best movie villains? ???

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Don't know the actor's name, but the British Calvary Major in "The Patriot". Such an easy disregard for things of humanity. He was a good villain.

A fine portrayal of villainy, but the thinly disguised Major Tarleton was quite unfairly treated in a movie which is historically inaccurate even by Mel Gibson standards. He was a ruthless man who hated rebels, and there is no doubt about property damage and rapacious foraging, but the Continental military surgeon at Waxhaws stated that this, the only massacre under his command, occurred while he was trapped and semi-conscious under his horse, which had been shot immediately before or after the American commander's request to surrender. They copied the church incident from Oradour-sur-Glane in the Second World War.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

They do, or not. I am reminded of the line in Beetlejuice where the girl is asked what her costume is and she says she is dressed as a psychopath. "We look like everyone else". And they do. It is interesting if you look into it. It is not that psychopaths/sociopaths are evil, it's that they have no dividing line between right and wrong. They don't feel anything one way or the other and simply can't understand what good and evil are.

They don't have a conscience about it, and very often don't suffer from nerves. But in the UK at least, not knowing the difference between right and wrong is the test for getting off with a verdict of "Not guilty by reason of insanity." It usually fails with psychopaths because the prosecution knows how to exploit the argument exemplified by Captain Cremony of the US Army, who wrote a surprisingly humane book about the Apache in the 1850s. He said, more or less, that if you think the Apache doesn't know right from wrong, just try wronging him and see what happens.

Perhaps the majority of criminal lunatics are neurotics. But psychopaths fall into two groups. The adequate psychopath knows how to exploit society's laws and career opportunities to get wealth, status and the fun of tormenting people. It is the inadequate psychopath who has to break the law, sometimes in dreadful fashion, to get what he craves.

[Col4570]

Has anyone seen "Apocolypto" produced by Mel Gibson.Villainy on a grand scale.Almost as vicious as the Holocaust.Primitive civilisation in all of its gory details.

[marlin39a]

Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men".

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Has anyone seen "Apocolypto" produced by Mel Gibson.Villainy on a grand scale.Almost as vicious as the Holocaust.Primitive civilisation in all of its gory details.

Ah, that is another one with the Gibson touch for accuracy, like ''JFK'' and ''Braveheart'' (aka ''Mad Macs'' and sometimes referred to as the most historically inaccurate film of modern times). The Maya did carry out a certain amount of human sacrifice, I believe people they knew being preferred. But it was on nothing like the scale shown in the movie. Apparently they even digitally altered real-life murals to give human sacrifice a part in Maya life it didn't in fact have. It would have been a lot more accurate if it had referred to the far more ferocious Aztecs, but it didn't.

You can't libel the dead, and certainly not the several centuries dead. But there are academics who have built their career on studying the technology, religion and quite amazing calendar of the Maya, and people like that are affected by what universities and publishers consider to be the public perception of the Maya.

[frkelly74]

I just watched " The man Who Shot Liberty Valance" So right now I am thinking Liberty Valance, ( Lee Marvin )

[Col4570]

Ah, that is another one with the Gibson touch for accuracy, like ''JFK'' and ''Braveheart'' (aka ''Mad Macs'' and sometimes referred to as the most historically inaccurate film of modern times). The Maya did carry out a certain amount of human sacrifice, I believe people they knew being preferred. But it was on nothing like the scale shown in the movie. Apparently they even digitally altered real-life murals to give human sacrifice a part in Maya life it didn't in fact have. It would have been a lot more accurate if it had referred to the far more ferocious Aztecs, but it didn't.

You can't libel the dead, and certainly not the several centuries dead. But there are academics who have built their career on studying the technology, religion and quite amazing calendar of the Maya, and people like that are affected by what universities and publishers consider to be the public perception of the Maya.

Yes,I have never subscribed to the Mel Gibson historically correct group but the Movie as a work of fiction was to me quite riveting.I have no doubt that there is an element of truth and the subject matter (Villainy) was evident.

[Sig556r]

Walking Dead's Nagan...still gives me the creeps as he smashed skulls with his "Lucille" barb-wired bat...

[Winger Ed.]

I'd have to nominate Pennywise the clown in Stephen King's "It". It was terrible the way he tormented those kids.

[robg]

Alan rickman in robin hood and die hard.and the psycho in dirty harry.

[GregLaROCHE]

I thought the guy in No Country For Old Men ( or whatever) was very cool and ruthless.

That’s my vote too.

[GregLaROCHE]

Of all the movie villains we can list, there were far worse that really existed in human history.

[richhodg66]

I have been mad at him ever since.The gall...to shoot John Wayne! He always did play a dirtbag.

He doesn't play a dirt bag in All the Pretty Horses, plays an almost devine character in the end when John Grady Cole is in awful personal need of redemption.

Bruce Dern is a better actor than he's received recognition for. He says he ruined his acting career by shooting John Wayne in the back, maybe so. Good actor nonetheless.

[richhodg66]

Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter is a hard one to top. The scene where he's hiding in the bushes while Lillian Gish sits on the front porch with a shotgun guarding the kids is so surreal and spooky, I can't hear "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" in church without thinking of it.

[richhodg66]

I would have to mention The Governor on The Walking Dead. One of the best villain roles I've ever seen.

[UKShootist]

Another vote here for Ben Kingsley in 'Sexy Beast' (I wish they had got a better title!). The very best scene IMO was the very last when the devil kicks his coffin to bits and there's Ben, smoking a cigarette and he just gives the devil a look of utter indifference. Brilliant acting.

Alan Rickman, as a deliberately and incredibly cleverly, overacted villain I don't think he can be bettered. He also played an excellent angel in 'Dogma', an utterly brilliant and hugely funny film, possibly my favourite, although I think it might not go down too well with too many members of this board.

[Thin Man]

I'll toss in a vote for Vincent Price, the sci-fi genius who used to scare the dirt out of me with every one of his movies.

[nagantguy]

Glad this is still going strong; thanks y’all

[richhodg66]

I'll toss in a vote for Vincent Price, the sci-fi genius who used to scare the dirt out of me with every one of his movies.

Vincent Price was a neat guy. Didn't always play villains either. He played that may character in The Last Man on Earth, which was the closest renditing to the Richard Mattheson book, I am Legend of the several movies that have been made from it.

He could do comic stuff pretty well too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w42F8nYktZ0

[WheelgunConvert]

Ben Kingsley in Ghandi
Gerard Butler in Law Abiding Citizen
Edward Norton Primal Fear
John Lithgow in Raising Cane

Femme fatal Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction
Betty Davis in Whatever Happened to Sweet Baby Jane