My protagonist

[emjen]

I'm writing my first big feature film (or at least this one is the one I made it the farthest into) and I'm having troubles with the way my protagonist is, and how that can come across on the audience.

Usually you want to relate and identify with your protagonist. Sympathise with him and his actions.

My protagonist is quite an a-hole. He doesn't want to have anything to do with people, is unsympathetic, doesn't care about others... well you catch my drift.

Friends who read the script said they wanted to know why he's like that - and that's what I intended to do.

You learn in different short flashbacks things he experienced, and you slowly realize why he's an a-hole like that. And, I hope, you'll sympathize with him in that way.

"Ooh, I don't mind him killing everyone, If i had led such a life I would be doing the exaxt same thing."

And another thing, my protagonist doesn't have a goal. Because he, like hates everything, he doesn't want to reach the goal he's actually supposed to reach.

I hope you guys can shed some light on these problems, and maybe through intelligent discussion we can all learn new things and benefit with our spiritual enlightment! Hurray! Well anyways, if you have some advise on this please advise, cuz i dont really know if i'm going the right way with it.

[Tom Servo]

Does Mr. Antisocial Protagonist just kill a bunch of people for reasons unknown? If he doesn't have a goal and he kills people, is he a serial killer? Getting people to identify with him might be difficult, I'm not really sure how you'd do it. Anyone know films that have mean-*** protagonists that you identify with? I was thinking Silence of the Lambs but Lecter isn't the protagonist...hm...

[Actor]

Read Richard III by William Shakespeare!

[Actor]

One does not have to look far to name movies whose protagonists are not good guys:
<ul type="square">[*]Psycho, loosely based on the true story of murderer Ed Gein.[*]In Cold Blood, true story of two guys who murder a family of four in western Kansas.[*]Helter Skelter, true story of the Manson Family murders[*]The Deliberate Stranger, true story of serial killer Ted Bundy[/list]The protagonist of Psycho is clearly Norman Bates. The story is about him, not Marion Crane (the girl who takes the shower), nor her boy friend, nor her sister nor the detective. We are masterfully made to sympathize with Norman, to believe he is protecting his mother. Only at the end do we discover that he is the psycho.

Perry Smith, one of the mass murderers in In Cold Blood, is presented very sympathetically. This is achieved by not showing us his crime until the last possible moment. We know they did it but we did not see them do it. The murders are shown in flashback as Perry confesses. We see the trial and eventual executions from Perry's POV. The movie is all about Perry, his lonelyness, his feelings of hopelessness, the inevitability of his fate, his arc. It's not about the victims or the cops or even Richard Hickock, Perry's partner in murder. It's about Perry. This picture should have won an Oscar.

The protagonists of Helter Skelter and The Deliberate Stranger are the killers. The cops, the good guys, are not even interesting. The Deliberate Stranger even employs In Cold Blood's tactic of not showing any of the murders until the end. In real life Bundy was said to be a charming fellow. He's charming in this movie right up until we see him bludgeon a girl to death.

Then there are films like Citizen Kane and Hud whose protagonists are not killers or criminals (fine upstanding citizens really) but they are still a-holes.

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Seems like your[sic] more interested in f+cking with people rather than telling a story.
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There's nothing wrong with that (if it's true). One of the purposes of art is to create an emotional response. If you can do that without telling a story (or only a minimal story like 2001 a Space Odyssey) and still keep it interesting then hooray for you.

[ickle_jim]

natural born killers has evil mudering people as the protagonists...

[emjen]

with that mind-fock thing you talked about, I know what you mean and I can also see why you think it's like that. But that's not the case.

My protagonist being an a-hole is part of a whole story, there's a purpose for him being an a-hole. I don't want to play mind tricks on everyone, I just want to create a feeling in the 'audience' about the protagonist.

He's just a cold person who doesn't want to have anything to do with anyone!

How'd he become like that?

In flashbacks you learn that his childhood was a living **** , that he was a sweet little boy once but through experiences he just became coldhearted. I want us to feel almost sorry for him.

I don't know if anyone knows the manga or anime 'BERSERK'. In the first episode you see he's a dark person, with one eye and an arm missing, and having no trouble with killing a person. After that episode you go back in time and follow his life to the point where he's the a-hole we know. I really thought this was great and it worked really well for me. That's the sort of thing I also want to do with my story (although its only a small part of it).

My protagonist doesnt randomly kill people. However, life is worthless for him and killing an innocent person is just as easy as breathing for him.

Thanks for the advise so far btw.

[GREATwarEAGLE]

From what I've read of your scripts and posts in general, is that you like to shock people. And now, with this reluctant protagonist, who's only purpose, if I'm understanding you correctly, is to mystify the reader/audience, I think things are getting worse.

Are you writing this guy and this script thinking, "Ha ha, when they read this they'll be scratchin their heads wonderin who the h*ll he is and what makes him tick, Ha ha ha!"

Is your protagonist's name Ralph Snart? Or Dr Von F?

Seems like your more interested in f+cking with people rather than telling a story.

None of this is meant to be an insult. Just an observation of what may be seriously getting in your way of writing better material. It could probably just be chalked up to your teen angst. What are you? 17? 18?

If so - it'll pass.