HEROES AND VILLAINS AND BINARY OPPOSITES In pairs

HEROES AND VILLAINS AND BINARY OPPOSITES In pairs, brainstorm what characterises a hero and a villain. • What might they look like? • How might they act? • What locations would they be based in? • What props would they have? • Who would be supporting them? • What might happen to them in the film? 5 minutes

Vladimir Propp, a Russian critic, active in the 1920’s, published his Morphology of the Folk Tale in 1928. While the Soviet cinema was producing excellent films, Propp was essentially interested in the narrative of folk tales. He noticed folk tales were similar in many areas. They were about the same basic struggles and they appeared to have stock characters. He identified the following character types as typical ones you might find in a typical storyline: * the villain, who struggles with the hero * the donor, who prepares and/or provides hero with magical agent * the helper, who assists, rescues, solves and/or transfigures the hero * the Princess, a sought-for person (and/or her father), who exists as a goal and often recognizes and marries hero and/or punishes villain * the dispatcher, who sends the hero off * the hero, who departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to the donor and weds at end * the false hero (or antihero or usurper), who claims to be the hero, often seeking and reacting like a real hero (ie by trying to marry the princess)

Binary Opposites In the mid-20 th century, two major European academic thinkers, Claude Levi Strauss and Roland Barthes, had the important insight that the way we understand certain words depends not so much on any meaning they themselves directly contain, but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and its 'opposite' or, as they called it 'binary opposite'. They realised that words merely act as symbols for society's ideas and that the meaning of words, therefore, was a relationship rather than a fixed thing: a relationship between opposing ideas. For example, our understanding of the word 'coward' surely depends on the difference between that word and its opposing idea, that of a 'hero'. Other oppositions that should help you understand the idea are the youth/age binary, the masculinity/femininity, the good/evil binary, and so on. In Media studies, we use this when analysing images. For example, sometimes film makers juxtapose opposite images in the same frame to emphasies their difference.

Action Film Binary Opposites Die Hard John Mc. Clane (Bruce Willis) Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman)

Action Film Binary Opposites The Fifth Element Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman)

Action Film Binary Opposites Robin Hood (Russell Crowe) Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong)

Action Film Binary Opposites The Mummy Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) High Priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo)

Action Film Binary Opposites National Treasure Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) Ian Howe (Sean Bean)

Action Film Binary Opposites The Terminator Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

men

Conclusion The Hero Physically strong Good looking Young(ish) Works with limited help –a buddy and the heroine. Has limited weapons. Quick thinking. Chivalrous. Trustworthy. Follow a code that preaches loyalty, honour, duty, selflessness and spirituality. This guides their mission or quest. The Villain • Sometimes physically weaker and needs more weapons and back up. • Not as good looking (often scarred). • Often older. • Disloyal. • Selfish. • Greedy. • Creates suffering by causing war. • Shares the same quest as hero, such as trying to obtain a valuable artefact, but of greed or desire for power.

The Classic/Swordsman: Profile: With a cutlass at his side and a faithful stead between his legs this is the Action Hero from legend and fairy tale. Probably set in the past, somewhere in the east, or the east in the past. Motivation: There's a nasty evil overlord who's enslaving the people. The traditional hero will cut him up and probably fight some monsters/big men along the way. Mark of Masculinity: His stead and his cutlass. Skills: Swordfighting, horse riding and swinging on Chandeliers. Tools: Again, the sword and the horse. Possibly a mask. Perhaps a bow and arrow. Examples: Zoro, Robin Hood, Aladdin, Conan, Prince of Persia. From a by-gone age this hero comes from a time far more romantic than ours - where heroes fought with sword instead of guns. Full of beautiful princesses, kings, sultans, sorcery and mystery, the classic hero fights with honour and charisma. This type of hero is timeless as he is set in the past and can adapt to the current trends, (Conan in the strong men era, Zoro now).

The Commando: Profile: Usually incredibly muscular and savage they carry equally big man guns and knifes. By the end of the film they will have their top off and be covered in blood but they WON'T CARE. That's how hard they are. Motivation: They're sent by a government agency/the army to take out a terrorist threat probably in a jungle. For some reason it seemed logical to send in this one, albeit big, man to take on a thousand trouble makers rather than send in the whole army. Mark of Masculinity: This guy couldn't be more masculine; he's the most muscular man IN THE WORLD. He also has big guns, big knifes and is just generally big. He may be trying to overcompensate. . . Skills: He's a commando, he can kill an entire army of men and probably not be seen. Tools: Guns, Knifes, Bombs, maybe a tank or something big. Examples: Rambo, Commando, Eraser, Duke Nukem The commando is an almost extinct hero, but in his hey-day he was a perfect example of everything it was to be male: strong, resourceful and tooled up to the teeth with weapons, he always managed to over come the odds. The most famous example of the commando is Rambo, who demonstrated all these traits deftly; he could pull shrapnel from his throbbing quadracep, not wincing, before going into battle without a limp. The lack of this type of Action Hero today can be explained by several factors. First the view of men had changed over the years and such overt masculinity would be a little too 'in your face'. Fashions have also changed, with the smaller built and far more feminine looking male being seen as more attractive. Finally, with the development of technology there is little place for a lone commando in a nuclear war and many see such a portrayal of war as politically inflamatory and irresponsible. That said, the amazing Stallone has still managed to bring Rambo back to our screens with a successful modern update. Perhaps times are changing?

The Cop: Profile: A cop who has a problem with authority, a lose cannon untamed. This is ALLWAYS the case. He may or may not have a 'buddy' with whom much humour will be generated. The cop is never in uniform. It's quite likely that his wife was killed. Motivation: He's been suspended for being untameable and now he's out to get the bad guys and get his job back so he can do it all again. Mark of Masculinity: Hating authority. Skills: Really accurate shooting, one liners. Tools: Cop badge and gun. Examples: Axel Foley, John Mclaine, ANY character played by Steven Segal. The cop is a great choice for an Action Hero, their real life counterparts being perhaps one of the closest real-life equivalents. However, most of the public do not get on well with police in general and so the cop is imbued with a anti-conformist attitude to help get around this. This also allows the audience to live out the fantasy of defying their orders and running amuck with a gun. Cops and Cowboys are perhaps the closest things to the Commando, still retaining a decent level of the male hormone.

The Epic Leader: Profile: The epic leader is a character in a period piece who commands a massive army. For some reason he almost always dies at the end of the film. . . up until that point however he normally does okay. Motivation: Peace usually. Which is ironic. Mark of Masculinity: Have a massive army of warriors. Not bad. Skills: Leadership, good with a sword and a shield. Good at public speaking. Tools: Sword, shield, horse and massive army. Examples: Maximus, Leonidas, William Wallace. These guys often start off as nobodys until someone they like gets killed. This sends them a bit mental as they decide to head up a massive army and defeat the invaders. Unfortunately these guys are 99% likely to be dead at the end of the film. Unless they're Tom Cruise in the last Samurai. There's always a steady trickle of these films, the most recent of note being 300. They manage to stay relevant by drawing on history to make a comment on current politics.