Mish Mash 13 (Faceless Holes, Crossdressing Commander Krill, Useless Margo, Faceless Henchmen)

Faceless Holes

Does anyone know why in The Man Without a Face Mel Gibson makes Nick Stahl (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) dig square and triangular holes as part of the tutoring?  I mean I know Gibson’s trying to teach about calculating volumes ‘n shit but the holes don’t come back around later like Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid showing Daniel he had been learning martial arts all along with the various assigned chores.  There isn’t a lightbulb moment where Stahl realizes the digging and filling in of the holes was actually time well spent because he learned a lesson.  We don’t even know if he correctly dug them to Gibson’s requested specifications.  So this kinda just comes off like child manual labor to me.

Crossdressing Commander Krill

Commander Krill (Gary Busey) definitely did not need to dress up as a woman during the captain’s party in Under Siege.  He wasn’t trying to go incognito and sneak past people or fool folks into thinking it wasn’t him.  By the time he gets to the captain’s quarters his wig is off so the silly time is over quickly.  It wasn’t misdirection either because we don’t see anyone smuggle anything past the officers at the party.  And if you say Krill needed the wig to conceal the gun he used to kill the captain with I don’t buy it.  He could’ve put anything over the gun to hide it like a jacket or a hat.  Did Krill dress up for shock value to temporarily distract the captain before murdering him?  That also doesn’t make sense because Krill doesn’t shoot the captain immediately.  He takes the time to deliver one last line before the assassination.  Plus it isn’t setup that the captain is always armed and ready for an attack.  So then what was the point of Krill cross dressing?  If you take it out of the movie nothing changes.  I guess it was purely to have some fun with the audience?

Useless Margo

Along the same lines as the previous section in Big Trouble in Little China Margo (Kate Burton (127 Hours)) is a completely unnecessary character.  She doesn’t help in any way by possessing unique knowledge, fighting off bad guys or doing any other goddamn thing at any goddamn time.  At some point the filmmakers must’ve realized this plus the fact that they already had two damsels in distress (Miao Yin and Gracie Law) because they sideline her ass for the third act.  I can’t believe it took me this long to see how much of a useless character she is.  If you took her out nothing would change.

Faceless Henchmen

Faceless henchmen have always been around.  You can go back to the stormtroopers in Star Wars or the king’s forces in The Adventures of Robin Hood to find a boatload of baddies being killed like it’s the easiest thing in the world.  They’re setup for us to believe that their lives aren’t worth a damn, or that they’re not even real people.

Things changed in the 80’s and 90’s though where we actually got to know our main villain’s henchmen.  Maybe we couldn’t tell you all their names but we would recognize their faces and they may have even had a few lines of dialogue.  Think back to Die Hard, Out for Justice and Robocop, we know these henchmen.  Of course not every movie made during that time was like that.  Commando, The Matrix, Cobra and True Lies all feature faceless henchmen, generic men that only show up on screen to get mowed down in an instant.

My recent viewings of Logan and John Wick: Chapter 2 got me thinking about the whole faceless henchmen thing because both have them.  And I realized I generally prefer to get acquainted with a bad guy’s crew.  It might seem insignificant but that extra touch can go a long way.  It should get you more invested in the story and characters which is nice.  So I say give these henchmen faces and personalities.  They’re out there dying for us.  It’s the least we can do.