Magnificent Bastard/Film: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
DocColress (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
DocColress (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
Line 15:
** Bane from ''The Dark Knight Rises'' also qualifies. Being a [[Genius Bruiser]] of epic proportions and possessing gifted eloquence, Bane was able to challenge Batman in ways that not even ''the Joker'' was able to do before him. This is emphasized during their first fight, in which Bane recites a segmented "Reason You Suck" Speech while effortlessly breaking poor Bruce in both body and spirit. He then goes on a literal reign of terror over Gotham by toppling the city government and inciting a (faux) class revolution that would have made Vladimir Lenin envious, all in order to spiritually torment Bruce further (Bruce can see everything that's going down in Gotham on a conveniently placed television set in his prison hole) just before the city gets wiped off the map by a bomb that's set to be detonated by his partner in a matter of days. The most magnificent part is that he accomplished everything the Joker set out to do, minus the horrific end goal of endless chaos, halfway through the film!
*** Selina Kyle and {{spoiler|Talia al Ghul}} are contenders as well. Selina, aka The Catwoman, is an attractive and charismatic woman who's a thief, a trickster, a Manipulative Bitch, and an ass-kicker. Despite her having stolen the necklace that belonged to Bruce's mother, his keepsake of her from when she was murdered, Bruce finds himself fond of her and even attracted to her...even after she steals his car by passing herself off as his wife on her way out of a party. She's a [[Noble Demon]] with a strong honor code and sense of fairness. Meanwhile, {{spoiler|Talia is the charming daughter of Ra's al Ghul, partner and lover of Bane, and for a while, Bruce's girlfriend AND proprietor of Wayne Enterprises. All of Bane's actions can be traced to her, as she secretly had a hand in all of it and concocted the entire evil plot with him. But she added the extra touch of seducing Bruce so that she can reveal her true colors to him right before killing him, in a literal twist of a knife, to break his heart - all for revenge for her father, whom she blames Bruce for taking from her.}}
* ''[[L.A. Confidential]]'': The film version of Captain Dudley Smith is a charming, witty corrupt police officer who tries to get control of all criminal activity in Los Angeles after the fall of gangster Mickey Cohen leaves a power vacuum behind. He chases away or kills off all criminal opposition in the city. When officer Dick Stensland and private bodyguard Buzz Meeks try to get more out of a major heroin deal they made with him he kills both of them, one in a diner massacre that leaves a dozen innocent people dead. He frames a trio of rapist criminals for the massacre, and orders them killed during the arrest by his associates to make sure they won't talk. After manipulating the entire department, he later begins eliminating loose ends and even sets up his young rival Edmund Exley sleeping with his muscle Bud White's girlfriend to trick Bud into killing Edmund to get rid of them both. Coming within an inch of victory, Dudley embodies both the charm and corruption that a police badge can conceal.
* Addison De Witt from ''[[All About Eve]]''. You know you've met a larger than life character when he has "wit" in his name. A [[Deadpan Snarker]], [[Upper Class Wit]] and Chessmaster, De Witt is a theatre critic with astonishing power and influence. He can destroy the reputation of top actresses in a single column. [[Smug Snake]] Eve Harrington makes the mistake of crossing Addison and suffers a [[Villainous BSOD]] when he gives her a [[Hannibal Lecture]].
* Ruthless businessman Daniel Plainview from ''[[There Will Be Blood]]'', though he would be more of a [[Magnificent Bastard]] if he were more refined and less erm, [[Unstoppable Rage|hot tempered]]!
Line 84 ⟶ 85:
* The original working title for ''[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly|The Good the Bad And The Ugly]]'' was ''The Three Magnificent Rogues''. If we assume 'rogues' is, here, an [[Unusual Euphemism]] for 'Bastards', it's a much more accurate description of the film's contents than ''The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'' ever was.
* Lee Woo-jin from ''[[Oldboy]]'' is this, through and through. Imprisoning Oh Dae-su for 15 years was only the ''start'' of his plan to ruin his life.
*
* In ''[[Last of the Mohicans]]'', the Huron warrior Magua was enslaved by the Mohawks thanks to the British Colonel Munro. Seeking revenge, Magua won over the Mohawk, becoming their blood brother until he could rejoin the Huron, only to discover his wife, thinking him dead, had married another after their children died. Filled with rage, Magua bides his time, leading a British patrol to its doom and later causes the fall of Munro's fort before massacring his followers and carving Munro's heart out before seeking to kill his daughters. When he faces Nathaniel Bumpo's adoptive brother Uncas, Magua shows his skill by killing him with no effort whatsoever, repeatedly showing why he is one of the most dangerous men on the frontier.
* Clyde Shelton in ''[[Law Abiding Citizen]]''. You may not approve of the idea that guides him but you have to admit and admire his style and execution.
* Barbara from ''[[Notes On a Scandal]]'', whose plan comes nearly to completion, after lots of manipulation. However, she was undone by her diary.
* Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas), the main character in ''[[The Bad and The Beautiful]]''. The impoverished son of a legendary movie mogul who died bankrupt, he built up his own studio from nothing and made five Best Picture winners...and cheerfully stepped on everybody he had to in order to get it done. Some highlights: he got his best friend and creative partner to tell him all about his dream project, then stole the credit for all his ideas and gave the directing job to someone else; he recruited the alcoholic and mentally unstable daughter of a Hollywood legend to star in his next big movie, seduced her to get her through production sober, then started boffing one of the extras before the premier party was over; and he got his hot new screenwriter to finish his script by paying one of his [[Latin Lover]] leading men to seduce the guy's wife to keep her from distracting him...until the lover and the wife died in a plane crash the day they finished the final draft. So what's so magnificent about all this bastardry? {{spoiler|In the film's final scene, all three of those people, who have gone on to become industry titans, agree to do one more film with him, saving his studio from bankruptcy. The man is just that damn charismatic.}}
* ''[[Lucky Number Slevin]]'': Slevin Kelevra was just a normal kid when both his parents were murdered on the orders of two mob bossess, The Boss and The Rabbi, to make an example of his father for trying to place a bet on a fixed horse race. The contract killer sent to take care of Slevin, Mr. Goodkat, couldn't bring himself to kill Slevin and instead raised him to follow in his footsteps as an assassin. Slevin spent years plotting the demise of his parents' killers with Goodkat's help, killing the Boss's son and both bosses' book keepers to make them even more paranoid of each other after they had already previously broken up their partnership. Goodkat then kills Nick Fisher so Slevin can pose as Nick's friend and be taken to the bosses to settle Nick's outstanding debts to both men. Slevin makes himself appear harmless before later killing the Rabbi's son as well and faking his own death, then kidnapping both mob bosses and suffocating them to death after explaining his reasons for wanting revenge. Slevin demonstrates that a dish [[Best Served Cold]] requires real mastery of the [[Kansas City Shuffle]].
* This phrase is used in the film ''Dead Man on Campus'', in a reluctant appreciation of another character's immoral yet effective cunning.
* {{spoiler|Obadiah Stane}} in ''[[Iron Man]]''. He manipulated Tony Stark's kidnapping, sold weapons to both sides of an armed conflict, and was thorough enough to eliminate the witnesses not on his payroll. Who knows what else he'd been up to before the film started? If he'd {{spoiler|just killed Stark instead of leaving him to die of heart failure,}} he'd have succeeded with his plans to mass-produce Iron Man units.
Line 134 ⟶ 137:
* Mok Swagger from ''[[Rock and Rule]]''. He's the biggest thing since World War III after all.
* Another rare heroic example is Andy Dufresne from ''[[The Shawshank Redemption]]''. Upon discovering the deteriorating condition of the wall of his cell, he {{spoiler|slowly (as in over the course of twenty years) carves an escape tunnel through it}}. Meanwhile, he works his way into the trust of the Warden, who is under the mistaken assumption that ''he'' is the [[Magnificent Bastard]]. Twenty years later, Andy {{spoiler|escapes from the prison, taking a new identity--that he happened to create for the purposes of laundering the Warden's embezzled money, thus making himself a millionaire--and having the Warden and sadistic guard both arrested}}...all without mentioning a single word of his plan to anyone...not even his best friend. Andy is like the heroic version of [[The Usual Suspects|Keyzer Soze]], and gives us one of the most satisfying endings in film history.
* Richmond Valentine of ''Kingsman'' is the [[Genre Savvy]] tech mogul who uses this good publicity to convince the general mass to get his SIM chips, while persuading the world's 1% into supporting his cause, implanting them SIM chips so to track their every move, making sure they don't betray him. It would soon be revealed that these SIM chips are connected to his satellites that when activated, would cause people to kill each other; he tests its capabilities on a racist church community with only a Kingsman surviving the onslaught, before killing the Kingsman himself. After which the full-scale of Valentine's plan is revealed; he would launch a global frequency that leads to general masses killing each other off with only Valentine and his followers surviving. Despite attempting to cause massive loss of life, it is done so out of Valentine's belief of saving the world and the rest of humanity and is genuinely affable to allies and enemies alike, even asking Eggsy if he's going to make an incredibly lame pun before going out with a smile.
* Sebastian Shaw from ''[[X-Men]]'': First Class certainly qualifies. He is a well reputed businessman, masterfully manipulating America and Russia against each other to further his goals even improvising every single odd situation into his favour without losing his cool at all. He would have actually succeeded in his goal had he not killed Erik's mother all those years before hence forcing Erik to go on a literal roaring rampage of revenge
** Magneto definitely counts. A brilliant schemer, manipulative to the bone, and manages to keep his cool even during the thickest situations. He even manages to pull a [[Xanatos Gambit]] or two in the film.
| |||