8 Movie Villains That Weren't All That Bad After All

The Oscar weekend has landed and I've decided to write a film-related article instead of the third and FINAL part of my "American Adventures." This post can wait until tomorrow; peeps like Bane can't though! 

I once wrote a similar article for one of my two blogs – tcmag (R.I.P.) that unfortunately exists no more. So, Steemit has given me a GREAT opportunity to bring the "dead " back to life. 

Let's Talk About Villains Baby

It’s somewhat of a classic tradition, in every film to have two kinds of guys: the good guy who usually wins and kisses the girl in the end, and the bad guy, who usually loses because he’s that evil villain everybody loves to hate. 

However, taking a deeper look into some of these popular films, one can realize that some of those villains weren’t that bad really, or even better, they weren’t bad at all. A closer look may convince you!!!

Lestat (Interview with the Vampire) 

He’s a villain because: He is a vampire who loves to drink human blood and lacks respect for human life.

Why he wasn’t all that bad really: If this film was made from a human’s point of view, where usually the vampire is your typical bad guy and the vampire-hunter is the hero of the story, then we could understand. However, in this film you hear a vampire story from a vampire, so being a vampire doesn’t make you the bad guy at all.  

Louis, on the other hand is the "good guy " of the film and a total hypocrite who will occasionally drink human blood and murder people too. He will then feel guilty about his vampire nature and kill every rat and cat in town to save his own skin. 

Keep in mind that Lestat saved Louis from suicide, and later Claudia from certain death-by-plague, by making them vampires and thus eternally young and beautiful.  

They would later return the favor by poisoning him with bad blood, throwing him in a lake full of alligators, and finally setting him and his house on fire. But Lestat is supposed to be the bad guy!    

Derek Vinyard (American History X)

He’s a villain because:  He’s a racist Neo-Nazi who is legally to blame for many assaults and violent acts against people of color, while he murdered an African-American dude who tried to break into his house.  

Why he wasn’t all that bad really: Derek was a good guy and a good student originally, who got along with people of all races such as Dr. Sweeney, his African-American English teacher.

He’s nowhere near a natural hater or racist. However, all this changed when his dad, a firefighter, on a call to fight a fire in a drug den gets murdered by black drug dealers while fulfilling his duty. Living in an area where people of color commit nearly every single crime and without a father figure in the house, Derek decides to be a man and protect his family. 

Unfortunately, he picks the wrong path and the wrong people to help him do so and joins a Neo-Nazi gang.

Raoul Silva (Skyfall)

He’s a villain because: He seeks revenge from the old witch named M and for that reason he launches a terrorist attack on London. On top of all this, he murders the sexiest girl of the film for no significant reason. Yep, I  hated him for that too.  

Why he wasn’t all that bad really: Raoul claims he used to be the best agent MI6 ever had. Yes, that means he was even superior to 007. He was ridiculously loyal to M and trusted her like his own mother. In return, M abandoned and left him for dead after he got captured during a mission. 

And trust me, it wasn’t only his heart that got broken---his face got totally screwed too. Any way you look at it, M screwed Raoul on every possible level and his hate is completely understandable and respected. You would probably feel the same way.  

Ivan Drago (Rocky IV)   

He’s a villain because: Well, to be honest Ivan Drago’s only sin was that he dared to be a Soviet boxer who dominated the Olympic Boxing tournament during the cold war. Oh yes, he also killed Apollo during a fight and in the post-fight interview, all he got to say was: “If he dies….he dies”   

Why he wasn’t all that bad really: One should feel sorry for Drago and for more than one reason. On one hand, the Soviet propaganda machine used this poor fella as an animal and fed him steroids like they were the Soviet version of M&M’s. That’s why we should all forgive him and sympathize with him being as cold as a robot after literally destroying Apollo; it was steroids talking, not the Soviet giant. 

On the other hand, Stallone probably directed the biggest and crappiest cold war, de facto propaganda film ever. He portrayed the Soviet boxer like Robocop’s twin brother with no human feelings whatsoever. 

