When the hero isn’t a nice guy, part two.
Or why the movie, Predators, watches like a romance novel reads.
As viewers, we are quite literally dropped into the middle of the action. And I do mean dropped. A good romance does the same thing - the story begins in the middle of our hero’s or our heroine’s life, often in the midst of a difficult, dangerous, unpleasant, life altering situation. We generally aren’t given the entire back story in the beginning - i.e. from birth to present day. The back story unfolds as the plot progresses, often via dialogue, sometimes with nothing more than a nod of the head or a look.
In Predators, the closest we come to back story in the beginning is when our unlikely and nameless hero asks our somewhat more likely and equally nameless heroine if she’s IDF. I know what IDF is…look it up if you’re not sure, I don’t want to spoil too much of the movie. That simple question gives us significant glimpses into the back stories of both - we now know what she is and what she does to some extent and what her history might be, and we know that he’s familiar enough with the IDF to use nothing more than the initials, IDF, without hesitation. That fact alone hints strongly at his background.
Every character in Predators is an archetype, and none fits the typical hero archetype, far from it. Yet each character, like the archetypal hero in Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, must follow a classic heroes’ journey - descend into the depths of hell, face his or her inner demons, and either conquer them or die trying. We use archetypes in romance all the time.
Adrien Brody’s character, we don’t learn his name until the very last scene, is amoral. (Names aren’t important here, archetypes are.) He’s competent, courageous, single-minded, decisive and discerning - everything we love in our Alpha Males, but through most of the film, his only concern is his own survival. For him, there is no moral high ground. He is not compassionate, self-sacrificing or sympathetic, yet he’s honest, straightforward, matter of fact, clear-thinking and therefore, compelling and appealing in the exact same way the hero of a romance novel is. The question is, in the end I think, can he show some empathy, not kindness mind you - this man is not kind - but empathy. Adrien Brody’s interpretation of the role brings to mind the words Faye Dunaway uses to describe Robert Redford’s character in the movie, Three Days of the Condor. She says, paraphrasing here, “Your eyes…they aren’t kind, but they don’t miss anything.” Robert Redford is the hero in that movie. Like Adrien Brody in Predators, he isn’t kind, but neither is he deliberately cruel. He does whatever he deems necessary to survive…sometimes he’s not so nice, but yes, he too does the right thing in the end.
I have to admit, I like my bad boys. Since this post is getting long, tomorrow - my favorite bad boys and if there’s time, a few of the beta heroes I adore.
