# Film characters that made you very, very angry. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 3, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384 "2007-10-03T15:03:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/41 "2007-10-04T12:40:21Z")
[QUOTE=ianzin] I don’t usually have sufficient suspension of disbelief to actually bother getting angry at characters in a movie. I guess the closest I get actually involves feeling angry with the writers, rather than the characters. [/QUOTE] What about movies that are based upon real people and events? I ask because _Quiz Show_ and _Tucker_ both made me want to stab people with a rusty fork. ---
**Author:** ![Figaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ea666f/32.png) [@Figaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Figaro)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/42 "2007-10-04T15:26:09Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] I still am amazed at the people who admit to liking that movie. It’s one of the most vilely misogynist movies I’ve ever seen, and I wouldn’t watch it again at gunpoint. [/QUOTE] It’s the only movie I’ve ever walked out of, and I’ve never understood why it didn’t bother more people. (ok…I actually also left a showing of _Pet Sematary_…but that’s because I can’t take that kind of movie… :eek: ) ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/43 "2007-10-04T15:29:16Z")
Hilary Swank’s family in _Million Dollar Baby_. I wanted to slap them. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/44 "2007-10-04T15:34:33Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] Bob Ewell in _To Kill A Mockingbird_. I know his character was supposed to be hated – being a drunken, abusive, lying piece-o-shit. When he got on the stand during the trial and was not only clearly lying about Tom Robinson raping “his Mayeller”, but getting away with humiliating Atticus due to “southern codes,” that were being adhered to even there, I went ballistic. I was only 8 or 9 at the time, but I remember being so angry at the injustice of that everything in my peripheral vision was a blur and everything directly in front of me was seen through the color red. Even his daughter Mayella’s initial accusation was forced by him, due to his racism and his weakness as a man. When he later spit in Atticus’ face for directly asking him questions that put the spotlight on Tom, his abuse and neglect of all of his children, and his white trash existence, I wanted Atticus to break him in half. Finch, being the stoic of course, didn’t – but it was the one time you could see he wanted to get down and dirty. Finally, when Tom was killed while trying to escape while being transported to prison, I immediately blamed Bob and no one else, seeing red all over again. [/QUOTE] Yeah, this is a good choice. Atticus gets the opposite vote - to my mind, the best portrait of a truly good man I know of in the movies. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/45 "2007-10-04T15:36:29Z")
[QUOTE=Obeseus] Robert Duval in The Great Santini [/QUOTE] What are you going to do? Cry? [bounces basketball off of Obeseus’ head] Are you going to cry? Come on cry? [bounces it agian] Come, squirt some tears out for me. Great movie. I nominate all the kids from the Cobra Kai dojo in the Karate Kid. Especially the ‘get him a body bag!’ kid. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/46 "2007-10-04T15:39:20Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] I nominate all the kids from the Cobra Kai dojo in the Karate Kid. Especially the ‘get him a body bag!’ kid. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but Kreese, their teacher, was the biggest assneck of them all by a factor of about ten. I mean, the Cobra Kai all quit at the end of the movie (or was it the beginning of the second), throwing their black uniforms at his feet. For me, as a 12 year old boy, that made everything all right. Kreese was still a dick, though, so much so that they brought him back in the third movie, just to add some extra dickery to the main villain, who was an Olympic-level asshole in his own right. ---
**Author:** ![t-mobileguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@t-mobileguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-mobileguy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/47 "2007-10-04T15:46:22Z")
Ok she pissed me off more in the book than she she did in the movie but I still wanted to see the pig faced bitc… Um, female dog die with a wand stuck so far up her, um, nose that she tasted wood whenever she farted! Harry Potters very own, Dolores Umbridge ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/48 "2007-10-04T15:48:10Z")
