Folger Shakespeare Library: Elvis and Tár — two films nominated for this year’s Academy Award for Best Picture —feature problematic protagonists who control their respective narratives. They evoke inevitable thoughts of Shakespeare’s Richard III (and several self-serving others), and also play with a Shakespearean level of performance where, in addition to taking place in musical worlds, characters put on costumes, airs, and postures to signify who they are.
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It’s definitely a distinctly Shakespearean energy to blur the lines between villain, hero, and narrator. Any compelling villain should be the hero of their own story and genuinely believe either that they are in the right, or being in the right does not matter. Iago in Othello hates Othello, and so taking him down, to him, is the right thing to do. Because the lines are so blurred (even though to an audience, it may be clear who’s right or wrong), this makes the decision of perspective for a story so interesting and multifaceted. A movie about Elvis could easily just be told from the perspective of Elvis, and it’s a fascinating choice to tell it from an unreliable narrator who would have reason to despise him and center blame on him. Ultimately, what the narrator wants the audience to think and what the writer wants the audience to think are two different things, and it’s so much more compelling when those two goals are in conflict.
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