Representaion of villain in film

andkey figure, the titles of both films anchor this asthey both feature the characters name, or alias.  Thefilms plot is central to the main character focusingsolely upon them.  The main plot line of each film isrevenge.  Using Propp's analysis of character roles andnarrative progression it is easy to identify the filmsnarrative structure and how the characters fit intoit.  With 'Leon' it is clear that he is the hero andhe has an enemy to overcome and a princess to rescue. The princess character in 'Leon' is Matilda, a younggirl who Leon is stuck with after the villain,Stansfield, murders her parents.  It is thisdespicable that sets him apart as the Villain. Significantly this happens early on in the film.  Apersonal vendetta ensues between Stansfield and Leonlater on because of this and because Leon murders oneof the villains colleagues.  'Leon' is constructed sothat the three-way plot between Leon, Matilda andStansfield becomes the determining factor in theprogression of the narrative.The victims in 'Leon' are Matilda and her murderedfamily.  Leon's father figure in the film is a mobboss, Tony, who serves as the donor and the helper ashe provides Leon with money and weapons thus helpingthe hero.Gladiator's characters can equally fit into Propp'sroles.  As the films title suggests, Gladiator orMaximus is the hero.  He is established as the heroearly on with the Roman conquests and being portrayedas a family man, something many of the target audiencecould relate to. Maximus' princess is his murderedwife who he seeks to avenge.  The villain in Gladiatoris the corrupt emperor who murderers Maximus' familyand sends him to his death.  The victims in the filmare the Gladiators murdered family and anyonepersecuted by the corrupt Emperor.  The villain in film often takes on the guise of amadman, usually made to be outside of societies normalboundaries.  'Hannibal', 'Psycho' and 'AmericanPsycho' are films where this can be applied.  In'Gladiator' the Emperor is seen as psychologicallyunstable as he has sexual desires towards his sister. This is a shock to the audience as it is outside ofsocieties borders of decency.  Stansfield in 'Leon' isrepresented as being physically and mentally unstableas he is seen taking a pill several times in the filmwhich makes him physically contort.  His medicalproblem is never addressed and is left to audienceinterpretation.  I believe it is a signifier of howthe villain is different from everyone else and itsets him aside as the villain.A villain's personality can depend on the filmsgenre.  For instance, in the 'Die Hard' and 'LethalWeapon' films the villain is always of foreign descentwith a foreign accent and foreign characteristics.  Inthe time of the cold war the Russians became thestereotypical villains in films such as the James Bondseries.  More recently South Africa has taken thisrole as 'Die Hard With A Vengeance' shows.  This ismainly because of the American origin of such filmswith America being the primary target audience.  Thesevillains are represented as in opposition to theAmerican ideology.  The British accent of Stansfieldand the murderous acts of the Emperor in 'Leon' and'Gladiator' anchor this.'Leon' and 'Gladiator' have strong character drivenplots where the hero and the villain are in binaryopposition to each other.  Their ideological,professional and personal lives clash, which resultsin the creation of the dilemma and the enigma.  Inboth films the villains are traitorous.  In 'Leon'Stansfield is a drugs baron who is treacherous to hisprofession as he is a corrupt police officer.  Inbetraying the police he is also betraying society andits values, as it is a social institution.  In'Gladiator' the Emperor deceives his friends, familyand his Roman subjects.  In performing these acts thevillains become in binary opposition to theestablished hero.'Leon' contains a contradiction to the theory I haveproposed as he is also of foreign descent having anItalian accent.  Stansfield has an English accentwhich places him closer to American ideology thanLeon.  Empathy is created for Leon as he cannot readEnglish.  Matilda teaches him this which is aneffective plot device.Gary Oldman is an excellent choice of villain as hehas previously been one in many of his film roles.  Heappeared in 'The Fifth Element', 'True Romance' and'Lost in Space' as a villain with similar attributesto 'Leon's' Stansfield.  These previous roles allserve well as an intertextual reference to the actorand his placement within the film.'Leon's' narrative structure is fairly basic andmostly tri-partite.  During the beginning of the filmthe location is se, the block of flats in a dirtysuburb in New York.  The main characters are alsointroduced in their normal tasks, Leon on a hitmanjob, Matilda in her broken home and Stansfieldhustling for drug money.  The plot is introduced asMatilda's family are murdered by Stansfield whichleads her to turn to Leon as she has no where else togo.  This leads into the middle section of the filmwere the plot is developed.  Matilda and Leon move toa new apartment and begin to bond.  The final sectionresolves the enigma as Stansfield finds the two andthe final conflict ensues.  Leon singularly resolvesthe enigma, as he is the hero, by killing Stansfieldand his self with a grenade.  The enigma is resolvedto the audience with Leon's final line in which hetells Stansfield that the grenade is 'for Matilda'. This brings a resolution to the narrative. 'Gladiators' resolution is similar as both the heroand villain die.        The role of Matilda is set up as a plot devicebetween the hero and the villain.  She provokesStansfield by going to the police station top attemptto kill him.  This sets up another strain of narrativewhere by Leon has to rescue her.  She becomes thecentral character at times as she is caught up in theaffairs of the two lead characters.  