User blog:SW10048/Pure Evil Proposal: Wilhelm Tanz

What's The Work?
The Night Of The Generals, a 1967 mystery film starring Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif. Basically, Nazi official Lieutenant General Grau investigates the brutal murder of a prostitute. After a second is killed, Grau discovers the culprit: Wilhelm Tanz, a fellow Nazi general and raving lunatic and war criminal.

What Has He Done?
As a Nazi commander infamous for his callousness and high casualty rates, he plans to raze Warsaw if he faces even the slightest resistance. Then, one of his men is killed by a sniper and he orders flamethrowers and tanks to destroy Warsaw, killing God only knows how many civilians. A Polish prostitute is then raped and brutally murdered; as mentioned above, Tanz is responsible, and later kills a second one after he thinks Grau is out of the way. Then he frames his chauffeur for the crimes. Grau still figures out it was him, but Tanz shoots him dead and covers it up by framing him as one of the 20th July plotters. After the war, Tanz is convicted of war crimes, and after being released, he rapes and murders yet another woman. This results in his downfall, as investigators find the guy he framed and confront him with evidence of his crimes, causing him to commit suicide rather than be faced with a public trial.

Heinous Standards
He's the main villain, so he sets it.

MEH Crossed?
I'd say killing all those civilians and raping and murdering three women qualifies as crossing the MEH.

Freudian Excuse?
Nothing is known about his past, and nothing justifies war crimes and sex killings anyway.

No Sympathy?
None.

Redeeming Qualities?
None.

Verdict?
Definitely Pure Evil.