I keep end up disliking good films simply because all the characters are sad degenerate fucks and I hate them for it. Is there a trick to liking these kinds of films?

Submitted by KellyKellogs t3_11e3ee5 in movies

I was watching Goodfellas and I liked the film but I hated every character in that film other than Tommy's mum. Every lead and every vaguely important member of the cast is a massive fucking cunt of a human being. They are the dirtiest rats in the sewer. They sit around, killing their friends in cold blood, cover up the murders, steal a fuckton of money, spend it all so they steal some more like cockroaches.

Within the first few minutes of meeting every character, they give us a reason to want them to be gutted and force fed their intestines in front of their families, especially the 3 leads.

I felt a similar thing with Charlie Sheen's character in Wall Street where I just didn't give a fuck what happened to him because he was a massive arsehole from like 20 minute into the film when he used his dad for insider trading. Made me wanna rip his skull off of his body so I didn't enjoy the rest of the film cause I just wanted him to get run over by a bus.

The worst case was in Rain Man where Tom Cruise's character has a redemptive storyline but because for the first hour of the film he is so horrifically vile and disgusting worthless piece of shit, I hated his character even when he should have been redeemed. I hated him so much I wanted him to be ripped apart limb by limb like a psychopathic child does to a spider.

Goodfellas in particular is a well made film with good pacing and great dialogue, but I was completely emotionless whilst watching the film because I hated the characters and wanted them all to be tortured and killed.

It isn't always the case that I dislike a character that is presented to the audience as an evil person from the beginning of the film.

I didn't dislike De Niro's character in Heat despite him being a mass murderer. And I even managed to feel sorry for Matt Damon's character in The Departed despite him being an unquestionably evil degenerate.

I don't really understand why I like some characters more than others but I was just disappointed that I couldn't connect with or sympathise with or feel for even a single character in Goodfellas.

Does anyone else have this issue where if every single main character is a cunt that they end up not enjoying the film?

I would add that I enjoy tragedies, films like Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, Whiplash, Taxi Driver or Wolf of Wall Street, where we are presented with a charismatic or sympathetic character who has a tragic storyline and turns into a cunt. I just don't seem to like films where the characters start off as a cunt and end up as a cunt and it is disappointing because seemingly, so many acclaimed films are made so every character is a cunt. I was watching Goodfellas and I liked the film but I hated every character in that film other than Tommy's mum. Every lead and every vaguely important member of the cast is a massive fucking cunt of a human being. They are the dirtiest rats in the sewer. They sit around, killing their friends in cold blood, cover up the murders, steal a fuckton of money, spend it all so they steal some more like cockroaches.

Within the first few minutes of meeting every character, they give us a reason to want them to be gutted and force fed their intestines in front of their families, especially the 3 leads.

I felt a similar thing with Charlie Sheen's character in Wall Street where I just didn't give a fuck what happened to him because he was a massive arsehole from like 20 minute into the film when he used his dad for insider trading. Made me wanna rip his skull off of his body so I didn't enjoy the rest of the film cause I just wanted him to get run over by a bus.

The worst case was in Rain Man where Tom Cruise's character has a redemptive storyline but because for the first hour of the film he is so horrifically vile and disgusting worthless piece of shit, I hated his character even when he should have been redeemed. I hated him so much I wanted him to be ripped apart limb by limb like a psychopathic child does to a spider.

Goodfellas in particular is a well made film with good pacing and great dialogue, but I was completely emotionless whilst watching the film because I hated the characters and wanted them all to be tortured and killed.

It isn't always the case that I dislike a character that is presented to the audience as an evil person from the beginning of the film.

I didn't dislike De Niro's character in Heat despite him being a mass murderer. And I even managed to feel sorry for Matt Damon's character in The Departed despite him being an unquestionably evil degenerate.

I don't really understand why I like some characters more than others but I'm just disappointed that I couldn't connect with or sympathise with or feel for characters simply because they are depraved scum but I can connect with different depraved scum in different films.

Is there a trick to ending this issue where if every single main character is a cunt that I end up not enjoying the film?

I would add that I enjoy tragedies, films like Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, Whiplash, Taxi Driver or Wolf of Wall Street, where we are presented with a charismatic or sympathetic character who has a tragic storyline and turns into a cunt. I just don't seem to like films where the characters start off as a cunt and end up as a cunt and it is disappointing because seemingly, so many acclaimed films are made so every character is a worthless demonic cunt.

