Everyone loves a villain. Well, we like to hear about them, anyway.
There's something magnetic about a character who thrives on mayhem. In "No Country for Old Men," Javier Bardem's character made taking lives seem as second-nature as blinking. The result of this maniac bringing his bloodshed to the big screen? An Academy Award for Best Picture and a bunch of nerds calling each other friend-o.
That was 2007, but conveniently enough, the past year has provided two more prime examples of this phenomenon.
Audiences nationwide were treated to the delightfully sadistic and sloppily made-up Joker, courtesy of the late Heath Ledger, in last July's "The Dark Knight." The classic villain renewed my interest in magic within 30 minutes. I'm sure I wasn't the only one in the audience grinning when the Joker made a No. 2 pencil disappear into Gangbanger No. 3's eye socket. And we only use pencils for Scantrons and crosswords. Lame.
The rest of the movie featured the Joker (self-proclaimed agent of chaos) bombing, slicing and mindfucking his way through Gotham City. Entertaining? Yes. Gruesome? A little. Predictable? Not even close - which is why we can't get enough of it. The Joker was an unbelievable bastard, and the audience loved to hate him.
Fortunately for the movie-going public, such a maniac was reserved solely for the big screen. We weren't without our real-life villain, though, who was much less violent but equally as calculating. Cue Bernard Madoff, pilferer of savings. He doesn't paint his face or sew his own purple suits, but he does rob bank accounts.
Audiences did not respond well to Madoff's grimy deeds (he even scammed Kevin Bacon!), and his 150-year prison sentence won't provide much relief. You can't steal from the guy who says he's worked with everyone in Hollywood and get away with it. If you piss him off, you've lost the whole West Coast. And if you lose Hollywood, you lose tabloid readers, which mean you lose every American who's ever been to the grocery store.
Congrats, Madoff. The entire U.S. population, which swears to a violent, Oscar-winning clown, is now pissed you only got 150 years for stealing other people's money. This isn't the fun kind of loathing Hunter S. Thompson taught us about. It isn't the hatred we go to theaters for. No. This is you-stole-from-us-while-sipping-tea-in-our-living-room fury. You no longer have friends, Mr. Madoff. Most people are crossing their fingers that you spend the next century and a half with clones of Bogs from "The Shawshank Redemption."
If it's any consolation, everyone is going to remember your name. Like I said, we love villains. It's much easier to blame a name and a face for our problems than an abstract concept like the economy.
For now, Madoff's name is going to appear in the headlines every time he does something other than tuck his tail between his legs. Like Ledger's Joker, the public will continue to obsess over this bad guy, but there won't be any praise or awards on the way.
Adam Wynn is a journalism senior. His column appears on Fridays.
