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Assassins

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Film:

  • Complete Monster: Miguel Bain stands in marked contrast to protagonist Robert Rath. While Rath has standards about the sort of people he assassinates and abhors hurting innocents, Bain has a penchant for indiscriminately slaughtering everyone who gets in his way. In the first mission we see him on, he kills the target and his bodyguards, then kills several police officers to escape from custody. When Rath later traps him in the back of a car, Bain prepares to snipe a nearby child to make Rath back down. During an exchange between a hacker named Electra and a group of Dutch clients who turn out to be Interpol agents, he blows away every agent and bystander he runs into and promises Electra that he'll personally cut out her heart. Rath saves Electra, but not before Bain kills Electra's two downstairs neighbours for no real reason. Bain eventually reaches an understanding with his anonymous employer to kill Rath himself, whom he perceives as an irritating rival. Even when Rath offers Bain the opportunity to part ways peacefully at the end, he elects to kill both Rath and Electra instead (because as long as Rath is still alive, Bain will never feel like he earned the position of number-one assassin). Having no regard for any life he takes, Bain became a contract killer largely for glory and thrills.
  • Director Displacement: This was The Wachowskis' first script (until it got changed), but Richard Donner directed.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Banderas meets Stallone again in 2013, but this time, his character is a far more friendly Psycho Party Member, being a Cloudcuckoolander with a Motor Mouth, who manages to save Stallone's character from the Big Bad's mooks several times.
  • Memetic Mutation: The scene where Miguel checks his computer has become a popular reaction GIF in the discussions about gaming news.
  • Narm:
    • Bain snapping the neck of a police officer just using one hand, making one wonder just how fragile that officer's spine must been if his head pulled sharply to one direction is enough to snap it.
    • Bain's breakdown scenes came out as hilarious due to Banderas's over the top delivery: "Shit! Fuck! Motherfucker!"
  • Questionable Casting: Several reviewers found Electra, played by the conventionally attractive Julianne Moore, to be unbelievable as a reclusive hacker, particularly since her character makes some fundamental mistakes in the film, like bringing her pet cat to to secret deals, and going sightseeing even when an assassin is tracking her.

Theatre:

