Yes, but again it's easier to type than "lead characters" or indeed "protagonists". I also put the word in quotation marks as you're right: none of them are heroes. I know it's wrong but I do tend to use the terms interchangeably. This is why I'm not writing for Sight and Sound.Bearded Avenger wrote:Surely this arguement can be ended by pointing out that there were no 'heroes' in either films, but rather protagonists. which is the whole point surely.
But I think really TGEORC loses out on technical levels - such as the decision to use takes lasting five minutes in which not much happens. I don't understand why a director would want to deliberately handicap himself like that - it's like deciding to use no music or no dialogue, to make life more difficult. Here there's damn all in the way of editing but it's a crucial tool, especially if your material isn't up to much and needs all the help it can get. Long takes are fine - mesmerising - if it's something like a Gene Kelly dance number or a dePalma tracking shot (or an eyeball skewered on a door splinter!). But a group of youths standing around mumbling? I can understand the steady, dispassionate, unblinking gaze working for something like the final assault in TGEORC; it points up the horror as it abandons all the tricks and just watches.
