Angel Heart (with Mickey Rourke).. probably one of my favorite films of all time. It's basically a Faustian tale. I guess that's a category of it's own, among devil stories.
yes. I mean, i think the movie has flaws, but damn... I've been planning to watch it over the last month again and haven't gotten around to it.
Also made great use of the tinny piano motif. Probably that and deNiro's fingernails were the most evocative parts for me. And the elevator at the end.
I'm a big fan of the Faustian stories too. We still make the same bargains today, even if they're not with the actual "devil" (we sell ourselves out for something we want badly NOW, without as much concern about the future, and eventually payday arrives).I'm not sure what the OP is talking about with its last paragraph; for me, it's always the tragic sense of wanting something so badly now that we buy temporary happiness and then have to suffer mounting terror and despair as we become more and more aware of how we're now going to pay permanently for our choice and maybe even lose what we gave up so much to gain temporarily.
Indeed, the problem with spending everything we have to gain what we want is that typically by the time we gain what we want, we don't want it anymore and are stuck with something not nearly as pleasing or useful; we've changed too much in pursuit of the goal.
A movie like "The Prestige" is interesting because in that case, Tesla is cast as the devil, but in all honesty the evil resides with Angier.... he loses everything to gain what he wants, and even loses that, in the end, whereas Tesla (as the provider of power better left untouched) warns Angier about the dangers of such a deal and advises him to leave well enough alone, yet still provides it for him when Angier insists.
EDIT:
Gaiman's "Sandman" puts an interesting spin on things with having Lucifer quit his job and in fact claim that he never owned anyone's soul nor wanted to -- that the phrase itself has no meaning, and that people were simply looking for a scapegoat so that they would not have to take responsibility for their actions. In the overall story arc, the Endless named Desire is actually more of a capricious Satanic figure, bargaining with people out of whimsy to give them what they think they want, knowing it will come back to bite them in the end. S/He is more interested in the game being played and the opportunity to meddle in other's lives and observe the results, than to actually accomplish anything positive. But then again, "Desire" is the fickle two-edged sword truly driving these other "deals with the devil" -- we want something that we can't have and don't think we can live without, so we make spurious bargains in order to get it... or we accept the desire as unquenchable and move on with our lives.