The impact of cinema on society is the message it gives. Even though many films carry fictional storylines, characters, and even worlds, the message is universal.
In modern Sri Lankan cinema films like Bambara Walalla (2009) and Mille Soya (2004) carries fictional characters but universal themes that are close at heart for any Sri Lankan citizen.
Characters like Pradeep played by Mr. Mahendra Perera in Mille Soya and as Mr. Mel in Bambara Walalla are considered great cinematic achievements in acting of fictional characters that is still remembered by many Sri Lankan film fans due to its true depiction of human nature.
The use of some fictional characters has become enigmatically established among the fans due to its reflection of human nature.
In this blog post, I would like to discuss two fictional characters who portray villains in their cinematic universes. Those two characters have become iconic reflections of the dark side of human nature.
Hannibal Lector and Gordon Gekko are two of the darkest and weirdest reflections of human nature. They are from different films. They reflect different character traits and evils. But there is one similarity. I will come to that later.
Dr. Hannibal Lector is a character in a series of suspense novels by Thomas Harris. He was based on a real-life Mexican doctor the writer met in the 1960s who is considered a serial killer and a psychopath.
Lector was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a forensic psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial Killer. The novel and its sequel, The Silence of the Lambs, feature Lector as one of the primary antagonists after the two serial killers in both novels. In the third novel, Hannibal, Lector becomes a protagonist. His role as the antihero occurs in the fourth novel, Hannibal Rising, which explores his childhood and development into a serial killer.
The first film adapted from the Harris novels was Manhunter (based on Red Dragon) which features Brian Cox as Lector, spelled "Lecktor". In 1991, Anthony Hopkins won an academy award for his portrayal of the character in The Silence of the Lambs. He would reprise the role in Hannibal in 2001 and in a second adaptation of Red Dragon in 2002 under the original title.
The NBC Television series Hannibal debuted in 2013 and focuses on the development of the relationship between Lector and Will Graham, an FBI profiler. In the series, Lector is portrayed by actor Mads Mikkelson, who won a Saturn award for his performance.
In 2003, Hannibal Lector (as portrayed by Hopkins was chosen by the American Film Institute as the #1 movie villain. In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly named him one of the 100 greatest characters of the last 20 years.
I personally never read the novels. But I watched all the films that reflected Hannibal Lector besides Michael Mann's adaptation. I couldn't even follow up the new television series.
Personal observation of mine in this fictional character is the depiction of menace, sociopathy, and psychopathy fused with knowledge, love, and heart. He is very elegant. He is an all-round performer
in all of his career and among people. But in his personal life, Dr. Hannibal Lector brings out his true demons into practicality. His guilt about the childhood crime he committed without knowledge and intent will lead to his psychopathy which is described throughout the film series. This is a darker vision on the human element throughout the eyes of a psychopath. The film depicts the unproductive politics, backstabbing, and competition in the government service bureaucracy. And also reflects the personal struggles of ordinary people. The filmmakers create a question in the mind of the audience on the dark side of each human being's mind. Overall he's one of the scariest psychopaths in the fictional world, but his observations and quotes unlock the audiences and the character's mind to view the world into a more darker and more scarier way.
The following quotes reflect into the dark side of the character.
The Silence of the lambs (1991)
H.L. - Look for severe childhood disturbances associated with violence. Our Billy wasn't born a criminal, Clarice. He was made one through years of systematic abuse. Billy hates his own identity, you see, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual. But his pathology is a thousand times more savage and more terrifying.
Hannibal (2001)
H.L. - People don't always tell you what they are thinking. They just see to it that you don't advance in life.
Red Dragon (2002)
H.L. - [In the final letter to Will] My dear Will, you must be healed by now....on the outside at least, I hope you're not too ugly. What a collection of scars you have. Never forget who gave you the best of them, and be grateful, our scars have the power to remind us that the past was real. We live in a primitive time, don't we Will ? Neither savage nor wise. Half measures are the curse of it, any rational society will either kill me or put me to some use. Do you dream much, Will ? I think of you often. Your old friend, Hannibal Lector.
Hannibal Rising (2007)
Grutas - Answer me this. Would you have fed me to your little sister because you loved her?
H.L. - Yes.
