Who (or what) are your favorite movie villains of all-time?

Gustavus Adolphus

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It is assumed throughout the film that the hotel is infected with these bad spirits that compel Jack to kill his family, but ignore the fact that Danny is the one with supernatural powers. He sets events into motion that are designed to drive his abusive father crazy.

His mind control over Jack even extends to Jack never striking Wendy. Jack goes down too easy during the scene with the bat and gives up too easy once he has Wendy trapped in the bathroom.

The one person Jack does kill quickly and easily is the cook Halloran.

Why?

Because he is the one that figures out what Danny is. So he dies as soon as he returns to the hotel.

Also...did you really think a ghost lets Jack out of that freezer?

Nope...Danny lets him out to play out the dark third act that is really just an elaborate way for Danny to make Jack commit suicide so Danny and Wendy are finally free of him.

This is very interesting, and unlike the situation with brett, I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
 

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This is very interesting, and unlike the situation with brett, I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
It is no secret that Stephen King hated Kubrick's film and I believe it has to do with everyone walking out of the theater believing Jack was the villain.

(This thread sure backed that up)

He is a far more sympathetic character in the book, but I think Kubrick actually does a better job of vilifying Danny than King does.

525320_v1.jpg
 

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It is no secret that Stephen King hated Kubrick's film and I believe it has to do with everyone walking out of the theater believing Jack was the villain.

(This thread sure backed that up)

He is a far more sympathetic character in the book, but I think Kubrick actually does a better job of vilifying Danny than King does.

525320_v1.jpg

I never heard any of this before. I always just assumed Jack was the bad guy, even before the Overlook he would get liquored up and beat his kid. Good for him, he's going to try to stop drinking and beating his child, nice, not exactly heroic.

I never read the book, was Jack in the picture from the 1920's in the book? Because that implied that Jacks spirit or reincarnation is part of whatever happened there.
 

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I never heard any of this before. I always just assumed Jack was the bad guy, even before the Overlook he would get liquored up and beat his kid. Good for him, he's going to try to stop drinking and beating his child, nice, not exactly heroic.

I never read the book, was Jack in the picture from the 1920's in the book? Because that implied that Jacks spirit or reincarnation is part of whatever happened there.
Jack is the protagonist of The Shining, but calling him the good guy or hero is off base too.

That last shot of Jack in the picture gets me too. Best I can think is that it represents Jack imprisoning himself in the Overlook like it is his own personal hell.

As far as the book...no that picture is not the end of the book. That ending is waaay different from the movie.



(SPOILER ALERT: The Overlook burns to the ground at the end of the book)
 

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A few not mentioned yet.

Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) from Conan the Barbarian
Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) from the Talented Mr. Ripley
Carl Showalter/Gaear Grimsrud (Steve Buscemi/Peter Stormare) from Fargo
Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman) from Unforgiven
 

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Couple more to throw out there:

Gary Oldman in The Professional
Luther in The Warriors
 

Tater

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A few not mentioned yet.

Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) from Conan the Barbarian
Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) from the Talented Mr. Ripley
Carl Showalter/Gaear Grimsrud (Steve Buscemi/Peter Stormare) from Fargo
Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman) from Unforgiven

Great picks, I forgot about them.
 

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Funny but Spacey as 2 of my top 5 as mine are more heavily weighted towards whether the villain actually won.

1. Keyser Soze - Hands down for me because dude was so bad ass and completely defeated all the forces against him. Great performance by Spacey in this role.

2. The Joker - Ledger just nailed his portrayal here to the point it exceeded Nicholson's take (Nicholson would probably be in my top 10).

3. Darth Vader - Probably the first villain I ever loved so this one has some nostalgia for me.

4. Amon Goeth - Fiennes was just pure evil in Schindler's list. When the dude is about to hang and calmly fixes his hair before saying Heil Hitler, that shit chilled me to the bone with how much of an unrepetent ****** Goeth was.

5. Spacey in 7 - You barely see him throughout the movie but dude was just a demented **** who gets bonus points for ultimately winning at the end by driving Pitt's character over the line.

Don't get me wrong, I like Ledger's Joker, but Nicholson absolutely killed it. Both were great psychopaths, but Jack delivered in the humor department in Spades. "Never rub another man's rhubarb" "this town needs an enema" "there'll be a hot time in the old town tonight" as he fries a guy. So many great lines.

Ledger had only one legit Joker moment the "wanna see a magic trick?/Gamble won't be able to get a nickel from his grandmother" scene.


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winos5

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O-Ren Iishi (Lucy Liu) from Kill Bill Vol. 1.
Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) from 300
 

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Lugosi will always top the list, but you have to dig pretty deep to find some bad ones. For sure check out Klaus Linski in the Herzog flick. Probably the most frightening version of the vampire.

I would say:

1. Bela Lugosi
2. Klaus Kinski
3. Gary Oldman
4. Chistopher Lee
5. Max Schreck

(Runner up: Frank Langella)
While Oldman and Lee's performances aren't bad, I certainly don't think they are exceptional in any way.

Christopher Lee often gave an animalistic style to Dracula, that is, often acting like a rabid man. And he's a big dude, and can convey that threatening manner. His performances are also sometimes it's a bit too theatrical and stagey. I also don't think he ever conveyed much depth of character, so of course, I'm always also talking about these Hammer' Dracula scripts, which usually didn't have much character depth.

Regarding Oldman's Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula... I never really thought I was able to crack into that character. He starts the film as the excitable extremist who losses his wife, then the weird old Count, then the sexy, yearning cool kat Count... I just thought it was a pretty damn jumbled characterization. And the film is that as well. As a film, I thought the entire period of Neo in the castle was brilliant... up until when Neo goes back to England, where I think the film wipes out. And so I'm not commenting on Oldman as an actor here, but rather the Dracula character in this film was a moving target that merely had some nice moments ('high point' where Dracula smirks his incredulous disdain at Neo's revulsion to the baby cannibalism).

