Michael Corleone was a villian…
He killed his own brother for crying out loud!He willingly engaged in ilegal activities and murdered to protect himself. He was no hero
My problem was Travis Bickle… Sure he wasn’t a hero buit he was no villain…
he killed a pimp and some goon to save a 13 year old prostitute He was an anti hero…
100 Heroes & Villains?! They must be really bored over at AFI.
To Kill a Mockingbird has some claims on being the Great American Novel. It hits every trigger button in society for its time and history. It’s also one of the great weird one-book wonders, a story that an author absolutely has to tell but has nothing else to say.
And the movie works almost as well as the book does. It was enormously courageous of the makers not to water it down for a public who were not noticeably pro-civil rights.
And for all the lawyer jokes that have splatted the landscape since, the idea that a hero is someone who shows that the US is a nation of laws made for everyone is a truer and more powerful reading of our history than war or cowboy or private eye heroes.
Great – and very surprising – choice.
FTR, the full list is available here in PDF form.
This is exactly the conversation my wife and I had. They listed Indy as #2 and then cut to a commercial. Ms. Undhow and I look at each other and say “who the hell’s a bigger movie hero than Indy?” We try to come up with someone, but can’t.
Then they name Atticus, and we both nodded and said “yup, that’s right, he should hold the top spot.”
Other issues:
Like akennett, I thought Michael Corleone’s placement was flat-out wrong. He really shouldn’t be on either list, as he doesn’t fit neatly into either category. (kingpengvin: if Corleone’s a villain, so is Bickle; he was gonna assasinate a senatorial candidate).
Norman Bates as the #2 villain? Horseshit. Norman Bates evokes sympathy as well as fear. He isn’t evil so much as he is mentally disturbed.
Mixed feelings on the #1 and #2 villain. The Darth Vader from ANH and ESB should easily be #1. The Vader in ROTJ and the whiny kid from the prequels take a back seat to Lecter, though.
Clarice Starling should NOT be in the top 10 heroes.
Regan MacNeil (the Exorcist kid) shouldn’t be on the list; the demon that possessed her should.
Angela Lansbury’s character from The Manchurian Candidate should be way higher than #21. So should Max Cady from the original Cape Fear and Dr. Szell from Marathon Man.
Where the hell is John McClane from Die Hard?
Where the hell is Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name? (and “Angel Eyes” on the villain list, for that matter).
Where the hell is “Khhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnn!” on the villain list?
In the opening montage, they showed him pushing the wheelchair down the stairs, but he didn’t make the list.
I’m giggling at the proximity of Hannibal Lecter and the Atticus Finch quote at the top of the list: “You never know someone, until you step inside their skin and walk around a little.” Just me? OK then.
I don’t think Norman Bates belongs there, either. Mrs. Bates? Sure. Absolutely. I was pleased to see Marge Gunderson on the heroes list. I think Verbal Kint could have been a little higher than 48.
It’s fun to go down the list and try to imagine the respective heroes and villains battling each other. George Bailey vs Regan MacNeil. Thelma and Louise vs Gordon Gekko. Robin Hood vs Jaws is a movie I would totally see. And some I think are planned. Lassie and Cruella De Vil?
No Gandalf? That sucks.
I hate those stupid AFI “lists.” They’re basically all Blockbuster promos, and rarely go back before 1940.
[checks link]
Yep. Only one silent film (Charlie goddam Chaplin, of course), and precious few from the 1930s.
Idiots.
I can’t believe Hannibal Lecter topped Norman Bates. Yeah, Anthony Hopkins was creepy, but Anthony Perkins was creepy as hell. Plus Norman Bates was a more complex character: Lecter was just an inhuman force of evil, while Bates was an apparently harmless yet vaguely disturbing fellow whose gentle façade hid something twisted and deadly. That, to me, is far scarier.
And I do think he counts as a villain, psychotic or no. The “Mrs. Bates” who committed the murders was just an aspect of Norman’s personality, not a different character entirely like the demon who possessed the Exorcist girl.
Now, from a completely different line of reasoning, I still believe Vader should have been #1. The look, the voice, the mystery . . . he’s THE classic villain of all time.
BTW, to Hampshire: Max Von Sydow played Ming in the 80’s Flash Gordon movie, but furryman was referring to Charles Middleton’s performance as Ming in the original Flash Gordon serials with Buster Crabbe. And I agree that Middleton’s version should have made the list somewhere.
No Luke Skywalker?
THANK YOU, EVE.
Whenn I see “AFI” and “list” in the same sentence, I experience an involuntary spasm of eyerolling. Their “American 100” list is absolutely ludicrous, and this one sounds no better.
And by what criteria is Lawrence of Arabia an American film?
That’s a good point. IMdB has it as a UK film.
Bad guys I was surprised they missed:
Barnes (Tom Berringer) from Platoon-- I forgot his rank
Tony Montoya from Scarface. No Tony? What the hell?
I was surprised that Darth Vader wasn’t the #1 villain and a little dissapointed but not surprised that Tom Hank’s Toy wasn’t one of the Heroes. Schwarternegger’s Terminator is a great villain but I don’t see how the Term2 Terminator made it so high on the heroes list.
But I don’t know why anyone would get bent out of shape over this list. Sure, some people were left off and others were on who shouldn’t have been … but so what? If it were perfect, none of us would want to talk about it. These lists aren’t meant to be definitive; they’re meant to please an audience. The audience for the most part wants to see films on the list that they’ve seen - or at least heard of. Hence, no silents.
[sigh] . . . Unfortunately, a sign of the Dumbing Down of American Culture. I would think The goddam American Film Institute would havesome sense of film history. That is what they’re there for, right? “100 Years,” my eye. Why not just be honest and call it “Stuff We Thought You Idiots Might Want to Rent at Blockbuster?”
“100 Years of Heroes and villains” . . . No Douglas Fairbanks? No Theda Bara? Morons.
Eve, lissener…take a deep breath. If you don’t like it, fine…don’t watch. Personally, I love any opportunity to see film clips. My favorite parts of any Oscar telecast are the clip montages.
I don’t think any AFI lists are limited to American films. I’m pretty sure Lawrence was also on the Top 100 list.
Biggirl: they had Tony from the original Scarface, (1932, Paul Muni) for what it’s worth.
EnolaStraight: granted, that Luke is the hero of Star Wars, so if any SW character should have been listed it would be he. But they took both Han Solo and Obi-Wan instead–probably because they’re actual likable characters and not whiny little jerks. Just MHO, of course. 
Okay, Eve, who’s your top 5?
James Bond certainly isn’t American.
Bear in mind the criteria that the judges were instructed to use: