From the brilliant mind of Robert Altman came a film called The Player (1992) a film stock full of plenty of minor characters from screenwriters to club attendees, waitresses, and singers, to name a few. The character named David Kahane (Vincent D’Onofrio) is among the most intriguing within the world of “The Player’s” minor characters. He makes an appearance around 31:16 of the film and sticks around until 38:45 after that his name and warnings are sporadically mentioned throughout the remainder of the film. Before this introductory scene, we knew nothing about who this guy is, only that our protagonist, Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) assumes that Kahane is the one behind the threatening letters he is consistently receiving; since Kahane works as a screenwriter while he is a movie producer. As the threats increase Griffin has no choice but to pursue screenwriters that he might’ve done wrong by not listening to their ideas, which leads him to David Kahane, whom he tries to reason with but when that fails, he ultimately murders David in cold water.
In Will Straw’s “Scales of Presence: Bess Flowers and the Hollywood Extra” article one of the ways to classify a minor character is that their main function is “to react” (125) to the main character’s actions. Throughout the beginning of Kahane’s scene, it is shown through his facial expression, gestures, and editing that he holds an intense grudge against Griffin, due to the rejection of his passions. During the discussion Griffin attempts to reconcile however Kahane refuses to listen and storms off, Griffin is unwilling to let this end and follows after him. Kahane’s reactions toward Griffin’s actions grow more intense as they continue their discussion, going as far as accidentally pushing Griffin off the ledge above the stairs. Realizing what he had done in his drunken fit he heads down to ensure that Griffin is safe, only to have Griffin turn on him and kill him by drowning in a puddle. These reactions end up setting the premise of Griffin’s character and the film’s overall story.
The role of minor characters is to contribute to “the film’s heightened sense of naturalism” (124), and this is shown by having Kahane being killed by the protagonist, thus improving the reality of the film’s story, by giving us the ability to sympathize, or not, with the protagonist. However, with Kahane, I found myself sympathizing more with him than Griffin, to me it painted Griffin in a bad light. Without Kahane I don’t believe the film would’ve worked as well as it did, nor would it have given the title a new meaning.
Works Cited:
Straw, Will. “Scales of Presence: Bess Flowers and the Hollywood Extra.” Screen, Volume 52, Issue 1, Spring 2011, Pages 121–127, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjq061
The Player
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