movies where you rooted for the bad guy

[Flick James]

* BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID
* BONNIE & CLYDE
* THE WILD BUNCH

Of course, these movies portrayed the outlaws as likeable people who just happened to go around robbing and/or killing people.   

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a great example. I love that movie. You can totally see how it was the product of the Spaghetti Westerns that blurred the lines between the good guys and the bad guys.

[Jack Slater]

The Jackal.


There's a heap more, but they stand out right at the moment.

Great call.

[wuatenigenu]

Titanic ... The bad guy being the iceberg!

[The Burgomaster]

How about SCARFACE.  Although, I guess Tony Montana was the "goodest" of the bad guys.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

How about Michael Douglas' character in Falling Down?

Although the majority of his actions weren't in good judgement, the scene where he beat the hell out of the two gang bangers with the sawed-off bat was worth it.

One thing about these sorts of movies-it's very hard to call some of the the bad guy when you see what they went through.

I'm gonna' go out on a limb here and also root for Captain Rhodes in the original Day Of The Dead because of his uphill struggle with the lunatic scientists, and the way he and his men suffered when they did their dirty work.

AND,as far as the living dead go, I tip my hat to Mr. Harry Cooper, for truly showing us that the cellar WAS the safest place after all.   

[voltron]

Repulsion came to mind in a weird way. I wasn't rooting for the main character, but I did empathise with her. Ahhh....just thought of Maniac (1980) - you don't really root for Frank Zito but the movie tends to set you up almost to see things through his eyes in a twisted sort of way.

[Vik]

How about SCARFACE.  Although, I guess Tony Montana was the "goodest" of the bad guys.

I guess he doesn't really count as the bad guy, even though he does bad things, because he's the protagonist. I assumed the question of this thread meant: In what movies did you root for the person you weren't meant to root for?

[AndyC]

How about Michael Douglas' character in Falling Down?

Although the majority of his actions weren't in good judgement, the scene where he beat the hell out of the two gang bangers with the sawed-off bat was worth it.

That's what I liked about that movie. Bill Foster had, until that final day, endeavoured to do everything he thought he was supposed to do. He played by the rules, but the rules changed, his life fell apart, and he became this downtrodden nice guy with a lot of pent up rage. Aside from his more violent and psychotic moments, Foster comes across as a sane man trapped in an insane world. And it's hard not to applaud the targets he chooses, especially when they're usually provoking him. He spends the entire movie trying to quietly get where he's going, and people just won't leave him alone.

I love that part at the end, where Detective Prendergast confronts him and he seems almost confused. "I'm the bad guy? How did that happen?" It's also a beautiful parallel with Prendergast as another nice, old-fashioned guy, who takes everyone's abuse with a smile until he learns from Foster the importance of standing up for himself. It becomes kind of a "There but for the grace of God go I" sort of thing. A lot of people can identify with both these guys.

You can probably tell Falling Down is one of my all-time favourite movies.

[bob]

How about SCARFACE.  Although, I guess Tony Montana was the "goodest" of the bad guys.

I guess he doesn't really count as the bad guy, even though he does bad things, because he's the protagonist. I assumed the question of this thread meant: In what movies did you root for the person you weren't meant to root for?

it's open to interpretation in terms of who each one of us deems the bad guy


stating the obvious I was hoping for any bad guy to kill off Jar Jar and Jake Lloyd in Episode One

[AndyC]

Yeah, I agree with the interpretation that "good guy" and "bad guy" have more to do with a character's function in the story than whether they're good people. The protagonist is the good guy and the antagonist is the bad guy, even if the former is a criminal and the latter is a cop trying to catch him.

That was the problem I had with the tagline for Payback - "Get ready to root for the bad guy." Sure, he might be a career criminal and a genuine dirtbag, but if the story is written so that we root for him, he is, for all intents and purposes, the good guy. I like Payback, and thought about listing it here, but didn't. When you're supposed to root for the bad guy, he isn't the bad guy.

There aren't many movies where the protagonist was so unlikeable I cheered for the villain. Pacific Heights was definitely one, although back in 1990, yuppies just really p!ssed me off. Showgirls, on the other hand, is a good example of a movie where I just didn't like anybody, regardless of whether I was supposed to or not.

[JaseSF]

King Kong
Godzilla
The Ymir
Jason Vorhees

(Honestly most movie monsters)

Falling Down though is definitely the first film that came to mind...

[Ted C]

X-Men: First Class
Magneto, in particular. The way that humans have treated mutants and general and the X-Men (who just prevented World War 3) in particular completely justifies his turn to "the dark side" at the end.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!

I root for the villain about 38% of the time. Of course, that's in the books I've read. (46% of the time for the hero and 16% of the time for a character that is neither the hero nor the villain.) Films not so much, but there are still some film villains I've rooted for. So, here is . . .

the wouldn't
the shouldn't
the couldn't
and the misled.

Kurt Kelly (Lance Fenton) in "Heathers"
J. Douglas Williamson III (Ronald Sinclair) in "They Made Me a Criminal"
Scott Wormer (Devon Sawa) in "Now and Then"
and Edward Thompson (Stephen Geoffrey) in "Fright Night"

[akiratubo]

The Matrix.  Neo and crew may be the least sympathetic "heroes" in all of movie history.  All the machines were doing was keeping humanity alive and happy.

There's an anime series called Megazone 23.  In the second episode, in particular, the "bad guys" were so sympathetic I didn't even realize they were supposed to be the bad guys.  It all of a sudden hit me, "Hold on, the movie wants me to be on the side of the biker gang?  $#@! that!"

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

How about Michael Douglas' character in Falling Down?

Although the majority of his actions weren't in good judgement, the scene where he beat the hell out of the two gang bangers with the sawed-off bat was worth it.

That's what I liked about that movie. Bill Foster had, until that final day, endeavoured to do everything he thought he was supposed to do. He played by the rules, but the rules changed, his life fell apart, and he became this downtrodden nice guy with a lot of pent up rage. Aside from his more violent and psychotic moments, Foster comes across as a sane man trapped in an insane world. And it's hard not to applaud the targets he chooses, especially when they're usually provoking him. He spends the entire movie trying to quietly get where he's going, and people just won't leave him alone.

Very good dissection of Foster's character. I liked when he apologized for the Uzi going off in the restaurant, and told everyone to get back to their meals. Another part shortly before or after sees him saying that he's "not really used to this sort of thing", so yes he was definitely not crazy, even if he showed some slightly sociopathic tendencies.

I love that part at the end, where Detective Prendergast confronts him and he seems almost confused. "I'm the bad guy? How did that happen?" It's also a beautiful parallel with Prendergast as another nice, old-fashioned guy, who takes everyone's abuse with a smile until he learns from Foster the importance of standing up for himself. It becomes kind of a "There but for the grace of God go I" sort of thing. A lot of people can identify with both these guys.

You can probably tell Falling Down is one of my all-time favourite movies.

I'd say, from what I've read, that FD is definitely a fave of yours,