Victory for evil!

Before hopping in to the meat of this post, I should warn you that there are probably going to be a number of spoilers of whatever movies and games and such I end up bringing up. You’ve been warned.

It doesn’t happen enough.

Seriously, the bad guy is supposed to be the one who will lie, cheat and steal to get his way…yet never does. He’s giving himself every advantage in the book and it still doesn’t work out. In some ancient tribute to the spirit of the white knight, we can’t let the bad guy win.

Sorry, but I find that boring. I want to see evil win out sometimes! I want to see the villain walk up, bitch slap the hero so hard he’s spitting teeth, and shout out in triumph. I want the ‘bad guy’ to get the girl and the big house while the ‘good guy’ goes home to get his fucking shine box as bitter tears of failure stream down his face.

Seriously, how much more compelling would the average movie or game be if we knew there was a solid chance that evil WOULD win?

I’m so in to the idea of the villain winning that I’ll end up enjoying sub par entertainment just for that aspect of it…and often have to.

Arlington Road is such a product. It was a kind of stupid movie, if for no other reason than everyone knew Tim Robbins was a domestic terrorist. He had to be, otherwise the movie was 2 hours about Jeff Bridges fearing it to be true, finding out he was wrong, then hosting some sort of conciliatory “Sorry I thought you were a denizen of evil” barbecue at the end. Not really thrill a minute stuff.

However, the sole reason I would ever recommend this sloppy mess is that the ending is probably the single greatest ‘bad guy wins’ conclusion EVER. Not only does the Robbins character succeed in his plot to set off a massive bomb in a building parkade, but he’s actually hidden the bomb in the trunk of the Daniels character’s car. So he blows up the building and makes the hero look like the villain…and the credits roll. Awesome stuff.

Then there’s Fallen. This movie could have worked, but it just sort of fell flat for me…it didn’t help it’s cause by constantly reciting lyrics from quite possibly the worst Stones single they ever recorded. It just kind of stagnated throughout (the movie, not that terrible song). And what’s with that poster? Is Denzel lighting his face from below with a flashlight in preparation for telling some really scary stories around the campfire? But that ending…OH that ending!

The demon that has existed for ages, killing wantonly, lives on. And the way it was concluded means that everyone will see Denzel’s character as the bad guy, a cop who snapped and started offing his buddies.

Unfortunately, the thing that both of these flicks have in common is how thoroughly average they are. But evil ‘winning’ doesn’t have to be so complete to be effective.

One of my favourite evil characters (Hell, my favourite television character EVER) is Omar from The Wire.

Oh, he’s a great character…he’s compelling, he’s funny, you root for the guy. I wanted desperately to believe that this crazy bastard would somehow live, but I knew that he was doomed.

But he IS evil.

This is a guy who makes his money robbing drug dealers. Street dealers have lookouts who shout out warnings when they see him strutting down the road with a sawed off shotgun. Okay, not so bad, but he uses EVERYBODY he needs to to get his goal. Does he need a place to hide out for a few days? Okay, just feed enough dope to that junkie mom that she’ll be too looped out to give a fuck who’s staying with her. He’s not a good guy.

What a character like Omar allows me to do, though, is absolutely and unequivocally cheer for the bad guy. And Christ, since he’s part of a realistic show, there AREN’T many ‘good guys’. Alcoholic cops, corrupt politicians, major drug kingpins…who the Hell on that show brings anything resembling moral fibre to the screen? I’d go so far as to say that the reason that show works as well as it does is that they AVOID making anyone the cliche ‘white knight’ character without so much as a single character flaw. Possibly the greatest Omar scene on the show is from Season 1 where Omar, the bad guy, points out just how equally bad the lawyer for the drug dealer on trial is. It works because it’s 100% true.

And while I didn’t think The Godfather III came close to either of the earlier films for a variety of reasons, I actually liked the ending. Pacino’s Michael Corleone doesn’t directly pay for his life of crime, but instead is forced to suffer when it’s his daughter who takes a fatal bullet. Of course, I’m also fond of this ending because it put a definitive end to Sofia Coppolla’s atrocious performance as the daughter (quite possibly the single worst example of acting that I have ever seen).

And it makes sense that someone who lives their life as a despicable piece of shit is going to see a messy end…just don’t give it to me from some white knight load of crap.

Actually, the whole gangster genre is full of villains, many of whom succeed…and many of whom fall hard at the end. The Godfather trilogy is just one example, but practically any movie Martin Scorsese has ever shot would also fit. Is Travis Bickle really a hero? How about Jake LaMotta (As an added bonus, based on a real life piece of crap)?

Kane & Lynch : Dead Men is more infamous for getting reviewer Jeff Gerstmann fired over what the publisher deemed an ‘inappropriately sub par review’ than the game itself. And it isn’t anything to write home about. I grabbed it for $4.99 during last year’s Steam Holiday Sale, and for that price it was decent. But I ran in to numerous bugs and glitches that required stage restarts, and the story was fun in a ‘play a cheezy action movie’ kind of way but nothing to write home about. But that ending…

You’re Kane (dude on the left in that box shot). You’re a total piece of shit. During the game alone, you have blown away dozens of cops, and probably gunned down more than a few innocent bystanders who got in the way of your bullets. In your life, you’ve killed hundreds. You were on your way to Death Row in the beginning sequence, and deserved it.

Part way through the game, the REALLY bad guys…the ones you’ve previously worked for…callously put a bullet through the brain pan of your ex wife. And it’s your fault, because you’re a piece of shit. They have your daughter, but you manage to get her out. This leads to your choice…

You can run to a helicopter and leave with her, abandoning the surviving compatriots who have come along for the ride. Hell, they’re also human crap…but she’ll despise you even more for being a traitorous son of a bitch, and there’s nothing resembling reconciliation as you fly away. Or you can choose to help. You’ve spent your life leaving people to burn for what you’ve done, and it’s time to stop. Only, as you run to the boats she catches a round…and she bleeds out as you sail away.

There is no happy ending, and there really shouldn’t be. Whatever path you choose, she basically pays the consequences for your actions (as she already has, what with some through and through speed holes being shot through mommy’s skull).

Viva la Bad Guy. I just want to see him win a little more often.