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In considering 100 years
of cinemaand a cast of characters that includes
Nosferatu, Godzilla, Hannibal Lector, and Jabba the Huttchoosing
25 subjects to exemplify "the best" (or should it be "the
worst"?) in on-screen villainy is no easy task. It is,
unavoidably, a highly subjective one that begs the question,
"What is a villain?" Is it one who commits a great
sin or one who merely opposes our protagonist in any minor
or major way? Or can the "villain" of a film simply be
the worst of many different levels of evil characters?
Perhaps the most important
question to ask is what elevates a villain into something
more, something that represents not just a piece of a
particular story line but an essencetranscending
the art world to exist as something as vague and therefore
as terrifying as Fear itself. Such an entity has to be
somebody (or some-thing) that either feeds off
of our cultures fears or in some way soothes them,
saying, "Its okay, these sorts of people always
get it in the end."
Here is a collection of
classic antagonists who have latched onto our cultural
consciousness. And as much as we might want to, we cant
shake them off.
#1) Peter Lorre
as Hans Becker, M (1931)
Lorres pudgy, wide-eyed
baby-face made the child killer Becker unbearably terrifying,
for he himself looked much like a child. A psychology
student before becoming an actor, Lorre infused his anguished
psychopath with a sad depthBecker loathes himself
but is powerless to stop the inner voices that lead him
to kill, only realizing he committed such acts after he
reads the morning papers. Although deplorable, Becker
is the most tragic and morally confusing of characterthe
merciless killer and the innocent victim all rolled into
one.
#2) Fredric March
as Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Masterful director Rouben
Mamoulianunknown to everyone save cinema scholars
and film studentsreached his peak with this unnerving
version of Robert Louis Stevensons novel. Marchs
dual performance is so sexually charged that it still
shocks today. Whether Marchs overtly simian Hyde
is fondling the lovely harlot Ivy or just cavorting through
the rain, grinning widely and loving life, March makes
each scene a revelation of the monster mind. In some scenes,
Hyde hunches like Igor; in others, he towers like Count
Dracula. Mamoulians startling use of point-of-view
camera, diagonal wipes, and an amazing transformation
scene done in one continuous shot without any edits complement
Marchs well-deserved Oscar performance.
#3) Robert Mitchum
as Rev. Harry Powell, Night of the Hunter (1955)
With his imposing stature,
patient smile, and booming, God-fearing voice, Powell
was the ultimate false prophet, preaching hellfire and
brimstone to all sinners, then using Gods word to
commit his own lies, theft, and murder. On his left hand
was tattooed the word "HATE"; on the right,
"LOVE." Even as he chased two small children
across the Midwest, Powell would pause at strangers
doorways to illustrate the battle of Love and Hate, even
turning some people into Bible-thumping zombies. Powell
was a nefarious cult leader, using our beliefs and traditions
to dupe us into worshipping him. Its never explained
why Powell is so evil, although the Depression-era horrors
greeting him at every turn might offer some clue to the
starved origin of his diseased logic.
#4) Anthony Perkins
as Norman Bates, Psycho (1960)
Perkins is the original
sympathetic villain. With a title like "Psycho"
and a director like Alfred Hitchcock, we are positioned
at the outset to distrust Perkins edgy loner. Then
his "mother" kills Janet Leigh and we dislike
him even more. Thenin that classic momentwhen
Norman pushes Leighs car into the lake and it suddenly
stops sinking, we find ourselves worried about poor Norman!
The seminal "scarred by childhood" murderer,
Norman almost single-handedly spawned four decades of
unstoppable screen slashers.
#5) Bette Davis
as Jane Hudson, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
(1962)
In a splashy performance
that gnashed the scenery and spit it out like bullets,
Davis was the sibling from hell, torturing her wheelchair-bound
sister by keeping her locked up, serving her rats for
dinner, and slowly taking over her life. It was the ultimate
apocalyptic catfight that followed that deranged, jealous
logic of a soap opera actress who starts believing her
own story lines. Heavy white makeup gave Davis the dead
features of an undead corpse or a living doll; etched
deeply into the pasty skin was a face that seemed to encapsulate
the pain many women go through losing their physical attributes.
It was a mournful, manic face, furious over the loss of
good looks, talent, and attention.
