In my screenplay "Bordertown," a candidate for the governership of a Mexican border state, Chubasco, is assassinated for suppporting Mexico's particiaption in an anti-narcotics air-fleet under Pentagon command.
General Osorio, the local army commandante who orders the assiassination, is one of the script's two major villains, the other being the former DFS commander behind the Tlatelolco Massacre. I got the idea for Osorio, when I read about General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, the Mexican Drug Czar convicted of drug trafficking. The real Gutierrez is an ugly bald Telly Savalas-looking motherfucker. He was busted after it was discovered his mistress was living in an apartment owned by Juarez Cartel padrino Amado Carillo Fuentes, AKA El Seor del los Cielos (The Lord of the Skies). Carillo died during plastic surgery to disguise his appearance from the authorities. He's the basis for a character in Robert Rodriguez' "Once Upon a Time in Mexico."
Anyway, Osorio has to be a three diminsional character. I don't want him to be a cartoon villain, like the Frito Bandito. I don't have a real clear impression of him yet, except that he should bear some physical manifestation of who he is inside. Like the film characters who have a limp to show they're emotional cripples (e.g., Piper Laurie's character in "The Hustler"). Here, Osorio only busts traffickers associated with Coromuel Cartel, leaving alone the Chubasco Cartel, from whom he receives protection payments. Thus, he should have a glass eye, with which he can turn a "blind eye" to the Chubasco Cartel's activities.
Aside from that, I think Osorio, the general charged with drug interdiction, should be a drug addict. I could have him chain-smoking crack-laced cigarettes throughout the script. As his addiction worsens, his behaviour becomes increasingly bizarre.
If you have any ideas, about this character in particular, or about the script in general, let me know. I'd really appreciate your help.
General Osorio, the local army commandante who orders the assiassination, is one of the script's two major villains, the other being the former DFS commander behind the Tlatelolco Massacre. I got the idea for Osorio, when I read about General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, the Mexican Drug Czar convicted of drug trafficking. The real Gutierrez is an ugly bald Telly Savalas-looking motherfucker. He was busted after it was discovered his mistress was living in an apartment owned by Juarez Cartel padrino Amado Carillo Fuentes, AKA El Seor del los Cielos (The Lord of the Skies). Carillo died during plastic surgery to disguise his appearance from the authorities. He's the basis for a character in Robert Rodriguez' "Once Upon a Time in Mexico."
Anyway, Osorio has to be a three diminsional character. I don't want him to be a cartoon villain, like the Frito Bandito. I don't have a real clear impression of him yet, except that he should bear some physical manifestation of who he is inside. Like the film characters who have a limp to show they're emotional cripples (e.g., Piper Laurie's character in "The Hustler"). Here, Osorio only busts traffickers associated with Coromuel Cartel, leaving alone the Chubasco Cartel, from whom he receives protection payments. Thus, he should have a glass eye, with which he can turn a "blind eye" to the Chubasco Cartel's activities.
Aside from that, I think Osorio, the general charged with drug interdiction, should be a drug addict. I could have him chain-smoking crack-laced cigarettes throughout the script. As his addiction worsens, his behaviour becomes increasingly bizarre.
If you have any ideas, about this character in particular, or about the script in general, let me know. I'd really appreciate your help.
[Edited on Dec 21, 2005 6:29PM]
I read something a while back about Nazi soldiers during WWII, and that while many of them were indeed wrapped up in the ridiculousness of the whole Nazi party thing, a lot of them were simply soldiers who were going to work every day to put food on the tables for their wives and children. This made their apparent lack of humanity towards their concentration-camp prisoners, and the Allied forces, that much more disturbing...
I also read somewhere, about the fact that while the cartels in South America were ruthlessly cruel and murderous to their competition and people trying to shut them down in the 70s and 80s, they were extremely generous, sometimes to a fault, with the local and surrounding communities, using cash out of their pockets to build schools and hospitals...
I don't know. You said you didn't want him to be a simple cartoony, one-dimensional type of character. I personally find characters who aren't really "villains" (in the purest sense of the word), yet find themselves and their goals to be completely at odds with someone else, to be much more interesting in the long run... They actually believe in what they're doing, they personally have some sort of internal drive behind their actions, a personal investment, rather than simply serving as a foil to the main character, or protagonist...
Find some way to link him to the candidate picked to be assassinated. Make it personal, moreso than simply as a threat to "business". Give him a reason not to do it, and then when it does finally happen, then maybe that action will have even more impact.
Think about the scene in the Godfather, when Michael has Fredo killed. It's such a simple thing for a director and screenwriter to sit down and do, yet it had such an impact on the story... The whole "kiss scene" at the party? Yep. That's the kind of impact I'm thinking of...
Sorry this turned out to be so long... I don't even know what I'm talking about, really. That's just what happened to pop into my head right now... See ya.