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Who wants Jake to play the bad guy in one of his next movies?
Mikaela:
Mainly I'd like to see Jake get varied roles and challenging roles, in good films. He's been uncannily good at opicking the right roles in that respect so far. Whether a "good guy" or a "bad guy", that's not the main point.
I voted "no" in the poll though. Not because I don't think Jake couldn't play a "bad guy" convincingly and chillingly, but because the kind of film that I sense you're indicating with this polll question is the kind of film I mostly stay well away from. More or less pointless but visuallly stunning violence and cruelty and sadistic behaviour, depicted more and more explicitly and almost ad nauseum even in "big name" films.... *So* not my kind of thing and I don't want it for my favourite actor either. That's one reason why I was very happy with "Zodiac" which took the story development in quite the opposite direction.... focusing at length not on horrible gory slow-motion details but on the suspense and psychological impact on very realistic characters. Yay!
Besides, what's a "bad guy" these days? One of the first names that come to *my* mind would in fact be "24's" Jack Bauer, a horrible character if ever there was one. But to most viewers he's supposedly a good guy. ??? All that inhuman treatment of others and torturing of opponents and suspected terrorists just your average good guy doing his hectic and difficult good guy work. He'd be very conflicted about it if he just had the time. Urgh. That's one kind of role I don't want for Jake. And it strikes me that I have no idea whether his "Rendition" role is just like that. If so, it's a great pity.
David In Indy:
"24" is a terrible show. I watched a couple of episodes and turned it off. I couldn't take it. :P
southendmd:
I could see Jake playing an ambiguous character: with both good and bad qualities. He's adept at nuance, and this would be a better use of his talent, rather than a straight good or bad part.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Mikaela on June 21, 2007, 02:04:36 pm --- Not because I don't think Jake couldn't play a "bad guy" convincingly and chillingly, but because the kind of film that I sense you're indicating with this polll question is the kind of film I mostly stay well away from. More or less pointless but visuallly stunning violence and cruelty and sadistic behaviour, depicted more and more explicitly and almost ad nauseum even in "big name" films.... *So* not my kind of thing and I don't want it for my favourite actor either. That's one reason why I was very happy with "Zodiac" which took the story development in quite the opposite direction.... focusing at length not on horrible gory slow-motion details but on the suspense and psychological impact on very realistic characters. Yay!
--- End quote ---
I'm with you in being disgusted about pointless explicit violence and sadistic behavior in films -- particularly if that is the supposed to be the what makes the film "entertaining." Movies like "Hostel" and "Saw" shouldn't even exist, IMO, and if I didn't as a journalist feel obliged to oppose all censorship, those would be the first things I'd censor. I wish the despicable idiots who make them would know enough to censor themselves.
On the other hand, I don't mind violence when it's used in pursuit of some larger artistic or noble goal. Films in that category that come to mind include "Hotel Rwanda" (which was not really all that violent, considering the subject) "The Last King of Scotland," "Schindler's List," etc.
In between are those movies in which violence is used for the purpose of entertainment, but isn't the main point, if that makes sense. I'm thinking of thrillers that revolve around solving a murder or murders. You see the violence -- hopefully not too graphically -- but the entertainment comes largely from the suspense of catching the killer. Some of those are OK.
That said, I think it's possible for there to be a "bad guy" in a film that's not particularly violent. For example, in "Breach" Chris Cooper played an FBI spy with no violence at all. Sometimes bad guys are financial or political bad guys, as in films like "Erin Brockavich" and "All the President's Men."
Could Jake do something like that? Probably, though maybe not as well as Chris Cooper [insert hard-hat wearing ducking smiley here].
ifyoucantfixit:
I agree with Paul. I think he could do great as the bad guy with that sly smile of his.
You couldn't tell if he was really smiling, or smirking..That could work very well for him..He might lose
some of his Jackness, and have it cause a drop in his present popularity...He is the good guy type for sure. It depends on where or not he wants to go against type.
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