They've been a part of our culture for as long as we've been around, a centerpiece of story-telling over the centuries. From Macbeth to Lisbeth Salander, Dirty Harry to Jessica Jones, Mad Max to Tyler Durden, they are the good guys (and good girls) who aren't always so good. They're not evil, but they have flaws that run through them like holes in Swiss cheese. They are the anti-heroes, and for whatever reason, we love them.
Luke Skywalker was, for all intents and purposes, the main character in the original Star Wars movies. But no one would call him their favorite Star Wars character. As far as heroes go, I think most people would choose our favorite scruffy nerfherder, Han Solo, or maybe even his backstabbing old buddy Lando. But why? What's wrong with Luke? I mean aside from his whiny voice in A New Hope of course.
The answer is that he's too good. He's not what we're looking for in a hero. Now I'm a pretty big fan of Clint Eastwood (artistically if not politically), and I've seen just about every Western he was ever in. The Man With No Name movies rank among the best, perhaps because Clint's character in these is the quintessential anti-hero. Even though he's the "Good" in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, he's far from good. He's a selfish, cigar smoking, gunslinger who's out for nobody but himself. So why do we all root for him as if he's trying to save the world? That's the million-dollar question.
I'll turn to Cool Hand Luke to answer this question. Cool Hand Luke is my favorite movie of all time, and Lucas Jackson my favorite character. In Luke I had found a hero so flawed, but flawed in the right way, that I couldn't help but idolize him. He's such a selfish loser that he ends up in jail for cutting the heads off parking meters, a crime he committed just to pass the time. What I think attracts me most to him, and to all anti-heroes, is that he's real. People aren't perfect, and literature, movie, and TV that tries to sell us perfect heroes often comes across as just plain phony.
Cool Hand Luke isn't phony. He's a human being who's tired of trying to exist inside the box society built for him. He's a rebel breaking out, battling against conformity and authority, saying and doing the things we all wish we could do. That's what makes the anti-hero so attractive. She (or he) doesn't let society's rules define them. Dirty Harry didn't give a rat's ass what the commissioner was going to say when he shot up half the city, as long he got the bad guy in the end. Jessica Jones didn't mind hurting people's feelings or breaking the law if it got Kilgrave off the street.
We are, by and large, a civilization built on rules, and most of us follow those rules most (if not all) of the time. And we do so happily (most of the time). But we all wish we could just break free one in a while and do what we think is right, even it is a little illegal. How many of us applauded on the inside when Kathy Bates rammed that car full of teenage girls in Fried Green Tomatoes, or cheered when Holly Gennaro (John Mcclane's wife) punched the reporter in the face at the end of Die Hard. It's these kinds of actions, this willingness to go outside the laws of civilization in order to do what's right that makes the anti-hero so appealing.
So the next time you're watching a movie—or reading a book—and find yourself loving a character you know you shouldn't, ask yourself what it is about the character that you like. Then look inside yourself and see if you embody some of the same traits (even just a little of the time). I'm certainly not suggesting you give in to road rage or punch your boss the next she scolds you, but at least know you're not alone: we all have the urge to break the rules sometimes.