No, in a staggering display of self-aggrandizement on the part of humanity, the film casts a human who was at one time the highest paid model in the world as the ultimate antidote to evil. It’s not a furry blob with three arms and a weird sucker for a mouth. The savior of the universe isn’t some creature covered in tentacles. Let’s start with Leeloo, the alien who’s entire body is a weapon for vanquishing the great evil that’s set to bring death to the universe. The Fifth Element serves as a near perfect example of this phenomenon. How many movies can you name where a hideous protagonist battles a handsome villain that I haven’t already mentioned?ĭespite the partial prohibition on this kind of association, though, there is at least one genre where associating looks with character traits is still par for the course: science fiction.
#THE 5TH ELEMENT MOVIE#
It’s rare to find a modern movie in a realistic setting where a hideous villain is battling a handsome hero.
Of course, in general, modern media is careful not to rely too heavily on them.
#THE 5TH ELEMENT FULL#
And yet our culture is full of these cues. We all know that Johnny Depp and his rugged good looks didn’t keep him from being an abusive husband. We all know intellectually that Steve Buscemi’s unusual countenance tells us nothing about his character. The interesting phenomenon here is that we have to learn this lesson at all. Of course, adults need a reminder of this too, and John Merrick, the man saddled with extreme deformities in The Elephant Man, serves as a tragic reminder that we care more about looks than we care to admit. The beautiful princess Fiona, in a subversion of the fairytale princess, is actually happier as a kindly troll, and Shrek himself has many layers, like all ogres. Gaston’s the real beast! Movies, in their post-modern moments, have even self-referentially twisted the concept around in movies like Shrek. The beast in Beauty and the Beast has a heart of gold. In fact, children are bombarded with this message all the time. Anyone whose parents read them The Ugly Duckling as a child knows one you shouldn’t judge people by the way they look.
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