  • Alternate Character Interpretation:
    • Depending on the route the director and actors involved take, the Balladeer can come off either as a pompous, smug, condescending prick who got what was coming to him, or simply as a naive Wide-Eyed Idealist who's in way over his head. If they take the former route, the Balladeer being turned into Oswald comes off as karma. If they take the latter, it just comes off as tragic.
      • Is the Balladeer an annoying Wide-Eyed Idealist who's hopelessly naive about the nature of the so-called "American Dream", who shouldn't judge the assassins so harshly and be so quick to dismiss them? Or is he just annoying because he's right? As he points out in "Another National Anthem", none of the assassins actually got what they wanted in the end.
    • Exactly how sympathetic the assassins are portrayed varies from production to production. (Czolgosz usually gets the most sympathy, though.)
  • Audience-Alienating Premise: Needless to say, a musical about almost every presidential assassin in American history singing about killing the president (not to mention the show's loosely structured Anachronic Order) was a tough sell for audiences back in 1991, dark political themes aside, with reviews generally skewing towards "a very oddly implemented idea" to outright being in poor taste or making fun of the situation. It's since become Vindicated by History enough to have several revival runs and has a strong cult following among Sondheim fans.
  • Award Snub: The Tonys' decision to categorize Assassins as a revival and not an original show at the 2004 Tonys has been rather controversial, as the general practice before and since the decision was/has been that Broadway productions are only considered revivals if they originally premiered on Broadway. With that being said, while it couldn't compete the for Musical, Score, or Book, it did quite well that year, winning the Tonys for Revival, Director (Joe Mantello), and Featured Actor (Michael Cerveris) among other accolades. Of course, given this success, a case can be made that Stephen Sondheim's music and lyrics, John Weidman's libretto, and the show itself in the top category all would've had a strong shot at winning if deemed eligible, which makes the snub even bigger.
  • Broken Base:
    • 1991 or 2004? Pretty much every difference between the two versions is a subject of controversy, from the cast to the increased role of the Proprietor to the balladeer being Lee Harvey Oswald. Even the addition of "Something Just Broke," though generally a welcome addition, has its share of detractors who say that throwing a sincere song about grief from the perspective of ordinary Americans into a black comedy about the assassins causes too much Mood Whiplash. Pretty much the only thing most people agree on about the 2004 production is that Denis O'Hare is quite possibly the best Guiteau in the show's history.
    • "Something Just Broke". Some hate the number, even if they think it's a good piece of music on its own, as they believe the show should stay focused on the assassins and that we don't need to experience normal people's suffering to realize that the main characters are bad people. On the other side, fans of the song say that it absolutely is necessary, believing that you can't spend all this time showing the crimes of the assassins without showing the heartbreak and fallout of the common man in response, and that the song is what truly drives home just how dangerous these men and women are (especially in how it acts as a contrast to the primarily comedic "How I Saved Roosevelt", where the civilians each try to take credit for saving the president since he wasn't injured). The fact that the song wasn't in the original off-Broadway production (it was written for the 1992 London premiere) and was originally optional had been brought up by the former camp, while the latter camp points to the song now being legally uncuttable and the writing team standing by it (Sondheim wrote that "it is not only necessary, it is essential.")
  • Can't Un-Hear It:
    • Depending on who you ask, either Victor Garber or Michael Cerveris as John Wilkes Booth.
    • Dennis O'Hare as Charles Guiteau.
  • Crosses the Line Twice:
    • Sarah Jane Moore pointing a gun at her son? Terrifying. Sarah Jane Moore pointing a gun at her son to get him to stop whining about ice cream? Hilarious.
    • Moore and Fromme plotting to assassinate Gerald Ford? Disturbing. Moore and Fromme planning to assassinate Gerald Ford while getting stoned and shooting a bucket of chicken? Hilarious.
    • Even though you know the subject coming in, The Proprietor blurting out "Come here and kill a president" can get a laugh just because of how forthright he is. Stephen Sondheim specifically said it was designed to make the audience feel unsure of whether or not they should be laughing or feeling uncomfortable.
    • After Zangara rattles on about all the ways he tried in vain to fix his stomach, Booth's blunt, out of nowhere reply of "Have you considered shooting Franklin Roosevelt?" always gets a laugh.
  • Cry for the Devil:
    • The three ballads are used effectively in this way, but the one that seems to get the audience's sympathy most is "The Ballad of Czolgosz," along with Czolgosz's solo from "Gun Song" that leads into it, where assassin Leon Czolgosz's motivations are stated clearly: he was a lonely man, who all throughout his life had lived in poverty and misery for reasons beyond his control, so he killed big business president Bill McKinley to "take control of his fate".
    • Despite Booth's sympathy level going way down when he blurts out that racism was his real reason for wanting to kill Lincoln, his heartbreak over all the deaths of his Southern brethren is genuine enough that we felt for him before his Precision F-Strike, even knowing he's already committed his famous crime.
  • Cult Classic: Let's face it: a Black Comedy musical about presidential assassins was never going to be a smash hit. Predictably, it initially met rather negative reviews and ran for only 72 performances in its original off-Broadway run. Since then, it has been Vindicated by History to an extent, but it's still the sort of show that you're far more likely to have heard of from a friend or read about in a biographical blurb on Sondheim than to have actually read. It does have a small but loyal following, however, and many consider it one of Sondheim's finest works.
