Magneto

In film Magneto is introduced in 2000’s X-Men, convinced that humanity will never accept mutants and will turn against them and as such he advocates violent resistance. In X-Men he kidnaps a child to use her powers – which will cause the child’s death, in X-Men 2 he tries to kill every non-mutant on Earth. An unappealing character but as we learn throughout the films his past helps us see why he see’s things this way. He suffered through the Holocaust, his family killed and experimented upon because he was a mutant. Then in X-Men: First Class despite saving the world the humans decide to kill the mutants. It is understandable therefore that Magneto does think that governments will turn against those they see as different, that they will kill mutants because they are afraid of them.

The Joker

In The Dark Knight, the Joker relates stories of how he came by his scars (and by extension how he became the Joker), the first being when as a child he tried to defend his mother from his father, the second that he did it to himself to try and please his wife who had been scarred by gangsters. He is also about to tell a third story, presumably different again when Batman interrupts him. We never learn the truth and it’s entirely possible there is no tragic and sympathetic story but it plays with the idea that we expect villains to have these origins.

Vito and Michael Corleone

A film that is regularly mentioned as one of the best of all time contains a villain origins story – The Godfather Part II. The film is split in two – half detailing Michael’s continuing battles with other gangsters and the other half is the story of Vito Corleone going from an orphaned Sicilian immigrant to a Mafia boss. Vito suffered and lost just about everything, even his name, and almost accidentally gets involved in the world of crime. We see all the incremental steps that seem reasonable and understandable that lead to Vito discussing how he will have people attacked on the day of his daughter’s wedding and decapitating horses. That said, much of The Godfather is Michael’s story of how he turned from a nice guy war hero to a Mafia boss – the attempted murder of his father, the knowledge that the police were complicit, the murder of his wife, the murder of Sonny.

Caligula

The classic British tv drama I, Claudius tells the story of Rome’s first imperial family. The third emperor is the infamous Caligula, known to this day for cruelty, incompetence and insanity. As the show takes places over decades we see the child become the mad emperor. Caligula’s father dies in suspicious circumstances, possibly on the orders of his great uncle, Emperor Tiberius. Seeing Caligula’s family as a threat Tiberius has Caligula’s two brothers killed, exiles and then murders his mother. Caligula, still a child at this point, is then taken into the household of the Emperor and witness to the depraved lifestyle of Tiberius and worried that he could be murdered at any time. With Tiberius’s death, Caligula becomes emperor soon reveals his cruel and insane side. Given that his life has been one of constant tragedy, trauma, grief and fear is it any surprise that when given absolute power things do not go well? I should point out that in I, Claudius Caligula does get involved in the plot to murder his father but as he was around seven he surely is only a pawn in the schemes of others.

So, we have Magneto, who suffered through the worst humankind had to offer and learned that he would always be seen as the other, the Joker who may or may not have an awful tragic past,Vito Corleone who lost everything and wanted to help his people and Caligula who grew up in palaces while everyone close to him was murdered by the emperor who he was forced to live with. To understand the origins of fictional villains can help us understand the origins of real-life villains and that is not to excuse their crimes but to see how we could stop these crimes happening in the first place.

Now not all of the point of giving villains backstories is to better understand the human condition. It’s also because villains are often more fun and more interesting than heroes. 101 Dalmatians was released in 1961 and Cruella de Vil is the only name most people remember from that film. Darth Vader, Alan Rickman’s the Sheriff of Nottingham and Hannibal Lecter are arguably more interesting and memorable than the heroes of these films. And none of this is to say Cruella is good, I have not seen it, it could be an awful film that is guilty of excusing wickedness but the origin of a villain can be a brilliant and insightful story.

Also Read: The Greatest Horror Villain of Each Decade

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MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING FOR THE DARK KNIGHT & JOKER

Why So Serious?

For me, The Dark Knight trilogy is the high-watermark for superhero films, with The Dark Knight being the best. Superhero films are made great not by the hero but by the villain and Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker is the prime example of this. It was a stunning and memorable performance. Every scene with the Joker is fantastic and adds depth and understanding to the character. Whether it’s the Joker’s ever-changing scar-origin story, to his attack on his police convoy in which for most of it he has no lines but still conveys what is going on with the character, to the perhaps ad-libbed confused look when the hospital fails to explode, Ledger is amazing. Moving the character away from a criminal who just wants money to the agent of chaos was genius and it allowed the character to work against both Batman and the mobs he originally worked for. Ledger’s Joker became a cultural icon with some much of the design of that character becoming part of fashion and wider culture.

Can You Introduce Me As Joker?

Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is a very different character. There is much debate about this character and whether it is even meant to be the Joker, but coming from the world of comic books having radically different origin stories is perfectly normal. Joker is an origins story but not just for the Joker but for many, many villains – indeed, it tries to show that this is how many real-world problems are created. South Park did an episode in which they argued Trump’s treatment of immigrants was simply creating “jokers”, people who were treated badly and would grow up angry and have a problem with America. Phoenix’s Joker is not a supervillain, he has no powers, no henchman, he’s not even very capable of committing a crime. He is simply a damaged man with nothing to lose. This Joker deals with lies, betrayal and abuse from those closest to him and complete strangers. The wildness of this character at the end of the film is hard to watch and riveting at the same time especially when compared to his passivity in other sections of the film. Some people warned of fans copying the violence in the film but most people just seemed to copy him dancing downstairs.

Phoenix’s performance is exceptional and the character does seem to go through a transformation and become a different person by the end of the film. I would argue Phoenix is the only actor who is genuinely the lead, in the Godfather films the focus is always on Michael and in The Dark Knight obviously it’s on Batman. Whilst there are a number of great actors in Joker it is Phoenix’s film and its success or failure is on him.

Two Characters Four Oscars

So why did these characters get more than one Oscar – what do they have in common? The first thing is that they are all great performances, truly Oscar-worthy acting. Brando was already an acting legend when he played Vito and De Niro is one of the most respected actors in Hollywood. Ledger was a great talent whose life was cut tragically short and Phoenix still seems to be very much at his peak. De Niro and Brando both won Oscars for other performances and both Ledger and Phoenix have given other Oscar-worthy performances.

De Niro and Phoenix both won for origins stories. How did Vito Corleone become such a powerful figure and where did his complicated moral system come from? Things are more complicated with Joker as I don’t think Phoenix’s character is meant to be seen as the same person as any of the Jokers we’ve seen on screen, more just the origins of how you would get to be someone like the Joker.

Both characters are criminals, albeit very different types, Vito has become the archetype old fashioned Mafia boss, whereas the Joker in these two films is more like an agent of chaos, not interested in financial gain or power.

Ultimately though the reason these characters resulted in Oscar wins is a collection of a number of great artists coming together – actors, writers, directors, cinematographers and more, that is what makes these characters great. And with the Oscars, there is a great deal of luck and many of the best performances ever were not rewarded with Oscars. For prime evidence of this Al Pacino did not an Oscar for his role as Michael Corleone, who I think gives the best performance of anyone in those films.

Also Read: Oscar Worthy Characters : Vito Corleone

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