From the early nineties to the early ‘aughts our screens were inundated with stories featuring the manic pixie dream girl. She was weird but in a cool way, and always marched to the beat of her own drum but still fell formulaically in love with whatever boy happened to be the writer’s stand-in for his geek boy angst. And I will admit that a geek boy writer I am as drawn to the manic pixie dream girl fantasy as the next nerd. But I realize that this character is a construct and that people, like life, are far more complicated.…
Category: Character Study
Character Study- Diana Christensen
There are few films as prophetic as Sidney Lumet’s Network. This 1976 classic foretells the corruption of the once honorable newsroom for ratings and the ever-escalating sensationalism necessary for television to maintain its allure and power over the populace. That we now live in the internet age does not undercut the film’s significance, far from it. The quest for content and the battle for American’s ever-shortening attention spans makes its message more important than ever. But nothing in this academy award-winning satire works without one of the most interesting characters ever depicted on screen, the subject of this month’s…
Character Study- Ellen Ripley
In storytelling, it is often the case that someone does something so well and it is so original and successful, that for the rest of time other storytellers attempt to harness this idea for their own and come up short. But they keep trying and saturating the zeitgeist with these poor imitations until even the original loses its brilliance and becomes nothing but a cliché, a shorthand joke for those in the know. One such example is the “kick-ass female lead”. If you take a woman and make her good at shooting bad guys with guns that must make her…
Character Study- Mrs. Robinson (The Graduate)
It is incredibly rare that a fictional character can transcend their medium and become a part of our everyday lexicon. The Graduate’s Mrs. Robinson has done exactly that. So much so that even now, over fifty years later, the name invokes a universally understood archetype in our society. What is it about this character, played to absolute perfection by Anne Bancroft, that resonates so deeply within the zeitgeist? It’s time to strip away the cougar cliché and take a deep dive into the quiet, bored desperation of suburbia that is The Graduate. The Graduate follows Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman)…
Character Study-Harry Callahan
Every once and awhile a film will come along that will so embed itself in pop culture that a person need never have seen a film to quote it. Dirty Harry is one of these films. It and its subsequent sequels proved to be so impactful that we use phrases such as “Do you feel lucky?” and “Make my day” as part of our everyday conversation. Even Dirty Harry itself has become a slang term in our lexicon. All of that is due to Clint Eastwood’s portrayal of the titular Dirty Harry, and in this edition of Character Study, we’re…
Character Study- Darth Vader
There are certain signatures in cinema that inspire emotions in us at an instinctive level, Bo Derek in a bikini, the cool confidence of John Wayne with a gun on his hip, the sight of Jaws’ fin above the water line; but only one creation in cinema has ever been able to inspire terror simply by breathing. When we hear that metallic inhuman sound we feel an innate terror that mixes with a feeling of anticipation and excitement because we know it means that Darth Vader is coming and people are going to die. We may admire a triumphant hero…
Character Study- Holly Golightly
No matter how practical you are or how cynical you become there is always a small part of you that desperately wants to believe in love at first sight. When Audrey Hepburn steps out of that cab in the early dawn dressed to the nines, small paper bag in hand you are enthralled. By the time she pulls out her coffee and Danish and you see the reflection of her oversized, dark glasses in Tiffany’s venerated windows you are infatuated. In one simple scene the world’s love affair with Holly Golightly is born. (It is important to note at this…
Character Study-Hannibal Lecter
“I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.” With those words Hannibal Lecter became a legend. Anthony Hopkins portrayal of the psychiatric psychopath won him a leading man Oscar for a grand total of eighteen minutes of screen time. Hopkins would reprise the role twice more but he was neither the first nor the last to bring Hannibal the Cannibal to life. In fact there are some who would argue that Mads Mikkelsen’s take on the character on television’s take on Thomas Harris’ novels. With that show having ended its spectacular run last Saturday (if you…
Character Study- Susan Vance
There are many shining examples of the screwball comedy but only Bringing Up Baby ever managed to team up Howard Hawkes, Cary Grant, and Kathrine Hepburn. In what is undoubtedly the greatest movie ever to feature a leopard as a central plot point Kathrine Hepburn shines as Susan Vance, daffy fast-talking heiress extraordinaire. Or at least that’s my opinion. Hepburn’s role in this film is a surprisingly divisive one. Some find her character over the top and grating. Some find her to be a quick-witted icon for women the world over. And some people think she’s just a funny actress…
Character Study- Sanjuro
The mysterious stranger wanders into town. Gruff and aloof he has no interest in petty, parochial concerns. Unless one of those concerns can make him a quick buck, then he might just stick around long enough to get paid. After all everyone’s got to eat. Gradually we see there’s more to this supposedly cold-blooded mercenary than originally believed. He’s got a soft spot. Maybe its a woman, could be a cute kid, or maybe somebody done shot his dog but this killer with a heart of gold isn’t going to let the bad guys of easy. He’s got a plan…