The late Patrick Stewart made much of his reputation off playing unique heroes and memorable protagonists. If there’s one thing that connects Captain Jean-Luc Picard with the “Fox-verse’s” Professor Charles Xavier, it’s that both characters could be described as idealists, though they take distinctly different approaches thereof.
Taken together, the roles of Picard and Xavier cemented Stewart’s position in pop culture as a sort of benevolent authority figure. Stewart himself was often happy to play with that perception, in roles such as his appearance on Extras (best described as “himself, but depraved”) or Avery Bullock on American Dad (sort of the same), but his raw gravitas still got him quite a few parts as kings, leaders, and heroes.
It was much rarer for Stewart to play the villain. While he did take parts like Shylock and Macbeth when he worked onstage, you can count his roles as a genuine antagonist in film or TV on the fingers of one hand. One big exception was in 2015, when Stewart played a neo-Nazi druglord in Jeremy Saulnier’s rural thriller Green Room, and did so with the same focus and intensity that he brought to any heroic role.
If you’re interested in seeing what might very well be Stewart’s single most evil performance, Green Room is currently streaming for free on Tubi.
You’ll be the first to go unless you think
The Ain’t Rights are a struggling punk band on a tour through the Pacific Northwest, living off of bar gigs, free food, and siphoned gas. Low on money and barely scraping by, they accept a gig that takes them to an isolated bar in rural Oregon, which turns out to be a hangout for skinheads. They’ve been hired as the opening act for a genuine Nazi metal band.
A bad evening proceeds to get worse when the Ain’t Rights return to the bar’s backstage “green room” and accidentally witness a murder. The bar’s staff immediately take them prisoner and call the bar’s owner (Stewart), who decides the best course of action is to kill everyone involved. With their backs to the wall and no particular talent for violence, the Ain’t Rights have to fight their way out if they want to survive the night.
The first word that comes to mind about Green Room is “grimy.” The Ain’t Rights live a hardscrabble life of petty theft, couch-surfing, and dive bars. Even before they reach the skinheads’ hangout, everything in the movie feels like it’s covered in dirt and dried sweat. Every building looks like it’s one good kick away from collapsing and every scene is lit to make people look like corpses.
Once Green Room picks up some momentum, it’s truly brutal. No one is safe, and major characters are often killed off with a shocking lack of ceremony. Everyone who survives quickly picks up a couple of crippling injuries, and the makeup crew seems to take a genuine glee in depicting shredded throats and severed limbs. Don’t sit down to watch this one unless you’re ready for an intense experience.
As with some of Saulnier’s other films, such as 2007’s Murder Party, Green Room works as a sort of “inaction” movie. No one in it is particularly competent at fighting, but they’re placed in positions where they still have to fight. It’s a film about improvised weapons, desperate plans, fighting through injuries, and sudden shock. One particular scene is built around the struggle to find and use a single unexpended shotgun shell.
Stewart ends up as the anchor of Green Room almost despite himself, in a role that’s built around the banality of evil. His character, Darcy, views what he’s doing as little more than simple business. When you run a skinhead bar that’s a hub of the local drug trade, sometimes you’ve got to make a few innocent people disappear, and Darcy’s content with that. It takes a second to get used to Stewart as the villain, but once you do, he turns into a casual, everyday sort of monster. You have to see it to believe it.
Green Room is currently streaming on Tubi.