The AFI villains list was better than their heroes, but not the most interesting list. Hannibal Lecter makes a somewhat predictable and obvious choice, but undeniable.
Their one main really dumb choice for villain is "Man" from Bambi. Goddam, but I hate that stupid movie.
"Villains" sometimes seem more ambiguous as to that status than do heroes to theirs. In theory, Michael Corleone must rank as a monster- yet I have trouble really thinking of him as a villain.
Here are my picks for most striking movie villains of all time:
Jack Ripper (Dr Strangelove)
You can't get much more villainous than blowing up the world. Narcissism seems to be a defining common trait looking over the villain list. General Ripper thought that the world revolved around his powerful military penis. When he couldn't get it up anymore, the only reasonable explanation must be a commie plot. You can't get much more narcissistic than that.
Eleanor Iselin (The Manchurian Candidate)
I'll call Mrs. Iselin and Jack Ripper co-villains of all time. Years of watching Ms. Lansbury in the nicey-nice Murder She Wrote would be just the thing to prepare you for a good shock. Allowing her own son to be brainwashed as an unwilling assassin to help in a communist plot to take over the US government. Oh, and don't forget the incest. Her last big scene with Raymond was just to DIE for. "One last step. And then, when I take power, they will be pulled down and ground into dirt for what they did to you. And what they did in so contemptuously underestimating me."
Judge Doom (Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
"NO, NOT THE DIP!!!" Only a 'Toon could be that crazy.
Marcellus Wallace (Pulp Fiction)
This character embodied a reptilian cold bloodedness most beautifully.
Ursula (The Little Mermaid)
Hands down the best Disney villain ever, and the best villain song. "Poor Unfortunate Souls" has more wicked personality and dark humor than any other musical presentation by any evil character, live or animated.
Article comments
1 - Frank Giovinazzi
And let me add Jack Palance, who played the all-black clad baddie, Jack Wilson in Shane.
2 - CleoJones
I'll add "Mister" from The Color Purple and "Wild Bill" from The Green Mile.
3 - Hybrid
Rufus T. Firefly a villan? Where's Johnny Udo when you need him.
4 - Shaine
What about Annie Wilkes from Misery? She deserves a rank for the sledgehammer-foot thing!
5 - Dr Dreadful
You put in Baby Jane Hudson and Norma Desmond but leave out the worst of the film noir bad girls, Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity? C'm on, Barger, just because you wrote this five years ago is no reason to let you off the hook...
6 - Al Barger
Dreadful- You may have me there. I've only watched Double Indemnity in chunks. I think I've seen the whole thing in pieces, but never properly watched and considered it. I need to.
Looking back to Cleo's note from 03, if I were going to add a villain from The Green Mile, it might be Percy over Wild Bill.
Then there's the villain Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth and Imaginationland. Less seemingly evil on the face than Marcellus Wallace, say, but in fact far more ultimately destructive.