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warrenmax12 t1_jac5gy6 wrote

Get off your high horse maybe? Not everyone can be so pure as you are.

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NoirPochette t1_jac5l1y wrote

Maybe they are just not films you enjoy and that's okay. There are a lot of good films out there with characters that work well for you. Just your tastes.

But also it's a movie, so wanting to tear characters limb from limb is probably not ideal.

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Sarchiapon t1_jac6ddk wrote

Well, actually, it's not strange at all the you would find these characters repellent, because that's exactly the purpose of these movies. Godfellas is supposed to be a deconstruction, that is, a movie that shows how the life of criminals, which is sometimes glamorized, is really awful and full of blood, paranoia, misery and betrayal. Ironically, Godfellas is based of the lifes of true criminals and those were actually very very worse than their depictions (that's usually true for most of these movies, ditto for Departed and Black Mass, which are based on the same real life events). However, the movie was so well received that actual gangsters (including the real Henry Hill, who was interpreted by Ray Liotta) found it flattering, missing completely the point.

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BigB905 t1_jac6o48 wrote

I mean, your post might be a little too passionate… that said, I tend to agree. I loved Goodfellas when I first watched it 30 years ago. However, factoring in my current perspective of people, and how divided and vile the human race can be at it’s worst, I have less patience for movies containing strictly “unredeemable” characters, and the “rewatch-ability” of said movies is drastically low.

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HEHEHO2022 t1_jac7oxr wrote

seems you can only enjoy films with morally good characters in, which is fine, but my god is that fucking boring. morally grey characters are the best.

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KellyKellogs OP t1_jac850y wrote

Replying to HEHEHO2022 (#2,099,240)

I do enjoy films with nuanced, morally grey characters. I listed plenty of films and characters in the post.

It's just when a character is irredeemably evil that they are not morally grey but have no morals at all where I just can't connect with them and end up hating them.

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NBAccount t1_jac8fp8 wrote

Reading this post feels like an early entry into a psychopath's diary, or that it was written by a twelve-year-old.

"This character is bad, I want to tear their skull out" "This guy is not nice, I want to see him be tortured for hours." "The character is a jerk, hopefully someone force feeds them their intestines."

You're allowed to like anything you want, and dislike the rest, but you should probably work on some personal stuff if movies you don't even like can make you so violently angry.

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Reelplayer t1_jac9ho1 wrote

Maybe your issue is you forget you've already shared what you think about a movie so you keep repeating yourself

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Michael_Gibb t1_jac9n4u wrote

It seems like the real problem is that you have an overly broad definition of what constitutes an evil person.

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KellyKellogs OP t1_jacd88i wrote

Replying to HEHEHO2022 (#2,100,242)

I used to hate tragedies and it was only after reevaluating how I understood tragedies, to stop rooting for the main character, but still empathising with them that I began to love them. I am trying to see if there are any tricks to enjoy films with characters that are evil from the start.

I tried in the post to emphasise my problems with these kind of characters and give several examples.

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KellyKellogs OP t1_jach0wh wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#2,101,628)

He spends the first hour of the movie and 3 in-movie days insulting, berating and dehumanising his autistic brother. I found it very upsetting to watch it happen for such an extended period of the film.

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jamesneysmith t1_jachuob wrote

So it feels like you have some anger issues. You can dislike these movies or characters but that you're so emotionally bothered by them is on you. Your response is not proportional to the fact you're watching movies.

So first and foremost you might want to sit with this fact and try to figure out why you're so angry. Second once you figure this out it is perfectly okay to dislike movies with unredeemable characters. Just because a movie is a classic doesn't mean you need to like it. There are plenty of classics I just don't like. However hopefully once you reach this point you'll have found some peace and you won't be angry over movies.

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KellyKellogs OP t1_jacl0bk wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#2,103,056)

I got that he was under a lot of stress and I expected Tom Cruise to be an arsehole for a significant proportion of the film. It was just too long for me. Several days later and he was still treating him like he wasn't human made me think that there must be something going on other than stress, the man must be evil because stress alone can't cause someone to treat another human like that for days on end.

