Which brings us back to our anti-hero protagonist and the end of this episode.
The show I praised to the skies not long ago -- here's an archive of my pieces on the show, in The Mad Men File -- its record-tying Emmy Award-winning streak as television's best drama receding, has spent much of this season stuck in the stasis of the melodramatic existential crisis and ever impending yet never occurring demise of its anti-hero protagonist, Don Draper.
Following the Schindler's List template, Hotel Rwanda dramatises an atypical episode from a genocidal calamity in which a precious few were actually saved and, as in Spielberg's film, the hero-protagonist is a well-connected member of the oppressing group.
Built on the life experiences of its predecessor, Before Nightfall introduces us to that same hero-protagonist who, this time out, puts much effort into evaluating that which lurks in the shadows.
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The best-known patient is still fictional hero Philip Marlow, protagonist of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective.
This is the drama of a flawed and self-destructive hero, a protagonist of great achievements and overweening presumption.
There are certain characteristics common to the best adventure stories, not least of all a "hero" – the protagonist who carries the story (and the readers' affections).
The movie benefits from an acclaimed performance by Muni as a Jean Valjean-like hero (the protagonist of Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables, Valjean was imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread).
