Most commonly, in movies the main character is a protagonist who the audiences ends up rooting for during the film. However, there is an exception to this general film strategy called an antihero. An antihero is a protagonist that doesn’t usually act noble or well mannered. This unconventional character also creates for some debate among the audience. Some people will end up liking the protagonist and others are wishing he’d would just die already. The films the Manchurian Candidate and Breathless both feature antiheroes that end up dying a heartbreaking death at the end of the film.
Breathless was directed by Jean-Luc Godard, a french filmmaker who’s most famous movie and first release was Breathless. http://www.newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-encyclopedia/jean-luc-godard.shtml#breathless (Here is an autobiography of Godard.) Breathless is about a French criminal that eventually falls for an American woman in Paris. The film starts of with the criminal, Michel stealing a car and killing a policeman. He becomes an automatic antihero. As the film goes on he steals more cars and keeps asking his lover, Patricia, to sleep with him. When the final scenes occur, Michel is eventually sold out by Patricia and shot dead by the police. Godard wants the audience to perceive Michel as a crook with a good heart, which fits perfectly into the category of an antihero. Godard does this by showing the contrast of Michel’s crime and love for Patricia. I think without an antihero this movie would have been stale and just an ordinary tragic love story. The aspect of a protagonist that doesn’t have pure morals or goals makes Breathless a phenomenal movie unlike anything of its time.
Another movie that contains a strong example of an antihero is The Manchurian Candidate (The 1962 version). This movie is about a Vietnam War veteran, Raymond Shaw, that was brain washed by communists during the war. When the Shaw returns to the United Sates, the brain washing kicks in as he is put on different assassination missions by the communists. By the end of the film, Shaw is lined up and ready to kill the newest president of the United States, when instead he shoots his own mother, his Vice Presidential nominee stepdad, and himself. His mother turned out to be working with the Communists and supported his brain-washing. The audiences feelings go back and forth about Raymond Shaw as the movie progresses. For most of the film we don’t know if he is brain-washed or not. At some points he seems like he is working for the antagonists and murdering people for no reason. At others, he seems like a genuine guy that wants the best for his lover Joce(who he end up killing). This gives him the characteristics of an antihero. Even though Shaw couldn’t control his actions, he was doing unmoral and unjust things that a normal protagonist wouldn’t. I can’t even imagine this movie without the use of Shaw as an antihero. The entire movie was centered around his action and the Communist plans they wanted him to do. However, even though Shaw killed many people throughout the movie, I believe he was a hero in the end. He overcame is brain washing with help from a fellow veteran and literally took his own life to save his country.
These two movies have many differences, but one thing they share is the use of an antihero. Antiheroes made these movies more exciting and unpredictable. I believe they were way ahead of their time with the use of these characters and achieved the full potential of their protagonists.
Link to Antihero information: http://study.com/academy/lesson/anti-hero-definition-examples-characteristics.html
Link to Breathless Review and Analysis: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/summer_movies/2010/06/go_see_breathless.html (Links to an external site.)