I'm interested to compare some different villain introductions, and which ones people consider to be some of the best. I recently watched Once Upon a Time in the West for the first time, and it was incredible, I actually prefer it to TGTBATU(which is a whole other discussion).
-Spoilers for first half hour of the movie-
I wanted to specifically talk about how great the introduction of Frank played by Henry Fonda is. Here's the scene(watch with sound!) I'm talking about.
The tension building is excellent. The bait where you think it's just someone shooting grouse is very well done, and better within the context of the movie as the father and son had been hunting grouse in the previous scene.
And then there's the reveal itself. A family you've just been introduced to gets massacred, with only the youngest son remaining, and he's just standing there helplessly with his dead family strewn around him. The perpetrators slowly emerging from the undergrowth, framing Frank with their movements so you know who's boss. The 5 men converge on the boy, their dusters billowing in the wind. The score swells and the combination of music and visuals perfectly captures the tragedy of the situation, and you don't know whether to feel sad or just applaud. The shot at 4:29 will forever be imprinted in my mind. Then the camera reveals Frank's face, and it's cast-against-type Henry Fond, who proceeds to stare into your soul with those piercing blue eyes.
And I can't not mention the score. Ennio Morricone has to be one of the best film composers ever, with his score for this movie being some of his best work imo. The main theme for the movie is also gorgeous.
So yeah, what do you think of this villain introduction, and which are some of your favourites?
Also this is my first time posting in this thread, and idk what kind of level of discussion or knowledge is expected. Hope this post is fine.
Let us discuss, is this excessive? Is it not?
I’m about halfway through the book, obviously it’s a classic. While discussing the British empire she sort of passively mentions it’s an accident, as though that was a widely accepted view in the day, and doesn’t explain her position in detail. To what extent is that true?
I know that the British dominance in North America, especially in what is now the northeastern United States in replacing New Amsterdam and connecting with the lower colonies was largely a function of the English civil wars and religious persecution from the Tudors through Charles I and then Cromwell, driving religious minorities into New England. Cromwell then expanded the push as part of his puritanical identity, and the result during the course of the subsequent Dutch/English naval war was the temporary, and then permanent handing of New Amsterdam to the Brits (Russell Shorto’s “The Island at the Center of the World” has a good amount of this from The Dutch perspective, heavy focus on Stuyvesant).
But I don’t know nearly enough about the other conquests and how the empire pieced together.
Thank you for any guidance/insight.
