What makes a man o a woman became a hero or a villain? Is it some specific physical feature? A special kind of temperament or personality, may be charisma? Is it a certain style of walking, speaking or relating with people? Or is it a particular life story behind them that can always explain the way they behave? Probably, all of the aforementioned aspects should be taken into account if the purest hero and the evilest villain are going to be created by an artist. Nevertheless, the complete idea of these two essential characters for almost any movie in the world should be completed with the image that will define each part, symbolizing the good and evil in the movie. And probably, one of the most important factors of this entire image that define each side of the antagonism between what represents the good things and the bad things are COLORS.
“Blades of Glory” and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” represent completely different styles of movies. The first one is a comedy, with a big emphasis in funny and ridicules situations. The analyzed scene happened in the National Sky Competition in Montreal. Two men, who were rival ice skaters in the past, are supposed to performance as a couple against the evil villains of the movie. They experiment a failure starting, but a feeling of friendship and collaboration emerge between them and they finally achieve a good performance. Meanwhile, the villains, the competitor couple, reflect feelings of anger as soon as they realize that the public love this strange couple of ice skater.
On the other hand, the second movie represents a fantasy world of wizards, based in a deeper plot than the first one. The analyzed scene for this movie is represented in the headmistress’ office at Hogwarts, where the young wizard, Harry Potter, is going to be punished by this evil woman. In a very calm mood, she gives him a paper and a very particular feather to write down as many times as possible “I am not supposed to lie”. While writing, Potter starts feeling pain, because he is actually writing with his own blood.
Even when the first impression is that these two movies have nothing in common, it is possible to find at least one coincident aspect that makes both movies comparable: each of them has its own heroes and villains, of course, represented in a completely different ways. The first two heroes, the men ice skaters, who used to be rivals, are represented in red color as the fire, and light blue color as the water. The colors used by these two men represent opposite elements. Red and light blue, fire and water, passion and serenity, are supposed to match in this first tournament as a couple, and they do it. On the other hand, the villains, the couple represented in dark blue and gold colors, wearing accessories with the dollar sign, symbolizes ambition, power and the desire to see their competitors failing in their performance.
The second movie has its undisputed hero, Harry Potter, wearing black during this scene, while the villain is in pink, as well as her office, decorated in a kitschy and romantic style. In this case, the good is represented in black, while the evil is represented in pink and nice kitties all around her.
It seems to be that in the first movie, heroes and villains are represented in a more literally way than in the second, especially thinking about the meaning of the colors in my own country. Red color is actually related with passion in Argentina, and who is in red seems to have the strongest and passionate personality. Whereas, blue color is related to calmness in my country, and in fact, who wears light blue suit seems to be more sensitive and romantic personality. Regarding the villains, they are wearing dark and golden suits, which in my country are actually related to negativity and fortune respectively. However, Harry Potter´s scene is presented, let´s say, in a less orthodox way, according to the meaning of the colors in Argentina. In fact, it could be possible to say that if we try to see the same scene without sound, without the dialogue, for my culture can represent a complete different situation, or even the opposite one: the kind lady in pink, a color related with love in my culture, who likes innocent kitties and have a very polite way of behavior, could be seen as the hero, while Harry Potter, the boy in black tunic, with a angry look in his eyes, could be interpreted as the villain.
Heroes and villains can be represented in different ways depending not only on the particular culture, but also on the individual background of the person who gives them life. But what is out of discussion is that heroes –even the antiheroes such as those in “Blades of Glory”- an villains are almost an essential component of any movie, and the visual impact generated by the antagonism caused by the colors chosen to represent good and evil, are fundamental for a better construction of this characters.
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