It's harder to create a 'good' villain than a hero.
He’s got to be
enigmatic, complicated, riveting and, above all, really horrible. I’ve compiled
a list of ten evil characters from the movies and fiction that provide an
interesting insight into the power of good writing. I’ve left out some of the
more famous ones: the Joker in Batman, Count Dracula, Jack the Ripper, Hannibal
Lecter and so on because they’re so done. Here’s my list, not in any particular
order:
Aaron Stampler from Primal Fear,
Professor James Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories,
Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love,
Colonel Hans Landa from Inglorious Basterds,
Claudius from Hamlet,
'Big Ger' Cafferty from Ian Rankin's Rebus novels,
Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley,
Hans Gruber from Die Hard,
Al Capone in The Untouchables,
and Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects.
All these photos are downloaded from Google images.
Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear:
Remember that
innocent looking boy with a multiple personality disorder? Hard to believe it
was Edward Norton’s debut role. This 1996 adaptation of William Diehl’s novel
would not have been so engrossing without Norton playing the young altar boy
accused of violently murdering an Archbishop. He even shaded Richard Gere’s
character Martin Vail. I’ll never forget the end when Gere realizes he’s been
played for a fool. So there never was a Roy? He asks Stampler, referring to
Aaron’s vicious alter ego. To this, Stampler replies: “There never was an
Aaron, Counsellor!”
Jim Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes Series:
Although he appears in only two Sherlock Holmes
stories, The Final Problem and The Valley
of Fear, Holmes’s arch enemy casts a
long shadow through the entire series. Holmes himself describes the
mathematical genius professor as ‘The Napoleon of Crime’. He’s maniacal,
egotistic and his brain is said to rival Holmes’s. Many actors have played him
over the years in the host of Sherlock adaptations. I like the way Andrew Scott
(featured in the photo above) does Moriarty in the BBC version Sherlock, which is currently running on
TV. He’s smartly turned out and utterly frightening.
Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love:
Lotte Lenya is
so effective as the evil Colonel Rosa Klebb in the second Bond movie, we
remember her as the main villain. Her poison-tipped shoe spike is an iconic
weapon and it’s hard to forget the fear on Sean Connery’s face as he fights her
off in the climax. The way she flinches at the slightest human touch underlines
her brutality; it seems the only way she can make human contact is by stabbing
people with her shoe.
Hans Landa from Inglorious Basterds:
…and with this
character the world was introduced to a genius called Christoph Waltz. A
German-Austrian actor who speaks English, French and Italian apart from his
native tongue, Waltz was eerily charming in this Quentin Tarantino flick. Who
else could’ve played a Nazi Colonel and made us want to see more? He’s not only
a brilliant detective Jew-hunter, he loves drinking milk, too! We’re almost
sorry when the American Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) disfigures him by carving a
swastika into his forehead at the end of the film.
Claudius in Hamlet:
Played by Derek
Jacobi in this version. Kenneth Branagh (also in the picture) is the tortured
Prince of Denmark. Claudius is an interesting Shakespeare villain. He’s a
capable monarch, possesses competent diplomatic skills and he’s a patient
uncle/ stepfather to crazy Hamlet. It’s only after the ghost appears to Hamlet
that we realize he’s behind the murder of his brother, Hamlet’s father. His
confession to God in his private chapel reveals a heart bordering on repentance
but since it’s a tragedy, he falls to Hamlet’s sword in the end.
'Big Ger' Cafferty in Ian Rankin's Rebus novels:
Morris Gerald
Cafferty, played by James Cosmo (the photo above) in one of the Rebus series,
is the perfect foil to John Rebus, Ian Rankin’s enigmatic Scottish detective.
There’s plenty of dramatic tension between the two since Rebus often cuts
corners in order to seek a conviction and sometimes finds himself on the wrong
side of the law. Cafferty knows this and spares no opportunity to confront
Rebus. Cafferty is portrayed as ruthless, physically strong and a man to be
feared.
Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley:
Matt Damon is brilliant as Tom Ripley, the man who steals a
rich guy’s identity, kills him and gets away with it all. An adaptation of the
1955 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith, it’s set in the 1950s in
Italy and the US. Tom Ripley is the young man with dubious talents- lying,
forging, stealing- struggling to make a living. He succeeds in murdering a rich
man Dickie Greenleaf (played by Jude Law) and then convincing a host of people
that he’s Dickie. His motives? ‘It’s better to be a fake nobody than a real
somebody.’ Hmm…food for thought, what?
Hans Gruber in Die Hard:
Suave, menacing
and evil, Alan Rickman made Hans Gruber an unforgettable villain in the first Die Hard movie. None of the baddies in
the next four sequels came close. Gruber is basically a thief but he seems so
much more. He kills without batting an eye but he can also be extremely
well-mannered. Loved his German accent, too.
Al Capone in The Untouchables:
With Kevin
Costner, Sean Connery and Andy Garcia in the cast of this 1987 crime drama, a
scary villain was required to heighten the drama. It was no other than Robert
De Niro who stepped into the role of Al Capone, the Chicago mafia man of the
1920s and 30s. Capone is mercurial, loves the opera, kills without mercy and
he’s slightly comical, too. Never accept his dinner invite, though, he might
just bash your brains in with a baseball bat!
Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects:
-
Awesome movie,
awesome Kevin Spacey (extreme right in the photo). He’s Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint, a
small time con artist with cerebral palsy who turns approver when a group of
‘the usual suspects’ blow up a freighter ship and kill nearly everyone on
board. As he narrates the story to the cops, the name Keyser Soze turns up.
Soze is a mythical figure of Turkish descent who’s rumoured to be nearly
invisible. He kills not only his enemies but their families and associates,
too. Only at the end do we realize, in one of the greatest movie twists of all
time, that Kint is Keyser Soze. He has several great lines. One of the most
famous, a paraphrase of Baudelaire: ‘The greatest trick the devil ever pulled
was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.’
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