OSCAR BAD BOYS AND
WHY WE LOVED THEM
By Patsy Sakuma

Actors love playing them, but rarely do they win the Oscar for Best Actor for these roles. But four, male actors have beaten the odds garnering such Oscars for portraying the "villain" or "antagonist": F. Murray Abraham (Antonio Salieri) in Amadeus (1984), Michael Douglas (Gordon Gekko) in Wall Street (1987), Sir Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal Lecter) in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Denzel Washington (Alonso Harris) in Training Day.

Three of these four roles portrayed villains. Only one portrayed the antagonist, the role of Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), and left James "Buffalo Bill" Gumbo (Ted Levin) the honor of playing the villainous serial killer in The Silence of the Lambs. Two of these four movies have won the Oscar for Best Movie: Amadeus (Sael Zaentz) and The Silence of the Lambs (Kenneth Utt, Ron Bozman and Edward Saxon). Both movies also won the Oscars' for Best Director (Milos Forman and Jonathan Demme, respectively). Only one did not involve the physical murder or death of a human being and that was Wall Street. And only Wall Street involved a writer who was also the director, three-time Oscar-winner Oliver Stone.

Only one involved a female hero, the two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster, who donned the honor in The Silence of the Lambs. Two were adaptations, Amadeus from Peter Schaffer's Pulitzer prize-winning play, and The Silence of the Lambs from Thomas Harris' spellbinding psychological thriller. Schaffer, who also wrote the screenplay for Amadeus and Ted Talley, who wrote the screenplay for The Silence of the Lambs, won Oscars for Best Screenplay Adapted from Other Medium. Amadeus leads the pack for most Oscars-8 compared to the close second- place winner, The Silence of the Lambs with 7 Oscars.

Oscar credits aside, a great movie has great characters and that means both the hero and villain. A villain or antagonist is only as great as the hero or protagonist he is up against. Each needs a worthy opponent to shine. If you believe this, then these Oscar-winners owe their awards, in part, to their fellow actors who played their opposite: Oscar nominee Tom Hulce (Mozart) in Amadeus, Charlie Sheen (Bud Fox) in Wall Street, Oscar winner for Best Actress, Jodie Foster (Clarice Starling) in The Silence of the Lambs, and Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke (Jake Hoyt) in Training Day. And as testament to their professionalism, all these Oscar male actors acknowledged their co-stars in their acceptance speeches.

Interestingly, each of these villains or antagonists had as their opponent younger heroes or protagonists to defeat. Sounds familiar? It's biblical for Westerners and goes back to that famous story of "David and Goliath."

So what do you do when your opponent is a child prodigy like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? The way the story unfolds, helps you to imagine the angst Salieri feels when he learns how God bestowed the musical genius he desires on the bawdy and spoiled prodigy. How do you defeat a genius? Salieri learned you just couldn't. Abraham's Salieri had the audience's sympathy from the outset. Abraham brilliantly plays the envious Salieri and shows us how mediocrity destroyed the court composer to Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones). By the movie's end, the audience's sympathy turns into pity. By then they feel the same as the young priest (Herman Meckler), who visits Salieri in the insane asylum where he resides as the King of Mediocrity.

Imagine how bruised a male ego becomes, especially if that ego belongs to a brilliant cannibal like Hopkin's Hannibal Lecter, who learns that the FBI has sent a female, rookie FBI agent to test him. But Hopkin's Hannibal never expects an Oscar-deserving challenger like Jodie Foster. Foster convincingly conveys Clarice's humanity and honesty to coax the diabolically insane psychiatrist to help the FBI and her find Buffalo Bill and save the Senator's daughter. Hopkins' Hannibal tolls the thin line that divides evil from good. He shows us that even a cannibalistic serial killer can still possess manners if he so chooses to.

Imagine seeing your ruthless scheming unravel and your whole life being destroyed before your eyes just because your idealist, rookie partner will not take blood money or kill at your whim? LAPD Detective Sergeant Alonso Harris worst nightmares come true after Ethan Hawke's Jake Hoyt starts training in his elite drug unit of the LAPD.

Hawke's new grunge look could not belie his vulnerable eyes giving him that convincing look of conflict and resolve after Hoyt realizes his new boss does not care about changing LAPD's old ways. Hawke's Jake convincingly tries to get Denzel's Alonso to see the light because the citizens of LA just will not tolerate another scandalous public relations' disaster, like the one created by the real-life officer Raphael Perez and his public revelations.

Just like his dazzling performance in his last movie, The Hurricane, Denzel reaches deep inside to play the jaded and corrupt LAPD narcotic's detective. In a movie taken from the headlines of the real-life scandal that shook the LAPD, Denzel's Alonso displays the actor's versatility, as he departs from his good-guy roles, one for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

From his groomed goatee, thick chained-necklaces, to black inner-city attire, Denzel effortlessly assumes the role of the villainous detective. Ethan Hawke steps up to the plate and delivers his best performance to date as idealist and young, Jake Hoyt, who shows the veteran detective that there can be only one ending for you if your prescribe to the notion that to catch a drug dealer, you have to become one yourself. And yet, the screenplay makes it a point to show the audience that Alonso is merely a pond for the big brasses, who work their brand of justice in the backrooms of official government business. So at the end, the audience does feel a bit of ironic sympathy for Alonso, and, thus prevents Denzel's character from falling victim to just being black- and-white evil.

And lastly, imagine your utter disbelief that the young, yuppie stockbroker you have just taken under your wings, by making him your protégé in the big league of Wall Street arbitrage, has just outfoxed you. Talk about deflating the male ego. Michael Douglas' haunting portrayal of Gordon Gekko, as a modern-day Mephistopheles, seduces you like Bud at first.

Just like Denzel, Michael Douglas dresses the part to perfection. But with just the right touch of gel to make his hair look a bit too slick, Douglas' Gekko physically looks the part of a snake or the reptile that his name connotes. Charlie Sheen (Bud Fox) persuasively portrays the hungry, yuppie stockbroker, who finally realizes that he will not go as far as selling his soul to Mr. Gordon Gekko.

So when Douglas' Gekko realizes not even his award-winning Oscar speech that "greed is good" will save him from the long-arm reach of an FBI entrapment, he then shows his true color. He bites back but it's too late. Douglas' Gekko realizes there is no running away after unknowingly confessing to the FBI of committing the ultimate Wall Street sin-"insider trading."

While you have to admit these actors' talent gave them the right stuff to win the Oscar for Best Actor, you also renew your belief or become a true believer that film making is truly a collaborative art.

Copyright © 2002 Patsy Sakuma

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