Road To Perdition Film as a Revenge Tragedy
...mbition to seek revenge against Conner Rooney for the acts he has committed. The second convention of a revenge tragedy is also already apparent to the viewer. That convention is that the protagonist has justification (to the viewer’s satisfaction) for seeking revenge. Sullivan quickly finds out that if he is to do so, he will be opposing the might of the mafia as well as the man that raised him...John Rooney. This raises a strong moral dilemma in the movie as by killing Conner Rooney, he is betraying his emotional father John Rooney. Will he seek revenge and slay the murder of his family while in the process breaking the relationship with the man that raised him and risking his own life? or will he move on with his life still living under the protection of the mafia? Michael decides to go all the way and avenge his family’s death as he doesn’t want his son following in his footsteps of organised crime. With this decision, I became aware of another value of a revenge tragedy that was apparent. This was that the revenge was aimed at an opponent equal in power and cunning. Michael Sullivan’s opponent, Conner Rooney by himself was not equal in wit and power to Michael Sullivan but when Conner Rooney was combined with the mafia power (due to him being the song of the mafia leader) he was equal. The Rooney family hired a professional hitman to take care of the remaining Sullivan’s which consisted of Michael Sullivan and his son Michael Sullivan Jnr. Through information Michael Sullivan had, he was able to financially rip off the Rooney family by a substantial amount of money and in the process of doing so, found information which showed that Conner Rooney had been stealing from his father, John Rooney over a period of time. With this evidence, Michael Sullivan using his wit came in contact with John Rooney in a safe environment and passed this information on. This scene was an important one in the movie as both men displayed their affection for each other but still both refused to diverge off being loyal to their respective sons. The meeting concluded with no resolution. After the meeting, Michael Sullivan had to question his ambition because he now realised that to seek revenge for the death of his family while also keeping his son safe and out of crime, he had to first kill John Rooney. On a late dark rainy night, Michael Sullivan first murdered the minders of John Rooney and then proceeded to slay the man that raised him. This was a sad moment in the film and two conventions of the revenge tragedy genre struck my mind. The first was that a beloved of the protagonist hero was involved as an innocent obstacle to his revenge. The second convention was that the action was conducted in an atmosphere of gloom and terror, not just the sla...