good and bad side and these two sides are constantly at war with each other. We see this most prominently in Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader is watching his son die and continues looking back and forth while the two personae’s in his mind fought for dominance.

In this type of character, either the dark or the light can be triggered by an extreme outside stimulus, while making such a villain more dynamic, it also makes such a character more vulnerable and less in control of their own fate. In cases such as these, a desire, or a loved one would have more control over the character’s destiny.
Examples:
The Dark Phoenix (X-Men)
Harvey Dent (The Dark Knight)
Gollum (LOTR)
Javert (Les Miserables)
Frollo (The Huntchback of Notre Dame)
Sorsha (To a lesser extent… Willow)

4. The Ra’s Al Ghul complex.
One could argue that this is the same thing as an Obi Wan Kenobi… which is why I was hesitant to mention this. It’s basically the Obi Wan Kenobi complex with a single provision; the mentor is either a dark character, or one with an opposing viewpoint and s/he is someone that the hero will eventually need to confront and/or kill in order to grow and succeed. In some of the better stories where this complex appears, the mentor turns out to be the villain.
Examples:
Kreia (Knights of the Old Republic 2)
Tolwyn (Wing Commander)
Palpatine (Revenge of the Sith)5. The Lord of Rings Complex.
This one is a little more uncommon. This one is basically a character that is despirately trying to do good, he wants to save someone or something and tries to do good, but every time he tries to do good, his actions cause more evil. The character who has this is usually not a strong character. It’s someone who either has tunnel vision, is single-minded,  and/or has no dynamic qualities at all.

Unfortunately, other than Boromir from Lord of the Rings, no major examples jump out from this category. Again, this maybe because these characters will sometimes have another complex.

 

6. The Oedipal Fate.

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE OEDIPAL COMPLEX! I cannot stress the enough. If you want to know what that is… go read Sigmund Freud’s study. It’s freaky and… I’m not getting into it.
I reworded it the Oedipal Fate because to me, this is something a lot of characters suffer from. Many of them will also have the Lord of the Rings Complex as well, given what the character with an Oedipal fate goes through.
A Character afflicted with this, problem is cursed with knowing the outcome of a situation and/or his own fate or that of a loved one. Like Oedipus himself in the greek tragedy, when these character’s learn of what is to happen, they do everything they can to escape what is to happen.
The problem is that these characters are willing to do anything, and I mean anything to change the outcome. They are often so blinded by despiration that they don’t see what effect’s their actions are having. In the end, their actions are what causes the foreshadow to come true in the end. A perfect example of this is Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith. He has a revelation that his wife is going to die during childbirth.
It’s unclear whether his friend Palpatine planted this image there to drive him down the dark path, but I always suspected that this was the case. Especially since he begins to temp Anakin with the promise of a power great enough to prevent people from dying. Anakin is despirate and willing to do anything to prevent the death of his wife. He goes to the point of sacrificing his own soul to keep her alive and safe. The problem is that she becomes so overwhelmed with sadness over what he has done, that she looses the will to live and dies anyway.
Though we can’t say for certain she would have survived had Anakin not fallen to the dark side, I think it’s a pretty safe assumption. At the very least, her chances would have been better.So in a nutshell, those are the terms I use in my character studies, I hope this helps make thing a tad more clear when I delve into a character’s psyche.

Davey Jones (POTC 2 & 3)

Okay so because it seems the Character Studies go over so well, I’m going to go with another one.
This time is going to be a bit of a contrast and is perhaps one of the few times my “Good Villain = Good Movie” formula doesn’t add up.
So let’s talk about Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3. I know, as bad as the movie that introduced him was, Davy Jones wasn’t really a bad character. …

Maybe it’s just me and the personal bias of being drawn to the tragic villains. Part of the reason this movie didn’t do so well (aside from Jack and Barbosa being more side characters than stars) was the shallowness of each character. The heroes and lovers were exactly the heroes and lovers you’d expect from a Disney princess flick. The East India baddies were profit drive, no real dimension there… and the rest were just present for their stereotypical antics. It was a bland movie with no real surprises, and the plot suffered for it. No surprises… save one…

Davy Jones is one of the most well-done tortured soul villains I’ve ever seen. Had this movie been better, Davy Jones might have been as legendary a villain as Darth Vader himself, but such was not to be. You first meet Davy Jones when he arrives to recruit a group of dying sailors to his cause and then tries to collect his debt from Jack Sparrow. Though it is never really mentioned in the movie, it does appear that Davy Jones was made out to be some sort of combination of the Grim Reaper and the Devil himself. Both roles, he plays well. He was easily hate-able and we all did so.