#6) HAL 9000,
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Stanley Kubricks
prediction of a future of Man vs. Technology becomes more
visionary by the year. The greatest evil is that created
by man: an all-knowing computer system named HAL that
controls an experimental spacecraft and speaks in a maddening,
gentle monotone. Deadened by years of complex, passionless
technological rhetoric, the two zombie-like human astronauts,
Dave and Frank, are almost less human than HAL, and it
takes a life-and-death battle to revive any mortal spark
within them. Stripped to his last thought, HALs
base component is revealed to be a childlike song, and
the tenderness with which it is sung is harrowing. What
is even scarier is our sympathy for the dying computer.
#7) Ruth Gordon
& Sidney Blackmer as Minnie and Roman Castevet, Rosemarys
Baby (1968)
There is ample pleasure
in indulging the fantasy that the chattering, incessantly
cheery old couple who live down the way from you, poking
their heads into everyones business, are actually
minions of Satan. The genius of this film is how real
this fantasy becomes. By the time the chilling finale
rolls around, we arent sure if Rosemary is insane
or not, and we share her point of view, tottering on the
edge of certainty and utter disbelief. Director Roman
Polanski is able to pull off this hat trick by employing
the Castevets so brilliantlythe Castevets are so
scary that theres no way they could be Sataniststhatd
be too easy! But like some deliciously simple Twilight
Zone episode, the creepy old couple is exactly thatcreepy.
#8) Malcolm McDowell
as Alex DeLarge, A Clockwork Orange (1971)
In some ways, Kubricks
ultraviolent tale of a teen who is "cured" of
antisocial behavior is an update on Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde. The "good" and "bad"
parts of a man are isolated in an attempt to control them.
What this presupposes, of course, is that we have the
right to make such a distinction. Pitted against a system
that squashes individual moral choice, Alex, with his
infectious grin and zest for mayhem, is all the more irresistible
even as he rapes and murders. We become best friends with
him, which makes him unforgettable no matter what atrocities
he commits.
#9) Klaus Kinski
as Don Lope de Aguirre, Aguirre: The Wrath of God
(1972)
The boiling, frenetic relationship
between renegade director Werner Herzog and actor Kinski
is legendaryKinski flies into fits of irrational,
destructive rage; Herzog threatens Kinski with a gun;
and so forth. But never were Kinskis crazed, impulsive
(but always watchable) shenanigans put to better use than
in this story of a band of men splintered from Pizarros
South American expedition in search of the Seven Cities
of Gold. They are led by a slavering madman, Aguirre,
whose wide, nervous eyes and unpredictable physicality
become one with the Amazon jungles where Herzog dragged
his cast and crew. Even more so than Brandos in
Apocalypse Now, Kinskis performance feels
like a truly authentic descent into madness.
#10) Linda Blair
as Regan MacNeil/The Devil, The Exorcist (1973)
The scares of The Exorcist
are of the "fuck you" brand: overt, smeared
in your face. Few things in motion picture history can
compare to Blairs dreamy, pudgy, unaffected face
being taken over by crusty white skin, glowing yellow
eyes, and jagged red scars. Of course, everyone remembers
the projectile vomit and the spinning heads. And last
years re-release reminded us of the excruciating
medical tests young Regan is put through, including encephalograms
that look like some sort of mad torture. But no amount
of FX are as powerful as the simple image of a little
girl lashed to her bed, writhing in pain, with her mom
off to the side, unable to help. It is an ageless picture
that could represent all brands of inter-generational
rebellion, suffering and inability to communicate.
#11) Louise Fletcher
as Nurse Ratched, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
(1975)
In Ken Keseys novel,
Nurse Ratched was fat and ugly. For the movie, director
Milos Forman cast the knock-out Fletcher in the role of
the infamous mental house caretaker, and in doing so even
increased the sense of sick domination. Ratcheds
prim, immaculately groomed, self-satisfied personality
alerted us to the very possible abuse of power by institutional
leaders. Ratched was the ultimate "establishment,"
and her evil was borne of an inability to comprehend shades
of grayyou were either "right" or "wrong."
And if you were wrong, you had to be made right.
#12) Laurence
Olivier as Dr. Christian Zell, Marathon Man (1976)
"Is
it safe?" This chilling question is posed over and
over to a bound Dustin Hoffman, as the Nazi Dr. Zell arranges
an array of terrifying dental equipment. This scene alone
cemented Oliviers place in villainy history. With
his delicate accent, his old man glasses, and his balding
head of white hair, Zell is the quintessential "dont
judge a book by its cover" evildoer; his innocuous
physicality belied a festering brain. Not only that, but
Zell was capable of forgetting the atrocities he had committed,
content to live out his life as any ordinary person would.
