I was watching 1931's "Frankenstein". This movie is based on Mary Shelley's book with the same title. And after watching the movie I fell for thoughts that who was the villain ? Because he is a soulful monster. And remember one thing that
Doctor Henry Frankenstein. He is the one who created this nameless monster.
If someone seems villainous it doesn't mean he is actually a villain. This picture didn't tell us openly that who is actually a villain? That monster?, Doctor Frankenstein? the society which treat him as a monster? Or the detective who wants to kill him for his personal agenda?
So, after the movie, I started thinking that "is a villain very necessary for a picture to be a blockbuster ? Let's find out.
Villains play a very important role in movies. These are the ones who make us decide that who is good and who is bad? But to define "Good" and "Bad" is purely depends on the filmmaker. For example in Terminator, filmmaker showed us that he (Terminator) is the villain.
If we put aside the "Hero vs Villain" perspective, then there are other movie genre such as
Hero vs Hero
Hero vs Nature
Hero vs Himself
Hero vs Machine
Hero vs Society
Hero vs Fate/God
Hero vs Unknown
It means there are more movie genre available too other than "Hero vs Villain" stories. And that genre perform very well on a large scale.
Before further discussion, I want to tell you that there are movies which have both the Hero and Villain but they never meet in intire run time. For example:
The Fifth Element (1997)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Mad Max (2015)
These are the movies in which Hero never meets the Villain. There are many reasons for doing this. Different movies focuses on different character's journey for the sake of cinema.
There are many movies which have no villain at all. But still these movies have two perspective and we can't decide which side is good. Both sides are good as well as bad at the same time. For example Batman vs Superman. Government wants to implement some restrictions on the Superman because he is the mightiest and can do whatever he want. Superman don't want to be a government's puppet. Here both sides are right on their own perspective. Same thing happens in Captain America, Civil War.
And the best example so far is the movie "Planet of the Apes" where people want no detriment to humanity but on the other side we hurt animals. And when they rebel we start moaning. Suppose, a different species torturing and experimenting on you for years and you start rebelling. Who is doing bad here? Actually the other specie experimenting on you for the benefits of science and technology. They are right on their own perspective because evolution is the only way to success for humanity. This thing does not define that human is totally wrong. Fault is on both sides irrespective of who did first.
Hero vs Himself
These types of movies are also called "Internal Conflict Narrative" movies. For example:
Hancock
Hancock is the best example of Hero vs Himself as story revolves around protagonist's problem and struggles and how he tackle them.
Split (2016)
Split is so far the best movie I ever watched in this genre. This genre includes some animal movies too. For example
A Dog's Purpose (2017)
The Call of the Wild
Hero vs Fate/God
This type of movies are difficult one because we only see this type of movies in greek tragedy. The examples for this genre are
A Man Who Sue The God (2001)
Gods Not Dead
Immortals (2011)
Hero vs Machine
Hero vs Society
These are common terms and we have seen multiple movies on these topics.
Hero vs Nature
It includes all disaster movies.
Hero vs Unknown
Last but not the least topic is "Hero vs Unknown". This topic mostly includes horror movies where an unknown extra terrestrial being exist. For example
The Shining (1980)
The Independence Day (1996)
The Platform (2019)
The Bird Box (2018)
After all the above discussion I concluded that villains are not necessary for a movie to be a blockbuster OR it is not necessary for a villain to be in a physical form.
These 7 genres of movies can make our watching experience great because it makes their story more compelling, hopeful and interesting.
Which one of these genre you like the most ? And which one of the movie (i mentioned) you have watched ?
Nice