For me, the part where I think he was irredeemably bad was during the Vegas sequence in the 3rd act where his brother wanders off and Tom Cruise's character still treats him like shit. It felt like even after he connected with his brother, he still treated him like shit.

I think it's also because I watched it 30 years after release and the kind of insults the character used might have been mildly acceptable at the time, but in my lifetime they have always been completely unacceptable. The kind of language that would get you fired and blacklisted from your job.

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charleyismyhero t1_jacnv7z wrote

Wow, you don’t deserve to be called a psychopath for not rooting for insufferable people doing insufferable things. That’s kind of the opposite of a psycho anyway.

I also am not a fan of the trope. I need a reason to spend 3 hours of my life with a bunch of characters, and those films never provide it. But that’s why I check out of sigma cinema in the first place.

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Xandolf505 t1_jact019 wrote

idk man just read the Bible and watch paint dry if movies and their characters (which in some movies you listed are based on real people) are to degenerate for you

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flexwhine t1_jad41c3 wrote

you know when a preacher or politician screams endlessly about the sins of homosexuality/sexual deviancy always ends up being revealed as being railed in truck stop bathrooms on the reg?

thats you

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PerfectAdvertising30 t1_jadclm3 wrote

Try watching them like you are a fly on the wall. You aren't feeling what the characters are feeling- you are observing the events.

And if you can't, or don't like doing it, that's fine! I have trouble understanding characters and getting into their heads. I don't really like watching character-driven movies. I felt awful about it and thought there was something wrong with me. But then I realized that art is subjective and there's no problem skipping character studies and watching plot and spectacle focused movies.

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agarimoo t1_jadg09f wrote

If you don’t have a problem with movies that start with what you describe as a sympathetic character that, through difficult circumstances, turns into a cunt, think about the circumstances that turned all those characters you dislike into cunts. Maybe that will help you understand them and not want to torture them.

Charlie Babbit in Rain Man was an orphan raised by a very dismissive father (whose description fits the one of a narcissist) separated from his brother without even being told about it. Of course he was going to turn into a selfish person, that’s what he learned! He learned that the world is a hard place and he can count on no one but himself. You could ask yourself why do you hate him so much when he’s just a regular dude unlike the other murderous characters you listed.

I mean, do you realise you’re asking this character to show compassion while you’re showing none towards him and want him “to be ripped apart limb by limb”?

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staedtler2018 t1_jadmqic wrote

>I would add that I enjoy tragedies, films likeWolf of Wall Street, where we are presented with a charismatic or sympathetic character who has a tragic storyline and turns into a cunt. I just don't seem to like films where the characters start off as a cunt and end up as a cunt.

The main character in The Wolf of Wall Street starts off as a cunt and ends up as a cunt.

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ChiltonGains t1_jadqlzu wrote

Just keep watching baby brain movies I guess.

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KellyKellogs OP t1_jaevsnt wrote

Replying to agarimoo (#2,113,311)

For Charlie Babbit:

It was several days of being a vile human being to his brother without any compassion. He didn't just treat his brother like an animal, he spent most of the film berating and bullying him too. I can imagine someone doing that for a moment, maybe even a day, but to look your brother in the eyes and refuse to see his humanity for days on end, that is an irredeemable character flaw.

It was also the language used. If someone used that kind of language to insult to a non-disabled person, I'd tell them to stfu. If someone talked to a disabled person like that, you don't wanna know what people would do to them where I'm from. To use that kind of language is inexcusable and an indicator about his character, not his emotions.

Watching someone treat a disabled person like shit for 1.5 hours and even after their moment of connection was deeply upsetting. I used hyperbole, I don't want to torture him, but I do want to beat him up.

For the suggestion, thanks. If a character is presented as a cunt at the beginning I'll pause the film and try and find a way to connect with them.

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KellyKellogs OP t1_jaewgh6 wrote

Replying to staedtler2018 (#2,115,456)

He starts off describing his childhood, we get a snapshot of his future as a rich man. We get to see his struggles to try and make money first and his introduction to Wall Street. It is only quite a bit into the film where he is introduced as an arsehole. He isn't a very sympathetic character but he at least starts as a charismatic character and we are only introduced to his flaws later on. (Really at the dinner scene where we are introduced to 4 of his colleagues in one go.)

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