TIME magazine has made a list of 25 movie villains. Now, these lists pop up on an almost daily basis, but this one caught my attention because most characters in it belong to old B&W films.
If you are in need of inspiration, you can do worse than looking at the list, sorted by year:
- George Siegmann as Silas Lynch (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614701,00.html) (The Birth of a Nation, USA, 1915)
- Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614702,00.html) (M, Germany, 1931)
- Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614772,00.html) (The Wizards of Oz, USA)
- Joseph Cotten as Uncle Charlie (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614773,00.html) (Shadow of a Doubt, USA, 1943)
- Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614775,00.html) (Double Indemnity, USA, 1944)
- Ann Savage as Vera (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614785,00.html) (Detour, USA 1945)
- Marcel Herrand as Lacenaire (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614821,00.html) (Children of Paradise, France, 1945)
- Lionel Barrymore as Henry F. Potter (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614794,00.html) (It's a Wonderful Life, USA, 1946)
- Denis Price as Louis Mazzini (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614797,00.html) (Kind Hearts and Coronets, UK, 1949)
- James Cagney as Cody Jarrett (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614799,00.html) (White Heat, USA, 1949)
- Toshiro Mifune as Tajomaru (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614802,00.html) (Rashomon, Japan, 1950)
- Prithviraj as Justice Raghunat (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614806,00.html) (Awara, India, 1951)
- Carl Boehm as Mark Lewis (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614812,00.html) (Peeping Tom, UK, 1959)
- Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Iselin (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614814,00.html) (The Manchurian Candidate, USA, 1962)
- Robert Mitchum as Max Cady (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614817,00.html) (Cape Fear, USA, 1962)
- Henry Fonda as Frank (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614861,00.html) (Once Upon a Time in the West, Italy, 1968)
- Klaus Kinski as Don Lope de Aguirre (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614863,00.html) (Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Germany, 1972)
- Laurence Olivier as Dr. Christian Szell (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614865,00.html) (Marathon Man, USA, 1976)
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614866,00.html) (The Terminator, USA, 1984)
- (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1614867,00.html)
- Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman[/URL] (Batman Returns, USA, 1992)
- Anthony Wong as Wong Chi-hang (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1615035,00.html) (Untold Story, Hong Kong, 1993)
- Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1615036,00.html) (Schindler's List, USA, 1993)
- Ving Rhames as Marsellus Wallace (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1615040,00.html) (Pulp Fiction, USA, 1994)
- Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1615048,00.html) (Hannibal, USA-UK, 2001)
- Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/villains/article/0,28804,1614710_1614709_1615051,00.html) (Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith, USA-UK, 2005)
Oh, and they also have Seven Rules for Movie Villainy (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1615185,00.html).
Enjoy! :cool:
This list is useless without Rickman.
Quote from: SosthenesThis list is useless without Gunnery Sergeant Hartman.
FIFY
Say it ain't so! If you say that Gunny Hartman is a villain, the communists/terrorists/Texans already have won!
Blame Stanley, not me.
Hartman wasn't a "villain" - he was doing his job.
There is NO villian in those scenes - its a fucked-up situation all around....plus the Director and Writer have slanted it from the start.
Oh and R.Lee Ermey and Stanley Kubrick became friends during that movie and remained buddies all the way till Kubrick died. Read an interview somewhere that included Ermey talking about that.
- Ed C.
Quote from: SosthenesThis list is useless without Rickman.
Which Rickman are we talking about here? Alan? He did make a fine, fine Hans Gruber in "Die Hard", and not a bad Sheriff of Nottingham in an otherwise silly "Robin Hood".
!i!
Quote from: Ian AbsentiaWhich Rickman are we talking about here? Alan? He did make a fine, fine Hans Gruber in "Die Hard", and not a bad Sheriff of Nottingham in an otherwise silly "Robin Hood".
!i!
..however he has also played a mixed-up loving father and husband in the movie
"Love Actually" and a frustrated Shakespearean actor stuck in a cliche role in
"GalaxyQuest" .
- Ed C.
And one my favorite Rickman roles is as a wheezing, sneezing, risen-from-the-dead cellist in "Truly, Madly, Deeply". Hey, at least he has range and hasn't been typecast as a villain.
!i!
Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg.
Quote from: Ian AbsentiaWhich Rickman are we talking about here? Alan? He did make a fine, fine Hans Gruber in "Die Hard", and not a bad Sheriff of Nottingham in an otherwise silly "Robin Hood".
