So I just watched Road to Perdition, and it really got me thinking about something that I’ve been pondering on and off for a while.
That is, the characters in movies doing the Right Thing.
I think one of the things that makes for a powerful story is the characters doing what is RIght to them, not always doing The Right Thing.
What I mean is, while I obviously wouldn’t condone any of Michael Sullivan, Sr.‘s actions in this movie, I understood why he did what he did, and I completely bought that he was doing the Right Thing as he knew it.
*Spoilers from here on*
See, he had obviously spent a lifetime as a hit man. He was an expert a killing people, defending himself, and he was very good at finding people and things (especially targets, apparently).
Sure, he chose this life, and it was his choice to make.
However, he recognized that his older son was much like him, and his biggest fear would be that his son would turn out to be like him and walk down the same path he did.
After his wife and one of his sons are murdered, he is heartbroken and enraged, as most husbands and fathers would be. He goes on an obsessive hunt for those responsible for their deaths, with his other son along for the ride.
Throughout the movie, he commits all sorts of crimes, primarily numerous robberies and murders. He allows his son to help in a limited manner, and he even gives his son a gun for self-defense, but only out of situational necessity; he takes on all the “heavy” responsibilities himself.
His reasons for doing this were what I mentioned previously: he loved his son dearly and didn’t want his son to follow the same path that he did.
To prevent this, he did the only thing he knew how to do: he murdered everyone involved in his family’s murder, along with those who protected them, not just out of vengeance but so that his son would have no one left to hunt.
And at the end, Michael, Sr. shoots the hit man, because his son hesitated for far too long. Michael, Jr. goes over to his dying father and tells him that he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger, and this gives Michael, Sr. a moment of contentment, peace, and satisfaction before his death. And in the following narration, Michael, Jr. says that that was the last time in his life that he ever held a gun.
So, despite his obviously lengthy list of horrible crimes, Michael, Sr. achieved his goal and nullified his fear that his son would follow his path.
See, I totally bought his character and motivations. He had the same fears as many other parents (fearing that our children will make the same mistakes we did), the same emotions as many other husbands and fathers (grief and rage at his family’s murder), but the only skills he had were criminal, so he went all out with all he could, out of love for his son.
(As a side note, I think there is great Truth in this about fatherly love and how parents so badly want the best for their children. I think there’s also Truth in that violence yields violence, and that we should never lose sight of the sanctity of human life.)
Back to the topic at hand, this movie was a stellar example of a character doing the Right Thing as they understand it, and I found it both believable and powerful.
I think that what we believe the Right Thing to do is can be communicated in the message of a story (the subtext, as Calix would say), without having our characters always do the Right Thing.
The character of Michael Sullivan, Sr. didn’t say, “Hey, if you love your son, you should do what I did.” His character said, “Hey, I love my son, and I will do everything I know how to give him a better future.”
(If you really want to get particular, you could say that Michael, Sr. did, or at least tried to do, the Right Thing by trying to provide for his son, but he did it in all the Wrong ways, even though that’s all he knew how to do ... he knew what he was doing was Wrong, and there was even a conversation in which he and another character acknowledged their belief that because of the nature of their work, they would never see heaven!)
There are tons of other examples of characters that do what they understand to be the Right Thing: perhaps either knowingly crossing the line (Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith, and Captain Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, especially in “In the Pale Moonlight”), coming close to it (Batman in The Dark Knight, Luke Skywalker in Star Wars 6: Return of the Jedi), Aragorn and Galadriel in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), succumbing to temptation (Frodo in Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), or various other forms of interacting with Right and Wrong.
But my point is, we understand these characters reasons for doing what they do (except Anakin, but whatever ...), and they all think they’re doing the Right Thing, even when we know they’re not.
I’m reminded of an interview I read with Eric Bana on playing Nero in the new Star Trek. He was saying that even when playing the worst of villains, he always tries to give them some dimensionality by portraying them as people that really believe in what they’re doing.
Shoot, even Hitler and Saddam Hussein themselves probably believed they were doing the Right Thing!
So in movies, I think that rather than always having the characters always do the Right Thing, the Right Thing should be made clear to the audience in the message and/or subtext (and it probably will, anyway).
I see this directly relating to “Christian movies” in 2 ways:
1.) The characters don’t always have to be, or become Christians so that we understand what the Right Thing to do is. (Christians don’t always do the Right Thing, anyway, and to portray them as people who do instead of the flawed humans we are is, frankly, a lie, not to mention an insult to the audience ...)
2.) The Right Thing can be something that is implied, subtextually crafted and presented subtly but strongly, and/or present in the nature and message of the story, not just hashed out in the dialogue.
While I didn’t particularly enjoy Road to Perdition, Tom Hanks’ Michael Sullivan, Sr. was a truly compelling character that did the Right Thing to what he felt was the best of his ability, with clearly stated and very human motivations, and for that, I completely bought his character.
Movies need more characters like that.
Alex Beard, composer
Original music for film and TV!
http://www.composeralex.com
