Evil in Movies
Most movies have a cartoon approach to good and evil. The villain is played as a psychotic or a villian with no clear motivation. In real life, people are evil in more subtle ways, and they have their own particular motives.
Three recent movies have interesting and complex depictions of characters that can only be called evil. The movies are Rangoon from 1995, Hard Eight from 1996, and In the Company of Men from 1997. The movies illustrate the range of behavior that falls under an idea of evil. The movies have little in common, except that they show troubling and memorable depictions of people who behave in antisocial, immoral ways. The evil is thought-provoking and hard to dismiss compared to usual movie fare.
Rangoon tells the story of an American doctor (Patricia Arquette) who is trapped in Bangkok by a revolution. She tries to escape to the border, pursued by relentless government troops. These soldiers seem almost businesslike, professional, and even enthusiastic in performing their job of silencing rebels and enforcing order, not the usual caricature of unthinking drones. The film indicates how real human beings could kill as a livelihood, making it frighteningly realistic.
Hard Eight (directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, who also made Boogie Nights) begins when an elderly gentleman named Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) helps a penniless man, John (John C. Reilly). He also unites John with a cocktail waitress, Clementine (Gwyneth Paltrow) in a casino in Nevada. But why is Sydney being so kind? Is he simply a gambler who has made a fortune, or is there more to him? The movie shows he has an unexpected dark side.
In the Company of Men is the profile of an alpha male in a modern business. Two businessmen are temporarily assigned to a field office. Chad (Aaron Eckhart), one of the men, is angry because his girlfriend left him, and he wants to get revenge on all women. He suggests that the two men identify a needy woman, and both of them court her. Then they should both dump her at the same time. The events don't exactly follow the plan, until it isn't clear who Chad's true victim is.
These movies show evil in human behavior that is harder to dismiss or categorize than most movies. The films are available on video and are rated R.