'Killing machines' on screen

[evilC]

Now, I only recently watched 'No Country For Old Men'. But I have to say that, while I liked it, I was slightly perplexed by how Anton Chigurh had made his way into popular culture, almost as a kind of 'meme'. (I think he - or parodies of him - had appeared in The Simpsons, among others.)

So what is it that people find so fascinating about 'killing machine' characters, or merciless killers, such that they achieve some kind of (anti)hero status?

I suppose other examples would be the titular character in 'The Hitcher', Martin Sheen's 'transformed' character in 'Apocalypse Now', Clint Eastwood in any number of films (though 'High Plains Drifter' springs to mind) and so on.

A bit of background and my personal theory:

When I started working in Farnham Public Library (my first 'real' job) they told me that Farnham had the second-highest readership age in Surrey (second to Godalming). Not a surprise in itself, but it was a little more surprising that the most popular book category (we shelved things in broad genres, much like a bookshop) was crime fiction - by a long way. Nothing wrong with that, I thought. Except... every single book that was getting borrowed by the oldsters - indeed, pretty much every book in the 'Crime' section - was about murder! There didn't seem to be a single book (being taken out) that was about some bizarre theft or complex embezzlement - it was always murder, murder, murder! And these people were taking out the maximum number of these novel(la)s that they could at any one time, week in, week out - like they had an insatiable thirst for murder.

I don't watch crime fiction on TV, but just from the adverts or trailers for the episodes, I get the distinct impression that it's much the same situation there - that even when an episode starts off being about some other crime, it invariably escalates to murder - as if people are bored unless there's blood being spilt.

So what's the attraction, folks? Personally, if I was into crime stuff in the first place, I'd find a meticulously-planned heist far more interesting than someone offing someone else in a fit of rage, for instance.

I can only assume that it's based upon some kind of morbid fascination with the 'absolute' nature of death - and that those who dispense it so freely become objects of a twisted wish-fulfillment: a desire to transform into some kind of 'avenging angel' figure.

Now, I'm not saying this is a modern malaise. Mass-murderers have been portayed on screen since the early-ish days of cinema. But it's not really mass-murderers I'm talking about here - so less Peter Lorre's Beckert, in 'M' and more Conrad Veidt's Cesare in 'Das Kabinet...', if you want early examples. It's more these 'force of nature' characters (as they seem to be portrayed) like Chigurh. Just why are they so popular?

[Ginger Yellow]

'Killing machines' on screen

I'm not sure it's the same underlying impulse. I don't read any crime fiction, and I generally hate police procedurals (and find the prurience of the likes of CSI particularly annoying). But I do quite like these implacable killer characters on film* - to your list I'd add Frank from Once Upon A Time In The West, Leonard Smalls from Raising Arizona, the truck (driver?) from Duel, and of course the Terminators. In the former, I think (though frankly I'm guessing) it's more about the process - either the detectives solving the crime or the murderer's scheme coming to fruition and/or unravelling. And of course "healthy" doses of sensationalism. Whereas with the latter it's more about confronting the inevitable. How do you act as your options narrow and you reach the end of the road?

*The one area I don't really care for them is slasher movies.

[Stumpy Pepys]

'Killing machines' on screen

I think most people--religious or not--are highly moral individuals.

At the same time, characters who are totally amoral exert a kind of bizarre fascination.

[ian.64]

'Killing machines' on screen

I remember reading a snippet about the chief police detective on the Son of Sam cases in the 70's. His son noted that he didn't like TV detective series and steered clear of them. Save one - Columbo. He remarked 'that's how it should be done'.

[Crusoe]

'Killing machines' on screen

Is it possible also that there's some fascination from the (perceived) sheer degree of control that these characters have in their worlds? Nothing stops them, nobody stands in their way and if anyone tries they won't get a second chance, etc.

Combine that with the socially transgressive behaviour and it wouldn't surprise me if there's some amoral appeal in characters who seem to have utter power to act as they choose and never have to play nice. A kind of dark-side wish fulfillment alongside old tropies of wanting to be able to fly, turn invisible, pause time, etc.