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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Movies  |  Bad Movies  |  Villain Tribute...(Update) « previous next »
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Author Topic: Villain Tribute...(Update)  (Read 7987 times)
Shadowphile
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« Reply #15 on: August 21, 2006, 12:35:45 AM »

To qualify as a villian, in my opinion, there is a requirement for intelligent choice.  The shark in Jaws, the alien in Alien, these are not villians.  They are antagonists.  There is no deliberate choice to be evil.  Their actions come from instinct, not desire.  The Terminator, even though he's the bad guy, isn't a villian.  He doesn't have the emotional capability to be a villian.

Hannibal Lecter is an awesome villian.  Brilliant, fully aware that what he does is wrong.  He doesn't care.  

Darkness from Legend is a good villian.  Physically powerful, magically adept, he tries to extinguish the sun.  Now that's the kind ot thing a villian does.

Slasher villians aren't worthy to be on this list.  Schlock horror doesn't have a villian, it has a body count.  Nobody cares while Jason/Freddy/Michael/Chucky  is on his killing spree.  The audience is more interested in the cheesy one liners (if the bad guy even talks) and the inventiveness of the murder.

Even movies like Twister, Volcano, The Blair Witch Project, The Grudge and Dark Water have no real villians.  Forces of nature, be they actual nature or the undead lack the decision making power required to join the list.

Really good villians are few and far between.  To pick the top ten would require a lot of thought....
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Neville
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« Reply #16 on: August 21, 2006, 05:19:04 AM »

I'll add to the list Hans Grüber (Alan Rickman) from the first "Die Hard". He's ruthless, he's a criminal mastermind and he has style. The moents where he pretends to be an hostage to fool Bruce Willis are pure genious.

On Blight, I think we are messing things here. The real Blight probably wasn't much different from other British captains of the time, and as some have mentioned, the rules and laws concerning discipline and punishments in navy ships were so dtrict there was not much a captain could do to be benevolent. If you remember "Master & Commander", Russel Crowe is suppossed to be a benevolent commander, but when he sees a fault of discipline he has no choice but to have the man whipped.

On fiction, however, Blight is a villain. As simple as that. Most movies depict him as a man full of insegureties that tries to overcome them by being overzelous in his everyday command. Not only that, he is also prone to blinding wrath attacks, under which he often takes critical decisions.
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Dr. Whom
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« Reply #17 on: August 21, 2006, 06:25:21 AM »

Perhaps not strictly cinema, but I always had a soft spot for Supreme Commander Servalan of Blake's 7 fame.

However, if villainous laughter is a criterium, it has to be Count Zarth Arn!
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« Reply #18 on: August 21, 2006, 08:41:15 AM »


I'll add to the list Hans Grüber (Alan Rickman) from the first "Die Hard". He's ruthless, he's a criminal mastermind and he has style. The moents where he pretends to be an hostage to fool Bruce Willis are pure genious.


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« Reply #19 on: August 21, 2006, 04:56:06 PM »

Peter Lorre as Dr. Gogol in MAD LOVE (1935)
Leslie Banks as Count Zaroff in the MOST DANGEROUS GAME(1932)
Bela Lugosi as Ygor in the SON OF FRANKENSTIEN(1939)
Rudolf Klien Rogge as Dr.MABUSE (192?)
the DEVIL'S REJECTS!!!!
GOLDFINGER
the whole looney family in the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
GHIDRAH,the 3 HEADED MONSTER!!!
NOSFERATU(1922)
Bela Lugosi (again) as the berserk Dr.Vollin in The RAVEN(1934)"YES! I LIKE TO TORTURE!!!"
Boris Karloff as the BODYSNATCHER(1943)
Vincent Price asthe ABONIBLE DR.PHIBES
The house in theHAUNTING (original version)
I forget the charecter's name-the devil worshipper in CURSE of the DEMON
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peter johnson
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« Reply #20 on: August 21, 2006, 11:35:30 PM »

