Badmovies.org Forum

We've got a greatest villains thread running, so why not a greatest anti-heroes? Guys and gals who straddle that fine line between right and wrong, but are always convinced that what they're doing is right, no matter how the eyes of the law may see it.

"Mad" Max Rockatansky has gotta be my number one, while Eastwood's "Blondie" and "Dirty" Harry Callahan characters hit a close second and third. Also, despite his only appearance (so far) being in a fake trailer, Machete has big points with me!  :teddyr:

I'll throw in Mad Max and Clint Eastwood's man with no name characters.

How about Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and the sequel?  (Or Kurt Russell in any of his 80s films including BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and John Carpenter's superb THE THING).

Paul Kersey - Charles Bronson from the Death Wish series.

Lee Marvin must have a few but I'll nominate Major Reismann (The Dirty Dozen) and Walker (Point Blank).

Frank Bullitt - Steve McQueen.

Hannie Caulder - Raquel Welch becomes a bounty hunter to get revenge for her rape and the murder of her husband all while wearing super tight pants. Okay just kidding, but it's a decent flick and Raquel makes it worth a look.

Edited because I'm too lazy to proofread the first time looks like.

Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction

would Randal from Clerks count? Granted he wasn't like killing people or anything but he's the idol of the movie and he's pretty much the model of what employees shouldn't be

Off the top of my head
Andy Sipowics from NYPD Blue
Heavanly Blues from The Wild Angels

Alec in Clockwork Orange

I tried to mix up the genres a bit to keep things interesting, but for the life of me I couldn't think of any worthwhile female anti-heros, aside from maybe Themla + Louise or maybe the mom in Last House on the Left or Jennifer Hill in I Spit on Your Grave, but none of them seemed prominent enough for inclusion.  Hmmm...

In no particular order:

1971 - El Topo ...................... El Topo
1975 - Randal P. McMurphy ..... One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976 - Travis Bickle ............... Taxi Driver
1933 - King Kong ................... King Kong
1972 - Babs Johnson .............. Pink Flamingos
1994 - Mickey + Mallory .......... Natural Born Killers
1985 - Sam Lowry .................. Brazil
1972 - Everyone .................... Godfather
1987 - Ash ........................... Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn
1947 - Jeff Bailey (Markham) .... Out of the Past

Dr. Frankenstien-Colin Clive in FRANKENSTIEN(1931)
the FRANKENSTIEN MONSTER-Boris Karloff in the BRIDE of FRANKENSTIEN (1935). "We belong dead!"
Dr. Vitus Werdegast -Bela Lugosi...skinning alive Boris Karloff in the BLACK CAT(1934)
.Goldie in the MACK (1972).The ultimate pimp!
.Fred Williamson as BLACK CEASER (1973)
.Pam Grier out to avenge her sister in COFFY(1973)
.Norman Bates in PSYCHO (1960) protecting his mother."It's not like she was a raving...thing! We all go a little mad sometimes...havn't you?
.
                                                                                              (http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/31/anthonyperkins1nv2.jpg)

Oh yeah, also Godzilla and the Firefly clan circa The Devil's Rejects, but not House of 1000 Corpses.

And Mort, I would definitely call Randal an anti-hero. Whereas most of these characters fill the grey area of good and bad bother morally and legally, Randal straddles the grey area of good and bad in terms of taste and social acceptability. heh heh, good choice.

i always thought that the punisher was the best antihero. why does spiderman and superman have to keep fighting the same villains over and over again? because they dont kill them and solve the problem permanently. batmans already a vigilante and the joker killed robin so whats the hold up?

Marv in Sin City...pretty much a textbook anti-hero.


The odd part of that movie is there were several shades of grey.  The sheriff could be considered an anti-hero as well in that film.  Zombie did a great job with that aspect of the plot. 

A gentleman who bears mentioning is probably my favorite anti-hero.  The most abominable Dr. Phibes:

(http://www.badmovies.org/movies/phibes/phibes7.jpg)

Yeah, but Jason Todd came back.  As a villain.  Yeah, comic book writing is idiotic.

On that note, the Joker initially killed people.  But after realizing the Joker wouldn't be killed by Batman, and that having him constantly escape and kill again would make Batman look impotent, they toned him down and made him laughable.  He stopped killing.  This was during Bob Kane's run of course.  Eventually he went back to the old ways and killed people.  He still does, he kills people ALL THE DAMN TIME.  And yes, it makes Batman look INCREDIBLY impotent.  It's ludicrous.  Batman would have saved LITERALLY a thousand+ lives if he had killed the Joker in one of his earlier appearances. 

Oh, and favorite anti-heroes...  Tuco from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

 Anti-heroe ... Ok then ... VENOM - And I promiss this ... Venom will kick Spidermans butt in this movie - he better ;)
And if he does not ... I want my money back man!!! I really dont care that Sandman is in this one. Just want to see my Fav. Venom.
(http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/2104/spiderman3fr4.jpg)
"We are Venom"

I'm going to go with Lestat, (not the wretched Queen of the Damned movie either) - but really his antiheroness really comes from a few of the books moreso than the movie (and none of the books after Memnock bleh).

I have to second the vote for Dr. Phibes.

Sadly, my favorite antihero of all time isn't in a movie - Repairman Jack.

Great choices made here. I agree with pretty much all of them so far. I think Dr. Phibes would be my top favourite too. Other faves include The Punisher, Charles Bronson's Paul Kersey, Dirty Harry &  Most other Clint Eastwood action/western characters, Pam Grier in most of her blaxploitation films, and some not yet mentioned including Ghost Rider, Judge Dredd, Diabolik, The Crow and the Ymir.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned...
Richard B. Riddick (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddick)

(http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/6889/chroniclesofriddickso3.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

 Practically every "mad doctor" played by Boris Karloff .
 In fact...now that I think about it...almost EVERY part Karloff ever played, he brought a kind of pathos to...You always felt for the guy...even as the MUMMY. "Poor  Boris! Why don't they give the ol' boy a friggin break?" Of course,there where exceptions (the BODY SNATCHERS,BEDLAM)...but not to many.

                                       
                   (http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/2293/untitledat9.png)

I think even Mr. Gray had his good points.

He goads the doctor into operating on the little crippled girl, he's kind to his horse, and he pets the cat after 'Burking' Bela to death!

 :teddyr:

Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West in the Re-Animator flicks
Emilio Estevez, Sy Richardson and Harry Dean Stanton in Repo Man

i think han solo counts as an antihero right? i mean sure he turned out to be a good guy but he started off as a gun for hire wanted by the Star Wars version of the law right?