Great films where"bad"or "evil" triumphs over "good"?

sxt

Are there any great films in this category ?

"No Country for old men" is the only one I can think of, and even at that, it was ambiguous

Cetyl Palmitate

There will be blood. Both main characters are evil i suppose but 1 trimuphs over the other

RobbingBandit

The Devil's Advocate

Pacino was down right evil incarnate

growleaves

I rewatched NCFOM a few days ago. I doubt it would have been accepted as a great work of art by e.g. Tolstoy, if he could have seen it, because the overall effect by the end is of being bludgeoned over the head with chaos and meaninglessness.

Even though the artistry of the film is very great the moral or metaphysical effect is strange and sort-of wrong.

Like *spoiler alert* the way in which the viewer finds out that Moss has been killed by the Mexicans is presented in a way that is extremely nihilistic - on purpose of course. Quite original too.

I think is key to why the Sheriff feels overwhelmed by evil. He has enough religious feeling to expect to meet his father in the afterlife but not enough to see extreme wickedness the way a medieval knight would have seen it - as a sort of ungodly force that doesn't need rational categorisation.

Soupy2

Fallen with Denzel Washington

Alter_Ego

Here are two I enjoyed:

The Devil All The Time

Only God Forgives

growleaves

I'm not sure if it counts as a "triumph", since in the last frame he's filled with remorse, but Michael Corleone wins against all his enemies in 'The Godfather Part II' including law enforcement (FBI) and the US Senate.

He seems to know how evil he is and it weighs on him all the time.

Pauline Kael wrote in her 1974 review "When Michael see Cuban children begging outside his car he knows what he has become: a predator on human weakness"

Mike Murdock

Se7en

John Doe wins in the end.

magicbastarder

Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown.

Ten of Swords

Arlington Road

About domestic terrorism in America, bad guys win and good guy is posthumously blamed as a lone wolf

mcsean2163

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118803463#Comment_118803463

Only God Forgives

He gets his hands chopped off, hardly a triumph..

silverharp

Nightcrawler

trashcan

one that comes to mind for me is The Last Seduction. Not that well known, I don’t think. Many years since I saw it. Linda Florentina plays a very bad gal, who triumphs in the end.

Padraig Mor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118803769#Comment_118803769

Fantastic show! She's such a goddamn bitch, in the best way possible.

Mongfinder General

Michael Collins. Depending on which side of the treaty you’re on…

mikethecop

Usual suspects surely , Kiser walks away in the end

Alien, Aliens etc, here always seems to be another one

callaway92

Don’t Breathe

Great movie too (sequel awful)

gameoverdude

Jadoville(ccob) or empire strikes back?

tony1kenobi

The Omen.

Slydice

Hrmm..strugging to try and think of some and why they might fit.

Nineteen Eighty-Four - Totalitarian State

Requiem for a Dream - Addiction

Garage (with Pat Shortt as the lead) - Depression / Hopelessness / Suicide

Valkyrie - based on an attempt to kill Hitler that didn't succeed

End of Watch - Cop killed in Ambush

bodhrandude

Well watched Race with the Devil recently, quite dated now but that brilliant ending with the rectangle of fire.

JohnFalstaff

There's a fair few horror films that would qualify. Off the top of my head films like The Wicker Man, The Omen, Kill List, and Hereditary would all fit the bill.

enfant terrible

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118803484#Comment_118803484

Do you think that was the best head Morgan Freeman ever got?

flasher0030

Flight 93

loyatemu

A Clockwork Orange - they dropped the original ending of the novel, which gives the film a somewhat pessimistic outlook (Kubrick, of course).

Manach

Avatar - I was rooting for the Terran Space Marines all the way.

dybbuk

Election (1999 with Reese Witherspoon)

and

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

too

dybbuk

depending on how one feels about Sigourney Weaver:

Alien

might qualify..

FortuneChip

Loved the outcome in Watchmen.

Not necessarily evil triumphing, given that they're all doing the right thing by their own perspective, but yeah.

Others mentioned, Se7en, Usual Suspects. Fight Club in a way, the plan works.

The Empire Strikes Back

silliussoddius

The Boys from Brazil, or does it.

Any Korean film ever made.

Stone Deaf 4evr

Primal Fear with Ed Norton and Richard Gere, was on a few weeks back, and its a very watchable film.

barrymanilow

The Mission with Robert De Niro . Baddies win

Tom Mann Centuria

The Dutch film Spoorloos, remade as The Vanishing. Bad triumphs in that one.

El Gato De Negocios

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Not the traditional good vs bad but Nurse Ratchet was an absolute c**t.

Silence of the Lambs, sort of.

2smiggy

Midsommar , thou I did not really like the American Students anyway, thou they were not evil !!

itac

Look Who’s back/Er ist Weider da is an interesting one that I feel fits the bill. Hitler arrives back in 2012 to a world of social media and tabloid - an unsettlingly brilliant look at the world we’re in, and whether you can differentiate between evil/monsters in society and everyday “normal” folk.

https://youtu.be/40zcGhvekhs

Akrasia

Braveheart. Despite the bs voiceover at the end

Although having watched it again as an adult, it's a pretty terrible movie

jolivmmx

The Ring 1

Blud

The Chinese version of Fight Club

hynesie08

Karate kid, it was an illegal kick.

2smiggy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118822023#Comment_118822023

and after watching Cobra Kai , it seemed Johnny was the good guy all along !!

Ravenholm

Fallen (1998) Denzel Washington, John Goodman

Excellent movie which imho didn't get the recognition it deserved.

Greyfox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118821991#Comment_118821991

Braveheart is a contender for the best film ever, absolute epic emotional rollocoaster. It's been 27 years and still no film has better battle scenes, a very entertaining story.

Infinity war is my pick

osarusan

Crimes and Misdemeanours.

Ophthalmologist arranges for hitman to kill his mistress when she threatens to reveal things to his wife.

He is initially wracked with guilt, but eventually justs gets over it and goes on with his life, happy with his wife.

bnt

Another vote for Election here. Reese Witherspoon is genuinely scary here, not in a physical sense but in what her character could become if given the chance.

Is Ender’s Game a great film? I can’t quite separate it mentally from the book. It may be mostly set in outer space, but what happens at the end has lessons for Earth-sized conflicts too.