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Where or where have the bad guys gone?

Slugwriter

Slugwriter

Movie Bad guys are as important as the heros.

Some of the best movie villains have made an impression on Cinema, that without them, the way we look at films wouldn't be the same. The classic battle between good and evil. The war for good, the war for evil.

For a while, I was worried good villains were dying out. But, of course, they weren't. I was very happy in 2007- and 2008. Two great villains bombed their way into the silver screen. The Joker (Best supporting actor) and Chigurah (Best Supporting Actor lol). Not only did both performances control the movie, and sometimes it seemed the movie was built around each character, not purposely. Or purposely. Either way, when they were on the screen, I couldn't help from getting the chills or giggling at the badass psychotic nature of each character. Especially how each character reflects society in some way. Especially the Joker. He is the 21st century! And even though he is psycho, what he says really speaks something about how hypnotized society is. Hypnotized from religion and the federal Bank and well, everything that isn't art.

But anyways, what are your favorite Villains and why. Tell me YOUR THOUGHTS.
 
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Not your typical villain but Kurtz has to be my all time fav. Especially considering the anticlimax, after being lead to believe so much other things abt him.

EDIT: If you want a more typical definition of a villain, Hans Gruber is up there on my list.
 
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Movie Bad guys are as important as the heros.
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More so. The voyeur audience will always focus on a good bad guy more so then the good because it's something they will never do but always interested in.

As for bad guys being gone? I don't think so, you are just getting use to the standard bad guy in most Hollywood films (or even shorts). As you get older you notice they rehash the same bad guys from film to film and you start to get bored. For instance let us speak about Avatar (cracker will like this ;) ). The main bad guy wasn't a bad character, in fact they did a good job of creating him. The problem is we have seen him a hundred times before and you are bored of him. My only issue with James' bad guys was the soft hearted bad guy who was corporate guy who was running the operation for profit. It was just a rehash of Paul Reiser's character in Aliens (IMO). But of course it was so long ago that the younger generation wouldn't know what he did.


Also, may fav for bad guys is the late, great Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet.


EDIT: The picture of your Avatar was a senstional job of a bad guy. ;)
 
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I loved the bad guy in Avatar. I still quote him with my friends at the exact right moment and we still think he's hilarious.

"I want this high and tight, I wanna be home fer dinner".

"Every living thing on Pandora wants to kill you and eat your eyes for jujubees".

"Ah'll getchyer legs back".

"Looks like diplomacy has failed!"

Verbal Kint was a good bad guy.

And the guy in 3:10 to Yuma played a good bad guy - don't know his name... Not Russel Crowe but his right-hand-man who is evil.

There's always Hannibal Lecter...

EDIT: Ben Foster is the guy from 3:10 to Yuma if you remember him...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MERu1cC5RFA&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCm5qePz8JI&feature=related
 
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Tommy Lee J was especially evil in this movie The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3k1iBYa5Z4

Anyone seen it? Good movie.

That's Barry Pepper as well, whom I mentioned on another thread.
 
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My bad, I guess the title is mis leading. The Villains are not gone, I think villains are still here and just as strong as ever. Soon, A villain will come along that will make us watch intentively.
 
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Javier Bardem, "No Country for old men".

Although I've got to note, I don't look upon Villains as metaphors for society, go beyond that and dig a little deeper, you seem to bring up the negative representation of society a lot. It's always going to be around, but it's a fighters fight and we're all out of revolution.

Villains tell me more about the writer, about the director, than it does economic balance.
 
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ROC said:
Tommy Lee J was especially evil in this movie The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3k1iBYa5Z4

Anyone seen it? Good movie.

That's Barry Pepper as well, whom I mentioned on another thread.
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Evil? Really?

I wouldn't have called him evil at all.

In the end a good villain is incredibly difficult to write for. It's one of my consistent struggles as a writer.
 
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There are many good things in society, people can be good. But things are more contradictive and psychotic then ever. Behind the good, there is always room for something else. But the difference between us and the villains is we would never do it. But look at the destructive ways of the 21st century.

The writer may being writing for a psychotic serial killer, it doesn't mean the person who's writing is. But they are usually trying to make a point with the character. Like the hero, the villain represents something. And I think it goes deeper then just the writer.

Im not saying you still cant tell the writer based on cerain aspects, but I have my own opinions about villains.
 
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barnaclelapse said:
Evil? Really?

I wouldn't have called him evil at all.

In the end a good villain is incredibly difficult to write for. It's one of my consistent struggles as a writer.
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The way he tortures Barry Pepper's character?

Lighting the corpse on fire? Bringing the corpse with him?

Maybe I missed the point of the movie entirely...
 
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Bill - Kill Bill 2
Bill the Butcher - Gangs of NY
Capitán Vidal - Pan's Labyrinth
Danny Vermin & Moronie - Johnny Dangerously
Hans Landa - Inglorious Basterds
Leon & Stansfield - Leon
Tyler Durden - Fight Club
William Munny - Unforgiven

I love all of the above for various reasons. I think the unifying trait of the above is performance. They were all amazing performances in their own regards.

Stansfield and Vidal were always monsters where Landa and Bill were funny at times. Durden and Munny were the Heros as well as the villains. Munny and Bill the Butcher were villains but also had complex ethical and moral guidelines.

Vermin and Moroni were among the few comedy badguys that got to deliver the best lines. Villains always get short changed in comedy.
 
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Today, Anton Chigurh gets my vote, but in Sam Peckinpaw's 1974 Bring Me The Head of Alfred Garcia, Gig Young as Quill, was unbelievable as a psychotic hit man... surprised the hell out of me at that time, way back when. Was a first in weird casting for Gig Young (of all people), Robert Webber was pretty psycho too... Love casting that doesn't fit the box and WORKS, especially for the 'bad' guy.
 
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