
Heroes and anti-heroes
The orthodox approach to telling a story on the screen is protagonist centered. Look at the needs, obstacles and goals of your hero to find your plot, we are constantly being told. Unfortunately, a conventional hero often gives rise to a conventional story, anodyne and unmemorable.
While there is no point in denying that we will always be attracted to the hero figure, the archetypal centerpiece of Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”, our admiration has its limits. The Hero belongs to the Classic Story (see Introducing Story Structure ) and is supposedly based on our intrinsic belief that we are all ‘good people’. That may be true but it ignores the fact we are also human and fallible – we want to believe we are good, but we have our doubts. Are we really worthy? The Anti-Hero reflects those doubts.
The Anti Hero
What is an anti-hero? The bald answer is any protagonist of a book, film, or play who is lacking in ‘heroic’ qualities. Morally ambiguous, weak-willed, desperate, flawed – these are the traits of an anti-hero.
You may think the anti-hero is a modern phenomenon, a product of existential angst and modern man’s sense of alienation and futility, but in fact, he’s been around for a long time. Classic examples include Cervantes’s Don Quixote and Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones.
Don Quixote 1992
Orson Welles, who was a kind of anti-hero himself, struggled to make the films he wanted against odds that would have defeated most people.
Most of his projects took years and were largely financed by the fairly inferior acting work he took on in his later years.
His version of Don Quixote remains unfinished at the time of his death and was assembled from existing footage by other hands supposedly according to his wishes.
The result has been heavily criticised and is certainly flawed but still has a kind of grandeur – fitting for a director who spent his life tilting at windmills.
Schmuck or rebel?
Anti-heroes can be comic figures, like Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim, or tragic like Albert Camus’ L’Etranger. They can be schmucks or intelligent rebels, they can have Byronic good looks or be short and swarthy like Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate.
Their essential role is that of the outsider or outcast, those who swim against the tide. They can be angry about the world but their most empathetic quality is that they tend to be lacking in self-pity.
These are flawed characters who make no excuses for their flaws. The prerequisite of any anti-hero is self-acceptance and a heroic attitude towards life, often in the face of humiliation and defeat. They are unashamed of who they are.
We may like heroic figures but it seems that creating a successful anti-hero is far more likely to guarantee you fame and cultural influence – even if it’s not always the kind you might welcome (like J.D.Salinger’s Holden Caulfield, a perennial favourite of killers and the mentally disturbed).
In the cinema, some of the most influential films in each decade feature anti-heroes of one kind or another. In America films like The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider made a big cultural impact in the ’60s; just as Five Easy Pieces and A Fistful Of Dollars did the same in the ’70s, albeit for very different reasons. Similarly, in Britain, Withnail and I in the ’80s and Trainspotting in the ’90s became instant cults with audiences.
The Anti-Hero’s Journey by Kal Bashir
Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey describes a supposed proto-story form in terms of the progression of the Hero. It has been tremendously influential, George Lucas used the sixteen stage template when writing Star Wars. Here is a modified version showing the progress of the Anti-Hero.
Stories involving an anti-hero mirror the Hero’s Journey template. The difference between hero, anti-hero and other variations lies in situation, motivation and result.
Where the hero’s Ordinary World is idyllic (Lord of the Rings, 2003), the anti-hero’s world is uncomfortable and riddled with conflict (Raging Bull, 1980).
Where the hero embarks on adventure for altruistic reasons (Willow, 1988), the anti-hero embarks for selfish reasons.
Where the hero has good mentors (Lord of the Rings, 2003), the anti-hero has dark mentors (Raging Bull, 1980).
Where the hero resists dark temptations, the anti-hero gives in to them (Scarface, 1983).
Where the hero may sacrifice himself to prevent harm to others (Superman, 1978), the anti-hero will consciously set out to do harm (Goodfellas, 1990).
Where the hero will evolve (at the stage of the Transformation or Road of Trials), the anti-hero will regress.
Where the hero will achieve synergy (at the stage of the Ultimate Boon), the anti-hero will achieve alienation.
Where the hero’s allies will come to his aid, the anti-hero’s allies will betray.
Where the hero’s gain is tangible and prized, the anti-hero’s gain is dubious (Scarface, 1983).
The Swimmer 1968
Based on a short story by John Cheever, the hero (Burt Lancaster) is ostensibly a classic hero; handsome, wealthy, a good husband and father; but gradually this self-deceiving veneer is chipped away.
