Bryan Lestarjette

Tragedy as Sub-Plot 

            While tragedy as a genre is by no means lost to us, the sad fact is that American media, especially the film industry, is rather ferociously happy-ending-oriented. Today’s film tragedies tend to be independent rather than studio-financed. One such is Robert Rodriguez’s early Desperado predecessor, El Mariachi, in which a traveling guitarist, while falling in love in a dusty Mexican town he’s just arrived at, is mistaken for a killer and, swept along by fate, loses his girl and the functioning of his fingers, and thus his livelihood. However, while this film was enough to jumpstart the career of one of the industry’s most successful and innovative directors, it is unlikely that a major studio would have made a serious investment in it to begin with.

            There are some major films with tragic elements, notably Titanic and Gladiator, but both of these are also highly romanticized in a way Sophocles or Eugene O’Neill would be uncomfortable with. Perhaps a better term for this sort of film would be tragic romance. In Gladiator, Maximus does die, but it is through no fault of his own, and his death does seem to inspire Rome on to hopefully (and almost certainly) better days. The scene of his spirit entering Elysium could be said to parallel the romantic hero riding off into the sunset.

            Having said this, tragedy has survived in big-budget movies as a sort of subplot. This is especially true of film series such Star Wars and Lord of the Rings in which there are a great number of characters. Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, both the book and the movies, is often called a tragic hero of sorts. Star Wars, taken as a six-part story, features the fall of Anakin Skywalker. In Episode III, he begins as a brave and true Jedi hero, but is led by his fear of loss and lust for power to ironically destroy the very things he was trying to save. The scene where he receives his artificial limbs and mask is intercut with Padme’s death scene, suggesting a parallel. While Padme gives birth to her twins and dies, Anakin gives rise to Darth Vader and metaphorically dies.

            Some villains in other movies are also given somewhat tragic treatment, including the antagonists in Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, especially the latter. Dr. Octavius is a good man and a brilliant scientist, but his unwillingness to accept failure warps him into a criminal and a danger to New York. Unlike some other tragic villains, however, he eventually comes back to his senses and dies a hero.

            Perhaps the tragic villain is the most common incarnation of tragedy in today’s major motion pictures, as it allows the overall story arc to remain romantic and, with the tragic villain sadly put to rest, we still have a hero to watch riding off into the sunset.

 Works Cited

Hogan, Eleanor. "Tragedy's Labour Lost: A Review of 'Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith.'" Online Opinion. 29 June 2005. < http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3581>.

"Tragedy." Wikipedia.com. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy >.