As our culture turns away from definitive morality we are seeing more and more that the heroes of our stories are likewise muddled in their own moral stances. It is more likely today to see a movie with a hero that is amoral or actually villainous rather than morally straight.

The hero is the vessel in which the filmmaker inserts their philosophy. The story allows them to express that worldview. When the hero displays evil behavior and the filmmaker either ignores or excuses it they are making the claim that traditional morality is irrelevant. When a film lacks any discernible good guy the filmmaker is setting us up to digest immoral behavior as being acceptable. The next time you watch a film where the good guy is actually a bad man (a Dirty Harry type), notice that during the first act (the first 20-30 minutes) you will find a scene where the villain of the story does something completely over the top, something wholly and viciously evil (antagonist Willy Bank brutalizing the elderly Reuben Tishkoff in Ocean's 13 for example). This is done to lighten our view on the evilness of the "hero". We unconsciously buy into situational ethics and stick with the lesser of two evils for the remainder of the film. This is a simple bit of manipulation you will see again and again once you spot it the first time.

Labels: miscellaneous, movie watching tip