I don’t necessarily mean stories in which the protagonist fails in his or her aim. I mean stories in which there is a clear demarcation between good and evil in the story, and in which the evil side comes out ahead at the end. We needn’t restrict ourselves to epic tales of virtue versus vice; small-scale evil counts too, as long as the bad guys take the crown at the end.
In other words, My Best Friend’s Wedding does not count, because though the movie makes no bones about the fact that Jules (Julia Roberts’ character) is in the wrong, she does not succeed in ruining the wedding or stealing her best friend from his bride.
Contrariwise, Juliette, by the Marquis de Sade, does count, because the innocent and virtuous lose out in the end.
Still gives me the shiveries.
And Snatch is one of my all-time favorite movies but… (slight spoilers, I suppose)
I wouldn’t say the bad guys won. Fact is, nobody really won, except Mickey… kinda. Fact is, there weren’t really any clear-cut protagonists and antagonists in that film at all. Brick Top was definitely closest to the latter (I’ll never look at pigs the same way again), but he certainly didn’t come out on… top. You could say Turkish and Tommy were the closest to protagonists but their story never really concluded either. You just know Avi is going to pay them a visit moments after the credits stopped rolling. That’s what so awesome about that film. It just keeps on a-going.
I was actually thinking of ESB when I began the thread, but I don’t think it qualifies. Darth Vader is clearly the villain here, and he doesn’t get what he wants: Luke’s corruption. Yeah, Han Solo is the captive of Boba Fett at the end and on his way to Jabba, but I doubt Vader or the Emperor gives a damn what happens to Solo anyway. ESB’s pretty much a tie.
Yes, it has to be fictional. If I’d wanted to start a thread about how the real world is full of misery and pain, I would have started a thread in MSPIMS entitled “The Real World is Full of Misery & Pain.”
Sure, it seems that the FBI agent really did kill his mother. But then, the religious fanatic is a religious fanatic and serial killer. Even if the guy’s visions were all legit - and the movie makes it pretty clear they were - we don’t kill people for murder. Not without a trial in which they have a chance to bring out exculpatory factors, and usually not ever. Even if God is telling him to do it - that’s an indictment of God, not an excuse for cold-blooded murder.
Though I’d point out that