A Filmmaker's Guide to: Anti-Heroes

In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.

Anti-Heroes

Vocabulary: Elixir

A prize (either physical or metaphorical) that the hero/anti-hero seeks out. It is one of the tropes of being a hero and one of the most common journeys the hero goes on. This is either something tangible or some self-discovery situation.

What are they?

Heroes who lack the conventional attributes of being a hero and yet, they are still the central character of the story, moving the plot along as they go.

In literature, the anti-hero has been around almost as long as modern writing has. In Shakespeare's day, we can see the anti-hero very frequently in plays such as: "Hamlet", "Macbeth", "Richard II", "Julius Caesar", "King Lear" and many, many more.

In novels, anti-heroes include those in "Don Quixote", "Huckleberry Finn", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Moby-Dick", "The Great Gatsby", "Fight Club" and "Less than Zero". Now obviously, each of these is completely different to the last and that is the entire point.

The entire point of an anti-hero is to subvert what is commonly seen as a heroic trait. For example: a heroic trait is obviously doing good for other people before yourself. To subvert that, we would have the hero become selfish and narcissistic and thus, we get Patrick Bateman from Bret Easton Ellis's "American Psycho".

What about in film?

Anti-heroes are possibly the most popular heroes in film because they don't subscribe to the normal hero tropes that we see more in Disney Princes and adaptations from myth etc.

We can take examples from DC and Marvel as some of the most famous of the films that deal with anti-heroes. We can also take a look at other comic-book movies like "Watchmen" and "Sin City" in order to see successful appearances of anti-heroes. So, let's check out a watchlist that doesn't include any comic-book movies:

- Fight Club (1999)

- American Psycho (2000)

- A Clockwork Orange (1971)

- The Shining (1980)

- Wall Street (1987)

- Die Hard (1988)

- Romeo is Bleeding (1993)

- The Usual Suspects (1995)

- American History X (1998)

- Constantine (2005)

You'll notice that each of these films have a ton of differences when it comes to the presentation of the anti-hero. They don't subscribe to what we know a hero is from say Arthurian Legend and Disney Movies. But, one thing they actually have is the plot revolving around them and it is your job to work out how the plot moves as a result of their actions.

You'll also notice that many of these anti-heroes possibly have more qualities of a villain than a hero, but they can't actually be a villain since they are the ones that control the plot for the majority of the film, they are the ones that have some sort of 'quest' to go on and are looking for the 'elixir' in order to overcome something in their lives (within the setting of the movie).

Further Reading: