MovieChat Forums > The Evil That Men Do (1984) Discussion > a couple of questions; if the doctor was...

a couple of questions; if the doctor was evil why did he care for his

posted 16 years ago by StuWhitman
7 replies | jump to latest

sister?, and what on earth was up with the left side of the chief miner's face at the end? It looked lizard-like...

Just because he was evil doesn't really mean he wouldn't care for his immediate family. Real-life dictators have proven that before. After all, blood is thicker than water. However, I should point out that in the novel Molloch does torture his sister to death because he was beginning to suspect that she was in cahoots with Holland. But it turns out she was innocent of that.

As for the miner, maybe he was once a torture victim and that scar was a severe burn mark, possibly from acid or something.

[–] eolloe 9 years ago

You should have put a spoiler warning in your post before revealing info like that about the novel, in case anybody was thinking about reading it.

[–] filmbuff1974 14 years ago

**SPOILER ALERT**

One, just because the doctor is a sociopath, doesn't mean he doesn't have emotional attachments. Case in point, Hannibal Lecter never killed Clarice Starling despite his impulses.

Two, all those miners were victims of that doctor. My guess is the man with half his face disfigured was burned with acid or boiling oil.

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[–] WarpedRecord 13 years ago

My guess is the man with half his face disfigured was burned with acid or boiling oil.

Acid, oil or perhaps oatmeal.

But yes, the doctor was the more frightening variety of psychopath: The intelligent, family-oriented, methodical type who evades capture (well, until the end) because of his craftiness. If he didn't have his family on his side, he wouldn't have gotten away with it for as long as he did.

[–] leczorn 11 years ago

Some people in this thread have correctly pointed out that sometimes evil people do care for their immediate family. But I also suspect that at least a big part of the reason for Clement and Claire being so close is that it was necessary for a major plot element - using Claire as bait - to work. And I think it was pretty well implied that those miners were victims of Clement Molloch. Remember, when one of the miners heard Clement's voice, he alerted the other miners. And it's very unlikely that they all would've eagerly teamed up to kill him if they weren't very familiar with his legacy of destruction.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] eolloe 9 years ago

I think in his own mind, on a certain level, Moloch thought he was doing good.
I don't remember the exact details, but there is a scene in which he says something that implies that he feels he deserves to be rewarded for the good he has been doing.

So there's the truly evil person, who knows that what he is doing is totally contrary to all the rules of morality yet does not care. Then there's the person who wants to follow rules of morality but doesn't seem to appreciate that his interpretation of those rules is totally off. Moloch seems to fall into the latter category.