#5 Percy Wetmore from The Green Mile. Those of you who have watched this movie know exactly what I'm talking about. Percy is a prison guard at The Green Mile who delights in the aggravating of both the prisoners and his colleagues. Its frustrating to see the other prison guards suppress their disdain for Percy because of his being the nephew of the Governor. His intentional neglecting to wet the sponge in the botched execution of inmate Eduard Delacroix is disturbing and painful to watch. Almost equally as soul-jarring as Percy's deliberately burning Eduard alive in front of a horrified audience is his stomping on the sweet-natured Mr. Jingles, Eduards tamed "circus mouse" and cellmate. While Eduard is screaming in shock, Percy carries a look of satisfaction, obviously pleased with successfully tormenting him. Percy's arrogance and coldness throughout the movie make him a great and despicable villain. One that I cant help but wish I could repeatedly punch in the throat.
#4 Owen Davian played by the ever-so-talented Phillip Seymour Hoffman in 2006's Mission: Impossible III. The beginning sequence of this movie where Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his wife are held captive by the black market arms dealer Davian and his cronies is fast and shockingly intense. All within two-and-a-half minutes, Davian attempts to extract information about the mysterious doomsday device known as the "Rabbit's Foot" from Ethan, (who is helplessly bound to a chair) by threatening to execute his wife on the count of ten. Ethan desperately insists he delivered it and then pleads with the stone-faced Davian to "do what's right". The cold-hearted Davian doesn't spare a second and shoots her in the head on ten. It comes as freshly unexpected in a series that features the mostly invulnerable Ethan Hunt. This scene sets a tone for the movie and creates a startling image of what this cruel and icy antagonist is capable of. Later in the movie (although chronologically before the opening), in a scene where the tables have turned and Owen Davian is in Hunt's custody and threatened with being thrown from a plane he replies to Ethans demands with chilling calmness. "What's your name? Do you have a wife? A girlfriend? Because if you do, I'm gonna find her. I'm gonna hurt her. I'm gonna make her bleed, and cry, and call out your name. And then I'm gonna find you, and kill you right in front of her." For a guy known for roles more like Sandy Lyle, the former teen actor and best friend of Ben Stiller in Along Came Polly, Phillip Seymour Hoffman surprised me as a terrifying criminal mastermind. At first glance, he looks like a guy who would approach your doorstep with a plate of homemade cookies or someone you would engage in a game of D&D, but he proves that he is not to be taken lightly in this typically-predictable role opposite Tom Cruise.
#4 Owen Davian played by the ever-so-talented Phillip Seymour Hoffman in 2006's Mission: Impossible III. The beginning sequence of this movie where Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his wife are held captive by the black market arms dealer Davian and his cronies is fast and shockingly intense. All within two-and-a-half minutes, Davian attempts to extract information about the mysterious doomsday device known as the "Rabbit's Foot" from Ethan, (who is helplessly bound to a chair) by threatening to execute his wife on the count of ten. Ethan desperately insists he delivered it and then pleads with the stone-faced Davian to "do what's right". The cold-hearted Davian doesn't spare a second and shoots her in the head on ten. It comes as freshly unexpected in a series that features the mostly invulnerable Ethan Hunt. This scene sets a tone for the movie and creates a startling image of what this cruel and icy antagonist is capable of. Later in the movie (although chronologically before the opening), in a scene where the tables have turned and Owen Davian is in Hunt's custody and threatened with being thrown from a plane he replies to Ethans demands with chilling calmness. "What's your name? Do you have a wife? A girlfriend? Because if you do, I'm gonna find her. I'm gonna hurt her. I'm gonna make her bleed, and cry, and call out your name. And then I'm gonna find you, and kill you right in front of her." For a guy known for roles more like Sandy Lyle, the former teen actor and best friend of Ben Stiller in Along Came Polly, Phillip Seymour Hoffman surprised me as a terrifying criminal mastermind. At first glance, he looks like a guy who would approach your doorstep with a plate of homemade cookies or someone you would engage in a game of D&D, but he proves that he is not to be taken lightly in this typically-predictable role opposite Tom Cruise.
#3 Col. William Tavington played by Jason Isaacs in The Patriot. He carries out his duty with a mind fixed on "Total War", the mindset of treating anyone suspected of helping the enemy as an enemy. He slaughters civilians with indifference. He proudly shoots and kills Benjamin Martin's (Mel Gibson) 15-year old son and arrests his oldest with the intention of publicly hanging him. While Martin leads a militia to strike back, Colonel Tavington heartlessly extorts information from and then burns alive anyone he suspects to be friend or family of the band of rebels. Along his ruthless search for Ben Martin, Tavington even manages to fall out of favor with his superior - General Cornwallis, who is disgusted with his disregard for humanity and the rules of war. When I watched The Patriot I remember thinking that Jason Isaacs perfectly personified pure evil. (How's that for alliteration?) I couldn't help but cheer for Ben Martin and hoped for sweet revenge to be granted him. Anyone that has seen this would have to admit to feeling satisfied by Mel Gibson avenging his sons' death by way of bayonet. To this very day, when I am offended or annoyed by someones carelessness or disregard for others - I catch myself thinking "If only I had a bayonet right now!"