What a wonderful post!
We ARE an intelligent bunch here, wot?
A note or 2:
     I think it's important to distinguish between Captain Bligh the HISTORIC figure and Capt. Blight the CINEMATIC figure -- and surely one has little to do with the other.  All the Blighs have been good Blighs in cinema, though I do have a soft spot for Laughton as well --  
     Robert Mitchum's Preacher in Charles Laughton's "Night of The Hunter" (Speaking of Laughton) I think is/was every bit as rotten and hideous as Mitchum's Max Cady -- even more so in some ways.
     I like a lot of the suggested names here, and some have given me a YUCK! reaction just thinking of them -- Auric Goldfinger:  "I don't mean for you to talk, Mr. Bond, I mean for you to die!" --
     BUT nobody's mentioned one of -- to me -- the worst wicked individual in a starring role:
Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life" -- talk about someone who takes pleasure in watching the innocent suffer for its own sake!!  Potter has all the money in the world, yet takes time out to try to slowly crush the lives of the weak and goodly around him, simply because he can:  "You called me a warped, frustrated old man!", and on the basis of this slight, Potter seizes on an opportunity to bring down as many people as he can in an act of unmitigated evil.  Bastard . . .
     Charles Gray's character in "The Devil Rides Out" -- "Something will come.  I may not return, but Something will come . . ."
     And, oh, I'd take Baby Jane, Eve Harrington, Norma Desmond and Gill-man right off the list:  These all qualify as poor, twisted individuals who could no longer distinguish between light and shadow, or were simply acting as God intended in their envirionment -- on that note, I'd take Norman Bates off as well -- otherwise, why not include Peter Lorre's child-rapist/killer in "M"?  Because of Lorre's impassioned speech at the end?  Norman can't make such a speech because he wouldn't hurt a fly . . .
peter johnson/denny crane
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Bela
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« Reply #21 on: August 22, 2006, 04:39:23 PM »

For obscure BadMovie fans...
the Crimson Executioner! from the BLOODY PIT of HORROR
Dr. Orloff and Morpho from Jess Franco flicks!
Miss Togar-ROCK and ROLL HIGH SCHOOL
the cock-eyed Space Monster from FRANKENSTIEN meets the SPACE MONSTER
Russ Tamblyn in SATAN'S SADISTS!!!
the little fey Chinese guy with glasses in all those Bruce Lee movies.
Lord Zedd...the MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS!
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"Supernatural?...perhaps. Baloney?...Perhaps not!" Bela Lugosi-the BLACK CAT (1934)
Interviewer-"Does Dracula ever end for you?
Lugosi-"No. Dracula-never ends."

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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #22 on: August 24, 2006, 07:35:20 PM »

My favorite type of character. I usually like them even better than the hero. I'll add my thoughts to this tribute, as I think of them.
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #23 on: August 24, 2006, 07:58:12 PM »

And I just thought of them.

Here is a Jaws that should be included. Jaws, as played by Richard Kiel, in "The Spy Who Loved Me," and who was so popular, that he was brought back to appear in "Moonraker."

While I agree with Shadowphile, that most slasher villains are not worthy of inclusion, here are two, at least, in their original film roles. Robert Englund as Freddie Kreuger in "Nightmare on Elm Street" and Tony Moran as Michael Myers in "Halloween."

And while I am thinking about them, here are two more. Amanda Donohoe, who as Lady Sylvia Marsh, in "Lair of the Whit Worm" went through anybody and everybody--the country copper, the local lord, the village virgin, and even a homely boy scout--to keep her white wyrm/worm/snake fat and happy. And who did it with intelligence and wit. And--man--was she ever hot looking!

The closest male equivalent would by Chris Sarandon, as Jerry Dandrige, who in "Fright Night" who showed no compunction about who he would put the bite on and/or kill. And when his civilized veneer was stripped away, and he was seen for what he really was, man--was he vicious.

