The Character Of Dominic Toretto In The Fast And The Furious

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“The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like the rest of us” (Umberto Eco). Have you ever questioned the role of a character from either a television show, movie, or book? Maybe, the villain doesn’t seem like such a bad guy, but that can’t be because they are the villain of the show, right? Well, little does one know that there are been things as antiheroes. An antihero is basically someone who does the wrong things but comes from good intentions or selfish motives. Antiheroes for the most part are very easy to relate to, which happens to be why people are drawn to them. A perfect example of an antihero would have to be Dominic Toretto, who is played by Vin Diesel, from The Fast and The Furious movie …show more content…
These words are only the beginning of how to describe how Dominic Toretto lived his life. In the series of movies that follow the original The Fast and The Furious, audiences have grown to think of Dom as a hero but fail to realize he also is a villain based on his actions, therefore he should be considered an antihero. In the movies, Dom and his team execute many heists, illegal races, and missions. Toretto is basically the leader of the team and of all plans. Dom and his team are constantly on the run to avoid getting caught by law enforcement and because of this, they end up in new places with new challenges to face. Dominic Toretto is portrayed as a very intimidating, clever, loyal, and loving character. He comes from a racing family, as his dad was a racer too. None of the racing that took place was ever legal, yet he still fell in love with the race and the adrenaline rush that came with it. Everything and anything that Dominic Toretto does, is done with belief that it’s the right thing to …show more content…
But why? After all, they are movies about a team of wanted felons who are constantly committing crimes left and right, and the group gets away with it because they are pros at being criminals. In the real world, people would come to naturally dislike them because of the felonies they commit. Yet, it’s different for Dominic Toretto because of the way his character is portrayed throughout the series. “The bad guys may be loathsome, they may be corrupt, they may be terrifying, but they are also somehow more evolved. In their refinement, charm and genius, they are simply fascinating” (James Poniewozik, N/A). He becomes fascinating to audiences because of the number of things he can do and the way he does them. The movies are told from the perspective of the antihero which, allows the audience to naturally like them. The audience sees Dom as good therefore, he then becomes the “good guy”. When if the movies were from the point of view of an ordinary citizen, or law enforcement, all we would want is for the criminals to get caught. The reason society looks at him as a hero, is because he does have good intentions when committing these crimes, as he throughout the series goes from being the hunted to the hunter. One could not blame the other when wanting to call him a hero, but one also may argue that how can he be a hero

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