But then the movie takes a surprise twist. The first scene we see him on his own ship, we hear his dark organ playing, and see the Jones in anguish to the point of physical pain. That’s when you realize the true madness behind this character. The movie does an incredible job of really making you feel his pain. I remember when I saw this movie in theaters, my throat got tight and my eyes began to water. At this point you already know his tragic story about how he was scorned by a cruel lover, but you really don’t understand the extent of the damage done until you see him here.

Even his theme music is shockingly painful. Listen to it play on the organ. The song sounds painful, but at the same time there is an almost comforting element to it. It is almost as though his former love wrote it to drive him to further insanity, but then calm him down and mellow him at the same time. I like to she wrote this for him because it’s just further proof of how cruel she was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fe9W1gZPUs&feature=related
This certainly isn’t the first time Disney has done something like this. They did the same exact thing in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Seriously, watch the organ scene, you can see the demented evil, but at the same time, you can see that under the stoic, angry, and harsh exterior, a shred of his former humanity still exists. Ironically it is this one last shred of his former self that pushes him even further into madness. It is a scene that is done extremely well both times Disney employs it.

Perhaps the biggest bit of irony throughout the entire Pirates series that he is a part of, he is perhaps the only true innocent. I know, I know, he sank ships, murdered people, and was incredibly cruel… but look at how he got there. Throughout his entire story, he was used and abused. First tasked to ferry souls for 10 years… 10 years he worked just to spend one day with the one he loved, only for her not to show up. As if that wasn’t bad enough, now you have the rest of the cast looking to either kill him, or use him as a puppet to carry out their whims. He is given no peace, no chance at redemption, and is forever locked in as a slave to his surroundings. Truly, there can be no more tragic a character.

My only criticism of this character is that they made him a little too awkward, which takes on a comical view that you see in the third movie, which makes him hard to take seriously. Ironically as he became a less dynamic character, the other characters became less stale and At World’s End turned out to be an improvement. I only wonder at what cost.
But I’m not really talking about his evolution in the third movie, I am more referring to his character from the second one, he was, and continues to be the only reason I still give Dead Man’s Chest decent markings and rate it as at least watchable.

 

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Greatest Villain of all time…

So I was recently asked who my favorite Villain of all time was… It’s a difficult question to answer because there are so many good villains out there, and I’m a firm believer in the formula
Good Villain = Good movie
Seriously, the formu…

la stands up, you could have a movie that’s complete crap, but as long as the villain is awesome, people will still love the movie (See Masters Of The Universe).
Now there are a few who come to mind, but most are easily dismissed:

Darth Vader? More of a tragic hero.

Magneto? Time was telling with him as he turned out to be someone who shared the X-Men’s ideals, just not their methods (Ignore the movies…)

Maleficent? Effing awesome! + points for being a Disney Villain… but her motives and her death were way too simplistic.

Khan: Yes… but we’ve seen the Captain Ahab character one too many times for me to really say he’s the best.

So who does it boil down to? Honestly, a comic book villain from my youth.

The Dark Phoenix aka Jean Grey (AGAIN, IGNORE THE MOVIE!!!)… she is the physical embodiment of evil. She single-handedly defeated and almost killed the X-Men, and then without a thought of the consequences, she dove into the heart of the D’Bari star and devoured its energy, causing the star to go nova — killing billions of innocent aliens in the process. She also blasted the Shi’ar’s most powerful war ship, and was deemed a greater threat than the Fantastic 4/Silver Surfer villain Galactus.
The Shi’ar were so determined to kill her that they sacrificed an entire Solar System to do it.
This pivotal story ends with Uatu the Watcher commenting that “Jean Grey could have lived to become a god. But it was more important to her that she die…a human.

So under her belt we have mass genocide on a level not previously realized, we have a total defeat of our heroes and a galactic council willing to commit even more genocide just to destroy her in the hopes of saving even more.
To top it off, she even has a bit of a Darth Vader complex as Jean fights to keep hold of the dark phoenix. It doesn’t get much better than this!

http://marvel.wikia.com/Dark_Phoenix_Saga

Best Star Wars Villain.

Okay… today I’m going to do something a little bit different for my review.
This should come as no surprise to some, to others it would be more like “WHAT TOOK SO EFFING LONG!?”
I’m going to do a character comparison of Star Wars villains and decide who is the best one.

