Of Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor and Donald Trump
Theres an emotional core to the character. Its not a silly villainous character. It is an entirely different thing. Also, the tone of that (Superman) movie is so different. Like, that movie wouldnt be made now. Like, the way we expect movies to be now is to have some kind of I mean, its probably for the best theres some kind of psychological accuracy. That the person is coming from a place probably diagnosable in some way. This is what Jesse Eisenberg told MTV News in relation to playing infamous Lex Luthor, principal villain, in the forthcoming Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.
The silly villainous character to who hes referring is Gene Hackmans version of Lex Luthor in 1978s Superman wherein Kal Els arch nemesis was less a forbidding menace than a comical self-aggrandizer. His requisite villainous scheme is to trigger the San Andreas Fault with a nuclear blast, sending California tumbling into the ocean, therefore sending prices of Luthor-owned real estate along the new coastline soaring. Its insane, treated with more absurdist flair than real world ominousness.
But then absurdist flair is so much of what I see real world villains these days. I see men villains just like Lex, men in loud suits with ridiculous hair making boorish and outsized proclamations while surrounded by sycophants and piles of money. It was no less a pseudo-authority than Donald Trump who once said he wouldnt make a deal just to make a profit. It has to have flair. He also has a place on Park Avenue, thirty-five stories up rather than two-hundred feet below, but still. He plasters his name on everything, shades of Luthorville and Costa del Rex.
....Its not charisma, mind you, as much as it is a vibrant silliness, an entertaining lunacy, a swagger so self-impressed I expect him to arrive at tomorrows GOP debate aboard a litter carried by former cast members of The Celebrity Apprentice. Hes got the swaggering indefatigable bravado of a movie villain, never unconfident in his schemes, utterly impervious to criticism, declaring that he will achieve everything he touts starting day one absent any trouble without providing even vague specifics of how hell achieve this because he expects these things to happen simply because he is who he is Trump. Hes a person coming from a place thats probably diagnosable in some way that is, imperial narcissism.
Perhaps Mr. Eisenbergs Lex Luthor will be indelible. I hope it is. But dont tell me that Superman movie couldnt be made now. Maybe Hackmans Luthor is nothing more than a silly villainous character, yet his silly villainy is psychologically accurate, and just as menacing.
http://cinemaromantico.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-real-world-scariness-of-silly.html via Cinema Romantico