Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

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  • Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

    In the vein of...

    Mac from Cuckoo's Nest.
    Luke from Cool Hand Luke.
    Sally from Cabaret.
    Bobby from Five Easy Pieces.
    The Motorcycle Boy from Rumble Fish.
    Reverend Shannon from Night of the Iguana.
    Brick from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
    Charles from Tales of Ordinary Madness.
    Cosmo from Killing of a Chinese Bookie.

    (that's two Jack Nicholsons, two Paul Newmans, two Ben Gazzaras, two Tennessee Williams. Hmmm. Interesting.)

    As a guide, I'm leaving off Blanche from Streetcar and denying TW a triple - I'm looking for characters who have a kind of winning charm that draws people into their vortex.

    Can anyone add to the list?

  • #2
    Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

    Tin Cup

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    • #3
      Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

      Hannibal Lector? Madness in the extreme but also mesmerising. (Though not sure he sel-destructs.)

      And Robert Downey Jnr in Less than Zero.
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      • #4
        Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

        Oh, and Ben Mendelsohn in Animal Kingdom, and in The Year My Voice Broke.
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        • #5
          Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

          Nick Cage as Ben Sanderson, in LEAVING LAS VEGAS.

          The MacBeth duo, in any of the filmed versions of MACBETH, including the great THRONE OF BLOOD.

          Klaus Kinski, in WOYZECK.*

          Jack Nicholson as McMurphy, in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.

          Peter Fonda, in EASY RIDER.

          Kevin Spacey as Lester Burnham, in AMERICAN BEAUTY.

          Sam Riley as Ian Curtis, in CONTROL

          I got a million of 'em....



          * Well, maybe Woyzeck wasn't that "charismatic." But in his inimitable bizarre way, Kinski was -- God help us....
          Last edited by Max Otto Schrenck; 10-18-2013, 07:49 PM. Reason: clarification

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          • #6
            Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

            The George C. Scott role (forget the name) in THE HOSPITAL.

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            • #7
              Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

              Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Just to throw another female in there. Or Veronica Mars. Both kind of messed up when you start picking apart their characters.
              Also, Miles Teller in Spectacular Now I think is a great example of this type.
              @ZOlkewicz - Don't follow me on Twitter.

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              • #8
                Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

                I wanted to say Five Easy Pieces, but you already said that, so...
                • almost certainly the Norma Desmond character in Sunset Boulevard
                • there's also De Niro in a somewhat brief but well-known supporting role in Mean Streets
                • I would consider the main character of A Clockwork Orange (warning: the movie is fairly weird/violent)
                • maybe consider Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon (then again, the film is generally more plot-driven than character-driven, so I'm thinking maybe this isn't what you're looking for. great film, though)
                • a very good example would probably be the main character of the Japanese film Vengeance Is Mine (again, a warning: this film is based on the life of a real-life serial killer and is very poignant, violent, brutal, explicit)
                Last edited by bill the scholar; 10-19-2013, 05:07 AM.

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                • #9
                  Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

                  Jack Lamotta or Travis Bickell are good examples.
                  It's the eye of the Tiger, it's the thrill of the fight

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                  • #10
                    Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

                    Daniel Plainview, THERE WILL BE BLOOD.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

                      No Thelma? No Louise?

                      Okay -- I'll be the grrrl-power poster and mention other women behaving badly:

                      Girl, Interrupted. (Jolie role)
                      A Star Is Born -- leads in original plus remake.
                      The Rose (Janis Joplin role)
                      Nancy from Sid & Nancy (plus every female actor in every movie about Punk movement).
                      Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

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                      • #12
                        Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

                        Ned and Robb Stark. At almost every key moment, they make the wrong choice because it is "the right thing to do". We know how well that worked out for them.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

                          Some great additions to this list. (sc111: I'd completely forgotten about The Rose! Thanks for reminding me. Up there in the knockout lead female pantheon with Norma Rae - same year, incidentally.)

                          However, in the taxonomy of all of this, I'd put a few mentions a little outside the subset I'm talking about.

                          For instance, I'm line-ball about Hannibal -- to me he is more of a charismatic psychopath than someone like Luke from Cool Hand, who isn't fully pathological, but is just lost in a world that doesn't suit him. I suppose psychopathy has a self-destructive aspect to it, but most of the characters I'm looking for here have more of an ennui than a mania to them: that's why I'm also ruling out Travis Bickle. And Norma Desmond. All utterly brilliant characters of course, but just of a slightly different kind.

                          And Alex from Clockwork Orange is sui generis. He is definitely charismatic, seductive even. Books, theses and more have been written about him and the film and its source material, but my interpretation of him is that while he is clever and manipulative he is also a bizarre innocent no how brutal his crimes: it's the society that he's in that's really sick. He doesn't so much reject it as strangely fit into it. There's also Burgess's Catholic theology undercurrent in it about free will. It really is one of those films that has been kind of ruined by people who are attracted to it just because it's lurid; it's also utterly brilliant and important beyond its outré reputation.

                          I suppose what I'm talking about is best summed up by The Motorcycle Boy's father (as played by Hopper) talking about his son in Rumble Fish:

                          Father: No, your mother... is not crazy. And neither, contrary to popular belief, is your brother crazy. He's merely miscast in a play. He was born in the wrong era, on the wrong side of the river... With the ability to be able to do anything that he wants to do and... findin' nothin' that he wants to do. I mean nothing.

                          James Dean's three films characters fit well, come to think of it.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

                            Keifer Sutherland's character in Lost Boys

                            Nic Cage in vampire's Kiss

                            Mickey Rourke in the Wrestler
                            I heard the starting gun


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                            • #15
                              Re: Great charismatic, self-destructive characters?

                              That Adolf guy in Downfall.

                              Richard III.

                              The lead in Trance.

                              Buffalo '66.

                              Fight Club.

                              Pink Floyd's The Wall.

                              Cain in Robocop 2.

                              Basic Instinct.

                              Bad Santa.
                              Hell of a Deal -- Political Film Blog

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