Lancaster brings nobility to the role and gives the character’s flaws a tragic dimension.
Fort Apache The Bronx 1981
This is a great example of how a classic hero can be made more human and sympathetic when he is given some attributes of the anti-hero. Paul Newman is an actor who made a career out of playing sympathetic anti-heroes like this (Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy).
In this genre movie Newman’s character is a maverick, hard-drinking but honest cop – so far, so conventional. His willingness to act the clown, however, demonstrates that ‘standing on your dignity’ is not always necessary for a classic hero. It’s a great humanising device, one that wins our affection and admiration.
Electra Glide in Blue 1973
Robert Blake plays John Wintergreen, a diminutive motorcycle cop, (“the same height as Audie Murphy”) who is on a quest to make himself into a hero.
Wintergreen is a classic Candide figure, an innocent, constantly looking for a role model and failing to find one. In this scene, his hopes are dashed again as his tall, impressively ‘cool’ boss is exposed by his girlfriend as not quite living up to his image.
Charlie Bubbles 1967
Albert Finney directed this film about a character who has, in a real sense, come ‘to the end of himself’. His protagonist is a successful working class novelist (not an actor – though there is probably an element of autobiography) who has lost connection with his roots and lacks any sense of purpose or direction.
Finney plays a hero whose sense of anomie and alienation are almost paralysing, and this scene of a reluctant seduction perfectly encapsulates his weariness with the world.
The Wild One 1953
This iconic film about youthful rebellion is difficult to see with fresh eyes but, if you try, the inarticulateness and charisma of Brando’s character somehow transcend the movie’s lowly ambitions and its many false notes.
The anti-hero, rather like the other characters, cannot communicate but then essentially he does not need to – what he has is uniquely his own. Film is possibly the only medium that could have turned such a character into a legend.
Making It 1970
Kristoffer Tabori plays a new kind of 1970’s anti-hero, a teenage kid with a neurotic mother who is already a hustler and sexual predator. Tabori’s character rejects the hippy-dippy values of the ’60s in favour of money and sex.
Although the film is in many ways a conventional morality tale, it has some memorable scenes. In this sequence, after sleeping with the sexually frustrated wife of the school sports coach, he spars with his English teacher; attacking the book Catcher In The Rye which had already become something of a sacred cow.
Seven Beauties 1975
Lina Wertmuller’s seedy gangster is a classic anti-hero, cowardly and unlikeable, but with a gift for survival. Despite the operatic touches in this scene, Giancarlo Giannini wrings real pathos from it.
His character is opportunistic, vain and weak; but undeniably human in a world that is depicted as monstrous and insane; and therefore it enlists our sympathies.
Falling Down 1993
Michael Douglas portrays the journey of a frustrated pencil pusher from underdog to police suspect. The change is gradual and persuasive so we share his confusion when he realises he has become “the bad guy”.
The plot tests our credulity at times – as when Douglas ‘accidentally’ finds a bag of weapons left over from a gang fight – but it makes up for it with moments of humour and insight. Who isn’t sympathetic to an anti-hero who shares our anger with the double standards and callousness of corporate America?
Les Valseuses 1974
This portrait of two petty thieves, layabouts and general ‘no-gooders’ wins us over through the sheer energy and youth of its protagonists and their complete lack of any pretensions. ( The title literally translates as The Dog’s Bollocks, I’ve been told)
Mapantsula 1988
Oliver Schmitz’s story of a small-time hood (Tsotsi) who becomes politicised after he is arrested by the police is one of very few films made in the apartheid era of South Africa that has both integrity and subtlety.
Understated and naturalistic, it is a genuine rarity for the eighties, when so many well-intentioned films about South Africa were weighed down by didacticism and bombastic rhetoric.
Conrack 1974
John Voight plays a determinedly unconventional teacher in this film adaptation of a best selling book. We’ve seen the story many times before but rarely with such charm and originality.
This is an anti-hero who does fight the establishment; a rebel with a positive agenda. On the spectrum of anti-heroes, the likeable variety is, of course, the most palatable and popular but that only underlines the importance of the breed to the Hollywood canon.
The Reckoning 1969
Nicol Williamson plays a working-class lad with a chip on his shoulder, brash, aggressive and unlikeable, but true to himself and his roots. The plot of The Reckoning resembles Get Carter with a man returning to his home town to avenge the death of a family member.
