Have you ever noticed that everyone is afraid of Hannibal Lecter? I'm jut not scared of him. Now, the psycho murderer seamster scares me, but not the esteemed Dr. Lecter. Maybe he'd scare me if I were Clarice. But maybe since he's on the screen and I'm not . . . I don't know. I agree with most of the rest of their Top Ten Greatest Movie Villains.
3 comments:
From the standpoint of longevity, Nicholson's Joker wins out over Ledgers, for the moment. Give it a decade, though, and I think that Ledger's will win out. His version was incredibly true to the character, and Christopher Nolan wrote the character perfectly as the polar opposite of Batman.
As for the list, I agree that it's pretty spot-on. Silence of the Lambs never terrified me. From a disturbing/sick sort of terrifying way, Alex from A Clockwork Orange always did it for me. To this day I've never been able to make it all the way through that one. That was one sick fella.
You know, I've never seen A Clockwork Orange. I'll have to check it out, especially now that it's October.
You watching A Clockwork Orange, Jeremy? Um... let me know how that goes for you. I was 16 or so when I saw it and was horrified. I don't know if Alex is really a 'villain' - I think the point of the entire film is that he was once a villain that becomes victimized by his victims. He's rather pathetic in the end. I think the really great villains are villains to the end - the ones that still win in some way. That's why I think Hannibal Lecter is so effective. I think that as far as *terror* goes, Buffalo Bill is far worse.
I think that there are a few though. Angela Lansbury was absolutely heartless in "The Manchurian Candidate" (the original, of course). Raymond Burr is totally creepy in "Rear Window". The Spanish commander was particularly abhorrent in "Pan's Labyrinth". One of my favorite movies is "Road to Perdition" - Jude Law is chilling, but Paul Newman is the real villain in my mind and it's so effective because of how he clearly still loves the hero as a son. And hello - Alan Rickman from "Die Hard".
I have a lot in mind, clearly. It depends on what kind of villain you want. :)
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