The Bad Guys

You know those scenes in B-movies when the bad guy is revealed but everybody except the main character already knew he was the bad guy?

Scene after scene, the bad guy gave ridiculous bad-guy looks. You know, the evil smile that they give to the camera when they think no one is looking?

It can be frustrating. We shout at the screen. That dude is the bad guy. He does bad things. Evil follows him around. Why doesn’t the protagonist see it? This movie is stupid. I am leaving.

Guess what. We are in the movie and the protagonist (for the sake of argument) is the President. Everyone knows who the bad guys are. The bad guys are the ones who murder the lone Christian cabinet member in Pakistan on the same day they gun down two airmen in Germany.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama promised to “spare no effort” in investigating the slayings.

Dude? Really? It’s obvious. Everyone knows who the bad guys are, why won’t you see it? People shout it, but he won’t hear it. He is as oblivious as the post-coital teenager going out to inspect a noise in the shed full of axes and pitchforks.

Except you cannot flip the channel or leave the theater. This ridiculous performance is real. But the people who get killed are not on the screen, but real people paying the ultimate price for the protagonist’s willful failure to see the truth.

Actually, I think that might make the protagonist the bad guy, wouldn’t it?