The Warden in The Shawhank Redemption was particularly nasty. He found out the main character was innocent, so he killed the only witness who could testify to it and locked the main character in solitary confinement, all so he could use the guy to help him CHEAT ON HIS TAXES! Wow, I’m so upset about that. The only thing that settles my soul is knowing just how badly Andy screwed him over on the way out. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/49 "2007-10-04T15:51:10Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp] What about movies that are based upon real people and events? I ask because _Quiz Show_ and _Tucker_ both made me want to stab people with a rusty fork. [/QUOTE] What pissed you off about Quiz Show? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/50 "2007-10-04T15:52:39Z")
[QUOTE=Mosier] The Warden in The Shawhank Redemption was particularly nasty. He found out the main character was innocent, so he killed the only witness who could testify to it and locked the main character in solitary confinement, all so he could use the guy to help him CHEAT ON HIS TAXES! Wow, I’m so upset about that. The only thing that settles my soul is knowing just how badly Andy screwed him over on the way out. [/QUOTE] “I’d like to think that the last thing that went through his head – besides that bullet – …” ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/51 "2007-10-04T15:54:39Z")
Both the leads in _Sideways_. Paul Giamatti played a self-absorbed, Saab-driving wine snob who has to compensate for his inferiority complex by being smarter and better than everybody else and stole a shitload of money from his elderly mother. Then he couldn’t even act happy for his ex-wife when she got married, he had to shit on her wedding too. And his million-page ‘novel’? Did he really expect to find a publisher for that? Then he threw a bitch fit when it got rejected. “Oh, I have to drink a big bottle of wine RIGHT FUCKING NOW, poor little me!” What a deluded, self-important boor. I know we were supposed to hate Thomas Hayden Church’s character, but I can see why the 2 of them were together. They’re both complete assholes with a huge sense of entitlement. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/52 "2007-10-04T15:56:58Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] What pissed you off about Quiz Show? [/QUOTE] The claim, in the closing titles, that the guys responsible for the whole charade were still in the game show business, thirty years later, and still raking it in. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/53 "2007-10-04T16:02:40Z")
The Mexican villager in _The Magnificent Seven_ that betrays the team to Eli Wallach’s bandits. That weak-kneed PUSSY. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/54 "2007-10-04T16:05:40Z")
[QUOTE=Figaro] I had a strong angry reaction to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in _ **True Lies** _. He emotionally tortures his wife and then coerces her into (almost) prostituting herself – all because he’s jealous and paranoid – and it’s played for laughs. I really couldn’t get past it ETA: I guess that almost amounts to a spoiler…sorry 'bout that. [/QUOTE] Nobody says you have to like “Tue Lies” (I only gave it a tepid thumbs up myself), but you’ve got the whole scenario 100% wrong. Arnold is not “jealous and paranoid”- his wife IS carrying on a flirtation with a man she believes (wrongly) is a secret agent. She’s doing so because she thinks (wrongly) that her husband is a boring businessman, and she want some adventure in her life. Every hoop Arnold makes her jump through is to fulfill HER fantasy! He’s giving her the exciting adventure she craves. She WANTS to be a seductive spy seducing an enemy agent, rather than a middle aged housewife. She LOVES doing that striptease, because it makes her feel sexy and powerful, for a change. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/55 "2007-10-04T16:14:48Z")
[QUOTE=BMax] Both the leads in _Sideways_. Paul Giamatti played a self-absorbed, Saab-driving wine snob who has to compensate for his inferiority complex by being smarter and better than everybody else and stole a shitload of money from his elderly mother. Then he couldn’t even act happy for his ex-wife when she got married, he had to shit on her wedding too. And his million-page ‘novel’? Did he really expect to find a publisher for that? Then he threw a bitch fit when it got rejected. “Oh, I have to drink a big bottle of wine RIGHT FUCKING NOW, poor little me!” What a deluded, self-important boor. [/QUOTE] Oh yeah, him too. All his whiny bullshit was annoying but when he stole from his mother-- who would have GIVEN him the money if he’d ask for it-- just to save face. What an a-hole. He _deserved_ to live a loney life. Jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Figaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ea666f/32.png) [@Figaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Figaro)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/56 "2007-10-04T16:22:57Z")
