FRIDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:
BAD GUY LEADS
Not all protagonists have to be heroes like Spider-Man... some protagonists can be mean SOBs. No matter how morally wrong your protagonist is, the audience IS them for 2 hours and
from their point of view what they are doing is right and necessary. They aren't heroes, they are anti-heros.
There's a great Walter Hill movie called THE DRIVER about a getaway driver for
robberies and the policeman pursuing him. Because the getaway driver is the
protagonist, we live his life for 2 hours - the policeman is the antagonist.
Now, morally the policeman is doing the right thing and the getaway driver is doing the
wrong thing, but morals have nothing to do with story. They don't matter.
The getaway driver is our protagonist and we are rooting for him to get away from the
policeman. While watching this film, we dislike the policeman because he's getting in
the way of the getaway driver's goal - a goal we understand. Though the policeman is
portrayed as a bad person, that's ONLY because we see him from the Driver's POV.
The policemen is focused on winning at all costs - at capturing the criminal even if it
means breaking a few rules. As an audience we were cheering that attitude when the
policeman was DIRTY HARRY - we wanted Harry to stomp on Scorpio's wounded leg!
The same traits that made us root for Dirty Harry make us hate the policeman in THE
DRIVER. It's all a matter of perspective (not morality). For THE DRIVER to have a
satisying ending for the audience, the protagonist must acheive his goal and the
antagonist must be vanquished... that means the CRIMINAL must win (and that's
exactly what happens at the end of THE DRIVER). If the policeman had killed the
getaway driver he'd be killing the audience - the audience IS that character for 2 hours.
In the original DEATH WISH Paul Kersey begins as a man who believes in the system, believes that criminals deserve a fair trial... he's described as a bleeding heart liberal by his co-worker. Then, his wife is murdered and daughter raped, and the police seem powerless to do anything. His anger begins bubbling. He snaps at his son-in-law and co-workers. He snaps at his co-workers, and his office sends him to Arizona to work on a project. There, in conservative country, he starts playing with guns and talks to a mentor-type character who believes in street justice. The mentor gives him a present - a gun. The first time he's mugged and uses the gun is an accident... then, he becomes more and more comfortable using the gun... and eventually sets traps for muggers so that he can kill them. There's a detective who begins wanting to get him off the street, but shifts into an ally. By the time we get to the end of the movie, he takes an enormous risk - shaking off a police tail so that he can go hunting. He has been completely transformed.
This is one of the rare revenge movies that end with the protag still wanting to get revenge. Most often, they come to realize that revenge isn't really the answer (POINT BLANK, GET CARTER, THE LIMEY). The Truffaut film BRIDE WORE BLACK also ends with revenge still on the protag's mind - but that film has a cool twist end, where the bride has killed all of the people responsible for her husband's death... except one (who is in prison). Then she's arrested, tried, convicted... and sent to prison... where she manages to get to the last guy (very end). You realize that being caught was all part of her plan!
THE OTHERS is another great example of a "bad guy lead" - Kidman doesn't become
the antagonist at the end - we just learned that she wasn't an innocent victim. She's the
protagonist all the way through the movie, even though we learn that she did a very bad
thing... (hey - some people may not have rented the video, yet!) We realize she's not a nice person - but we don't pop into some other
character's POV so that she's the antagonist. Instead, we realize we've been rooting for
a person who isn't as nice as we thought they were... and I kind of felt sorry for her. I
mean, she can't even claim to be a victim at the end - she has to face up to the fact that
she's a bad person. Man, that's gotta be hell.
Right and wrong and morality don't mean anything in story.
You have a protagonist who has a goal.
Someone stands in the way of them acheiving that goal - the antagonist.
The protagonist and antagonist fight it out, and the protagonist overcomes the
antagonist and acheives his goal - the end.
The audience will BECOME the protagonist for 2 hours - we are Elliot riding the bike
through the sky, we are John Nash seeing delusions, we are Walker in POINT BLANK
killing everyone who comes between us and our $92,000. We are the protagonist. Even if he's the bad guy... an anti-hero.
Who is your protagonist?
Who will the audience be for 2 hours?
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