  • Evil Is Cool: John Wilkes Booth is rightfully portrayed as a vile lunatic who ultimately failed in his true goal. However, Booth is also depicted as a smart, suave, dangerous man who easily manipulates and commands the respect of his fellow assassins.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Initially met a much better reception in the UK than in the USA.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • The entire show after 9/11, particularly Guiteau's religious fanaticism and Byck's plan to fly a plane into the White House. The revival was intended to open in November 2001, but after the attacks it was postponed for several years.
    • The fact that the show's lineup of assassins and would-be assassins is now outdated from when it was originally created, as a man named Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez shot at the White House windows in an attempt to kill Barack Obamanote  and Donald Trump was shot in the ear by Thomas Matthew Crooks during a rally on the election circuit in 2024. It perhaps ties in with the show's themes about how American culture cultivates the kind of people who go on to become assassins, but is harrowing nonetheless.
  • Jerkass Woobie: The collection of characters are anything but good people, but a lot of them end up being quite pitiable, particularly Giuseppe Zangara.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Most of the assassins go flying over the line when they make their murder attempts, given how unjustified most of the killings are clearly shown to be. The main exceptions to this are Czolgosz and the trio of pitiable assassins (Hinckley, Moore, and Fromme) from the latter half of the 20th Century (Who are depicted as being more pathetic and mentally ill than sinister, their attempts generally being Played for Laughs). Sam Byck is worth commenting on, as his failed attempt (Hijacking a plane and crashing it into the White House) would have had a monstrously high collateral death toll.
  • Older Than They Think: The 2004 revival is often credited with originating the idea of the Balladeer becoming Lee Harvey Oswald. But in his 1996 book From Assassins to West Side Story, director Scott Miller of St. Louis' New Line Theatre describes doing this in a mid-nineties production he directed for New Line.
  • One-Scene Wonder:
    • Depending on the direction, The Proprietor may pop up throughout the rest of the show (and in the 2004 version, he leads "Another National Anthem," a song originally led by Byck), but he's only scripted for the opening scene, leading "Everybody's Got the Right".
    • In the original production, Lee Harvey Oswald was this as well, though ever since the 2004 Broadway revival, it has become common practice to double him with The Balladeer. Still, the actor only acts as Oswald for that one scene. And what a scene it is!
    • The Housewife who sings the main solo in "Something Just Broke".
    • Emma Goldman is pretty memorable for a character who's only in one scene, not counting her speech from offstage.
    • Gerald Ford due to being hilariously clueless.
  • Questionable Casting: Brandon Uranowitz as Czolgosz. His talent wasn't in question, with many surprised by the casting still expecting him to do a good job. Still, the idea of an intimidating bass-baritone character typically played by tall men now being portrayed by a short tenor most famous for playing the dorky Mendel in Falsettos proved strange to many. The fact that Uranowitz's casting was announced alongside Will Swenson playing Guiteau even caused some to believe that the actors' roles were mixed up, as Swenson is a more obvious Czolgosz than Uranowitz, who would seem more at home as Guiteau. When people saw his work though, he earned excellent notices, and was praised for being quite unsettling despite his diminutive stature.
  • Strawman Has a Point:
    • The Balladeer may represent the American Dream and may be smug and condescending depending on which interpretation you watch but, as he points out during "Another National Anthem", shooting the Presidents didn't solve the Assassins' problems.
      Balladeer: Yes, you made a little moment and you stirred a little mud
      But it didn't fix the stomach and you've drunk your final Bud
      And it didn't help the workers and it didn't heal the country
      And it didn't make them listen and they never said "we're sorry."
    • Although none of the assassins are what you can call role models (or even sane), Czolgosz and Zangara’s views on wealth disparity, Byck's complaints of political hypocrisy and Guiteau's "Look On The Bright Side" philosophy can all be relatable to the average audience member.
  • Values Dissonance: A rare aesthetic example. In the opening number The Proprietor entices John Hinckley to win Jodie Foster for her “skinny little thighs.” In the 80’s-when Hinckley committed his crime-and in the 90’s-when the piece was written-small thighs lived up to the beauty standard of extreme thinness. Now that voluptuousness has began to reemerge as the standard, this lyric may confuse younger viewers. 
  • Vindicated by History: Received mixed to negative reviews on its initial release. Although part of the criticism was about the direction and staging, large portions of the criticism were also aimed at the show's tonal dissonance, short runtime, and small list of songs. The 2004 Broadway production, however, won four Tony Awards (including best revival of a musical), and many consider Assassins to be among Sondheim's finest accomplishments.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The focus on comedy in "How I Saved Roosevelt" leads the play to overlook any reference to the fact that the man Zangara killed, Mayor Anton Cermak, was also a poor immigrant (Who had worked in a coal mine as a child), and who gradually worked his way up into being the Mayor of Chicago, the third-largest city in the USA. He's generally regarded as one of the best Mayors Chicago has ever had, and was certainly a step up from the sort that Chicago typically had in the prior decades. All in all, he could very easily be spun as a shining example of the American Dream the Balladeer espouses. All of this goes completely unmentioned by the play, and Cermak is barely a footnote in Zangara's story despite being the one man he actually murdered.

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