Friday Fire: Who is Hollywood’s Greatest Villian?
Caught this question out of the San Diego pelican briefed air from my peoples Delinda Lombardo. If you
haven’t seen the Dark Knight then don’t even comment because Heath Ledger (R.I.P.) changed the game to 2008 insane. From Queen Akasha in Queen of the Damned, Dr. Christian Szell in the Marathon Man and Blackula to Candyman, Palo in the Believers and Darth Vader in the Empire Strikes Back, cats are getting creepier and more evil by the minute. Could you imagine if the Dark Knight was rated R? My goodness. Yo Arnold! I used to like you, but that was way back when you were beating up bikers in bars and making 4 year old kids sound like their grits were imported from Austria.
Bet…
If anyone carries a sledge hammer and says “I’m your number one fan”, ya better run while ya still can bruh.
Is Eddie Murphy really going to play the Riddler?
Greatest villain? Tough one for me because most films give a reason for the villain becoming twisted or turn him/her into some kind of anti-hero with subsequent sequels. I never thought of Candyman as a bad guy because I would come back to as a spirit of vengeance if bigots killed me just because of who I loved. I mean really what’s the difference between Candyman and the Crow? Hannibal Lecter, Freddie Krueger, and Jason Vorhees would have been good choices if no other movies had been made about them because now they’re more popular than the nominal heroes they fight in movies.
Anyway, my top five villains:
5. Hans Gruber (Die Hard)-just a bad guy looking to get paid and not for redemption
4. Joker (Batman ’89)-Ledger may get all the love nowadays but back in the day casting Jack Nicholson as the Joker was spot-on casting and his over-the-top performance was the true story in the first Bat-movie
3. Annie Wilkes (Misery)-tie a guy to a bed, force him to write a novel, make him drink mop water, and then swing a sledge hammer at his foot ranks pretty high on the villainy meter
2. Darth Vader (Star Wars)-even learning Anakin Skywalker’s back story didn’t make him more sympathetic to me because to me he was a spoiled wunderkind with too much talent who Master Yoda knew would be flipped and turned out by the Dark Side eventually. Killing all the baby Jedi in the third chapter didn’t help either.
1. Joker (The Dark Knight)-chaos just for chaos’ sake is what deines Heath Ledger’s Joker. Murder and mayhem just because he can do it is truly a terrifying mindset because it’s all random with death and destruction to hoped for result. Christopher Nolan said he cast Ledger because he was fearless and with his performance we can all see what Nolan saw.
**Take any rumors about casting and plot for a new Bat-movie with a grain of salt because Nolan doesn’t even know if he’s coming back yet much less has a plot ready to film.
Hannibal Lecter…..its one thing to be just crazy and on the loose….but to be a genius with not a grain of a soul and crazy and on the loose…he gave me nightmares for weeks.
Joker (Dark Knight)….hands down.
*** See the comments by Two-Face ***
Aside from Heath…gotta put Daniel Day Lewis portrayal of Butcher (Kings of New York) on my list of skin-crawling-creepy evil screen gems, and of course we need the ladies represented-who could ever forget Louise Fletcher aka Nurse Ratched (Cuckoo’s Nest).
What about Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men”?
I’m also inclined to select masochistic characters like Gary Oldman’s police detective in “The Professional.” He does kill an entire family…then there’s Kevin Spacey’s character in “The Usual Suspects” who kills his own family — or Spacey’s character in “Seven” who kills Brad Pitt’s family.
Christian Bale could get a little love for “American Psycho.”
I haven’t seen Dark Knight, so I’ll leave it there — but I’d love to hear from folks who’ve seen the movies I just mentioned.
Temple3-
I think Lewis was far more evil as Butcher-but certainly made my skin crawl in No Country. Good call on the Oldman, Bale and Spacey as well. In that same category we should mention Brad Pitt in Kalifornia? And D’Onfrio’s Pooh Bear from Salton Sea.
But hands down, Health knocks em all outta the water, for me anyway.
Oh, and of course, Jaws.
Wow. Thanks for the feedback and the inspiration to Mizzo. You all have given me some inspiration to catch these flicks. I love a good villain — the more rotten the better. Now I know why folks were lined up around the city to see the latest Batman flick.
Bill the Butcher – Day lewis should’ve won for THIS performance. Where is Adrien Brody now?
