Greatest film villain of all time



Son of Stan said:
It's Cox's normality that does it for me. I I love that telephone scene - 'I'd be immensely appreciative if you'd pull it out of her Rolodex for me.'
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Your quote is better than my clumsy paraphrasing.

Talking about clumsy, on reflection my 'piss-your-pants scary' is open to an unintended interpretation.
 
Junior Birdman said:
To be fair to Empire, it was the readers that vote

To be fair to Empire, it was the readers that voted. Anyway, I'll add these:

Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito, Goodfellas.
Kevin Spacey as John Doe, Seven.
Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth, Blue Velvet.
Michael Myers and Freddie Kruger also scared me shitless when I was younger.
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Yeah I know. But I stopped reading it as a lot of their articles were geared towards young uns. Obviously looking out for their audience but excluding the oldies who were with them from the start. I remember getting a t-shirt way back for getting a letter published. :oops: I still read their film reviews however.
 
Pancho said:
Haven't read the book so I've only the film to go off and his treatment of Kay is ice cold. Then there's the church scene juxtaposed with the night of the long knives.

It may be morally wrong but I've a degree of sympathy for the Michael Douglas character in Falling Down.

I haven't seen Sleepers.
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Of course. The whole point was that modern life can turn any malleable innocent into an (apparently) "mentalist" murderer. He could be any of us, if we're unlucky enough.
 
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Son of Stan said:
I feel that Empire is rather dumbed down these days. I'm more bemused by Loki at no. 3.
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tend to agree... their focus has long shifted to commercial type films or those constantly repeated on UK TV channels.

I miss the old Photoplay Film Monthly back in the 70's and 80s

Some good ones already mentioned that aren’t on that Empire list… some more screen villains

Laurence Olivier (Dr Szell) in Marathon Man

Marlon Brando (Colonel Kurtz) in Apocalypse Now

Henry Fonda (Frank) in OUATITW

Richard Attenborough (John Christie) in 10 Rillington Place (1971)

Tom Berenger (Sgt Barnes) in Platoon

Ian Hendry (Staff Sgt Williams) in The Hill (1965)

Gregory Peck (Dr Josef Mengele) in The Boys from Brazil

Kathy Bates in Misery

Rutger Hauer during the 80’s (Bladerunner 82, The Hitcher 86, and Night Hawks 81)

Oh, and

HAL in 2001; a Space Odyssey ;)
 
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UZZA_SPARTA said:
tend to agree... their focus has long shifted to commercial type films or those constantly repeated on UK TV channels.
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It was when they started to explain films and references for 'newbies' that I sadly gave up. I can understand why, but it then became something that was no longer for me. Some of the older reviewers are still worth reading.
 
something went wrong with my edit there... :(

original post along lines of agree that Empire has dumbed down in recent years, that they tend to just go for commercial films or those repeated constantly on UK TV channels, and still miss the old 70's and 80s film magazine Photoplay Film Monthly
 
Son of Stan said:
Just been reading an Empire article with a countdown of all time film villain greats. It's a bit heavy on recent films to my mind.
Top 5:
1. Darth Vader
2. The Joker
3. Loki (Loki??)
4. Hans Gruber
5. Hannibal Lecter
The Greatest Villains Of All Time

For me - Bruno Antony, Strangers on a Train and The Rev Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter. Female villain - Nurse Ratched, of course.

Any others?
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First that I thought of was the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Then Night of the Hunter
Then Man in Bambi
 

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