BRITISH CHARM ATTRACTS THE GOOD BAD-GUY ROLES

By: Henry Porter

( London Observer, June 28, 1995)

WINSTON Churchill said of the English, ''We do not covet anything from any other nation except their respect,'' at a time when they imagined that they were pretty much respected all over the globe. Things are a little different now, and quite suddenly it seems Englishmen - and I mean men - are being portrayed in the cinema as the world's natural-born killers.

When an American casting director thinks callous, he or she thinks English, and seeks to find a handsome bad hat such as Alan Rickman, who played the villain in ''Diehard,'' or his successor in the film's second sequel, Jeremy Irons.

Of course there are plenty of American bad guys in American films, but to achieve special malevolence they need the queen's English, a certain fastidiousness, and a face that does not welcome intimacy.

Perfect fall guys

The English are very convenient villains because, while they are plainly other than American, their stereotypical playing of baddies does not offend the sensibilities of any U.S. minority group. If you keep on casting Colombians as hit-men, the Hispanic community becomes restive and accuses Hollywood of racism. Hollywood has stumbled upon the fact that you cannot be racist about the English, because they have had it good for so long.

Certainly the casting of Liam Neeson, an Irishman, as Oskar Schindler in ''Schindler's List'' is an important hint about the way things were moving.

Hollywood today understands much better the differences between the peoples of the British Isles. Where once we were all lumped together as Brits, they now distinguish between the Irish, Scots and English. They have not yet got around to the Welsh, but they will discover Wales eventually, because the Welsh are part of the Celtic fringe and Celtic fringe is big in Hollywood at the moment, used to represent values opposite to the supposed oppressive streak in the heart of every Englishman.

Toying with history

Hence Neeson as Schindler, and more recently as Rob Roy. In the latter, Neeson is the honorable kilted hero who stands up to the English bad guys - John Hurt as Montrose and Tim Roth as Henry Cunningham.

Obviously, English actors play the English, which is fine, but the film goes off the rails of historical accuracy in its sharply drawn distinctions between the heroes and the villains. Rob Roy MacGregor was, in fact, a murderer and cattle rustler and many other things into the bargain. The English and those working for them, including their factor (Brian Cox) are by contrast sly, effete and cruel. Their addiction to wigs and courtly gestures, so beautifully mastered by Tim Roth, is a sign of our internationally renowned vice of putting manners before morals. The English were colonizers par excellence and, for as long as anyone can remember, the enemies of freedom and democracy in America. The movie industry knows this and has a dim recollection that the world's oldest constitution was drafted in defiance of everything that was regal and English.

Nothing to regret

Perhaps there is a parallel being drawn here that has a deeper resonance for a country so absorbed by its own racial tensions.

Whatever the reason, Englishmen should not resent their portrayal as killers with IQ. It doesn't do them any harm and, in fact, it may be preferable to our former movie stereotype, which emphasized our quaintness and deference and amateurism - the sort of Englishman that Hugh Grant played in ''Four Weddings And A Funeral.'' Still, it can't be long before he is offered the part of a coldblooded criminal in the ''Diehard'' series.

 

 

Originally on KelClancy's Page - now not accessable