Working class anti-heroes were very much part of the mythology of the 60’s: John Osborne’s Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger, Joe Lampton in Room At The Top, Arthur Seaton in Saturday Night, Sunday Morning. (John Lennon even wrote a song about them).
Essentially these heroes are outsiders – characters who ‘don’t fit in’ because of their class. Oh, and let’s not forget that Albert Finney, Tom Courtney and Michael Caine, the actors who played these roles, were working class heroes of a kind, actors from the provinces who overcame the class snobbery that was rife in the ’60s.
Reuben, Reuben 1989
Gowan McGland (Tom Conti) is a minor Scottish poet, an alcoholic and womaniser, who ekes out a living by doing readings to cultural groups in small American towns.
Although he is a charming and indefatigable rogue, this comedy is saved from terminal whimsy by a dark streak of melancholy running through it. McGland knows his own weaknesses; they trouble him, and the ending of the film has a nicely ironic twist in keeping with its subject matter.
Little Noises 1992
Crispin Glover plays an aspiring writer with no talent, and seemingly no aptitude, clinging desperately to his pretensions amongst other New York ‘arty’ aspirationals in this barbed portrait of an ‘artist as a young man’.
Glover’s character has few redeeming qualities except for the kindness he shows to an autistic young man whose poetry he eventually steals and passes off as his own.
This is not another American story of redemption, almost the opposite. The merit of the film and his performance is that no excuse is made for him and the cost of his self-betrayal is always made clear.
They Shoot Horses Don’t They 1969
Set in the depression era this was, in one sense, the ‘Hunger Games’ of its day; a film about the gruelling and soul-destroying marathon dance contests that were a feature of those times. Jane Fonda’s performance as the spiky, tough-talking, Gloria is perfectly balanced by Michael Sarrazin’s dreamy farm boy.
They are both misfits and, according to the merciless judgement of the American canon, ‘losers’ who cannot get a break. They are also young and victims of the cynical manipulation of powers beyond their control – something that resonated with the 60’s generation.
Nurse Jackie 2009
She cheats, she lies, she uses drugs – but she’s also a gifted and compassionate nurse who saves lives and has everyone’s respect. Jackie Peyton, as played by the talented Edie Falco, is a mass of contradictions but no less fascinating because of it.
This is one of the first tv drama series to feature a protagonist who is self-destructive without all the usual attention-grabbing showiness. In series after series, she tries to change herself and ends up failing. It’s a universal human problem we can all relate to and the main reason for the show’s success.
The Nightcomers 1971
Marlon Brando made a career out of playing outcasts and understood how to bring his charisma even to roles that were not worthy of it. Here he plays Peter Quint in a prequel to Henry James gothic ghost story A Turn of The Screw.
The film, directed by Michael Winner, was very 70’s in its sensationalism with scenes of sexual bondage and Brando’s performance may not have been of the finest calibre but there’s something of a necessary ‘screw you’ attitude in playing anti-heroes which only certain troubled and troublesome actors do really convincingly.
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter 1968
Adapted from the Carson McCullers novel, the protagonist of this story John Singer (Alan Arkin), is deaf and mute and tries to help the people around him. He rents a bedroom in a small Southern town and strikes up a friendship with the teenage daughter of his landlord.
Singer has some of the attributes of the Holy Fool archetype in that he is essentially a good-hearted man trying to make his way. He is not a schmuck (an aggressive fool) and so that makes him and his attitude to life heroic.
The Whisperers 1967
Directed by Bryan Forbes, this is a study of an elderly woman (Edith Evans) living on her own who might be seen as pitiable except that her wilful and eccentric character refuses to be pitied.
She lives in her own little world and mainly copes with it admirably, shoring it up with fantasy when it lets her down. An example of how the every day can also become heroic.
Daphne 2017
The protagonist of Daphne is typical of a new breed of millennial anti-heroes and very much cut from the same cloth as the protagonist of the highly successful tv series Fleabag. Both feature young professional women who are not in steady relationships and doing poorly paid jobs that waste their talent.
Both are critical of men and impatient with male hypocrisy and shy away from emotional attachment. They are undisciplined and unfocused in their lives and use sex as a form of release along with alcohol and drugs. Despite the modern trappings of mobile phones and Tinder hook-ups, these characters aren’t that dissimilar from Godard’s heroines with their existential angst or even the self-destructive hedonist that Diane Keaton plays in Looking for Mr Goodbar (1977). They are in rebellion against the values of their parents and looking for a truth of their own but reluctant to settle for whatever is on offer.