Johnny Handsome portrays the life of Johnny Sedley (Mickey Rourke), a man born with a horribly disfigured face, and thus bearing the nickname Johnny Handsome. The movie begins with Johnny's only friend, Mickey (Scott Wilson), persuading him to participate in a New Orleans jewelry store heist. During the robbery, they are double-crossed by their partners, Sunny (Ellen Barkin) and Rafe (Lance Henriksen), who shoot them, killing Mickey, and escape. Johnny recovers and when in prison is given a new face by a surgeon (Forest Whitsaker) who believes that a normal appearance will lead Johnny to be successfully rehabilitated. Johnny, however, seeks revenge. Disguised with his new face, he persuades Sunny and Rafe to be partners in a payroll robbery, intending to double-cross them. Afterwards they find out who he is, and a shootout results. The movie ends with Johnny dying after killing Sunny and Rafe.

Why Johnny sought revenge when he had the new opportunity to live a normal life is a question which leads one to wonder whether Johnny was evil, for he was a doomed character who seemed to have deserved something better than his inglorious end (Craft, 2). Johnny's motivation for vengeance on Sunny and Rafe was similar to Captain Ahab's reasons for seeking to destroy the white whale in Moby Dick. Johnny did not seek revenge because he was born to be evil but because he was unable to accept the inevitable presence of evil in the world. He endeavored to destroy evil and, like Ahab, died "deeply entangled in evil with which he refused to come to terms in life" (Miller, 228).

Johnny's parole officer applied the concept of innate depravity to Johnny as Melville applied it to Claggart in Billy Budd, Sailor (Melville, 2321), for he believed that Johnny was born to be evil and could not change. Lt. Drones (Morgan Freeman) constantly communicated that Johnny was incapable of reforming and anticipated that Johnny would take advantage of his new face to trick Sunny and Rafe. In Lt. Drones' view, Johnny's actions confirmed his analysis of Johnny's nature.

Lt. Drones isolated Johnny's actions to draw his conclusion. Making a judgement based on the overt act alone is what Captain Vere persuaded the drumhead court to do in Billy Budd's case (Melville, 2342). As a result, Billy Budd was hanged for killing Claggart. In truth, Billy had accidentally killed Claggart in response to Claggart's malicious accusation of treason, for Billy's speech impairment made it impossible for him to defend himself with words (Melville, 2375). Billy was innocent. Unlike Billy's blow, Johnny's actions were well-planned. Johnny was guilty of seeking vengeance. But as judgement on action alone was unjust in Billy Budd, other factors must be considered before deciding whether Johnny was innately depraved.

Johnny was not born to be evil. In a sense, he was a victim of a prejudiced and unjust society. Johnny was deprived of a normal life because people judge others by their appearances. Growing up as a social outcast, without a stable family, he was influenced into engaging in criminal behavior by the few who accepted him (Godey, 99-100). Furthermore, Johnny's actions to protect his girlfriend was evidence that he was not pure evil, as Lt. Drones claimed.

That Johnny was not innately depraved is a crucial point, for Johnny did not seek vengeance for the sake of evil. Johnny suffered a devastating loss that led to his quest to destroy Sunny and Rafe.

Ahab's loss of limb to Moby Dick left him with a permanent psychic wound, primarily because he greatly valued balance, and found his situation intolerable (Dillingham, 66). Johnny was similarly affected by Mickey's murder because Mickey was his only friend before he had plastic surgery. That Mickey had loved him despite appearances was probably what Johnny thought of when he was constantly looking at the picture of Mickey and himself together. Even though Johnny now had a girlfriend who cared for him, he knew she could not have loved him if he still had an Elephant Man-like visage. Mickey's death was an irreplaceable and devastating loss for Johnny.

Johnny and Ahab could not adjust to or accept their losses. They disregarded their chance for happiness through living a normal life. There was a great contrast between Ahab and the sea captain who lost his arm to Moby Dick. Captain Boomer of the Samuel Enderby was glad to be alive and decided to avoid the white whale in the future. Captain Boomer could adjust to his loss; he was not psychologically devastated by it (Dillingham, 66).

Johnny and Ahab responded to their losses by trying to destroy "evil". Ahab became obsessed with a monomaniacal desire to destroy Moby Dick (Miller, 228). Moby Dick, to him, represented evil in the world. He thought that reality would be ordered if he destroyed the white whale (Dillingham, 78). By murdering Mickey, the cut-throat criminals Sunny and Rafe became, to Johnny, embodiments of evil. Johnny let himself become obsessed with seeking vengeance.

Yet in trying to destroy evil, Ahab and Johnny drew on their potentiality for evil. They realized but could not deal with their commitment to evil. "Ahab in gazing down into the ocean and searching Fedallah's steady gaze discovers and reveals, but does not confront the consequences of his awful commitment to evil" (Miller, 228). Johnny, aware that his actions could not be justified, tried to get rid of his girlfriend by telling her he was destined to end up in prison again (Johnny Handsome).

Johnny was not, as Lt. Drones believed, destined to seek revenge. Johnny turned away from what was within his reach, a normal and happy life. Unable to accept the loss of Mickey, he tried to destroy evil and, by doing so, succumbed to evil.

Works Cited

Canady, N. Melville and Authority. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1968.

Craft, D. "Dan Craft at the Movies: Johnny Handsome not a pretty picture but…"

Dillingham, W. Melville's Later Novels. London: University of Georgia Press, 1916.

Godey, J. The Three Worlds of Johnny Handsome. New York: Random House, 1972.

Hill, Walter, dir. Johnny Handsome. With Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Elizabeth

McGovern, Lance Henriksen, Morgan Freeman. 1989.

Melville, H. "Billy Budd, Sailor." The Norton Anthology of American Literature.

Ed. N. Baym, et al. Vol. 1. 3^rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989. 2300-2355.

Miller, J. A Reader's Guide to Herman Melville. New York: Octagon Books, 1973.