Cannon Fodder: Expendable soldiers who are placed in harm's way to blunt the enimies attack.

When faced with early cannons a wise commander would send his least capable men (peasants) out to face them first. As all of the ammunition had to be carted to the battlefield there was usually a limited supply. So sending in unwashed masses would force the opponent to waste their big weapons, hopefully. That way when you sent in the calvary, they would not get blasted off their horses by cannon fire.

I frequently refer to cannon fodder in my reviews because if you've got a good guy in an action movie, he or she has to have someone to kill. Otherwise what is the point. I mean who really wants to see Bruce Willis sit down with the bad guys and have a heart to heart about changing their ways? Fuck that. Come on Bruce, say "Yippie Ki-yay" and shot them. In an action movie there is only time for a limited amount of actual talking. What with all the slow motion jumping through the air firing guns, the shooting guns from speeding cars, the running gun battles, and the wanton destruction of private proptery, there really isn't much time for dialog or character development. Besides we really don't want to get to know all the nameless thugs that get riddled with bullet holes. Oh, sure, it probably is an interesting story about how "bodyguard #1" turned to a life of crime, but that is not what the movie is about. It is about "bodyguard #1" foolishly threatening the hero, taking a few slugs in the chest and dying (bleeding depends on whether it is a PG or R rated film). "Bodyguard #1" is cannon fodder. Just someone to stop the good guy's bullets.

Now in the "Die Hard" movies there are a limited amount of bad guys and we understand that they are evil. We clearly see them killing innocent people or being quite willing to commit mass murder for profit. Thus when Bruce gets the drop on one of them and simply shoots him, we are okay with that. But in movies like "Ultraviolet" the cannon fodder concept is taken to a whole new level. We are not just talking about a handful of dead guys. Milla Jovovich takes out two or three hundred guys during the course of the movie; often in groups of 30 at a time. While it is somewhat amusing, you do have to have a tolerance for over kill (pardon the pun) to enjoy it. And you have to not consider too closely just exactly who it is that she is killing. These guys are not blood thirsty criminals. They are just run of the mill security guards at a not-particularly-secret government facility. Guys that answered an ad in the paper. They did not have to have a series of murders on their resume and listing rape as one of their outside interests would not have helped them get the job. This makes them questionable cannon fodder. One minute the guys is thinking about helping his kid with a science fair project and the next minute he has his head taken off by some chick with a sword. Less than ideal cannon fodder.

For truly bad exmples of cannon fodder, watch "Legend of the Seeker" sometime. The first season featured marginal cannon fodder but the second season, oh man, if you were not one of the good guys watch out. Our four heroes kill off at least 20 guys on every show and with the second season they are not just killing the soldiers of the evil tyrant overlord. They chop down ex-resistance fighters, palace guards, Sisters of the Light and Sisters of the Dark, and numerous bad guys of varying degrees of evilness. It is so bad that it is a running joke on the series. The Seeker's main adversary is constantly mentioning to him that he is "one of the top producers" in the death business. On the other hand, it does continue Sam Rami's unbroken string of shows featuring breathtaking New Zealand landscapes and gorgeous dangerous women. In fact, he drops Jolene Blalock into the mix and you barely notice her. Still the point remains you have to wonder why he is killing quite so many people, some of whom really aren't all that evil.

So what makes good cannon fodder? Zombies. You can't go wrong killing zombies. For starters they are already dead. Secondly they want to eat your brains. And, of course, zombies are typically slow and don't hide which makes them very good targets. Yes, there are a few newer movies with quick, smart zombies and Chinese zombies hop which makes them harder to shoot, but most zombies are relatively easy to re-kill. Still if you want to have a lot of zombies you usually get them by having them infect regular people, this swells their ranks quickly and provides both an additional motive for blowing their brains out and usually a bit of pathos as one or more of the heroes must re-kill someone they know. Seriously zombies are the perfect cannon fodder.

What about the people that bad guys kill? The bad guy has to kill off a lot of people to qualify as being bad enough for the good guy to casually kill. "Dirty Harry" works because Callahan is going after a serial killer not a guy with a few outstanding parking tickets. The victims of bad guys are usually more along the lines of collateral damage. Just random strangers who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or they are just plain Dead Meat. These characters are just obviously going to be killed by the bad guys. The cop with only two weeks until retirement, the guy who is getting married next week, and the college girl who plans to see the world are all common examples of Dead Meat. Wanton desctruction and indiscriminant killing certainly define a bad guy, but killing someone who has "something to live for"? Oh, Bruce is so going to get you for that.

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