George Hearst: The Epitome of Ruthlessness
When it comes to being downright mean and diabolical in a very obvious fashion, there are plenty of villains in quite a few TV shows that would easily be counted among the worst, and George Hearst is one of them that a lot of people might remember. This is the kind of character that wouldn’t tolerate failure and also didn’t stop until he managed to get what he wanted in order to make sure everyone knew who had the most power in the town of Deadwood. Messing with Al Swearengen by cutting off his finger was a big reminder that Hearst didn’t care what had to be done, he would do it just to make a point if he had to. This is the kind of character that people might expect to catch a bullet when his back is turned, but obviously, this never happens since he didn’t even get his comeuppance until the movie came out long after the show was over. But while he didn’t end up being killed outright he did serve the purpose of uniting most of the people in Deadwood against him.
The Necessity of a Villain Like Hearst
It’s hard for people to hear at times but there is a reason for having characters like Hearst on any show since they bring a sense of balance that isn’t always possible with guys like Al Swearengen since Al wasn’t a hero or even that decent of a person, but Hearst was so much worse that he almost made Al look like a saint sometimes. Plus, if there’s no true villain in the mix there’s a horrible sense of imbalance that occurs and someone has to become the bad guy at some point. In a show like Deadwood, there was always bound to be someone worse than the person that everyone might have thought was the real bad guy, to begin with, and Hearst filled that role.
Hearst’s Unrelenting Pursuit of Power
The fact that his character went so overboard is easy to observe and easier to understand since Hearst was a guy who, in the show, wanted pretty much everything and wasn’t above using the worst possible tactics to get it. This is the kind of character that when someone asks how bad it could possibly get, he’s bound to raise the bar yet again just to prove that there’s no limit to his depravity. Some might want to argue that he was the perfect foil to Al since he put the other man in his place, but considering that Al was such a fan favorite this wasn’t really the desired effect. Sometimes a person has to wonder just how far a show is going to push its boundaries when providing entertainment for the audience, but in taking things so far and then going further it’s a way to remind people that the time period in which Deadwood is set wasn’t a particularly nice time for a lot of people since while it wasn’t quite as wild as some would like to think, it was still a much harder way of living and existence that demanded that people be a little tougher and, at times, a little more devious than the next person.
The Reality of the Old West and Characters Like Hearst
Shows about the old west are rather misleading at times since they show a place that was wild, out of control, and where people could be killed or harmed on a whim and nothing could be done about it. There’s not a lot to dispute those claims since, despite the fact that there was law in that time and people were bound by it quite often, there were still plenty of people that knew how to get around such a thing. A character like Hearst, who fought and scratched his way to his position, was someone that was meant to be given a wide berth since he was the kind of person that would likely step on anyone to get what he wanted and would employ any town tough he could to take on the jobs that he couldn’t do on his own. That kind of person isn’t just dangerous, they’re confusing as hell since often a person that can employ another individual that doesn’t mind hurting people is at least a little bit intelligent and just charismatic enough to get people to do things they might not normally do.
Hearst’s Legacy in the Deadwood Movie
By the end of his time in the Deadwood movie though, Hearst had likely compiled a long list of enemies he was aiming to get back at, but it’s fair to think, or at least hope, that he might have learned his lesson finally. Of course, that’s not too likely since the character was so intent on getting everything he wanted that he blinded himself to what he was doing to those around them, which was making enemies forget their grievances for a shot to get back at him. In the end, George Hearst’s ruthless nature and unrelenting pursuit of power served as a catalyst for unity among the people of Deadwood, proving that even the darkest of villains can inadvertently bring about some semblance of balance and togetherness.
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