Well, both? I would at least consider the Sheriff of Nottingham role as quite iconic for bad guys. If Michelle Pfeiffer and Vhing Rhames made the list, this scene-stealing performance should be in there, too. Come on, spoon? Christmas?
Also, cancel McDarmid and put in Prowse/Jones. While we're at it, Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates? Al Pacino as Michael Corleone? Trevor Howard as Captain Bligh? Robert Mitchum as Harry Powell? Bela fuckin' Lugosi as you-know-what? Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde? Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger? Clancy Brown as the Kurgan? Max von Sydow as Ming the Merciless? Terrance Stamp as YOU KNOW WHO, SO JUST KNEEL BEFORE HIM?
I'd throw in some classic Western villains: Jack Palance as Jack Wilson in 'Shane' ("Pick up the gun"), Gene Hackman as Little Bill Daggett in 'Unforgiven' (although that's one of those grey area films where it's hard to say who really is the villain) and so forth.
Cheers
Malcolm
The locals from Deliverence -
Regards,
David R (who really should not be posting here)
Quote from: Ian AbsentiaAnd one my favorite Rickman roles is as a wheezing, sneezing, risen-from-the-dead cellist in "Truly, Madly, Deeply". Hey, at least he has range and hasn't been typecast as a villain.
That movie rocks.
Quote from: WerekoalaThat movie rocks.
Doesn't it, though?
!i!
Quote from: Malcolm CraigGene Hackman as Little Bill Daggett in 'Unforgiven' (although that's one of those grey area films where it's hard to say who really is the villain)
Actually, it's more a question of trying to suss which characters
aren't villains. The whores get my vote.
Quote from: jrientsActually, it's more a question of trying to suss which characters aren't villains. The whores get my vote.
Sgt. Barnes from
Platoon, comes to mind.
Regards,
David R
Quote from: J ArcaneJean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg.
Ding-Ding-Ding we have a winner. Gary Oldman rules as a bad guy!:win:
Quote from: jrientsThe whores get my vote.
When don't they, ever?
Quote from: RoninDing-Ding-Ding we have a winner. Gary Oldman rules as a bad guy!:win:
Gary Oldam is the best!! No one can play a mentally disturbed character better than him.
I sort of disliked the list. Too many blah's for me. I didn't recognize half of them, and a few I knew only by reputation struck me less as villian and more as foil for the protagonist in the face of some greater, faceless evil... or something.
I DID however, love the seven rules of villany link.
The list needs a few additions:
- Christopher Walken as the Angel Gabriel. (If I have to say the name of the movie, then you're obviously unfamiliar with the prophesies. Shame on you!)
- The George C. Scott character in The Hustler. Gotta love a guy who'll have your thumbs broken, cause your girlfriend to commit suicide, and then graciously offer to take a smaller share of your winnings.
- Yule Brinner (Sp?) from that old movie West World or something like that. That's the original Terminator.
- I forget the name of the actor who played him, but Aaron from Titus (Andronicus). I mean, asked to repent of his sins before dying, he responds with: "If ever a good deed have I done, I do repent of it now." ...gotta love that.
- Whoever it was that played Krank in City of Lost children.
- The two villains from Funny Games, and by implication, you yourself, if you've watched it.
- Sting's character from Brimstone and Treacle. Pure evil.
- Nicole Kidman, at the very end of Dogville. It's a damned slow-ass movie, but it contains one of the coldest lines I've ever heard in a movie.
- Robert Carlyle from Ravenous. "...Run!"
- Judas from the original Jesus Christ Superstar. Way more interesting than the hero of that flick.
- and the assassin from Serenity deserves a mention. Such a sensitive guy. He feels for you, really he does. Course that doesn't stop him from killing you, but you look in his eyes as you take that last breath, and you just know he's almost sorry to have to do it.
- Don Logan from Sexy Beast.
Quote from: BrimshackSting's character from Brimstone and Treacle. Pure evil.
"Which...one...? Which one will it be...?"
That's a neat, tidy little movie (and a great soundtrack!). The final scene, though, puts Martin's (played by Sting) evil into perspective.
Good choice. I immediately tried to think of a way to fit Martin, or a character like him, into a RPG scenario, but the sort of institutional paranoia that pervades most gamers would effectively prevent them from acceptng him into their fold as an NPC. Now, as a
player character, though, with a long-term view in mind... :hehe:
!i!
Lee Van Cleef in The Good The Bad and The Ugly or For a Few Dollars More, where strictly speaking he isnt a villain, but still a mean hard b'stard.
Donald Pleasance usually played a good villain, although the only role I can picture him in at the moment is as Blofeld in You Only Live Twice.