Does little Alex even count as a villian? He does some pretty nasty stuff, sure, but I always had him pegged as anti-hero. A Clockwork Orange seems too complex to be divided into a world of heroes and villians, and after all, doesn’t a villian need a hero to act as his antithesis? I don’t think the brainwashing state counts as a hero.
Yeah, I debated with myself over this dilemma prior to posting, but I see him much the same way I see Hamlet. He’s both the hero and the villain.
JMHO
The Joker - “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?”
Agent Smith - “Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? It’s the sound of inevitability. It is the sound of your death. Goodbye, Mr. Anderson.”
Cruella DeVille - As mentioned before. Cruella is the quintissential Disney villain. All others pale in comparison. Except maybe the queen in Snow White.
Darth Vader - But they should never have taken his mask off.
Gollum - “My Preciousssss.” Psychotic, repulsive, diabolical, but just pitiable enough to make you feel sorry for him. Great villain.
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Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan. The reasons are already listed above.
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Keyser Soze. Again, listed above.
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Roy Batty, from Blade Runner . Representative of that breed of villain that manages to be far more sympathetic than the hero.
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Hans Gruber. It’s Alan Rickman, in the Alan Rickman role.
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Nazis, in anything except The Producers.
The RABBIT of monty python: nuff said
The aliens of ALIEN: Like jaws, but they spit acid!
GODZILLA in GODZILLA:nuff said
Destroyah: He killed godzilla. According to G-logic, godzilla is invincible. therefore, Destroyah is either omnipotent, cheating, or found a loophole in g-logic, all of whichn are realy damnned hard to do.
Darth maul: if you can fight with a weapon that difficult to use, and still kick ass, you kick ass.
Gary Oldman’s character in The Professional
I think a villain has to have human traits to be scary. A villain also needs a motive. And a villain should never beleive he (or she) is evil. Slashers, monsters and machines are ruled out in my book. They’re just forces. A true villain could be living next door, and I wouldn’t notice it. Adolf Hitler truly thought that he made the world a better place, and this led him to do unbelievably evil acts. The same with a lot of other dictators/despots.
This then leads to my list, which is topped, not with a movie villain, but one from TV.
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Mayor Richard Wilkins III, played with joyful glee by Harry Groener. I have two words for you: Miniature. Golf.".
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Noah Cross, played by John Houston as the benign grandfather, guilty of incest. Also using people like pawns on a chessboard for the ‘good’ of making Los Angeles grow. He gets away with it. “Let it go Jake, it’s Chinatown”
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Jack Torrance, Nicholson again, but this time as a villain. In a way, I guess the madness he displays in this movie became his downfall, since he’s had a hard time not playing characters over the top, ever since. His performance is truly creepy, though: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
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Dracula - as played by Gary Oldman in the 1992 movie by Coppola. He fits my bill for how a villain should be. There’s a motivation for his deeds. He’s not just evil as a plot device. And the scene witgh the razor…
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Oliver Lang/William Fenimore and Cheryl Lang. Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack in the roles of their lives. As the friendly next door neighbours with something to hide, playing against Jeff Bridges and totally stealing the movie. Without ever resorting to violence or raising his voice, Robbins portrays a truly scary guy, thinking he’s doing good, by blowing up federal buildings. We’ve seen the enemy, and he is us.
Michael Corleone: The killing during his nephew’s christening ceremony. Terrific.
The Joker: Tangent already mentioned the line. Best Batman-villain ever.
Hannibal Lecter
The Ring Wraiths
The girl in “Ring”: I’ve only seen about 50% of the film due to closed eyes. “You weren’t supposed to help her!”
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Archibald Cunningham, from the movie Rob Roy. I am absolutely shocked that his name hasn’t been mentioned yet. Just a nasty, vicious piece of work, and Tim Roth shined in this role. Never before did I have such a strong desire to reach into the movie screen and strangle the bastard myself.
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Amon Goeth from Schindler’s List, for the reason El_Kabong mentioned earlier.
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Antonio Salieri from Amadeus. This is my all-time favorite movie. It’s disturbingly easy to identify with Salieri’s motives here. F. Murray Abraham won the Best Actor Oscar for this role, and he deserved it.
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Commodus from Gladiator. I realize that I’m probably in the minority for actually liking this movie. Joaquin Phoenix did a terrific job playing a twisted Roman emperor with major self-esteem issues.
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Michael Corleone from The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II, for all the reasons mentioned already. What makes it all the more tragic is that in the beginning of the first movie, Michael is actually a pretty decent guy.
Major Fight Club spoiler below.
1: Vader, 'nuff said.
2: Hans Richter, for proving what we’ve all long suspected about Europeans.
3: Tyler Durden. Sort of a cross between Adolf Hitler and a frat boy, which is pretty evil in and of itself, but on top of that, he’s a figment of the hero’s imagination. How do you beat the bad guy when he’s your own id?
4: Mordaunt, from The Three Musketeers. Well, the sequel, actually. Reading as the Musketeers come up with all these brilliant plans to rescue King Charles, and knowing that history tells us they’re going to fail, all because this little shit can’t get over his mommy issues.
5: Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, the flying pustule. I loved the way Lynch portrayed him in his (flawed) version of Dune.
(possible spoilers)
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Jack Lint, “Brazil”. Sure, he’s just a cog in a giant machine, but he’s doing his best to move up in the world, and if that means torturing a friend to death, then that’s the price he’s going to have to pay. And he’s played by Michael bloody Palin, the Python voted least likely to torture anyone.
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Craig Schwartz, “Being John Malkovich”. At first I sympathized with the struggling artist forced to work in an oppressive bureaucracy, but about the time he locked Cameron Diaz in the monkey cage, I had to admit this was a bad, bad man.
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God, “Bedazzled” (original version). Sure, the devil’s a troublemaker, but he’s actually just trying to make his way back home. God denies him on a technically, dooming countless more souls to damnation and the world to be covered with fast-food restaurants. Cue maniacal laughter over end credits.
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General Jack D. Ripper, “Dr. Strangelove”. This guy cared enough about the purity of his essence to unleash global nuclear war.
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Morgana, “Excalibur”. Rapes her brother and raises their bastard son to kill his father. That’s some sick villainy.
Jack Valenti - A man who defines oily, wears corruption like old women wear cologne, and will sell out faster than Martha Stewart with an insider tip.
Will Hayes - Enforcer of what became known as the Hays code which told us that we didn’t like sex in our movies and would save us from it. Was incredibly corrupt and cared little about the code but stood as the figurehead for the prestige and money.
Rex Reed - The Mr. Blackwell of film. Nuff said.
Joseph Breen - The appointee from the Catholic Legion of Decency who headed the Production Code Administration.
Donald Wildmon - Head of the “American Family Association” which tries to protest and hurt the business of any movie or television show they find offensive.