The Best Bad Guys

Earlier this month, in her L.A. Times/Envelope piece entitled “So Bad, They’re Good,” Lisa Rosen noted the trend toward actors choosing to play bad guys:

. . .a lot of good actors went bad this year. Real bad. Surly, mean, reprehensible, criminal, unforgivable and pretty much irresistible.

Critics and audiences alike have been enjoying the nasty performances of the likes of Denzel Washington in American Gangster, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Russell Crowe and Ben Foster in 3:10 to Yuma.

And then we saw No Country for Old Men and it just blew me away. The Coen brothers latest movie contains one of the most memorable, chilling bad guys I’ve ever seen on film. Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh, a robotic sociopath who uses an air-compressed cattle stungun to kill his victims. Chigurh’s menacing presence, combined with the bleak New Mexican landscapes and no (I mean zero) soundtrack, was really, really unnerving.

Anyway, it’s left me thinking about some of my favorite baddies. In no particular order:

• BILL THE BUTCHER, Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York — Lewis seems to pour himself into every role, and this is no exception. The Butcher is especially agile with knives and, between the handlebar mustache and the glass eye, Lewis perfectly captures the infamous street gang leader’s viscous intensity.
• NURSE RATCHED, Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest — Mildred Ratched exercises near tyrannical rule over the mental ward. Like an emotionless automaton, she dispenses medication and “therapy” to the boys. She’s since become synonymous with institutional coldness and therapeutic malpractice, and was named the fifth greatest villain in film history by the American Film Institute in their series 100 Years… 100 Heroes & Villains. Here was a woman you just wanted to slap.
• REVEREND HARRY POWELL, Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter — This 1955 classic may be the precursor to today’s slasher flick, minus the gore. For its time, however, Mitchum’s portrayal of the preacher / serial killer was both mesmerizing and disturbing. Full of biblical proverbs, Powell wanders the countryside on horseback, singing hymns before he offs his next victim. The juxtaposition of innocent faith with calculated deception may be the most creepy part of the entire flick.
• DR. CHRISTIAN SZELL, Lawrence Olivier in Marathon Man — He was known as the White Angel and ran an experimental camp in Auschwitz. If that weren’t enough, his dentistry skills need, let’s say, polishing up, although there are teeth whitening kits that you can even use home. Was there ever a more wince-inducing scene than when that drill hits Dustin Hoffman’s teeth? The movie memorialized the phrase, “Is it safe?” and set back the profession twenty years. Watching an old man gulp down a diamond never felt so good.
• NORMAN BATES, Anthony Perkins in Psycho — He’s a shoe-in for the Bad Guy’s Hall of Fame. Perkins’ perpetually twitchy, peephole-peering, hotel owner set the standard for movie madmen. (Alas, the actor was never able to shake the stereotype after Hitchcock got a hold of him.) Meeting Bates’ mother is still one of the best film surprises ever, adding a whole new meaning to momma’s boy.
• HANNIBAL LECHTER, Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs — No list of cinematic bad guys is complete without Hannibal the Cannibal. A thinking man’s serial killer, Lechter outsmarted, rather than over-powered his prey. Hopkin’s performance brought a chilling eloquence and precision to the character. And Agent Starling’s slow walk down the subterranean corridor to Lechter’s cell is still one of the great lead-in’s. There’s a reason this guy is usually at the top of everyone’s list of villains.
• TOMMY DEVITO, Joe Pesci in Goodfellas — Tommy would just as soon put an ice pick through your neck as buy you a drink. And if he bought you a drink, you still better watch your back. Pesci nailed (pun intended) this foul-mouthed, hot-tempered, streetwise, mobster, creating a deeply hardened, almost inhuman character. When he wasn’t busy dismembering a snitch, Tommy was planning a heist. This little Italian guy was, in more than one sense, a loose cannon.

I’ve often wondered what it is about bad guys that brings out the best in an actor. For instance, Russell Crowe was great in 310 to Yuma, and Kevin Costner gave an equally good performance in Mr. Brooks as a serial killer with a wicked alter ego (played wonderfully by William Hurt). Melody recently recommended The Last King of Scotland with Forrest Whitaker where he plays the murderous dictator Idi Amin, a role that won him an Academy Award. Anyway, I know there’s lots of “good” villains I missed. But what about you? You got a favorite baddie?