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filmfann's avatar

Can we name movies, based on real people, where someone is shown as a good guy in one, and bad guy in the other?

Asked by filmfann (52515points) October 3rd, 2021

For example, They Died With Their Boots On and Little Big Man show Custer in opposite lights.

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18 Answers

rebbel's avatar

Can you give one more example?
With more known movies?
Please?

JLoon's avatar

Not exactly good guy/ bad guy, but JFK -

In Kennedy (1983):
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0085044/

and in season 2 of The Crown (2017) :
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5157747/The-Crown-depicts-JFK-jealous-drug-addict.html

Brian1946's avatar

The KKK: “good” guys in Birth of a Nation, bad guys in Mississippi Burning, A Time to Kill, Blazing Saddles, and just about every other movie in which they’re mentioned.

Brian1946's avatar

The Joker: Bad guy in all the Batguy movies. “Good” guy for about 2 hours in Suicide Squad (2016).

Whoops- just discovered that the Joker is not a real person. :p

kneesox's avatar

Well, we get two different Henry II’s in Lion in Winter and Becket. Interestingly, played both times by Peter O’Toole.

ragingloli's avatar

Superman.
Good guy in most films, bad guy in the Injustice game.

Mimishu1995's avatar

@Brian1946 you forgot 2019 Joker. He is basically a victim of society.

Mimishu1995's avatar

To answer the question, the Patriots. Apparently this movie wants to portray them as some crazy hooligans.

Brian1946's avatar

@Mimishu1995

I thought about him, and I agree that he was a VoS, but he was just one teeny weeny little assassination past my good guy-bad guy dividing line. ;-)

However, given your avatar, I can see where that would make him a good guy to you. :p

Mimishu1995's avatar

@Brian yeah. I can see that some of his behavior isn’t exactly saintly either like that time when he chases a guy to shoot him after his friends beat him up, even though the guy is obviously running away in terror. The movie tries to make him all innocent though :P

Brian1946's avatar

@Mimishu1995

Did he shoot any of the other guys that beat him up?

Mimishu1995's avatar

@Brian yes. He kills all of them. Then when the final guy gets so scared and runs away he chases after him and empties his cartridge.

I was rooting for him all the way. But then that scene happened and I lost a lot of my sympathy for him.

Nomore_lockout's avatar

I might possibly have my Kings mixed up. But I believe Edward III of England has been portrayed both ways in film, as @kneesox has stated that Henry II has been. In The Black Rose, an old Tyrone Power swashbuckler about a sort of an English Marco Polo, he is portrayed a a decent monarch. In Brabeheart, he is portrayed as a psycho asshole, more the accepted version of the “Hammer of the Scots”. Call it poetic licence I suppose.
.

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

It’s not good and bad, but it is two sides in opposition – Clint Eastwood’s two films about Iwo Jima, seen from the American and Japanese vantages. The movies show the perspective from both sides, and you see how everyone thought they were good guys doing their best:

The Guardian – Wed 20 Dec 2006 – Hollywood resurrects the two sides of Japan’s forgotten battle

Audio interview:
NPR – January 2007 – Actor and director Clint Eastwood’s most recent films, Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers, examine the World War II battle for the island of Iwo Jima from competing perspectives.

Forever_Free's avatar

Just a few in the list about Adolf Hitler

Pro
Triumph of the Will.
Satire
Look Who’s Back
Con
Downfall

LuckyGuy's avatar

In Breaking Bad, Brian Cranston changes more times than the Terminator.

Pied_Pfeffer's avatar

I’m going to take a wild guess here on two films.

“Patton” was fascinating and made him look obsessive in his desires. There must be other films that paint a prettier picture.

“The Wizard of Oz”. The wicked witch of the west was evil. Have they made a movie yet based on the book “Wicked”? THAT paints a story of her real character.

filmfann's avatar

In Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens (played by Tommy Lee Jones) is a well intentioned good guy.
In Tennessee Johnson, Stevens (played by Lionel Barrymore) is an evil, power hungry conniving monster.

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