However Sly, just like a prophet got one thing right in Rocky IV: indeed once communism collapsed and those Soviet boxers could finally become professionals, they began to dominate the big boy boxing divisions with ease, with the term “American Heavyweight Champion” sounding almost like a joke nowadays.   

Magneto (X-Men Movies)  

He’s a villain because: He wants to kill all humans only so his kind can survive and live peacefully.  

Why he wasn’t all that bad really: If you think about it, Magneto was right; especially if you are a mutant or you just see it from his point of view. Magneto is a Holocaust survivor who found out the hard way what humans are capable of. 

In front of his very own eyes, he saw a Nazi officer execute his mother. After this, he dedicated his life to eradicate human evilness for good. One could now say that Nazis treated everyone poorly, including human beings. Yet, even later in life, as we see in pretty much all X-Men films, humans still treat mutants with fear, blatantly discriminate against them, and treat them like second class citizens. 

General Hummel (The Rock)  

He’s a villain because:  He recruited a small army of blood-thirsty veterans and lunatics who thought the war in Vietnam wasn’t over yet and he threatened to make San Francisco the new Hiroshima. 

Why he wasn’t all that bad really: Dude was ridiculously fair and right from the very beginning of the movie till the end.

To begin with he was a war hero who fought for his country in Vietnam War. On top of that, his government didn’t recognize the contributions and sacrifices of the Black Ops soldiers, didn’t give a single penny to the families that lost their loved ones, and ignored General Hummel’s every legitimate attempt at justice. 

Then General Hummel decided to take action and for that reason he took many hostages, broke into Alcatraz (READ MY ALCATRAZ ARTICLE BTW) and the rest is history.

However, those of us who have watched the film clearly remember that the man was just bullshiting and never planned (and didn’t) to harm any of his innocent hostages, but instead he exposed the corrupt and greedy government and socio-economic system of his country that values money over human life.

Bane (The Dark Knight Rises)

He’s a villain because: He doesn’t value human life at all and that’s why he tends to kill so easily. He also broke Batman’s back and promised to turn Gotham City into ashes. 

Why he wasn’t all that bad really: When Talia reveals for us the story about her and Bane during the end of the film, we finally get to know the truth about the man behind Bane. It might sound unbelievable to some, but Bane was a really good and kind man originally. 

When Talia was a little, unprotected girl she got trapped in the pit. Bane, who was already there, defended and protected her from possible beatings, rape, and death from constant abuse. All this came with a high cost for him and especially his face, since he took the beating of his life from his fellow prisoners for helping Talia to escape out of the pit.

Tricked by love (for Talia) he ended up doing really bad things, but Bane, even though a misunderstood hero and a deep thinker, wasn’t the evil mind behind all this. In reality, he just followed the orders of the one he loved and protected from a really young age.

Roy Batty (Blade Runner)   

He’s a villain because:  I never understood really. 

Why he wasn’t all that bad really: Roy Batty is the leader of the renegade Nexus-6 replicants and the “bad guy”  of this legendary film, even though any adult who’s capable of critical thinking realizes he’s not a villain really, but a desperate hero who’s seeking answers in the existential questions of every thinking and living being on earth: “Where do I come from? Where do I go? How much time left do I have? Who made me and why?” 

He and his mates try to find a way to lengthen their lifespan. Yet, when he finally meets his creator he discovers his life cannot be extended since he’s destined by design to live only four years.  

After realizing that he was created only so he can serve certain “questionable” purposes and his life never had any value, his subsequent murder of his creator showcases the perfect cinematic scene of poetic justice. 

Before Roy Batty shuts down and dies, he shows strong human feelings and emotions, such as crying and mourning Pris’ death, saves the life of the man (Deckard) who tries to kill him throughout the whole film, and shows his unquestionable skills as one of the most damn awesome poets ever, when he utters probably the most beautiful soliloquy in motion picture history. 

References:

https://www.tcmag.com/magazine/11_film_antagonists_that_werent_that_bad_really

https://theo-cracy.com

http://www.imdb.com

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