The Phantom of the Opera

So my girlfriend and I watched the Phantom of the Opera (the movie version, which is horrible compared to the original, but whatever.)

Afterwards she's talking about how bad she feels for the Phantom. I immediately called her out on being a moron, because the Phantom simply is not a figure of pathos; he's a monster. I mean he kills like 5 guys, he lies to Christine for the entirety of the play (he tries to convince her that he is the spirit of her father, what??) and involves everyone in his cowardly tricks, particularly Raoul at the end. Also, it seems the only minor chords in the entire musical happen only when the Phantom is there, and you also can't put aside the fact that he essentially sings the whole time about how he's the bad guy. How about the fact that near the end of the play Christine condemns him (The tears I might've shed for your dark fate/grow cold and turn to tears of hate) and he still forces her to go with him?

My girlfriend defended the Phantom, saying that everything he did was because of his dreadful childhood, and also that in the end he came to his senses and released both Raoul and Christine. However, I still contend that a poor childhood does not justify growing up to be a major dickpurse; one must still be held responsible for their actions. Also, releasing Raoul doesn't mean he actually did anything good for them, all he did was NOT do something terrible to them.

So what's your opinion? Is the Phantom pitiable, or merely pitiful?

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Originally Posted by VitaPup

Also, everyone I know who saw the movie first and then the play thought the movie was much better. I also like the movie's soundtrack much better than the broadway one and I was introduced to both at roughly the same time.

For the sake of argument, I have yet to see the play, but comparison between the original London production soundtrack and the movie reveals that the singing in the movie is just god-awful. (The phantom is supposed to be a tenor but is played by a baritone. What??) The movie itself isn't bad. Aside from the omission of a few omissions that clearly characterize the Phantom as a major fuckwad.

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Just because he did some horrible things doesn't mean you can't feel sorry for him.

Of course it does. Take any serial murderer with a traumatic past, the "aww, poor guy" factor fades after about the first killing.

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Originally Posted by Arkhangelsk

and very much changed in the ALW movie version.

As an aside, and correct me if I'm wrong, I don't believe Andrew Lloyd Webber had much to do with the film itself; it was directed by Joel Schumacher.

Originally Posted by nottypingitagain

In a way, he's a tragic hero -- albeit with some awful big flaws.

Perhaps, but isn't that very similar to saying you feel bad for a Macbeth because he only killed all those people after the witches essentially gave him permission?

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Originally Posted by Arkhangelsk

Yes, but it was a movie version of the ALW musical. Which was adapted by ALW and Richard Stilgoe. Maybe he didn't have as much to do with the movie (I heard he oversaw the casting), but the film was based on his adaptation, tweaked by Schumacher.

Yeah, I see what you're saying. It just seemed like you were saying ALW had all the creative power behind the movie, which is for the most part true, but Schumacher did change things.

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Men empathize with Raoul because we know how it is to treat a girl well, and then have her fuck the guy who treats her like shit instead of you.

I was speaking idiomatically.