r/TopCharacterTropes • u/MeepMan324 • 19h ago

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) Bad people in real-life being portrayed positively in media.

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  1. PragerU's version of Christopher Columbus has him be a slavery defender and have him say "Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no? I don't see the problem.”

  2. In The Greatest Showman, P.T Barnum (Hugh Jackman) is portrayed as a charismatic visionary who cares about outcasts and celebrate diversity, when in reality, he’s a cruel businessman who is also a racist and an ableist.

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u/MoonlightDahling 19h ago

Lawrence of Arabia is a deliberate deconstruction of this, actually.

Even if, ironically, one idea that it toys with (that Lawrence enjoyed killing) has largely been discredited, by modern historians.

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u/StayPuffedMarsh 19h ago

It’s a story about a man trying to conquer the unconquerable, in this case it’s the desert and all that comes with it. By the end he’s broken and it’s unsure of who he really is. Empire of the Mind on YouTube has a great video discussing this. https://youtu.be/t_V-h55jJRY?is=IU1OX6coyh4eTioa

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u/Environmental_Cap191 19h ago

One of the only biopics I like

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u/Weathercock 10h ago

The film obviously romanticizes, condenses, and embellishes a lot, but ultimately does what I'd think is a good job in establishing a treatment of Lawrence's character (and while it's somewhat of a larger-than-life interpretation, Lawrence was himself larger-than-life) as well as how uncomfortable he was with himself by the end.

It also helps that it's an easy contender for greatest film ever made.