A similarcharacter in 'Gladiator' is the Emperors sister as sheis seen as someone who needs to be rescued because ofher brother's persecution.  Later on she becomesinvolved in Maximus' rebellion and found out as atraitor by her brother.  In both films the hero'sliberate the princesses by killing the villains evenat the cost of there own lives.'Gladiators' narrative is similarly tri-partite as inthe beginning the location is set the roads of theRoman empire and Italy, Rome.  The Gladiatorialcoliseums are also a location that is introduced.  Themain characters and the plot are introduced as theEmperor murders his father in order to inherit thethrone instead of Maximus.  The middle section comeswith the murder of Maximus' family and the capture ofthe gladiator by a slave trader played by Oliver Reed. This further develops the plot and creates the enigmato the audience.  It is typical of cinema to represent the villain asdisabled or as having some physical or mentalabnormality.  This is the case with 'Leon' and'Gladiator' as in both films the villains arepsychologically disabled yet Stansfield is alsophysically impaired.  This representation is thoughtto have come from the mostly from society and not fromfilm.  Historically, cinema comes from the fairgroundwhere the disabled were displayed as freaks.  Thismethod was used in cinema to grab the attention of theaudience.  Disability is closely linked with thehorror genre.  Psychopathic villains such as FreddyKreuger were shunned by society in their filmsnarratives because of their vile acts.  They are shownas the villain to the audience as because of theiracts and because they are physically ugly.  After the success of 'Le Femme Nikita' Frenchwriter/director Luc Besson discovered that Americanmovie audiences found his gallic style of work moreviewable when wrapped up in the guise of an actionmovie.  With this came the base for writhing 'Leon' asBesson's genre had an identified target audience. 'Leon' attempted to retain much of the audience fromother Besson movies such as 'Le Femme Nikita' and 'TheBig Blue'.  Intertextual references duringadvertisements would help secure these audiences. 'Leon' is a certificate 18 in the UK because of it'sgory content.  'Leon' would undoubtedly appeal to fansof independent cinema and would not be targeted at amainstream cinema audience.'Gladiator' on the other hand would be targeted at amainstream American audience. The films 15 certificatehighlights this.  As a Hollywood blockbuster'Gladiators' audience is vastly different to 'Leon's',as it would appeal to fans of various other genres. Ridley Scott has various other big name movies to hiscredit including 'Alien' and 'Hannibal'.  As'Gladiators' director the grand scale of the film isanchored.  The action genre is typically male targeted asresearch has found that females prefer films where theroles have more of an emotional attachment such asromance and drama.  Both 'Leon' and 'Gladiator' wouldprioritise on a male audience as the movies wouldprimarily appeal to them.'Leon's' audience would be male with intertextualreferences of films such as 'Le Femme Nikita' and'Ronin'.  This audiences ideology is anchored in'Leon' with the use of representations of violence,guns, a lead character of similar values andpositioning of Leon against the evil 'British'Stansfield.  This is part of their binary oppositionwhich is basically good/evil and rather ironicallycrime/law.  The classes of Matilda and Leon areideologically opposite to the corruption of Stansfieldand his higher-class job with the police which heabuses.  Iconography of New Your includes skyscrapersand yellow cabs.  Leon is presented as a stereotypicalItalian as he is connected to the mob and his bossowns an Italian restaurant.  The audience ispositioned in Leon to feel empathy for the hero andMatilda and there is a fairly simple preferred readingto the text.  'Gladiators audience would be similar to the audienceof 'Leon' in that it would be mostly male withintertextual references to any other Ridley Scottdirected movies.  'Gladiator' contains iconography ofRome and the time period with the soldiers dress anduniform, the coliseum, and the Roman army.  Maximusbegins by being in a position of power but he issignificantly reduced to the rank of a slave andgladiator as opposed to his binary opposition, thevillain, who is the highest being the emperor.  Thepreferred reading shows how audience is positioned toaccept the plight of Maximus even though he himselfwas a killer for the 'good' of the Roman empire.Villains are nearly always placed in binaryopposition to the hero.  In the case of 'Leon' and'Gladiator' these oppositions include good/evil,peasantry/authority, experience/power.  The villaincan be sadistic, evil, manipulative, violent,psychopathic, and physically deformed.  The hero inboth films is justified in there own acts of murderbecause the film is constructed in a manner so thatthe villain's acts are for the more evil purpose.  Thedeath off the hero and villain in both films could beseen as an all round form of justice as the hero hasdone evil things themselves in order to resolve theenigma.  The villains in 'Leon' and 'Gladiator' arefairly conventional.  The manner in which the hero andthe villain are set against each other is a fairlysystematic process.  As the narrative progressesfurther dilemmas are introduced and the conflictcontinues.  All of the key sign's as to who is thevillain are present in both films. T they arerepresented as being physically and mentally unstableas well as being in a position of power so as to beable to commit the evil acts.  Stansfield is a moreviolent character to that of the Emperor who is moreof the spineless, cowardice type.  The villains in'Leon' and 'Gladiator' fit well into the film and withits themes.