MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > In action movies, when villains are defe...

In action movies, when villains are defeated, we never hear about their distraught and grieving families.


There are minor exceptions of course, but for the MOST part, we see it as heroics and happy endings. And yet for example, in some other films, like drama one ala "Dead Man Walking" (1995), although its true that capital punishment has its OWN issues although many believe its fundamentally wrong even if it applies to guilty harsh criminals, when we see them dying, we often get told about how this puts a massive strain on their families as well.

But is that all normal, understandable, OK even, even if for the most part anyways, we don't feel sympathy for say monstrous villains?

People say that is the movies sometimes but often we see in movies good defeat evil and full stop. In any case, life and cinema can and often are somewhat bizarre entities and may make us think outside the box too.

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Dude, where do you come up with this stuff?? 🤔

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Well... This one is steeped in obvious observation. You have action movies, you have other movies, you have people online, in real life etc debate stuff, it mentally gets into you, where else?

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Besides, BKB, have YOU not EVER personally thought about it all and along them lines? Do you watch films including action genre films? Do you not see or feel stories with good guys defeating evil villain enemies and that is being seen and recognized as a happy ending? Do you not notice how life works and how its often different to the movies? And in today's day and age...

Do you not stumble upon such discussions on the internet or various other discussions and mentally absorb and take it in, whilst also being able to a degree to relate it to yourself, and also stuff like life and how you were maybe in trouble or told of for less, but, in my case, being a bit of a sensitive and impressionable bloke, you question it all from time to time?

You hardly need to do research or read books in order to be absorbed by it all, and its mostly LIFE in general.

And even IF one doesn't get too taken by it all, well... Sooner or later in this life, it hits us.

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No.. I just watch it for the mindless entertainment

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I think this is mainly to do with the medium of say, movie versus tv show. A movie is generally trying to tell one concise story in a set time, but a tv show has a lot more room to play with and intends to tell the stories of multiple people usually, so you'll see a lot more backstory for villains on tv rather than in film.

Unless the grieving families are at the centre of the story being told, then there's no plot being served by having them there except to humanize the villain, and that can be done in a few seconds via a funeral scene anyway. We really only see grieving relatives when they're set to become the next villain, like in Raimi's Spider-Man films, aka it's central to the plot.

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I like how in one of the Austin powers movies it shows the henchman who gets steam rolled living normaly with his family, can't remember if they show them in the aftermath too.

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