Why do American movies have only Psychopathic Villains ?

Just about every major villain in American movies are psycopaths. Why ? Is it harder to make a villain with some real world issues and problems ? Is there a need to make villains totally unredemable ?

Naturally not all movies get stereotyped like this… but american movies have it way too frequently for my taste.

I would conjecture that maybe Americans like (or are perceived as liking) issues black & white. Villains are bad... Heroes are good. No grey areas. Movie goers are naturally not this dumb... but somehow things have evolved to these 2-D villains. Or would making "normal" people into villains seem bad entertainment ?  The second answer might be that they just want to get the story going without spending time developing characters.

Maybe you’re watching the wrong movies?

Define “psychopath.” Villians in film are by definition BAD, because that’s what a villian usually is, and it seems to me that within the confines of a two hour movie, most bad guys are going to come off as at least mildly sociopathic.

And even then, I can, without much difficulty, think of villians that are not psychopathic. There are many other classes of villians:

  • The lying or greedy weasel (Aliens, Jurassic Park)
  • The Powerful Authority (most conspiracy movies, like Enemy of the State)
  • Animals, aliens, and other folks who’re just hungry (Jaws)
  • The arrogant jerk/bitch (Most high school movies)
  • The troubled soul (The Incredibles)
  • Historical villians (Hitler, Edward I in “Braveheart,” etc. etc.)

Even if you conclude psychopaths are common, an obvious reason they’re so popular is that psychopaths are scary. Psychopaths are, by definition, people who are incapable of empathy, causing them to act without conscience or remorse. They are usually also lacking in foresight, so they act out on whims and behave irrationally. Despite these shortcomings, psychopaths are still as likely as anyone else to be charming and intelligent. Such people are capable of frightening things. They make good villians.

hhmm… you gave some good examples… but I feel frustrated at watching a movie and then instead of some good plot devices or characters… you just have a total wacko villain. I find it boring and predictable. They aren’t that scary because they are so “outlandish” IMO. I like it when common people are pushed into doing things they wouldn’t otherwise do… the psycho just kills… booorriiinnnggg…

Some of this is surely because:
a) America produces a lot of movies
b) Movie producers/writers/etc (anywhere) will often just trot out something according to a formula, and a popular formula is the fight between Good vs Evil

possibly also
c) That’s what the public wants, as evidenced by their feedback through the box office.

This is what I want to discuss… why would the public want these psycho villains ?

I think its President Bushes fault, you know his stance on abstinence leaves a gap for the market to fill. Rashak, is there anything not a fault with American culture to you? Jeez.

I could ask why are all Latin movies full of sex crazed dancing maniacs, but that would be a stereotype, wouldn’t it? So is this.

While I agree that psychopaths make good villains, I think you’re overestimating their number in American movies. I’m not just talking about non-dumb or non-action movies either. Movies like Air Force One and The Rock are pretty typical Hollywood action fare, while still showing realistic, believable and non-psychopathic villains.

In fact, I can’t think of that many movies that have psychopaths for villains.

American Psycho? The clue is in the same. :stuck_out_tongue:

The American public likes psychos as bad guys because it’s easy to differentiate them from the ‘banality of evil’ that is real life. The movie criminal, wearing a diaper and rubbing poo on their head whilst cackling heartily about dead babies, is easy to hate and fear as a bad guy. The real criminal, the guy on the bus sitting next to you who beats his wife, is much harder to differentiate yourself from.

Statistics show that the vast majority of violent crimes (murder, attempted murder, violent assault, rape, sex crimes) are commited by people you already know. Stranger on stranger crime, while not rare, is not the majority of violent crime. Showing family on family violence or friend on friend violence isn’t entertaining because it’s truly scary - it’s someone who you might even know, or in a situation similar to your own.

For a great portrayal of evil, see “the Woodsman” with Kevin Bacon. The hardest thing to do is portray someone who is ‘evil’ as a real person, without being sympathetic to their crime(s).

2003 top grossing American-produced movies:

Finding Nemo - Only real “villians” are the dentist and his neice, who are villians out of ignorance.

