The Villain's Mask: The Hero Hiding in Plain Sight
4 Steps to Changing a ‘Good vs. Evil’ Mindset
Published in
6 min readOct 16, 2023
“What were you expecting? A monster?”
— George Higgins (played by James Gandolfini) after removing his mask for the first time.
(From the 1999 movie, 8MM, starring Nicholas Cage)
YES, I was expecting a monster.
After all, the character in 8MM who asks this question committed a monstrous act.
He raped and killed an innocent girl. He filmed the dastardly act as it was happening.
Other people paid money to view the film. A film, may I remind you, whose central plot was the rape and murder of a teenage girl.
So, YES, a monster is EXACTLY what I was expecting.
Since I was a little girl, I visualized the enemy, a.k.a. — the bad guy/monster, as a mean-looking, sinister villain who secretly crept about the city, waiting to catch me at my most vulnerable moment.
Reality, however, is different.