I’ve taken note of all the villains I know from the movies, the EU, and the video games and have chosen my top 4….
Boba Fe…

tt, Darth Krayt, Darth Vader, & Darth Traya.

So let’s dive right in.
Boba Fett… I just don’t get it. All he really does is stand there the entire time, he has 3 lines in all of the Trilogy (ignoring his childhood), and yet people LOVE this guy. For what, striking bad assed posses? I put this guy on my list because of the fact that he’s so popular, but the way he meets his end in ROTJ by getting accidentally off’d by a blind man swinging a stick around aimlessly? Yeah he’s not the best by a long shot!

NEXT!

Darth Vader: The obvious choice, but really, his presence in Star Wars aside, I actually thought he was more powerful in Episode III, which is why I still consider it part of the Saga and don’t just pretend it never happened like I & II. He was a man with an oedipal complex in that he knew his wife was going to die, but wanted to alter that fate instead of face it with composure.
In addition to being tragic, it’s also very relatable… I mean who wouldn’t go to the ends of the Earth, sacrifice everything down to their own soul, and fight friend and foe if they thought there was even a glimmer of hope for saving the one they loved most?
However like Oedipis you simply can’t avoid fate and ironically, attempting to do so is what caused the terrible foreshadow to come true, when if he’d accepted it, things might have turned out differently.
This terrible truth drove him so insane that it took his own son suffering, near death, and pleading for his life to pull him out of it. This guy is definitely on the top 3, however is this enough to make him the best villain, or simply a very tragic character?
Honestly, I think the latter would be more appropriate…

Moving on…

Darth Krayt: You look at this guy and you cringe, I know you do. He looks terrifying, he successfully plunged the Galaxy into war, and is one of the few (although the numbers seem to increase every day) Jedi to survive Vader’s purge. He united the Sith and ruled from Coruscant in the old Jedi Temple. All this said, what drives this man? Power? Riches? Darkness?
Actually none of the above. The answer is fear. This guy pretty much brought the galaxy to it’s knees because he is slowly being eaten away by a Vong illness and he needs to find a cure. So… he massacred pretty much the entire Mon Calamari race, shattered the Republic, and restored the sith, all because he’s sick? Umm…. yeah moving on…

Last but not least…

Darth Traya… I love this old bag. She starts off under the name Kreia and acts as guide and mentor to the Exile in Knights 2. She is also responsable for training two of the most powerful Sith Lord’s I’ve ever see; one who destroys planets with his hunger, and one completely (almost) impervious to attacks.
On top of that, she spreads mistrust amongst the party, drives another Jedi Master to the brink of insanity, and kills off three leading Jedi Master’s with a flick of her wrist. Her mission isn’t to defeat the Republic or kill all the Jedi, she wants to kill the force. Let me say that again KILL THE FORCE! Forget genocide, forget Patricide, we have escalated into Deicide!
If for nothing else, she wins as the best because of her intense monologue:

“He has brought truth and you condemn it? The Arrogance! You will not harm him, you will not harm him ever again! As you would pass judgment on him, I have come to pass judgment on you all. Do you wish to feel the teachings born of the Mandalorian Wars? Of all wars, of all tragedies that scream across the galaxy? Let me show you—you, who have forever seen the galaxy through the Force. See it through the eyes of the Exile… How could you ever hope to know the threat you face, when you have never walked in the dark places of the galaxy—faced war and death on such a scale. If you had traveled far enough, rather than waiting for the echo to reach you, perhaps you would have seen it for what it was. There is a place in the galaxy where the dark side of the Force runs strong. It is something of the Sith, but it was fueled by war. It corrupts all that walks on its surface, drowns them in the power of the dark side—it corrupts all life. And it feeds on death. Revan knew the power of such places… and the power in making them. They can be used to break the will of others… of Jedi, promising them power, and turning them to the dark side. The Mandalorian Wars were a series of massacres that masked another war, a war of conversion… culminating in a final atrocity that no Jedi could walk away from—save one… And this is what I sought to understand. How one could turn away from such power, give up the Force… and still live. But I see what happened now. It is because you were afraid…”
On top of that, she’s a far more dynamic character as she actually does feel regret for what she is trying to do. At the end, if you try to save her, she responds with “I have thought about this moment and I wondered if a Jedi would still wish to save someone who had fallen so far. I wondered if you would even care. In truth, I wanted you to say those words. For that, I want you to know, I am greatful… but I do not want your saving. I want to see you break!”
Like I said… awesomeness! WINNER ALL AROUND!!!