Top Ten Greatest Villains of all times

The world has been celebrating the good since the dawn of time. But had there not been bad to go up against the good, would the good have ever been surfaced? Likewise in cinemas, what good is a superhero without a bad-ass villain? Had there not been the Joker, Bruce Wayne would be squandering his money in supercars and would have been termed as a prodigal son. Had there not been Norman Bates, we would never have remembered ‘Psycho’.

So, let’s bring on the bad guys and give them a moment on the stage. Here are the top 10 most memorable baddies from all times, their mantra being destruction.

10. ANTON CHIGURH (‘NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN’)

no-country-for-old-men-javier

As the walking bringer of death, Bardem’s outstanding — his dead eyes looking long enough at a victim to decide if they were going to live or die. Truly frightening. Those normally warm brown eyes are filled with something less than contempt for humanity, as he plods forward he is chilling. Villains don’t come in more menacing form that Anton Chigurh.

 

9. NURSE RATCHED (‘ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST)

9

Nurse Ratched, also referred to as ‘Big Nurse’, is the main antagonist of 1975’s ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’, played by Louis Fletcher, who would go on to fetch herself the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal. She is the spearhead of a mental institution, where she maintains strict rules and regulations by giving the patients anti-psychotic drugs and orders severe punishment for those who disobey her. She lobotomizes Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) after he performs a series of notorious acts and disrupts the hold which Ratched had before him coming. Since then, Nurse Ratched had become a stereotype of an aggressive nurse and a popular metaphor in corruption of power and authority.

 

8. ALEX DE LARGE (‘A CLOCKWORK ORANGE’)

alex1-a-clockwork-orange

Alex DeLarge, portrayed by Malcolm McDowell, is the protagonist and antihero of one of the most acclaimed dystopian crime films of all times, ‘A Clockwork Orange’, directed by Stanley Kubrick. He is shown as a sociopathic teenager, who assualts and robs people for fun. He speaks Nadsat, a fictional slang language and operates with his fellow gang members, whom he calls ‘droogs’. Alex loves classical music, being especially fond of Beethoven. Both McDowell and Kubrick popularized the term ‘ultra-violence’ through this film and some even consider McDowell not winning the Best Actor at the Academy Awards for this film a major snub.

 

7. MICHAEL CORLEONE (‘THE GODFATHER PART II’)

godfatherpartii_209pyxurz

Portrayed by Al Pacino, Michael Corleone is the main character of the Godfather trilogy, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Son of Don Vito Corleone, Michael’s whole life cycle is shown throughout the franchise. We see him from his youth, when he enters the mafia world reluctantly after his father’s death, till his older days, when he tries to step down from being the head of the Corleone crime family, but is threatened by forces. Often considered more as a tragic hero than a classic villain, Al Pacino was nominated for the Academy Awards twice for the first two films and is considered to be one of the most memorable characters played by him.

 

6. ‘THE JOKER’ (‘THE DARK KNIGHT’)

vil3

Described as a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero sympathy”, The Joker is the main antagonist of Nolan’s highly-acclaimed film ‘The Dark Knight’. The Joker is the archenemy of Batman and is said to be one of the most influential villains till date. Throughout the film, he appears with one goal – to kill Batman. He performs a series of robberies and murders and psychologically affects all the main characters of the film. Heath Ledger posthumously won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Joker, including several other international accolades. Ledger also garnered widespread critical acclaim, often critics claiming his acting was more “haunting”, “terrifying” and “sinister”, than Joker was thought before.

 

5. AMON GOETH (‘SCHINDLER’S LIST’)

vil5

Amon Goeth was the commandant of a concentration camp in Poland during WWII. He was hanged by court, after he was tried at the Supreme Court and was found guilty of imprisonment, torture and extermination of an unidentified number of innocent men and women. Spielberg’s ‘Schindler’s List’ tells us about Goeth’s unending acts of abuse and how a businessman, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), saved hundreds of people from being executed. Ralph Fiennes amassed widespread critical acclaim for his portrayal of Amon Goeth and won a BAFTA Award for his role.

 

4. HAL 9000 (‘2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY’)

vil6_f_improf_809x419

HAL 9000 is an artificial intelligence, which is the main antagonist of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, HAL being expanded as Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer. Voiced by Douglas Rain, HAL is never physically depicted, instead shown as a red television camera eye on equipments. It is capable of speech and facial recognition, realizing and producing emotional behaviours, automatic reasoning and playing chess, as have been shown in the film. Though being the only non-living character in our list, HAL is often considered as one of the greatest villains of all times.

 

3. DARTH VADER (‘THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK’)

vil7_f_improf_789x468

Darth Vader (born as Anakin Skywalker) is a fictional character in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise. He appears in both the original trilogy and prequel trilogy throughout, in pivotal roles. Created originally by George Lucas and played by several actors, Darth Vader is often considered one of the best villains the cinematic world has ever produced. He was born as Jedi and was originally prophesied to bring equality. But he fell on the darker side and served as the right hand of his Sith master, Palpatine. Darth Vader’s quote “No, I am your father” is a preserved quote in history of cinema. Since his advent, Darth Vader has become the epitome for evil in popular culture.

 

2. NORMAN BATES (‘PSYCHO’)

psycho-anthony-perkins-as-norman-bates_f_improf_831x448

Norman Bates is the fictional protagonist of the 1960 classic ‘Psycho’, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Portrayed by Anthony Perkins, the character was partly inspired by famous murdered, Ed Gein. Norman Bates is shown to be emotionally abused by his mother during his childhood, when she imprinted the fact that all other females are bad upon him, after his father’s death. Unable to see the attachment between his mother and her lover, he poisons both of them. Subsequently, he develops dissociative identity disorder, for escaping the guilt of matricide, to the extent of dressing in woman’s clothes and talking to himself in his mother’s tone and even preserving his mother’s corpse in the basement of his house. Deemed as both one of the greatest villains and one of the best portrayed characters, Norman Bates is the reason why ‘Psycho’ gained such a cult status, following the years of its release.

 

1. HANNIBAL LECTER (‘THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS’)

vil10

Dr.Hannibal Lecter is the primary antagonist of the ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, played by Anthony Hopkins, who would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film and would turn Lecter into a cultural icon. He is a forensic psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. As understood, he is a highly educated person and does not stand rudeness. He is described by Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) as “small, sleek, and in his hands and arms she saw wiry strength like her own”. During the course of the film, he seems to have a keen sense of smell and a rich eidetic memory and constructs a graphical memory interface for any scene, which he remembers for very long times. Lecter makes us stare in awe when he escapes imprisonment after a blood-soaked scene. It’s rare when a movie villain scares us more with his words than his actions, thus topping our list today!

 

Leave a comment