Vader – No need for explanation
Hannibal Lecter – Bryan cox was a very effective Lecter in Manhunter. Hopkins got cheesier, the more he did it.
Joker – I think the Joker is the hero of the piece. He sets everything in motion. There is no Harvey Dent as martyr if the Joker doesn’t do what he do.
Anton Chigurh – Dude was a beast.
p.s. Eddie Murphy as the Riddler would be the worst thing to happen to film since Leonard Part 6.
What about Denzel Washington in Training Day?
Kiser Soze was a helluva villian but the way the movie was setup and told, you didn’t really “feel” his evil the way you felt the wrath of the Joker. Also, I think Hans Gruber was ahead of his time and I just never got into the Star Wars flicks so I can’t comment on Vader.
Nino Brown was no joke, either…..
“Eff that! No renegotiations!”
Dracula of course.
Let’s not forget Dick Chaney
Dick Cheney. Sorry yall, I’m tired just worked a double. LOL!
OMG…Michelle….Dick Cheney………. whew…talk about things that go bump in the night…that would be one.
Miranda,
LOL! He sure keeps me up at night.
“Is this Clarice?…well hello Clarice…”
1. President Bush (Fahrenheit 9/11)
2. Jaws (Jaws)……….man that fake shark had people scared to take a shower.
3. Michael Corleone (Godfather II)……….man I hated that dude he was cold blooded even smoked his brother.
4. Darth Vader…….I mean the dude tried to smoke his son and daughter. Plus cut his own sons hand off….now thats gangsta.
5. Megatron (Original Transformers movie 1996) I mean the dude killed Optimus Prime.
6. Chuckie that little doll had me scared to go to sleep for like a week.
7. Samuel L. Jackson in unbreakable………man that was cold blooded all the folks he killed just to find that Bruce Willis had super powers.
8. That big @ss female Alien in Aliens that was the baddest Villian of all time.
9. Cujo……..that dog was no joke.
10. The Devil in the movie The Car (1977) I mean you had the devil driving a tight tinted hooked up Lincoln Continental running over folks.
Honorable mentions goes to Dr. Evil………I mean you got to be evil with a name like Dr. Evil.
Every huge Monster that has destroyed a city in a movie…..from Godzilla to King kong…..also that large thing in cloverfield………..LOL!!!!
Dang I forgot about Christine.
Heath ledger’s portrayal left me cold. I didn’t see what the hype was about. I’ll take dude in “No Country” any day or Hannibal Lector.
I’ll mention two ones not mentioned.
This dude from the movie “Intensity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ7s47ILTRg&feature=related
And this, my all time Villian…Marlo Stansfield
Heath Ledger raised the bar in “The Dark Knight”. Jack Nicholson’s Joker pales in comparison. It’d be criminal if he didn’t win an Oscar.
AHHHH Kev Dog. I’m with you on Marlow. Snoop and Chris were cold blooded to.
What about ISAAC from Children of The Corn?
A few honorable mentions:
Lil Ze/Lil Dice (City of God)
Cruella de Vil (101 Dalmtians)
Harry Powell (Night of the Hunter)
General Zod (Superman II)
Agent Smith (The Matrix Trilogy)
Louis Cyphre (Angel Heart)
Bricktop (Snatch)
Willie Green (Dolomite)
My criteria is the same as it was in my first post. I chose these villains because they didn’t care if we as the viewers understood there motivations or not because they were going to get theirs.
Yeah Harvey forgot about General Zod (Superman II) he was cold blooded.
So was that lady who was with him.
That still is the baddest superman movie ever.
Kneel before Zod!!
“You will bow down before me, Jor-El. You and then one day your heirs.”
Shakespearean-trained English actors make any kind of dialogue sound good.
The Prince of Darkness
What a list!
1. Jack Nicholson’s character in The Shining – “I’m not gonna hurt ya, I’m just gonna bash you f*n brains in.”
2. Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight, instant classic
3. Keizer Soze – And you thought Debo had mind control.
4. Hannibal Lecter – Did he really do that to that cop in the cage!
5. Danny Glover – The Color Purple
6. Joe Pesci – Good Fellas – Couldn’t wait for him to get smoked after what he did to Spider.
7. Bishop (Tupac) – Juice
8. Darth Vader
9. Lex Luthor
10. The Cop who raped Ving Rhames in Pulp Fiction
Laurence Fishburne’s portrayal of Ike Turner was classic, too!