Shot by both sides
August 9, 2013 11:17 AM Subscribe
Is there a good word for a person who becomes an enemy of both sides in a conflict? Who ends up stranded in the no-man's land, shot by both sides?
I'm looking for a punchy word like 'go-between', 'interloper', 'double agent', but with the connotations described above. The nearest I've come up with so far is 'rogue', as in 'rogue cop', 'rogue male', but this is for a title, and both those titles are taken and quite well known.
'Compromised' is close but doesn't quite express it powerfully enough.
'Mad dog' also comes close but is too strong.
The character in question is a corrupt cop who finds himself fighting both the underworld and internal affairs simultaneously.
I'm looking for a punchy word like 'go-between', 'interloper', 'double agent', but with the connotations described above. The nearest I've come up with so far is 'rogue', as in 'rogue cop', 'rogue male', but this is for a title, and both those titles are taken and quite well known.
'Compromised' is close but doesn't quite express it powerfully enough.
'Mad dog' also comes close but is too strong.
The character in question is a corrupt cop who finds himself fighting both the underworld and internal affairs simultaneously.
oh, man, I totally feel like there's a term for this that James Ellroy used in at least one of the books in his L.A. Quartet series. I put this out there in case it jogs anyone else's memory.
posted by scody at 11:20 AM on August 9, 2013
posted by scody at 11:20 AM on August 9, 2013
Oh, and it also occurs to me: possibly lone wolf? (Not sure if that's actually the term I'm associating with Ellroy, but it does come to mind.)
posted by scody at 11:22 AM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by scody at 11:22 AM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Or "caught in the middle" or "of neither camp" or "of neither world"
Or -- maybe a freebooter or privateer. I.e., an independent agent.
posted by bearwife at 11:22 AM on August 9, 2013
Or -- maybe a freebooter or privateer. I.e., an independent agent.
posted by bearwife at 11:22 AM on August 9, 2013
I'd say something like 'persona non grata' maybe.
posted by Dimes at 11:31 AM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Dimes at 11:31 AM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
pariah?
posted by scruss at 11:33 AM on August 9, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by scruss at 11:33 AM on August 9, 2013 [3 favorites]
You may be able to find a term to use in this extraordinary National Geographic documentary, Eternal Enemies. The exact thing you're describing happens to a young hyena. She is in the process of being rejected by her pack when a big battle starts up with another pack. She finds herself in the middle of the fight with enemies on all sides and friends nowhere. It's horribly sad, about as sympathy-inducing as anything you'll see involving hyenas.
posted by alms at 11:39 AM on August 9, 2013
posted by alms at 11:39 AM on August 9, 2013
I don't know that there's a single word for it, but it's a phenomenon that shows up in contexts other than the battlefield/gunman one that seems most obvious.
Henri-Georges Clouzot was a struggling French filmmaker whose career was just starting to pick up speed when the Nazis invaded. He was one of the few directors who chose to work under Continental Films, the film production company the Germans set up in occupied France. He made a film called Le Corbeau (The Raven) in which a small town is torn apart when someone starts anonymously posting open letters revealing various townspeople's deepest and darkest secrets. (It was based on an actual incident in a French country town.)
The film was attacked by both the Germans and the French Resistance. The resistance claimed it was Nazi propaganda whose portrayal of the townspeople as petty and vicious hypocrites was a deliberate attack on the character of the French people. On the other hand, the Germans saw it as a hidden message against cooperation with the occupational authorities since the theme seemed to be that when you start informing on your neighbors, it ends badly for everyone.
The Germans didn't let Clouzot make another film for the rest of the war, and after the war ended he was tried for collaboration and sentenced to lifelong exile from the film industry. (It was only in the 1950s when he was rehabilitated through the efforts of respected French artists and intellectuals like Sarte, Cocteau, and Picasso, and went on to make films like The Wages of Fear and Diabolique.)
So I don't really have a word to answer the question, but maybe that will provide some additional context in which to think of candidates.
posted by Naberius at 11:40 AM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Henri-Georges Clouzot was a struggling French filmmaker whose career was just starting to pick up speed when the Nazis invaded. He was one of the few directors who chose to work under Continental Films, the film production company the Germans set up in occupied France. He made a film called Le Corbeau (The Raven) in which a small town is torn apart when someone starts anonymously posting open letters revealing various townspeople's deepest and darkest secrets. (It was based on an actual incident in a French country town.)
The film was attacked by both the Germans and the French Resistance. The resistance claimed it was Nazi propaganda whose portrayal of the townspeople as petty and vicious hypocrites was a deliberate attack on the character of the French people. On the other hand, the Germans saw it as a hidden message against cooperation with the occupational authorities since the theme seemed to be that when you start informing on your neighbors, it ends badly for everyone.
The Germans didn't let Clouzot make another film for the rest of the war, and after the war ended he was tried for collaboration and sentenced to lifelong exile from the film industry. (It was only in the 1950s when he was rehabilitated through the efforts of respected French artists and intellectuals like Sarte, Cocteau, and Picasso, and went on to make films like The Wages of Fear and Diabolique.)
So I don't really have a word to answer the question, but maybe that will provide some additional context in which to think of candidates.
posted by Naberius at 11:40 AM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
In the card game "Bang!", one of the roles you can be assigned is a character who is basically trying to take over the town, and fights both the sherrif and the outlaws and only wins if he/she is the last person standing. That character is called the "Renegade".
posted by LionIndex at 11:41 AM on August 9, 2013
posted by LionIndex at 11:41 AM on August 9, 2013
Castoff, castaway, ronin, free agent, the meat in the frying pan, anti-Switzerland.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:44 AM on August 9, 2013
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:44 AM on August 9, 2013
If it's for a title, I'd go for "Common Enemy".
posted by restless_nomad at 12:12 PM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by restless_nomad at 12:12 PM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Outcast, masterless
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:52 PM on August 9, 2013
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:52 PM on August 9, 2013
It has a particularly American connotation, but calling someone "a Benedict Arnold," pretty much gets across the idea of someone who eventually has worn out his welcome on both sides of a conflict, and is trusted by no one. I'm also inclined to think that your request might well be answered, in the right conditions, by terms like "mercenary," or "soldier of fortune," or, again from an early U.S. historical context, "Hessian."
posted by paulsc at 1:21 PM on August 9, 2013
posted by paulsc at 1:21 PM on August 9, 2013
+1 Lone wolf, which implies someone had a pack and left it, and that s/he exists in a world where one must hunt to survive.
posted by salvia at 2:32 PM on August 9, 2013
posted by salvia at 2:32 PM on August 9, 2013
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posted by capricorn at 11:19 AM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]