The Matrix Reloaded - Agent Smith is obviously psychopathic, albeit in a weird way.

Pirates of the Carribean - The pirates are driven to evil by being cursed; they really have no choice but to pursue their goals. Not psychopaths.

Bruce Almighty - Bruce’s foils (his newsroom rivals) are just ambitious, not psychopathic; the movie is essentially about the fact that Bruce’s problems are his own.

X-Men 2 - Stryker’s evil seems to be based out of power madness and fear of mutants. I don’t think he’s a psychopath, though he’s clearly gone over to the dark side.

Terminator 3 - Like “The Matrix,” the villian (the Terminatrix) is clearly psychopathic in the sense that she/it acts without remorse, but that’s only because a machine would HAVE to be psychopathic in its behaviour.

American Pie, the wedding movie - No villians in the true sense of the word.

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - Many villians. I guess Sauron might be psychpathic. He’s kind of beyond that. Gollum is clearly not; he has been driven insane by greed, but he does have a conscience, which he struggles with (and fails at.) Gollum is most definitely not a 2-dimensional character. Sauron isn’t really a character at all.

Catch me if you Can - No villians; the protagonist is the criminal and he’s not a psychopath.

Eight Mile - Never saw it.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 - The many villians here border on psychopathic behaviour, but they’re deliberately made out to be multidimensional characters.
To be honest, Rashak Mani, I’m not sure your claim holds water.

While I agree with you completely, RickJay, I feel compelled to point out that it’s “villain”, not “villian”.

Because all the villains with real world issues are all around us, going after our kids or raising the rent too high for fixed-income old people or what-have-you.

Some of us like to go to the movies to get away from the real world. Hence you have over the top villains.

Probably what GomiBoy said; they want to be reassured that people who do bad things are fundamentally different from themselves.

It’s a fundamental principle of drama - big problems, big very bad villain = bold courageous hero. The less fearsome the odds faced by the protagonist the less the audience care about him/her. Little problems = little involvement.

I would disagree with RickJay’s final assessment. Nearly every film with a real hero vs bad guy plot he mentions, the bad guy(s) is a psycho whether on the “dark side” or “cursed” , Rather than disproving the OP I think the list confirms its truth.

We might get a great debate out of this to examine American society and culture, ([Ryan’s whining notwithstanding), but appears that first we need to establish that the premise is correct. For that I suggest a more in-depth analysis in Cafe Society.

/ /Moderator Mode ]

As a couple of starter questions, I would be curious to see the lists of the most popular movies from a number of other countries. France, Australia, New Zealand, Iran, and India are frequently pointed out as places where “good” movies are made outside the U.S. Southeast Asia is noted for “action flicks.”

Now, what are the most popular movies in those countries? If U.S. action-flicks-with-psycho-baddies are very popular in those locations, then I would submit the the U.S. is simply a leader in producing enjoyable action-flicks-with-psycho-baddies and that the number of those internationally distributed films skews the results because film makers in those other countries (who might also make action-flicks-with-psycho-baddies) have simply surrendered the “cartoon” market to the U.S. and Hong Kong.

Because the movie studios are forever trying to come up with the next Darth Vader, Hannibal Lecter or Freddy Kruger so they can make a ton of money on sequels and prequels.

As for the “American” crack, I’d point out that American action movies are the American movies you funny-talking furriners are disproportionately likely to see. Today’s action movies are made with the international audience in mind…and that means simplifiying the dialogue, dumbing-down the plot, and playing up the special effects and splosions. Why bother writing witty banter and philosophical introspection if the dialogue is all going to be badly dubbed into Thai anyway?

The American public is absolutely fascinated by the psychopathic killer. Look at how easily the names of the serial killers conjer up images of brutality for the average American: Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Ng, John Wayne Gacy, Son of Sam, etc etc. America just cannot get enough info on these home-grown boogeymen. The thought of a serial killer on the loose will terrify and transfix the population of this nation. The studios are just making money off of this fear.