User blog:BigBadSquid/PE Proposal: Fagin



Speaking of villains who don't belong in light-hearted media.

What's the Work
War of the Birds (Fuglekrigen I Kanøfleskoven) is a 1990 Danish film about two sparrows, Olive and Olivia, and their mice friends, Frederick and Inglof, in their adventures around the forest enjoying their young lives... and their clash of survival against their parents' killer: the wicked vulture Fagin.

Who is Fagin? What has he done?
In a forest near an unnamed city (possibly ), lives a community of birds who live life happily under no threats; except for Fagin. Unlike the other predators of the forest who only kill to eat, Fagin is a sadist who enjoys killing birds even if he doesn't have to eat, for he simply enjoys doing it. The very first scene involves Fagin killing Oliver's parents and pushes their nest off the tree, with only one of their eggs saved. Betty the bluebird would adopt the egg that Oliver would hatch from, claiming that he will get rid of Fagin once he's older, as he's "not afraid of him".

Later in the film, Oliver would meet Olivia and the mice brothers who were also orphaned by Fagin, all sharing their goal to kill the vulture and avenge their parents' deaths. Fagin would appear once when he trapped Oliver and Olivia in a tin can and attempted to crush it only for a dog to chase him away.

Fagin also has a slave/minion in the form of a dove. It's very clear that he only keeps her alive to do his bidding and cares nothing about her, turning her into a shuttering wreak. Whenever Dove fails to do his orders, he abuses her such as slicing her chest when he discovers that she's been telling the children to make a trap that could kill him. While Dove warns Betty of the danger, Fagin attacks the children, taunting them for when he killed their parents. He knocks out Oliver but rathers toys with his unconscious body, giving Betty enough time to arrive and SLASH FAGIN'S EYE. Fagin would chase Betty into storm clouds and because she's never seen again, it's strongly implied that Fagin killed her.

Oliver's effort to stop Fagin went to vain, losing another mother to him. Winter comes, but Fagin returns for more, fully determined to kill Oliver and friends to avenge his eye. The mice use hay and matchsticks to set an abandoned shack on fire, with Oliver attempting to draw Fagin into the flames. But Fagin catches Oliver's strategy and snatches Olivia and tries to fly off, only for Oliver to peck Fagin, causing him to drop Olivia and instead grab Oliver. Dove, who was watching everything from afar, finally stands up for herself and attacks Fagin, forcing him to drop Oliver. As Dove attempts to pull Fagin into the fire, Fagin bites at Dove's wing, only for the fire to catch onto his wing and sends him and Dove into the fire where they burn to death.

Mitigating Factors
Nope. The film establishes Fagin as a sadistic murderer who kills others for the fun of it, and treats Dove like trash. Sure the film has a light-hearted tone (and some offensive material considering the Danish values such as that woodpecker giving the middle finger and multiple sexual innuendos during Armstrong and Olivia's songs), but every scene with Fagin is played pure dead seriously in contrast to the rest of the movie.

Heinous Standards
Well, he is the only villainous character in the movie, and dang does he easily pass the Game Changer criteria. Think about it, a serial killer in a movie about cute singing birds, who abuses his traumatized slave while attempting to kill and eat children. Other than the Danish, I don't know who else would come up with a vile villain like that.

Final Verdict
This polly doesn't want just a cracker, he wants to take the lives of four innocent children for the thrill. Even for a 30-year-old movie that's only an hour long, Fagin does enough to meet the criteria. Sounds like a keeper to me.