It’s been some time since I read the book, but I don’t remember this. He’s killed two people by the end of the book, but I don’t remember a rape. Could you give some details?
He casually mentions that when he got out of prison he was feeling horny so he “ran down a whore lady” and raped her. He then explains that he coudln’t understand why she was upset, after all he would have paid her but he didn’t have the money.
What, no mention of Albert, the smiling rapist in *We’re No Angels * (the 1955 Humphrey Bogart movie)?
He was (I hate to say it) downright adorable as played by Aldo Ray.
Hey, I just saw this for the first time days ago (thank you, Netflix)!
He certainly was adorable, but IIRC we were not specifically told he was a rapist. We know that he attempted to take certain liberties with a young girl, but we do not know if he was successful, or that those liberties fell to the level of rape.
Does anyone found Scott Kagan from Criminal Minds to be sympathetic?
Since this thread’s been resurrected, one could make the argument that Miloš in A Serbian Film could be in this list, especially when it’s discovered that he was tricked into raping his own six-year old son.
What about bit, supporting characters? Leland Orser’s role in Se7en has John Doe force him to wear a bladed strap-on and use it to simultaneously rape and kill the “Lust” victim.
What I came here to say… maybe not sympathetic but an unfortunately likable character.
I read through all of these and I didn’t see this one but apologies if someone has mentioned it. In Hitchcock’s Marnie Mark rapes his new wife after she makes it pretty damn clear she can’t bear to be touched and basically has a PTSD episode right in front of him. Yet, he is a very sympathetic character- he “loves” Marnie and ultimately is the hero who figures out why she’s so screwed up.
Post #50.
Thomas Convenant. His repeated whining about it made me throw the first book across the room and I resolved not to buy any of the others. And I still haven’t.
That was the first thing I thought of.
There’s also an old Charlton Heston movie, The Warlord, where a nobleman takes advantage of his feudal right to boink the commoner bride on her wedding night, and they end up falling in love.
In addition to the first novel, Flashman commits forcible rape on another occasion-- I believe it was in Flashman’s Lady.
Marc Antony in the show Rome is shown raping a peasant girl, and he is a fairly sympathetic character. That got me thinking on how common it was for soldiers to commit rape, which led me to conclude that Titus Pullo, Lucius Vorenus, Caesar, Brutus, et al., all most likely had a history of rape while on campaign, with the officers favoring boys.
Reading the antiquity section of the Wikipedia article on war rape reminded me of implied rape in the Bible, and Saul and David’s habit of collecting foreskins. I’d presume that the majority of, if not all, Biblical characters who were soldiers were also rapists.
I’m unable to find online references to this and it does not match my recollection of Tom’s character or Steinbeck’s mode.
Checking the text for the word “whore” turns up Uncle John, who liked them (two mentions), a singing truck driver, and Tom talking about a one-legged prostitute who charged extra.
I’m surprised that so many threads have passed and I am first to mention **Indiana Jones.
**
In Raiders of the Lost Ark (not so much in the film, but definitely in the novelization) it’s clear that Jones who was in his late 30s/early 40s when the film starts had a sexual relationship with Marian when she was in her middle teens. By definition that would have been statutory rape, regardless of it being “consensual.” In fact, it was so repellent that Abner Ravenswood rejected Jones and even Marian was shown to hate him when he approached her to obtain the amulet.
While the film really downplays it, it’s clear that Indiana Jones had a relationship with a minor (who later married him…???) at a time period well before the events of the film. And he is the “hero” of the story.
Jamie from Spike Lee’s first movie She’s Gotta Have It, whom she falls in love with afterwards.
He’s gotten better but for a long time Spike Lee had a very Virgin/whore complex regarding women much like Oliver Stone.
Not sure I agree with this confident conclusion.
We don’t know how much older Jones was at the time. Certainly Marion says that she was a “child,” but she’s obviously angry and not prone to characterize things charitably towards Jones. If they were separated by ten years, we could imagine Marion was 17 and Jones 27 when their relationship occurred. That would not be statutory rape today, and certainly not in the 1930s in Illinois, which is presumably where the affair happened, since we learn at the beginning of the movie that Abner was at the University of Chicago when Jones studied under his tutelage.
Neither character’s age is directly revealed, of course, but Karen Allen is only nine years younger than Harrison Ford, so my supposition is certainly defensible.
Of course, your theory might be correct also. I just don’t agree that the canonical information mandates your conclusion.
ETA: having written that whole post, I now re-read what you wrote and see you meant the novelization of the movie.
Not having read the novel, I would ask what specific ages, if any, are the two when this assignation occurred?
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Pete Campbell from Mad Men. While he’s always portrayed as a bit of a twerp, I think the intention is generally to make him a somewhat sympathetic twerp. It’s also debatable if he’s guilty of rape, but plenty of folks seem to think so.
I’d just like to add…
… giggety.
Adam Guenzel from OZ, I would say…
Then those two teenage boys from Judge Amy, not exactly rapists but they put a GHB in a woman’s drink-they said that they only wanted to see what will happen. They had no prior offences. She still sentenced them to several years in juvenile facility and said somethin like: “Sorry, boys. I only wanted to see what will happen.” Probably the only episode where I didn’t like Amy.
A teenage boy from Law and Order: SVU who raped his teacher, he had some hormonal instability causing enormous sex drive, he was later places in juvenile facility where he was raped himself by a sex offender who somehow managed to get a job there.
Then some guy from Croatian soap opera, he abducted his ex girlfriend and raped her while under the influence of drugs, later became paralyzed due to a gunshot wound sustained while he was saving his brother’s life. That girl later visited him in the hospital and brought him a gun, trying to convince him to kill himself, but she didn’t manage to break him.
He was a killer too: he hired a hitman to kill a woman who tried to murder his father, which resulted in death of an innocent man. His father later died from natural causes. His mother died while he was a child and he had a neglecting stepmother. He got away with his crimes but I couldn’t help but find him sympathetic.
Then those two guys from French crime show “R.I.S. Police Scientifique”, rapists who seemed to be rehabilitated then killed soon after being released by a man who thought that they raped his wife who then commited suicide-it was later revealed that they weren’t guilty of that.
Scott Kagan from Criminal Minds.
Wallace Hines, also from Criminal Minds.
Walter from Woodsman.
Merope Gaunt from the Harry Potter series, used magic to trick Riddle into marrying and impregnating her. His reaction once she stopped using magic indicates he would not have done so of his own volition.
Her description is, if not sympathetic, then pathetic. Harry describes her as looking like “the most defeated person he’d ever seen.”