# Greatest Cinema Badass of All Time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 18, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596 "2010-08-18T02:04:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/21 "2010-08-18T17:18:09Z")
> [@markdash](#): > > I give you [Blake](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TROhlThs9qY) from Glengarry Glen Ross. > > Can you be a badass without resorting to actual physical violence? Yes, and he’s definitely on the list, but if we’re drawing from Mamet I’m actually going to have to go with MGySgt Robert ‘Bobby’ Scott from the underrated _Spartan_. Grace: Nice knife. Scott: Yeah. Got it off an East German fella. Grace: He give it to ya for a gift? Scott: No. As I recall, he was… rather reluctant to part with it.Scott: What they gotcha teachin’ here, young sergeant? Jackie Black: Edged weapons, sir. Knife fighting. Scott: Don’t you teach 'em knife fighting. Teach 'em to kill. That way, they meet some sonofabitch who studied knife fighting, they send his soul to hell. and Zimmer: I think you broke my arm. Scott: [slams his arm against the side of a dumpster] Now it’s broken. Mamet managed to carry some of the same gravatis over to _The Unit_ with Jonas ‘Snake Doctor’ Blaine (“Now, Rangers, did you sign up to get out of the house, or do you want to come with me and kick the door down?”) but lacking the profanity it doesn’t have quite the same ring. Outside of that, I’m going to look to Lee Marvin (_Point Blank_, _The Professionals_, _Prime Cut_), Robert DeNiro (_Heat_, _Cape Fear_, _Goodfellas_), and Viggo Mortensen (_A History of Violence_, _Eastern Promises_, _Appaloosa_). Wayne, Stallone, and Schwarzenegger are all charactures of badasses, rather than portraying genuine bassassedry itself. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/22 "2010-08-18T17:27:17Z")
> [@capeo](#): > > My new favorite is Mads Mikkelsen’s One Eye from the new movie Valhalla Rising. A mute viking warrior who shows no emotion while literally tearing the intestines out of a living opponent. IOW: one scary mofo. I’ve been wanting to see this movie since it first cccame out. How did you see it? Until I see this my vote is still with **JoelUpchurch** : [The Kurgan](http://www.movievillains.com/images/kurgan.jpg), badass for centuries. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/23 "2010-08-18T17:37:18Z")
Archibald Cunningham, as played by Tim Roth in [**Rob Roy**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114287/). He’s just so _evil_. I couldn’t watch Tim Roth for a long time afterwards, simply because I hated him so much in **Rob Roy**. And I love Tim Roth. Great character, excellently acted. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/24 "2010-08-18T17:41:23Z")
The Grinch. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/25 "2010-08-18T17:44:48Z")
> [@markdash](#): > > Can you be a badass without resorting to actual physical violence? Nope. This was established in the Manly Man Council of 1998, when _Field of Dreams_ was added to the list of movies men may cry at. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/26 "2010-08-18T17:45:02Z")
I’m a little surprised not to spot Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Full Metal Jacket) on this list. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/27 "2010-08-18T17:46:41Z")
In the Scorsese universe you have to mention Paul Sorvino’s character from Goodfellas. He doesn’t have to say a word. He just steps outside, shoots a menacing glare and everyone goes quiet. Would mention Jake LaMotta from Raging Bull, but he’s more of a raging asshole than a genuine badass. Not that I would want to get into a fight with him, mind you. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/28 "2010-08-18T17:53:28Z")
Oh yeah, how could I forget **Keyser Söze**! Killed his own family to prove a point he did. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/29 "2010-08-18T18:08:55Z")
[QUOTE=lost4life] Second would be George Nada (Rowdy Roddy Piper) from **They Live**. _I’ve come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum._ [/QUOTE] huh. I heard that line in the PC game “Duke Nukem”. I didn’t realise it was stolen from a movie. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/30 "2010-08-18T18:16:16Z")
[Keyser Soze](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdeCPGNRjOU). > [@](#): > > He kills their kids, he kills their wives, he kills their parents and their parents’ friends. He burns down the houses they live in and the stores they work in, he kills people that owe them money. And like that he was gone. Underground. Nobody has ever seen him since. He becomes a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night. “Rat on your pop, and Keyser Soze will get you.” ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/31 "2010-08-18T18:24:36Z")
Lee Marvin in anything (“The Big Red One” for example) Charles Bronson, similar. The heavy in “The Long Goodbye” (Altman dir., starring Elliot Gould) – similar to Marvin’s character in … that flick with Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame by Fritz Lang. Smashes the coke bottle in his girlfriend’s face, says something like “I love this girl…you, I don’t even like, imagine what I’ll do to you?” and, later, “take your pants off…cut him.” ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/32 "2010-08-18T18:56:50Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > > [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > > > Lately for me it’s been Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in “No Country for Old Men.” He’s so mindlessly, mill-of-the-gods bad that he’s beyond bad. > > > > Or maybe it’s the haircut? > > He’s too sick to be bad, I think. I think real badassness has to be sane. I dunno. To me real badassness equates sick. How many characters listed in this thread would you consider to be the epitome of mental health? ---
**Author:** ![Sanity\_Challenged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Sanity\_Challenged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sanity_Challenged)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/33 "2010-08-18T19:00:08Z")
They say that cat Shaft is one baaaad mutha… ---
**Author:** ![Stormcrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/0ea827/32.png) [@Stormcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stormcrow)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/34 "2010-08-18T19:08:31Z")
All these are fine until such time that a film is made of Snow Crash, and then Raven will take top billing. Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad. Hiro used to feel this way, too, but then he ran into Raven. In a way, this was liberating. He no longer has to worry about being the baddest motherfucker in the world. The position is taken. ---
**Author:** ![Smitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Smitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smitty)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/35 "2010-08-18T20:11:55Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > > [@joebuck20](#): > > > > John Matrix from Commando. > > I definitely think that Matrix could kill a one-armed fat man like Rooster Cogburn without breaking a sweat. Maybe by throwing a circular saw blade into his head. That would be one- **EYED** fat man. Otherwise, he couldn’t have took the reins in his teeth and fired both his rifle and revolver at Lucky Ned Pepper. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/36 "2010-08-18T20:17:17Z")
[Is it safe?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG5Qk-jB0D4) \*Not for the squeamish in a dental pain kind of way ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/37 "2010-08-18T20:43:17Z")
Marv from Sin City ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/38 "2010-08-18T20:45:49Z")
Really? No one’s mentioned [Michael Corleone](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcFlp6kl508) yet? ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/39 "2010-08-18T20:46:46Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > Lee Marvin in anything (“The Big Red One” for example) Cat Ballou, Paint Your Wagon… Paint Your Wagon being a classic of cinema only because Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood play so out of their typical characters. ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596/40 "2010-08-18T21:07:36Z")
Victor, the Cleaner, from _La Femme Nikita_. Dissolved a guy with acid and tore through guys at the embassy with no remorse or pity, regardless of whether or not they were an immediate threat. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-cinema-badass-of-all-time/550596.md?page=3)