Are there any examples in the media of private security officers being competent professionals? I’ve seen them portrayed as bumblers and/or out of shape and/or dishonest and/or stupid, but never as hard-working professionals.
On Angel there was a fifth season episode where a security guard was murdered by the monster of the week because the monster was after heroes. We never really saw this heroism in action (poor dude gets gutted after about ten seconds of screentime) but at least we hear about it.
I meant to add “…and/or dead within 2 minutes of being introduced to the audience.”
Takeshi Kovacs, but that’s written media.
The OP forgot “and/or menacing goons” - it’s pretty bad when the most positive fictional portrayal of a profession is of them being criminals but competently so.
What about “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”? Admittedly, he was out-of-shape, but the explanation in the movie was that he was hypoglycemic. (And yes, he was also kind of a bumbler, but he was also the hero of the movie.) Basically, the problem is that private security officers are seen as people who couldn’t manage to make it as real police officers. Or they are portrayed as former (perhaps retired) police officers.
Does Keith from Six Feet Under count?
In Mike Leigh’s film Naked, David Thewlis’ character has an encounter with a private security guard who is not a moron. Technically, the guard was violating company policy by talking to Thewlis, but the guard comes off as a fairly decent guy. (Far more so than Thewlis’ character, as a matter of fact.)
Does Thelwis ever play a decent guy?
Kevin Costner’s character in Bodyguard was competent, but it’s easier to find competent movie bodyguards than run-of-the-mill security guards.
Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) - Taken
Creasy (Denzel Washington) - Man on Fire
Frank Martin (Jason Statham) - The Transporter 2
Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogan) - Protect and Serve
That’s pretty much it. The only competent private security I can think of are ex-Special Forces CIA Delta Force types.
I mean what do you expect? The only private security guards I ever see are mall cops, those guys who sit all day at the security desk of office buildings or the half-wit retard who checks your receipt coming out of Best Buy.
It’s actually Observe and Report. But either way that movie is about a stereotypical over-the-top rent-a-cop.
Jean-Claude Van Damme in Sudden Death. According to Wikipedia, his character is a security officer at an arena in Pittsburgh but formerly was a firefighter. (As I said, typically the competent ones are former law enforcement officers, while the bumbling ones failed out of the police academy).
The security guards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Pierce Brosnan*Thomas Crown Affair *are depicted as being competent, easily foiling a high-tech art heist by a bunch of Euro-thieves. Of course, the fact that the heist was merely a decoy set up by Crown means that they may have been competent, but they weren’t super-competent.
The guard in the lobby of Jenna Elfman’s office building in *Keeping the Faith *was competent and efficient to a fault, at one point clothelining Ben Stiller - thus fulfilling the fantasy of millions.
Bruce Willis was a good security guard in “Unbreakable” but that’s due to plot contrivance rather than actual skill.