What is an Antihero — And Why Are They So Compelling?

[Music] throughout its history Hollywood has created Unforgettable characters which exist somewhere in between good and evil one of the most common character types which falls in this gray area is the anti-hero a character who doesn't always do the right thing but who the audience is drawn to this is what is an anti-hero [Music] before we get started don't forget to subscribe to Studio binder and click the Bell to stay up to date on all our filmmaking videos anti-heroes can get pretty violent so consider this a graphic content warning spoiling the following movies now let's jump

in an anti-hero is the main character in a story who lacks the conventional principles that we associate with a hero this might mean a lack of Courage a cynicism for the world around them or a weak moral compass the term anti-hero predates film by more than a century used by philosophers like Danae Doro as early as 1714. in film however the anti-hero became immensely popular after World War II when returning soldiers struggled with reintegrating to their normal lives people lose teeth talking like that you want to hang around you'll be polite nowhere was the anti-hero

more prevalent in the Noir genre which proliferated the 40s and 50s noirs often followed grizzled detectives who rebuked traditional heroics instead operating in a moral gray area reflecting the pessimistic on we in American society after the world war yes I killed him I killed him for money for a woman today anti-heroes are everywhere populating some of the most iconic films and TV series of the past few decades it's all good man anti-heroes are sometimes categorized as villain protagonists and vice versa a villain protagonist's actions are usually more evil than enantiheroes therefore it's a blurry line

and the distinction depends on a viewer's own moral code so what do you think are these anti-heroes or villain protagonists the heroes are so common they come in many shapes and sizes let's take a look at the anti-hero Spectrum hi Shelly's new boyfriend that I'm out of my mind the different forms of anti-hero are defined by two elements understanding and approval screenwriting scholar John truby explains if you show the audience why the character chooses to do what they do then the audience understands the cause of the action without necessarily approving of the action itself for

a character to be an anti-hero the audience understands why they're doing what they're doing but don't have to think it's the right thing to do I'm on my left bike okay where a character falls on the anti-hero spectrum is largely dependent on how much the audience approves of their actions Jesus Christ can you maybe keep it together for just 10 minutes Robin Hood for example falls on the most approving end of the spectrum we understand why he's stealing from the rich and giving to the poor but we also have a certain level of approval of

his actions praise the Lord treatment some may argue that even though he's breaking the law he's doing the right thing this means Robin Hood is just barely an anti-hero everybody this way breaking the rules yes but doing so in a way that would Garner most people's approval meanwhile Falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum PC says and also with you she's selfish judgmental and impulsive so for much of the series we don't approve of her actions even though some of them may be relatable time to throw the net out we understand why fleabag is

the way she is however when we see the emotional distance she has from her family you close with your family we get on with it do you talk god no Eileen from monster is in the least approving side of the anti-hero spectrum she is a serial killer so the audience doesn't approve of her actions at all the audience has sympathy for her however because we see she was a victim of abuse we don't condone her actions but we know why she's doing what she's doing so Eileen ends up with high understanding but low approval sometimes

a character can shift on the anterior Spectrum as their story progresses perhaps the most famous example of this is in Breaking Bad I am the one who knocks Walter White begins as a highly sympathetic anti-hero he's selling drugs to pay for his cancer treatment maybe you and I could partner up but as the series continues we approve of White's actions less and less since he eventually becomes a ruthless drug kingpin but we understand why he's doing what he's doing he's garnering more respect than he ever did as a high school science teacher say my name

Eisenberg you're goddamn right now that we know the different forms they can take let's look at how to write an anti-hero what do you think you are for Christ's sake crazy or something as we've made clear establishing understanding is crucial when writing an anti-hero but how does a writer show an audience why an anti-hero is behaving the way that they are he thinks up some stupid thing he does well I didn't ask to get made one of the most tried and true techniques to build understanding for a character is through backstory what happened to them

in the past that made them this way someday I'm gonna make great machines that fly and me and my friends are gonna go flying together into the forever and beautiful sky in Watchmen we are introduced to Rorschach as a brutal vigilante anti-hero he is cold and unforgiving showing no mercy as he kills criminals actions are explained later when he is interrogated revealing the hardships he experienced growing up and a pivotal moment from his past where he was a witness to a gruesome crime I confess [Applause] I kidnapped her I killed her arrested The Experience hardened

him and led him to believe some criminals can't be redeemed men get arrested dogs get put down with this backstory we may still not approve of rorschach's actions but we understand the circumstances which drove him to have the Outlook that he does what do you seem to understand I'm not locked in here with you you're locked in here with me internal monologue is another way to understand a character's actions I went over everything that was said what should have been said what could have been said differently what could have been said better this is a

favorite technique of anti-hero maestro Paul Schrader who writes characters disillusion with society and explains their actions through voiceover in the last year I'd come to believe in such things as Spirits leaving the body and not wanting to be put back foreign Taxi Driver we follow Travis Bickel and we slowly learn of his mindset through his increasingly dark narration some of their real round come and watch all this come off the streets his voiceover shows us two sides of him a lonely man looking for human connection all my life needed was a sense of some place

to go and a bitter obsessive headed towards a mental break the idea has been growing my brain for some time so by the time Bickle turns violent we understand how he got to this point suck on this Carol building understanding also means giving depth to your anti-heroes motivations in chronicle Andrew's actions are rooted in his difficult home life and struggles at school so we understand why he uses his Newfound ability to finally have agency over his life hey Wayne but this power slowly corrupts him see this one here this one I got really clean because

