The Marred Protagonist

Why does anything surprise us?

Like most of you by now, I was reading the recent open letter from the disgraced daughter who felt first hand the stigma and pain from the actions Jordan Belfort, the now even more infamous Wolf of Wall Street. Thanks in part to Scorsese’s latest outing with DiCaprio as his muse, Belfort’s escapades, fraud, and overall debauchery are taken from the pages of his memoirs and realized in living color. The open letter she writes is a call to Scorsese and all that made this film to remind them of the vast amount of devastation Belfort’s lifestyle and illegal practices caused among so many, her being one of them. The concern expressed in the letter is the film offering a level of glorification and recognition to that type of excess, while disregarding the fallout that goes just beyond the personal consequences of the Wolf. She makes a great point. There’s a simple problem though.

No one cares.

When it comes to the Marred Protagonist, no one cares about the 2nd tier consequences. Scoffing at this? Let’s see…Tony Soprano, Dexter Morgan, Don Draper, oh and Walter White. All Marred Protagonists that we find ourselves completely moving past their bad deeds. Thanks to crafty writing, plot development and where the camera points, we even find ourselves wishing the good guys get it in the end. We don’t care what the family of dead guy #3, or wife #2 has to feel, where they have to move, or how they end up, because it’s not what we’re after. Also, you wanna say that those are all fiction? Trust me, the lines between reality and fiction are blurred more than ever these days. A fact check of the events from Wolf showed that besides a few name changes, every event took place at some level. Not a film to date has captured events like this.

Fact or Fiction? Irrelevant.

We’ve also been conditioned over the past decade to be more tuned into the motivation of our villains and the ultimate demise of our heroes. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great story-telling. It’s probably been some of the best in a long-time for TV and film. The problem is, when it finally eeks it’s way out into the spotlight, we’ve expected it. No one is surprised. It’s par for the course. The issue of fallout is irrelevant. In fact, it’s a nuisance. A distraction to the overall story. So that’s where we’re at…

No one cares.

Although, leaving it at that is just as depressing as the season ender of lumberjack Dexter or Tony Soprano in a diner rocking out to Journey.

I could say something here about how we bear some responsibility or there are consequences to bad decisions…the ugly truth is, these stories will keep coming to light because in some weird way we take a little comfort in knowing that we’re not as bad as “that guy.” When our excess pails in comparison to “that guy’s” excess, we breathe a sigh of relief. That’s a slippery sliding scale though. It’s on the move and if we’re not careful The Wolf of Wall Street could be simply considered The Cute Cuddly Puppy of Wall Street in a very short time.