MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > What is the difference between, say, eh....

What is the difference between, say, eh...


... a hypocrite, and the kind of hypocrite who for instance does something wrong while protesting against another person doing something wrong and someone who say was simply wrong and did wrong but had few redeeming qualities when they did something right? And if we mention film examples...

In the Quentin Tarantino's multiple-award-winning 90s classic "Pulp Fiction" (1994), is Samuel L.Jackson's character, who earlier killed people, but later stopped a robbery in the restaurant and found redemption, a hypocrite? Or is he, say, a bad man who later did some good and redeemed himself?

In the film "Straw Dogs" (1971) by Sam Peckinpah, sorry for the sensitive subjects, are those villagers hypocrites for doing that terrible deed to Susan George's character BUT later hunt down the "pervert" Henry Niles who also, by the way, earlier strangled a girl? (One reviewer on imdb in 2000 claimed that, yes, they were hypocrites.)

Is Alex DeLarge in Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) a hypocrite in any way in his actions in the movie? (I would argue at least sometimes he is, yeah).

One of my controversially favorite sacred cow subjects in cinema. Are female characters who did say bad deeds to men also hypocritical, including any "double standard-oriented" scenarios? Is Glenn Close's character in "Fatal Attraction" (1987) one at all, come to think of it, is Michael Douglas'?

What about that man in the great New Zealand drama "Once Were Warriors" (1994) who beats up his wife and then later deservedly beats up a man who molested his daughter? Hypocrite or a redeemable figure?

Cheers, thanks.

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Hypocrite has been misused too often, especially in modern society where people toss it around as an insult. Hypocrite is purely a person who is currently espousing beliefs that he/she does not follow.

In your first example, the "hypocrisy" seems to be that bad people can't do good things. Now, if Jackson went and robbed a store right after stopping that robbery (especially if he preached on about how bad robbery was) then he'd be a Hypocrite. Having killed people earlier has absolutely nothing to do with robbery though, he could be a drug dealer who doesn't believe in letting people rob stores... the only thing that matters are his beliefs on robbing stores, nothing else.

If I understand the situation correctly, the villagers raped a girl and pegged the blame on Henry Niles... where is the hypocrisy?

Don't know about the clockwork orange.

You seem to be referencing a femme fatal, but again failed to explain what the hypocrisy actually is. Is she saying that doing bad things to men is bad and doing them anyways, or just complaining about how hard life is and stepping on the men to get what she desires? I'd argue that the double standard isn't an example of hypocrisy, it just shows that what is being argued for isn't equality but instead a shift in social power.*

*Though, I'd concede repeatedly claiming that you want equality when what you really want is a shift in social power is hypocritical, and that many individual arguments can be shown to be hypocritical (such as with circumcision arguments, if genital mutilation is bad then it should be bad regardless of what sex you are)... but in general what is actually preached is that only female genital mutilation is bad and that male genital mutilation is perfectly fine. Or that only women need some law change and men don't. The hypocrisy happens when you use the same argument made by the feminists in support of a male issue, since you'll see the same attacks masculinists make against feminist arguments being made.

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Actually, in Straw Dogs, the villagers, at least two of them, raped Susan George's Amy character, but went after Henry Niles who they thought was a child molester who earlier, at least as shown in the film, also killed a teenage girl.

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Sorry for all or at least one of the disturbing albeit cinematic details. Although perhaps not for the first time here at least, from me.

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I had tried to find the review you referenced from that, only found one review which had the word hypocritical in it, though in a different context. I don't honestly see why people need a trigger warning, rape is a natural phenomena, as is murder. Pretending it doesn't happen doesn't change anything.

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Now that you mention it, the English language is missing a word!

So a hypocrite is someone who goes around claiming to do and believe in good things, but who actually does bad things, or things they've just said are bad. But there's no word for someone who does bad things or claims to be bad, and then turns around and does something good!

Well, there's "anti-hero", but that's only used to describe fictional characters, and leading characters as that. There's no word for fictional supporting characters who turn around and do good stuff to everyone's surprise, or for a real-life bad person who does something good once in a while.

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These people are evil, but aren't claiming to be anything else. So when they do a good deed, they're just trolling. They're still sociopaths, and wear it with pride.

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if we allow that among humans, there is a large variation in behavior, that people who do bad things , large & small, may also do good or even heroic things, large and small - then the complexity is addressed.

hypocrisy may be understood as, at least, among :

professing one thing while doing another :
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/secret-gay-life-married-family-values-lawmaker-was-not-so-n823056

projecting a conventionally 'upright' image while being, in practice, a villain :
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/nyregion/13madoff.html

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In A Clockwork Orange the "reformed" Alex was the product of psychological reconditioning. If I recall correctly, he voluntarily submitted to the treatment because he saw this as a way out of prison. I never got the impression that he did it out of remorse.

When he became repulsed by violence, it was the treatment kicking in, not because he now saw these actions as immoral. I guess he could be considered a hypocrite.

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