#2 T-800. That's right. The Terminator. Choppy haircut and all! If you say you weren't scared of Arnold Swarzenegger in this movie you were either in a drug-fueled coma or you're a liar. In his relentless pursuit for Sarah Connor he went around shooting middle-aged ladies on sight and laid waste to an entire police station. He feels no pain. He has no emotion. And nothing is scarier than when you re being chased by a 'roided-up Austrian machine who is so confident he is going to catch and murder you that he just casually walks. The walking thing alone gave me nightmares. It does some sort of psychological damage. "This guy is so sure he's gonna kill me he doesn't even care enough to run?! Holy crap... I'm screwed." He's on a mission from the future to perform a kind of "retroactive abortion" on a woman destined to birth the savior of mankind. It didn't matter if he was shot, burned, crushed, or blown up... In the words of Kyle Reese "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead." With his limited dialogue and complete vacancy of any feelings the Terminator is without a doubt one of the most feared villains of all time.
#1 Col. Hans Landa A.K.A. the Jew Hunter. Now, let me explain a little bit. The T-800 took #2 with almost a pure terror quality. Col. Landa, I contend, is the greatest villain in modern cinema because of a perfect combination of cunning sadism and a certain amount of likability. If you haven't watched Quentin Tarantino's remake of Inglourious Basterds, its worth renting for the opening scene alone. Christoph Waltz plays Hans Landa, a detective for the Waffen-SS who approaches and interrogates a french dairy-farmer on the rumor that he is hiding a Jewish family on his property. He's all-at-once charming, charismatic, threatening, highly educated and proudly insensitive. He engages the dairy-farmer in a long conversation, even enjoying a smoke and a glass of fresh milk before ultimately slaughtering everyone, including the family hiding beneath the floorboards, with an endless flurry of machine gun fire. If that isn't enough to make your skin crawl, he later chokes out a woman with his bare hands and shows that he is in fact so evil that he would gladly let Germany fall if he would, in any way, benefit. Its the combination of pure genius and pure evil that qualify him as the Grand Dragon of villains. When considering the Jew Hunter for the number one spot on my Top 5 Movie Villains, I couldn't help but think "Oooh, that's a bingo!!"
A few honorable mentions would include the late, great Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight. He carried a lot of the same qualities as Col. Landa in that he was ultimately very disturbed and sinister but simultaneously fun and likable. Heath Ledger's Joker is easily the greatest all time comic-book movie villain and just as easily could have been my #6. Also on my list of villains who would be in a top 10 would be Javier Bardem's "creepy-dude-whose-name-I-don't-know" from No Country For Old Men. He is cut out of the same mold as Arnold's Terminator. He never runs, he kills without any thought or emotion, he has very little dialogue, and perhaps the creepiest thing... a horrible haircut. Others may include Hannibal (Anthony Hopkins) with his eerie charm and overall psychological brilliance as the cannibalistic serial killer in The Silence of The Lambs, Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) the lead terrorist of the Nakatomi Plaza takeover in Die Hard, or the ever-recognizable Darth Vader from StarWars.
***For the sake of conversation, please reply with your own list of top 5 movie villains with or without an explanation. I hate to sound like your Sunday School teacher but, if you participate there is a good chance you will enjoy the Reel World experience even more! ***
I have thought of a few more great villains and have composed another top five group. Maybe not of all time but I will put them in order of how these five would go in my opinion.
ReplyDelete#5 Fernand Mondego (Guy Pierce) "The Count of Monte Cristo"
#4 Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) "Misery"
#3 Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) "Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith"
#2 Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) "Gladiator"
#1 John Doe (Kevin Spacey) "Se7en"
I know I could probably think harder and find even better villains but I think these are worth mentioning.
Nice! I considered Kevin Spacey from Seven, and Kathy Bates from Misery. As for the others, I've seen Joaquin Phoenix and Palpatine on a few lists but I admit to overlooking Guy Pierce from 'Monte Cristo. Strong list.
ReplyDeleteI also should give a mention to Scar from The Lion King. Obviously he's a cartoon lion, but he killed his brother,framed his nephew, and enslaved women. I think he qualifies for a pretty wicked miscreant, even for a cartoon.