[QUOTE=astorian] Nobody says you have to like “Tue Lies” (I only gave it a tepid thumbs up myself), but you’ve got the whole scenario 100% wrong. Arnold is not “jealous and paranoid”- his wife IS carrying on a flirtation with a man she believes (wrongly) is a secret agent. She’s doing so because she thinks (wrongly) that her husband is a boring businessman, and she want some adventure in her life. Every hoop Arnold makes her jump through is to fulfill HER fantasy! He’s giving her the exciting adventure she craves. She WANTS to be a seductive spy seducing an enemy agent, rather than a middle aged housewife. She LOVES doing that striptease, because it makes her feel sexy and powerful, for a change. [/QUOTE] I really disagree with this, although I recognize that your view is the one the movie wants the viewer to accept. The point, IMO, is not whether JLC’s character is “carrying on a flirtation.” (which she isn’t…she is genuinely interested in intrigue, but there is no intent on her part to cheat) The point is that Arnold’s character’s way of dealing with his suspicions is to kidnap, emotionally and mentally torture, and manipulate his wife in ways that are violent and degrading. You’re certainly right that JLC’s character is written in a way that suggests that she ends up liking all the excitement, but are you seriously saying that having a “heroic” movie character anonymously violate his own spouse both emotionally and physically – all the while packaging it with a gee-whiz sense of “isn’t this fun, everybody?” – shouldn’t offend me? I’m not saying it has to offend you. But I think it’s disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/57 "2007-10-04T16:33:23Z")
[QUOTE=Wolfian] The lead actress in Ghost World. She makes everyone else’s life crappy the entire movie and gets no comeupance. I would have settled for her getting hit with a bus in the last frames. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=BMax] Both the leads in _Sideways_. Paul Giamatti played a self-absorbed, Saab-driving wine snob who has to compensate for his inferiority complex by being smarter and better than everybody else and stole a shitload of money from his elderly mother. Then he couldn’t even act happy for his ex-wife when she got married, he had to shit on her wedding too. And his million-page ‘novel’? Did he really expect to find a publisher for that? Then he threw a bitch fit when it got rejected. “Oh, I have to drink a big bottle of wine RIGHT FUCKING NOW, poor little me!” What a deluded, self-important boor. [/QUOTE] Okay, I dispute both of these. Enid, the character in **Ghost World** , torches every relationship in her life until she’s left with no choice but to leave town. It’s a metaphor for growing up. Giamatti’s character from **Sideways** : A lot of people complained about the scene where he steals a huge wad of cash from his mother. That was an important scene! You, the viewer, are meant to think about it later in the movie where he’s trying to convince Virginia Madsen that he’s not as awful as Thomas Hayden Church’s character. If we hadn’t seen him steal from Mom, we might believe him uncritically. These are two of my favorite movies ever. The character I most wanted to slap around was Steve Martin in **Shopgirl**. ---
**Author:** ![DudleyGarrett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DudleyGarrett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DudleyGarrett)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/58 "2007-10-04T16:51:07Z")
The Cobra Kai sensai in **The Karate Kid**. Although, “sweep the leg” always gets a chuckle out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/59 "2007-10-04T16:53:26Z")
[QUOTE=Krokodil] Okay, I dispute both of these. Enid, the character in **Ghost World** , torches every relationship in her life until she’s left with no choice but to leave town. It’s a metaphor for growing up. Giamatti’s character from **Sideways** : A lot of people complained about the scene where he steals a huge wad of cash from his mother. That was an important scene! You, the viewer, are meant to think about it later in the movie where he’s trying to convince Virginia Madsen that he’s not as awful as Thomas Hayden Church’s character. If we hadn’t seen him steal from Mom, we might believe him uncritically. [/QUOTE] I’m not quite understanding your objection to the Sideways comments. You are saying the scene was meant to show him as an asshat, so why would you dispute people who find him to be an asshat because of the scene? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384/60 "2007-10-04T17:08:17Z")
[QUOTE=Biggirl] I’m not quite understanding your objection to the Sideways comments. You are saying the scene was meant to show him as an asshat, so why would you dispute people who find him to be an asshat because of the scene? [/QUOTE] He’s not just an asshat in the “Nurse Ratched” sense; he’s the Universal Asshat Within Us All with a seed of redemption. Unlike most of the characters being mentioned here, he’s the viewer identification figure in the film, and we’re uncomfortable about it because he’s convincing, not because he’s awful. Would the movie have been more enjoyable if he’d been more moral and above reproach? Or is his reproachability what makes him memorable? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-characters-that-made-you-very-very-angry/421384.md?page=4)