9 Movie Villains Who Are Really The Victims
8. Crown Prince Leopold in The Illusionist
I wouldnt blame you for not having seen The Illusionist. It certainly isnt as high profile as some of the other entries on the list and (unfortunately) is all too often compared to The Prestige, Christopher Nolans period, magician-based film which was also released in 2006. You wouldnt have thought that oddly specific of a genre would crop up twice in one year but then again we did see The Raid and Dredd just last year. The Illusionist tells the story of Eisenheim who falls in love with a French noblewoman, Sophie, when both of them are young. Forbidden to meet they are eventually driven apart, Eisenheim travelling the world to become a master magician before he meets Sophie at a show in Venice years later. Sophie, though, is engaged to Crown Prince Leopold, who plans to overthrow his father, the Emperor and apparently treats women (to put it politely) quite poorly. Obviously the game is afoot, but how does Eisenheim propose to steal Sophie away from Leopold?
By faking her death and framing the Crown Prince. Now Leopold is certainly not a nice guy by any means, but following Sophies supposed death we have Leopold grieving for her, apparently seeing her ghost appear at Eisenheims shows (which we retrospectively know is simply a deliberate attempt to screw with Leopold) and the Crown Prince being framed for a murder that not only he didnt commit but actually never happened. All the while Leopold pleads his innocence to the authorities and he shows that his plan to overthrow his father are based on sincere belief that he is old, outdated and cannot lead the Empire into the future, Leopold being a much stronger, forward-thinking option who will better the Empire as a whole. Regardless of his intentions and innocence, The Illusionist sees Eisenheim and Sophie escape France to live together, while Leopold is framed for Sophies murder and commits suicide in front of the Chief Inspector when his fathers army arrives to arrest him without him really, for the entire film, ever doing anything wrong.