Frank Langella's Dracula (1979) was way too Rick Springfield for me.

That's how I'd describe this Dracula: like Rick Springfield on a soap opera (General Hospital). Lots of ridiculous movements they must have called "flare", but came off more 'flame'. Plenty of cringe worthiness. It wasn't a good film, got bad reviews, and though I was Horror film fan at the time, it was laborious to sit through.
 

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You and I disagree on the definition of a win.

Just messing with you remy.

1. Soze - Obvious win.

2. Joker - Turned a good man in Harvey Dent into the psychopathic Two Faced and in the end did get to see the world burn.

3. Darth Vader - Finally broke free of Palpatine and ends up murdering the ****** to save his son and finding some measure of redemption in the process

4. Goeth - This one is more disturbing because of the real life aspect of it but the dude was a smug fucking bastard that far from being broken in the end seemed to go into the afterlife content in the knowledge he killed a lot of Jews. I didn't feel satisfied at the end there because he didn't fucking suffer and he didn't cry like a *****. He died fucking proud of what he had done which is sickening and unfulfilling to me.

5. Seven - This is similar to the Joker in that he accomplishes much of what he set out to do and corrupt's Pitt's character in the process. And like Goeth, he dies content and smug in the knowledge he has ruined and destroyed people's lives.

So it's not so much my definition of winning but I am judging it on how I imagine the villains feel about their accomplishments and all those guys would have cause to be pleased with themselves.
 

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1. Soze - Went from complete freedom to a prisoner.

2. Joker - Went from total freedom to solitary confinement for life.

3. Darth Vader - Dead.

4. Goeth - Executed for war crimes, they hanged him. Yay?

5. Seven - Closest thing to a win. What was the last thing that went through his head?

1. & 2. The instant they are being hauled off? Maybe they feel good. I wonder how the imprisoned feel after a few years? Maybe some people that lose their freedom feel lucky, I just doubt it.

3. You die in agony realizing you have betrayed everything you held dear all your life for a lie. Feels good?

4. The instant your neck snaps in a noose. Goody?

5. A bullet enters your skull. Winning!

Remy, are you going to explain to me again how a horrible loss is really a win? I say we skip it, take it up in PM, or just leave it here. I am happy to give you the last word ITT, knowing full well that you are admitting defeat. Speak fido, please.

Want a cookie?
 

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Frank Langella's Dracula (1979) was way too Rick Springfield for me.

I LoLed so hard at that line.

I may never be able to watch that movie again now.

You have very fair assessments of the movies themselves. I was going mostly by the performances I enjoyed the most.

Coppala's script was too long and clunky, but I really like Oldman's creepy accent and overall job with the charcter.

The 79 version is pretty bad, but I still thought Langella was pretty awesome.

(till now)

And I love the Hammer films...so I am biased.
 

remydat

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1. & 2. The instant they are being hauled off? Maybe they feel good. I wonder how the imprisoned feel after a few years? Maybe some people that lose their freedom feel lucky, I just doubt it.

3. You die in agony realizing you have betrayed everything you held dear all your life for a lie. Feels good?

4. The instant your neck snaps in a noose. Goody?

5. A bullet enters your skull. Winning!

Remy, are you going to explain to me again how a horrible loss is really a win? I say we skip it, take it up in PM, or just leave it here. I am happy to give you the last word ITT, knowing full well that you are admitting defeat. Speak fido, please.

Want a cookie?

1. Your facts are wrong. Keyser Soze escaped at the end as the whole point of the movie is how he outsmarted everyone by pretending to be a crippled petty thing. So 1 is a flat out win. He kills the only person that can identify him and he gets away and disappears.

2. The Joker was happy throughout the movie because again the whole premise of the character is that he just wants to watch the world burn. His corruption of Harvey Dent, the city's hope and supposed savior even to Batman is his ultimate triumph. If they do a sequel and he is crying like a ***** in prison then you would have a point but the OP made it clear we should consider only what happens in the movies. In the movie he is content with what he has done. You are trying to put your personal opinions on how people should feel about prison into the movie but you are not a part of the movie. The movie shows us the Joker is happy.

3. Again, you are ignoring what happens in the movies to interject your own personal opinion. In the movies, Luke's refusal to kill him awakes in him the good left in him. It was that good that overcomes the dark side and allows him to defeat the Emperor. In his dying breath he removes his mask to look on his son with his own eyes and is content. He specifically tells Luke he was right about him. So ultimately he won because his battle was never external. It was the internal struggle between good and evil within him and he ultimately overcame the Darkside with the help of his son. That's the whole point of his character arc in the movies. We know he found some measure of redemption because his son buries him not with a ceremony made for a villain but with a ceremony made for a father. Afterward, it is said his spirit joins Obi Wan and Yoda in the afterlife so yes he has been redeemed.

4. Goeth's neck snapping in a noose doesn't change all the untold suffering he inflicted and again doesn't change the way he feels in that moment. The dude's final moment is him calmly parting his hair and saying Heil Hitler. Again the movie is making a point of showing us he died an unrepentant douchebag.

5. A bullet entering your skull is winning if ultimately you want to die. Like again, you are interjecting your personal feelings here. In the movie, Spacey wants to die and he want's to die by having Britt kill him. His goal is accomplished by his brutally murder several people including Pitt's wife.

Like I don't know what to tell you. You may not agree with their reasons for being content and that is your right. All I can tell you is I am judging whether they won based on how the movie portrays their feelings. So in the end, the creators of the movie are the ones that having a different idea of winning than you because the creators make it clear these guys are in one way or another content at the end of the movie.
 

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