Do we all have that propensity for forgiving ourselves
for anything?
#13) David Prowse/James
Earl Jones as Darth Vader, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes
Back, Return of the Jedi (1977, 1980, 1983)
To be sure, Prowses
towering height and stiff physicality were key in emphasizing
Vaders impenetrable menace, but it is Jones
cavernous voice that became legend. Each new film uncovered
another dimension to Vader, and his glacial inflection
seemed all at once the voice of a father and a lover,
the voice of an emotionless robot as well as a confused
cry for help. If the Star Wars saga is the popular
myth of the twentieth century, then Vader is the archetypal
antagonistall-knowing and all-powerful, but with
a classic Achilles heel that is exploited by our
hero. The removal of Vaders mask in Jedi
stands as one of the most breathtaking moments in movie
historyfor the unmasking of The Villain, once done,
can never be reversed.
#14) Marlon Brando
as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, Apocalypse Now (1979)
The process is legendarydirector
Francis Coppola, mentally battered after 238 days of disaster-filled
production in the hot, wet Philippines, was given five
weeks with Brando. The entire fate of Coppolas Vietnam
epic rested on what happened next as Coppola and Brando
entirely improvised the character. What resulted was a
bloodthirsty but fittingly enigmatic philosopher: shaved
bald, mumbling, and shrouded in darkness, Brando represented
what was most horrible about both Willards quest
and Vietnam in generalthat the brains behind it
all were incoherent and mad and had no perspective on
their friends and foes.
#15) Arnold Schwarzenegger
as the T-800, The Terminator (1984)
Simply put, this is a raw,
relentless movie featuring the perfect villain. James
Camerons muscular direction and Schwarzeneggers
disposition combined to make an unstoppable monster truck
of a horror filmthe T-800 mowed through anything
and anyone, brutal and efficient. As its name implied,
The Terminator represented our worst fears of unavoidable
termination, whether by car crash, cancer, or old age.
The Terminator warned us that the end was near; it was
indeed awful, and we were powerless to prevent it.
#16) Robert Englund
as Freddy Krueger, A Nightmare on Elm Street I-VI
(1986-1991)
Of the dozens of slasher
villainsMichael, Jason, Leatherface, Chuckynone
embodied the 1980s wasteland of excess like Freddy.
A true rock-and-roll antihero, this knife-fingered creep
did away with pretty teens in endlessly noisy and flashy
waystugging their veins like puppet strings, inserting
them into video games, turning them into cockroaches,
and so on. All the while, he cracked sick jokes, letting
us know that he wasnt punishing teens, he was one
of them, disrespecting authority and being as uncouth
and annoying as he wanted to be. Each sequel was a co-ed
party that ridiculed strict morality, with Freddy as the
ever-popular host.
#17) Michael Rooker
as Henry, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Loosely based on murderer
Henry Lee Lucas, this low-budget picture bucked the 80s
blood-and-guts trend for a patient, gritty realism. Using
the bleak apartments and low-lit tunnels of urban Chicago
as a backdrop, Rookers psychopath often seemed the
most sane person in the city. Unmerciful but still undeniably
sympathetic, his serial killing presented itself as a
sickness as real as alcoholism, or cancer, or AIDS. In
a world offering no help to anyone, Henry needed help
but received nothing. And so he lashed out.
#18) R. Lee Ermey
as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, Full Metal Jacket
(1987)
By the time Stanley Kubrick
made his penultimate picture, we had seen many different
visions of the horror of war. But Kubricks drill
sergeant drove home the dehumanization of war stronger
than any battle film by dehumanizing us. For 40 minutes,
all we see and hear is Sergeant Hartmanhis orders,
his songs, his screams, his insults. The fresh-faced lads
from the opening musical sequence are eliminated. Human
voices are silenced. Human emotions are squashed. Perhaps
the most disturbing question is whether or not Hartman
is a villain at all or merely a necessary and valuable
cog in the machine of war.
#19) Michael Madsen
as Mr. Blonde, Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Quentin Tarantinos
bloody, bad-mouthed epic of almost mythic machismo practically
brimmed with bad dudes. The first half of the film is
filled with pain (Mr. Oranges continual screaming
as he bleeds to death) and intensity (Mr. White and Mr.
