I watched the 30th anniversary screening of Trainspotting a few days ago, and it made me reconsider the importance of creating a cinematic character that people love to hate. Here are a few thoughts on Robert Carlisle’s big bad. And some other evil folks, too.
Trainspotting’s electric introduction lays out the main characters in a few short breaths. We know the players we’ll be watching within a hot minute. And we quickly get to know the magnetic, violent and suitably psychopathic monster that is Francis Begbie. Pretty much every guy we’re introduced to at the beginning (sans Spud) is varying levels of scumbag. But the genius device that Danny Boyle employs is to drag away the audience’s attention from the litany of assholes and mainly focus on the assholery of the central one. Begbie’s acts of violence are inherently random and unhinged; as soon as we watch the pub scene where he nonchalantly chucks a glass over the balcony and serious injures a young woman, we know he’s scum.
Is Renton a jerk who’s responsible for the downfall of best friend Tommy? Is he an addict who puts his loving parents in a state of constant anxiety? Yep, he’s a jerk on both counts. A major jerk. But he seems to get away with it because of the way Boyle frames him as the main character and the one you should be rooting for. Mostly. You still have the valid free will of admitting he’s a jerk, it’s just that Begbie’s a bigger jerk, so that offsets things slightly. And Renton decreases the blame game a bit in comedic moments like the shooting scene and looking genuinely concerned during Begbie’s violent antics. Especially when Renton’s finally got his own place and Begbie comes along and turns it into a pigsty (shout out to Pulp’s Mile End, that’s a great tune for an appropriately frustrating scene). Ah, Begbie. What a jerk. A charismatic jerk thanks to Carlisle, but a jerk nonetheless.
A similar shifting blame dynamic occurs with Sick Boy, albeit to a lesser extent. As Mark correctly observes, he’d have taken the same opportunity to steal the money if Renton hadn’t woken up first. And he’s first and foremost a major league deadbeat for neglecting his baby, leading to her heartbreaking demise, Trainspotting’s bleakest moment aside from Tommy’s decline. But again, Begbie’s there to balance things out, as Sick Boy regards Begbie’s aggression with horror and unease. While Begbie’s in the room after Renton’s betrayal raising hell, Sick Boy merely sits outside in passive disbelief. And as for Spud? Well, Spud’s the innocent one in all this. Sure, he had a major brown accident in his sleep and had a speed-induced crazy interview, but he never harms anyone. And you only despise Begbie more during a rage-induced moment where Begbie unintentionally slices Spud’s hand and makes zero attempts to apologize. Begbie’s just a horrible – and brilliantly written and acted – vessel to channel the audience’s disgust and frequently divert the audience away from the other, lesser bad guys.
It’s tough to think of other flicks that play out this balancing act of hatred so effectively. I guess Shallow Grave could get a minor mention, but that’s basically Boyle’s less refined prototype for Trainspotting. But I can list a few filmic peeps who are bad in their own way, even if the film might not always directly drawn your attention to the fact. So first off, Richard Cameron in Dead Poets Society. I think he’s just referred to as Cameron in the film, but he’s that rat that outs all of his supposed friends in the Dead Poets Society group as well as shifting blame onto Keaton. Nobody likes a rat, and I sure as heck don’t like Cameron. It’s a veritable ‘take that’ moment when Charlie punches him in retaliation, even though Charlie gets expelled. Worth it. In terms of other folks who are bad, Ferris Bueller. I mentioned this in a recent post, but think about it. He takes advantage of everyone around him just so he can get a, you know, day off. Particularly Cameron. Not Dead Poets Cameron, the good Cameron. He harasses him out of bed, coerces him into using a car that doesn’t belong to him and just raises his blood pressure at every opportunity. As Ferris describes at one point, his supposed friend is such a tight ass that sticking a stone up his respective behind would produce a diamond in no time. Be that as it may, that’s no excuse for Ferris treating Cameron like he does. Come on now.
So, other bad folks on film. Emma, I suppose. She has good intentions, I guess, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that she sticks her nose in places where it’s not wanted. Which is a big part of her character. Elsewhere, you’ve got slightly comedic hateable characters like J.J. Jamieson, played with brio by J.K. Simmons in the Toby Maguire Spiderman trilogy. He’s meant to be an ass, and he lets you know it in highly amusing OTT fashion. Back to more hateable people, Dolores Umbridge, given some strong hateable energy thanks to Emelda Staunton. With seemingly no redeemable qualities, you’re definitely rooting for her to come to a sticky end. Sure, she’s not Dark Lord levels of bad, but she’s a bad one nonetheless. And there’s Warden Norton in Shawshank Redemption, who stands out among the nasty prison staff by being just that bit nastier. A rotten egg indeed. But that still doesn’t excuse your behaviour, central nasty prison guard (Clancy Brown/Mr Krabs).
Begbie stands out as an effective bad guy precisely because he has the upper hand in the nastiness sector compared to his not particularly squeaky-clean mates, allowing them to shake off a certain degree of blame while still being thoroughly dingy individuals. That’s an impressive performance to pull off.