Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Joe Gillis

Meet Sunset Boulevard's cynical center. Joe is the antihero who gets sucked into the nightmare world of Norma Desmond's delusions before finally being destroyed by it. Joe might not be heroic, since he doesn't actually achieve anything, but this doesn't mean he's not sympathetic. Other people have fallen into Norma Desmond's orbit and been devastated by the process—like that old relic Max, who remains her faithful servant after getting divorced from her, and the dead pet monkey waiting to be buried when Joe first arrives.

He wanders into the same death-spiral charted by these previous voyagers, except Joe's more conscious of what's happening to him. Whereas Norma's whole life is a delusion, Joe is wearily aware, and the fact that he's the most aware character helps put him at the movie's center, allowing him to narrate his own story from beyond the grave.