I've noticed a lot of assassins held up as "cool" in media lately. I find this a disturbing trend. Is it really so wonderful to hunt people down and kill them for money? What is the fascination with assassins? Is hunting one's fellow man really the ultimate sport? I'm thinking in particular of "Kill Bill" (which my hubby and I had to turn off and take back without watching all the way - it was too disturbing) and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith". Chime in with your thoughts and opinions.
Posted by smitty (Member # 8855) on :
Just in case any are reading this thread, I'm not going to say they're uncool, that's for certain.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
quote:Is it really so wonderful to hunt people down and kill them for money? What is the fascination with assassins? Is hunting one's fellow man really the ultimate sport?
I find most assassination plots kind of tedious in their disconnect with reality. (Mr. and Mrs. Smith wasn't about assassins so much as it was about a husband and wife working through their marital problems in a Xtreme-sports kind of way; Kill Bill wasn't about assassination so much as revenge... nonetheless, I see where you're going)
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
Best movie about an assassin, hands down, was Grosse Pointe Blank.
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
Yeah, we're talking about murder as an acceptable way to deal with one's issues. Is it ok to try to kill someone if you're mad at them or want vengeance?
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Ninja's are cooler the Pirates.
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
Nah, Pirates have boats!
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
And monkeys!
Posted by smitty (Member # 8855) on :
GPB, great, great movie.
I don't think the assassin thing is something new. The loner lifestyle, the operating outside the bounds of societal morals... it's really a romanticized version of a hitman.
I thought pirates had parrots more often than monkeys.
Posted by boogashaga (Member # 8881) on :
There have always been those who would be willing to "do the dastardly deed." Many governments over the course of recorded human existance on this planet have utilized such individuals--and they still do today.
This whole idea of just killing certain, specific people, usually for a certain, specific reason has filtered down into society in general. "He/she just cut me off again. Darn SUV drivers. I'd like to kill him/her." It does not even get a rise out of an audience anymore, it is so common. Now imagine someone thinking like this with the money and/or power to actually have it done. When you add into the equation of the future the fact that a whole generation of young people are growing up (or have grown up) who feel that it is "OK" to seriously hurt or kill another individual because "they dissed me," you come up with an answer that does not excite me very much.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Another interesting movie that addresses this, kind of, is Phonebooth .
SPOILERS:
Colin Farrell plays a guy who has the best clothes, the best job, and two girlfriends. Or rather a wife and a girlfriend. He is cheating on his wife. And a sniper pin points him for his "sins," as the sniper puts it.
Its not necessarily a good movie. But it is definitely interesting.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Trade in Mr. & Mrs. Smith for Suddenly--starring Frank Sinatra. Made 10 years before the Kennedy assasination it is a great black and white film with a realistic assasin.
Posted by Rakeesh (Member # 2001) on :
It depends entirely on why the assassin is performing assassinations. But for the definition we're using here-assassins for money-it's not cool at all.
But society-our society, at least-tends to glorify violence and romanticize senseless, selfish violence. We've got a long tradition of it, dating back at least as far as the James gang.
As for Kill Bill, I had a different view of things than perhaps the movie intended. I understood 'Black Mamba's motivation for revenge, but I didn't really pity her very much. Because, well, she was a freaking assassin, and hung out with assassins, and loved and presumably did an assassin known worldwide for bloody-handed cruelty.
Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas and all that. I was actually kind of rooting for them both to die, before Black Mamba had her turnaround and focusing her life on her daughter, etc.
Then again, in that film nothing is ever revealed about what kind of assassin she was.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Boog, there have always been people willing and able to kill those that "dissed me". Whether we are talking Doc Holiday, Sir Gawain, or some Samurai, or even ancient Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Sumerians, etc.
Look into the Icelandic Sagas for such treatment.
Posted by boogashaga (Member # 8881) on :
Yo, "Deadly Dan"--You are of course correct, sir. I was refering to the youth in the area where I live (Los Angeles area). These would be teenagers (12-18 years old). As a Dad and a husband, it really bothers me.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
I, myself, have often resorted to assassinations when some Duke whose daughter I've married inconsiderately goes and has a young son, completely spoiling my inheritance setup. It is most annoying.
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
quote:Originally posted by Rakeesh: As for Kill Bill, I had a different view of things than perhaps the movie intended. I understood 'Black Mamba's motivation for revenge, but I didn't really pity her very much. Because, well, she was a freaking assassin, and hung out with assassins, and loved and presumably did an assassin known worldwide for bloody-handed cruelty.
SPOILERS.
She definitely did an assassin. She was pregnant with his kid.
-pH
Posted by Kitsune (Member # 8290) on :
Well, turtles that mutated into Ninja are cool.
Posted by estavares (Member # 7170) on :
There's something about a character that is anonymous yet holds ultimate power (life and death) that seems to be very entertaining. Ninjas are far less interesting if you see their faces, and Boba Fett would have been boring without a helmet (as Episode II proves). I think the REAL secret behind assassins' popularity in general are their––
(sound of dart entering throat)
Urk!
(sound of body slumping heavily onto keyboard)
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
quote: Just in case any are reading this thread, I'm not going to say they're uncool, that's for certain.
:lol:
Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
Steven Brust's Taltos cycle deals with a main character who is an assassin, as well as an organized crime boss, and who is amazingly cool. However, it also eventually gets into a serious moral self-examination of what he's been doing with his life and the consequences. Very cool.
--Enigmatic
Posted by Mabus (Member # 6320) on :
It's something of a long-shot....but I've read all manner of arguments for pacifism that focus on the injustice of killing large numbers of people when the problem is the one person, or small cabal of people, at the government's head. Could it be that people want to believe that assassination, properly carried out, could be an almost-bloodless substitute for war?
Posted by ambyr (Member # 7616) on :
quote:Originally posted by Enigmatic: Steven Brust's Taltos cycle deals with a main character who is an assassin, as well as an organized crime boss, and who is amazingly cool. However, it also eventually gets into a serious moral self-examination of what he's been doing with his life and the consequences. Very cool.
--Enigmatic
I love what Brust does in the later Taltos books, but I still find myself rereading Jhereg and Yendi a whole lot more than Teckla and Phoenix. The moral self-examination is intriguing, but Vlad's days as a assassin are still, well, more fun.
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
Boba Fett is way hotter with a helmet.
Yeah.
-pH
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Yep, Brust is great. Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dan_raven: Boog, there have always been people willing and able to kill those that "dissed me". Whether we are talking Doc Holiday, Sir Gawain, or some Samurai, or even ancient Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Sumerians, etc.
Look into the Icelandic Sagas for such treatment.
::nods::
Sophocles relates what I think is the first incidence of homicidal road rage in literature.
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 2150) on :
I think the best assassin movie has to be The Professional with Jean Reno and Natlie Portman. That movie rawked.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)