I feel I am on one.
I am working on a modern noir and one of the forces my protagonist, quite the anti hero, is up against is a gangster. My intention is to keep it real but herein lies the problem: the gangster is done to death in every variation.
Real life dialogue isn't usually that snappy or memorable but a script with bland dialogue is dead in the water. Against this is that the verbose, urbane, witty, cool and collected gangster is a tired cliche dating back to the early Bond villains. Then came the uber violent and profane types of Scarface, Goodfellas, Sexy Beast and Christopher Walken patented baddies. As for the humorous, it's especially a problem with English characters as dry humour and sarcasm is hard wired into us so it's nigh on impossible not to end up with a Guy Ritchie caricature.
Maybe I am short sighted but every variation (bar boring and dull 'real ilfe' dialogue) is cliched.
(ps: the real gangster I am using as my inspiration really does talk like a Guy Ritchie villain. Dry, deadpan, sarcastic, profane and very, very scary).
I am working on a modern noir and one of the forces my protagonist, quite the anti hero, is up against is a gangster. My intention is to keep it real but herein lies the problem: the gangster is done to death in every variation.
Real life dialogue isn't usually that snappy or memorable but a script with bland dialogue is dead in the water. Against this is that the verbose, urbane, witty, cool and collected gangster is a tired cliche dating back to the early Bond villains. Then came the uber violent and profane types of Scarface, Goodfellas, Sexy Beast and Christopher Walken patented baddies. As for the humorous, it's especially a problem with English characters as dry humour and sarcasm is hard wired into us so it's nigh on impossible not to end up with a Guy Ritchie caricature.
Maybe I am short sighted but every variation (bar boring and dull 'real ilfe' dialogue) is cliched.
(ps: the real gangster I am using as my inspiration really does talk like a Guy Ritchie villain. Dry, deadpan, sarcastic, profane and very, very scary).
Comment