I did this little like lasso thing around the root you know while his motivations are complex by the end of the film he is a true anti-hero copay on that is 750.83 well I don't have all that Andrew's trajectory is a great example of a common anti-hero character Arc I'm an apex predator starting as a moral person slowly getting worse as the film goes on this type of art can also create compelling internal conflict your anti-hero may not want to do what they're doing but they feel like they have no other option go on this

quest for me and I'll give you your swamp back in Trainspotting Renton continuously tries to get clean so that he can pursue a normal life but again and again he's unable to no more I'm finished with that that's not human I'm gonna do it right this time gonna get it sorted out get off if I could I should have heard that one before Renton therefore is a reluctant anti-hero and this push and pull acts as the fundamental conflict of the film audiences opinion of an anti-hero is also affected by a film's tone they have a

question please in Kill Bill the audience understands why the bride is on a murderous Rampage she was left for dead but the amount of people she kills strains this justification Quentin Tarantino keeps us on her side through tone making the violence campy and cartoonish the bride's actions therefore aren't too horrific contrast this with Robert Eggers Northman which also follows a character exacting Revenge but the tone of this film is much darker each time amylith commits an act of violence he seems to lose more of his Humanity the end of the film The Audience may be

less sure they want him to achieve his goal while amleth and the bride have similar motivations the tone of their respective films make us feel differently about their actions a writer can also keep an audience on an anti-hero side through Charisma and complexity it's too bad they don't have a Telethon for faceitis huh they found a cure yet Tony Soprano does bad things because he's such a vividly realized character with relatable quirks audiences kept rooting for him doesn't every parent make mistakes why not you because I'm a good guy basically as George R.R Martin noted

HBO has proven that we will follow for years and years some pretty reprehensible characters as long as they're fascinating are you kidding me oh my God this is awful I'm not even joking who made that us it's beautiful you made it give me my money back you can't I want my dollar back write an anti-hero with true staying power it's useful to think about their thematic relevance what does this character say about our society about other people like them that's your own seat buddy in Fight Club the narrator's anti-hero qualities like cynicism aimlessness and lack

of self-worth held a mirror to 90s America I'd flip through catalogs and wonder what kind of dining set defines me as a person consumer culture wasn't leading to happiness I felt sorry for guys packed into gyms trying to look like how Calvin Klein or Tommy Hilfiger said they should that what a man looks like and disaffected men were turning to self-destructive practices to vent their anger what I want you to hit me as hard as you can as a result the narrator and his alter ego resonated with audiences and still do to this day [Music]

let's look at all these techniques in action The Wolf of Wall Street written by Terence winter boasts an iconic anti-hero Jordan Belfort Belford is consumed with greed and throughout the film he behaves immorally Belford falls on the less approving end of the anti-hero spectrum most of the actions he commits are unjustifiable from cheating on his wife two cheating on assuming clients out of their own money at the same time winter makes Belford a character the audience can understand after showing him on top of the world winter shows Belford's backstory comes from a modest background and

had to claw his way up into the wealthy Echelon he ends up in you're not going to work at that place yeah but you know you start off and you're gonna be miserable at that place if you go there it's sales you work your way up you be a general manager you're going to be a stock boy why not because you're a stock poker winter also highlights that Belford becomes a product of his environment [Music] all of the immoral tools that he uses for his own personal gains were taught to him by Wall Street [Music]

this scene encapsulates this idea what the investor Center is doing is wrong Jordan simply does what they're already doing to a much larger extent four thousand that'd be forty thousand shares John by using setting as a corrupting influence winter can also create a conventional anti-hero character Arc when Belford first arrives on Wall Street he is riding the bus with his loving wife as time goes on he gets worse and worse further poisoning the culture of High Finance by the end of the film he is driving his car into his Mansion an addict chased by his

new wife who hates him get the hell out of you throughout the film winter employs voice over to give the viewer a look inside Jordan's mind his opening lines sum up exactly why he's continuing to run scams they made him something out of nothing I'm a former member of the middle class raised by two accountants in a tiny apartment in Bayside Queens the year I turned 26 as the head of my own brokerage firm I made 49 million dollars [Music] by the end of the film Jordan Belfort's thematic relevance is abundantly clear the movie was

released soon after the financial collapse of the Great Recession and the true story of Jordan Belfort is a reflection of the greed which plagues Wall Street I gave up everyone and in return I got three years in some hell hole in Nevada I'd never even heard of no amount of money or success is enough for him just as it was never enough for the financial sector at large word about us spread throughout Wall Street Terence Winter's expert anti-hero riding combined with Martin scorsese's Direction resulted in one of the most scathing satires of the 21st century

one which continues to have an impact on us today I want you to deal with your problems by becoming rich [Applause] a good anti-hero is just like any other good character Plex evolving and real the real world doesn't operate in moral absolutes so why should your protagonist [Music] friend what are some of your favorite anti-heroes let us know below I can bring you an alarm or I can bring you in cold start writing the next great anti-hero with Studio binders screenwriting software and don't forget to subscribe and click the Bell to stay in the know

on all our new filmmaking videos to fit and remember Nobody's Perfect [Music]