"Heroes and villains should experience conflict emotions well toward the beginning of stories. The heroes, how ever, should overcome these emotions in the end. Fur thermore, the leading character in a screen story must never be depicted as feeling too much fear, jealousy, hatred, or even rage, lest he lose, once and for all, the sympathy of the audience. His emotions must be kept, for the most part, normal and pleasant. On the other hand, no combination of unpleasant emotions is too extreme for the villain. He may show extreme fear, hidden hatred, devastating cruelty, and virulent rage, to the delight of the audience. For the villain stands for the obstacles which the hero must overcome in order to achieve success. Characterizations should be subtly depicted. The villain, as a rule, should make a good appearance. He should cover his unpleasant emotions, revealing them only in moments when he is alone with his audience. The good old rules of the days of the ten-cent melodrama, with respect to the villain's villainy, have not greatly changed. When he is permitted to show too many of the pleasant emotions, he frequently elicits greater sympathy from the audience than does the hero himself, thereby ruining the average screen story."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Villain
15 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Villain →
Related Quotes
"Movies don't cause crime any more than prison wardens cause crime. It has been charged against the motion picture ind…"
"The fact that Carradine has brought up Zen philosophy is interesting in and of itself. Not because of his classic sti…"
"Every villain's redemption arc begins with their origin story."
"I’ll tell you a minor secret of playing villains. Mine are usually polite and almost invariably charming. Nobody like…"
"Harvey Dent/Two Face: You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
"Tony Montana: What you lookin' at? You all a bunch of fuckin' assholes. You know why? You don't have the guts to be w…"
"Jean-Luc Picard: We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, is all ancient history. Then, b…"
"Actors often say they most enjoy playing villains, and I have to be honest: I feel the same way about drawing them! T…"
"Now I will show myself To have more of the serpent than the dove; That is—more knave than fool."
"Zeno first started that doctrine, that knavery is the best defence against a knave."