Grutas - There. There you have it. Love. I love myself that much and I will never apologize to you.
Gordon Gekko is the other fictional character I would like to discuss but he is completely different from Dr. Hannibal Lector. He is a corporate shark, he is a narcissist and a sociopath in the workplace. He's ambitious and will do anything to have what he wants. He is a corporate criminal. A white collar criminal. He reflects on the darkest aspects of the human mind through corporate greed, insider trading, junk bond trader and stock speculator for his personal gains. He will ignore people losing jobs or salaries for his high-risk market deals.
Gordon Gekko is a fictional character in the 1987 film Wall Street and it's 2010 sequel Wall Street: Money never sleeps, both directed by Oliver Stone. Gekko was portrayed by actor Michael Douglas, whose performance in the first film won him an Oscar for best actor.
Co-written by Stone and screenwriter Stanley Weiser, Gekko is claimed to be loosely based on several actual financiers, including Stone's own father Louise Stone and corporate raider Asher Edelman. According to Edward R. Pressman, producer of the film, "originally, there was no one individual who Gekko was modeled on," he adds "but Gekko was partly Milken (Michael Milken)", who was the "Junk Bond King" of the 1980s.
In 2003, the American Film Institute named Gordon Gekko No. 24 on its top 50 movie villains of all time.
Gekko has become a symbol in popular culture for unrestrained greed (with the signature line, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good"), often in fields outside corporate finance.
On September 25, 2008, Michael Douglas, acting as a UN ambassador for peace, was at the 2008 session of the United Nations General Assembly.
On September 25, 2008, Michael Douglas, acting as a UN ambassador for peace, was at the 2008 session of the United Nations General Assembly. Reporters sought to ask him off-topic questions about Gekko. He was asked whether he "bore some responsibilities for the behavior of the greed merchants who had brought the world to its knees." Trying to return to the topic, Douglas suggested that "the same level of passion wall street investors showed should also apply to get rid of nuclear weapons."
Douglas was also asked to compare Nuclear Armageddon with the "financial Armageddon on wall street", after one reporter inquired, "Are you saying, Gordon, that greed is not good ?" Douglas stated, "I'm not saying that, and my name is not Gordon, It's a character I played 20 years ago."
On October 8, 2008, the character was referenced by Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd in his speech, "The children of Gordon Gekko" concerning the financial crisis of 2007-2010. Rudd stated "It is perhaps time now to admit that we did not learn the full lessons of the greed-is-good ideology. And today we are still cleaning up the mess of the 21st Century Children of Gordon Gekko.
On July 28, 2009, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone cited Gekko's 'Greed is good' slogan in a speech to the Italian Senate, saying that the free market had been replaced by a greed market, and also blamed such a mentality for the 2008 - 2009 financial crisis.
The greatest villain of the world as per this character is not the criminals we label as murderers, psychopaths or rapists. I'm not trying to justify that the latter is good. But white-collar criminals can be the root cause for the creation of the latter. It is like a vicious circle in the world. There is a solution through proper regulation of the free market by the involvement of the government.
But this is hard and it will require great strength to transform this.
I would like to bring down some quotes from the two movies this character was depicted.
Wall Street (1987)
G. G. - I don't throw darts at a board. I bet on sure things. Read Sun-Tzu, The Art of War. Every battle is won before it is ever fought.
G. G. - It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.
G. G. - Greed captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
G.G. - Jesus! if this guy owned a funeral parlor nobody would die!
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)
G.G. - Payback. Except I'm not in that business anymore, because the one thing I learned in jail is that money is not the prime asset in life. Time is.
G.G. - Someone reminded me I once said: "Greed is good". Now it seems it's legal. Because everyone is drinking the same Kool-Aid.
G.G. - Bulls make money. Bears make money. Pigs? They get slaughtered.
G.G. - Money is a bitch that never sleeps.
G.G. - Idealism kills every deal.
The two characters in these films are a darker and a stronger vision of the worst evils that exist in the world. There conflicted ideologies, lifestyle, quotes, perception, and even the body language stimulates fear and sense of scare in the mind of the audiences. These fictional characters are the reflection of a dark side of humanity many fear to face.
Therefore the filmmakers have created a strong and powerful depiction of the characters to go beyond and understand the true nature of human existence and it's dark side.
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