Pink pulling their guns on each other). Then we get to
the scene. Mr. Blondes scene. Mr. Blonde was the
epitome of the cool movie gangsterwe loved his James
Dean slouch and fearless Brando drawl. Then all of a sudden
he turned on the song "Stuck in the Middle of You"
and lopped off an innocent mans ear. Tarantinos
genius was to give us likeable character clichés
and then turn them on us, leaving us shocked, breathless,
betrayed. After, we knew we couldnt trust anyone
ever again.
#20) Sharon Stone
as Catherine Trammell, Basic Instinct (1992)
Stone took the tired, B-movie
temptress stereotype and injected it with a vampire sexuality
so potent even stuffy cineastes had to take note. Not
since Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire had a
thespians naked body been so wholly instrumental
in vividly constructing a characterfrom the shots
of a naked Stone pouring herself into a tight white dress,
to her grinding against another woman in a dance club,
to the famous panty-less interrogation scene. Stone WAS
sex, and every part of her being represented the dangerous
yet familiar sides of sexuality, from her weepy, vulnerable
eyes to her sharp, hidden knives.
#21) Larenz Tate
as O-Dog, Menace II Society (1993)
As the protagonist Caine
says in this powerful gangsta drama, his friend O-Dog
was "Americas Nightmareyoung, black,
and didnt give a fuck." Because O-Dog came
from a society that had forgotten how to teach boys to
become men, he had only a childs sense of right
and wrong. Between swigging 40s and smoking joints,
O-Dog shot people who disagreed with him or made him feel
like anything less than a superstarlivin large
beneath the umbrella of a twisted American dream. What
was most shocking about this film was our protagonist
Caine, who was one neuron away from being just like O-Dog
and who would have been the villain in any other movie.
Both boys fates rested on the balance of one question:
"Do you care if you live or die?" O-Dog did
not.
#22) Ben Kingsley
as Dr. Roberto Miranda, Death and the Maiden (1994)
The entire movie rests
on the balance of one question: Is Miranda the wartime
doctor who tortured Sigourney Weavers character
decades earlier? By the time the revelation comes that
Miranda indeed is that man, it is almost too latewe
already feel great sympathy for Miranda, who is not only
articulate and gentle, but scared and rightfully indignant
as well. Miranda regrets his abuse of power long ago but
obviously cannot change it. We are thrust into the position
of Weaverto exact revenge or let him go? It is this
position that is the dilemma of the ages, and Kingsleys
honest, true portrayal of a naked villain at our mercy
makes crystal-clear just how hard a decision it is. At
what point of "justice" do we ourselves become
villains?
#23) The Ensemble
cast of KIDS (1995)
Although technically actors,
the preteen children in Larry Clarks improvisational
docudrama were obviously slipping into their usual routines
in front of the cameraroutines that involved drugs,
booze, and sex. In KIDS, it is mostly the young
boys who are painted as the nihilistic evildoers, too
drunk on malt liquor and hormones to give a shit about
anything or anybodyin particular, a boy named Telly,
who goes on a rampage deflowering virgins, unaware that
he is carrying the HIV virus. One of the biggest wake-up
calls to the world ever, KIDS exposed a society
of boys who have lost any sense of what it means to be
a part of a functioning society.
#24) Dwight Yoakam
as Doyle Hargraves, Sling Blade (1996)
In a movie filled with
powerhouse performances, Yoakams hit the hardest.
He was playing somebody we all knewthe schoolhouse
bully reborn as an overweight, shifty, apathetic adult.
Lazy and filled with a restless, angry bravado that betrayed
his total lack of self-esteem, Doyle would never be a
threat to the world, so he focused his frustrated violence
on those smaller than him and near to himnamely,
his girlfriend and her child. Chilling in his offhand
transitions between aggression and cowardice, Doyle represented
the most commonand insidiousof daily domestic
depravity.
#25) Aaron Eckhart
as Chad, In the Company of Men (1997)
The churning resentments
and angry sexual politics of the modern-day workplace
come into painful focus in Neil LaButes aggressive
debut film. Chads "fun" plan to romantically
woo a deaf woman for five weeks before telling her that
the jokes on her results in what is easily one of
the most horrific series of events in movie history. Chad
brought the power of the good-looking and the powerful
into chilling focus; the terror Chad wreaks is intensely
personal and, perhaps most frightening, easy to execute.
Worst of all, his off-color jokes made in private remind
us of ourselves at our very worst. Like a nasty virus,
Chad is a character that can take days to flush out of
your system.
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