Now, let me go home and think about--for a day or two--some more who should be included.
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Zapranoth
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« Reply #24 on: August 24, 2006, 08:31:55 PM »

I would have to add:

1.  Bill.   ("Kill Bill")
2.  Zed ("Pulp Fiction")

and

3.  How did he not get mentioned yet?

ALL KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!
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peter johnson
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« Reply #25 on: August 24, 2006, 11:33:41 PM »

My villian can beat up your villian!
Mr. Potter would sneer at Freddy Kreuger, laugh at Michael Myers (Don't we all?) and foreclose on Ming the Merciless's castle in space --
He may be impressed enough by Richard "Jaws" Kiel to offer him a job, but would crush him if he refused. (Good villian, though -- hadn't thought of him --)
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Shadowphile
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« Reply #26 on: August 25, 2006, 10:07:21 AM »

And of course we can't forget The Kurgen from the original Highlander.  Now there was a villian who revelled in slaughter.  Evil to the core and yet still able to salute his opponent when they are fighting to the death.
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #27 on: August 26, 2006, 11:53:18 AM »

Femme fatales are just not physically violent enough for me, but most people would list at least once. Such as Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Ideminity." But, if I would go with one, I'd substitute Gene Tierney as Ellen Berent Harland in "Leave Her to Heaven." There is a woman who would let no one and nothing get between her and her man. Not his crippled younger brother, not the baby she was carrying, not even her younger sister.

But, if you want to restrict the number to ten, then you need the most vicious, most nastiest, most malicious, most coldbloodiest villains and villainesses out there. Here are my magnificent seven. And I apologize to everyone if some of these have arleady been listed.

Richard Boone as Frank Usher in "The Tall T." Anybody that would countenance the murder of a child . . .?

Henry Fonda as Frank in "Once Upon a Time in the West." A most memorable villain played by a memorable actor, especially as he didn't usually play villains. And what is it about the name of Frank?

Ian MacKellen as Richard III in "Richard III." He not only had no respect for his enemies, he had no respect for his friends.

His female equivalent would be Tilda Swinton as the White Witch in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."

Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins in "The Witchfinder General."

Oliver Reed as Bill Sikes in "Oliver"

And as a group . . .
Joan Collins as Jeanne Clayton
Ian Hendry as Carl Maitland
Robin Phillips as James Elliott
Richard Greene as Ralph Jason
Nigel Patrick as Major William Rogers
in "Tales from the Crypt."
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peter johnson
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« Reply #28 on: August 26, 2006, 10:44:18 PM »

Ooohhh!  . . .
Tasty!  Hadn't even THOUGHT of a lot of these, Mr. Boyskout -- Good going.
Yes, Richard the 3rd -- Really, Shakespeare did some sorry individuals, but for one with no redeeming features whatever, you'd  be hard-pressed to come up with an equivalent -- Even Lady MacBeth was driven mad by remorse.  Caliban was more schemed upon than scheming, and even Iago felt compelled to explain himself and was prey to human emotion.  Not our Dickie Boy!!
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ulthar
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« Reply #29 on: August 27, 2006, 07:02:20 AM »

Here are some of my "Top" picks bases on your new list (in no order):

1. Jerry Dandridge
2. Mr. Potter
3. John Doe
4. John Ryder
5. Nurse Ratchett
6. Colonel Kurtz
7. Hannibal Lector
8. HAL
9. Darth Vader (A New Hope)
10. Goldfinger

I'll leave the rest of the top list open to allow for the fact that I have not seen (or don't remember if seen when I was little) many of the older classics you mentioned.  (Yes, I am trying to remedy that).

Take off the List (imo):

1. Darth Vader (Empire Strikes Back)

Why?  In my opinion, Vader was mysterious and very powerful in ANH.  About all we knew about his was that he killed Luke's father, has some 'magic' and was a traitor to his friends.  This relative lack of back-story allowed us to fill in any blanks in how far he would go with our imaginations.  But as I think about it, maybe Tarkin is the REAL villian of ANH.

I know I'm in the minority on this, but I thought Vader got thoroughly watered down in later installments.  Sure, he killed a lot of commanders in ESB, but there SEEMS to be more to being a good movie 'villain' than just killing; after all, we don't have ever week's guest star from "Law and Order" on the list.  This whole business with Vader being Luke's father was a cheap stunt, imo.  I've never liked that aspect of the SW universe, and thought Vader was scarier in ANH.

Have at it, ESB fans.
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