10- Rosa Klebb (From Russia With Love)
Actor- Lotte Lenya
Forget the rough and tough Red Grant or the occasional glimpses of Ernst Stavro Blofeld and face the facts; Lotte Lenya’s sadistic, tough-as-nails Rosa Klebb owns the whole of the greatest James Bond film of all time. For the Western audiences, who were bound to be served a whole stew of hard-boiled Soviet villains and mega minds, she was also the earliest and deadliest image of the supposed evil behind the Iron Curtain and for good reason. Initially, she is merely a tough figure of authority- not too impressed with Grant’s musculature and doing her job like a prudent schoolteacher. But just when you thought that SPECTRE has failed on all fronts to stop James Bond, she shows up, disguised as a cleaning lady with a pair of literally deadly shoes to grab her moment of glory. She might be perhaps the most utterly dedicated killer for hire that the organisation has.
9- Jack Torrance (The Shining)
Actor- Jack Nicholson
Good old Nicholson has played every category of villain with élan- from psychopathic superhero nemesis to decadent Boston gangster- but nothing quite beats his portrayal of the scariest, most disturbing bad guy of them all- an everyday husband and father gone disastrously out of control. Demons of failure and alcoholism are already long lurking inside Torrance, when he ships his family and himself to the Overlook Hotel as a winter caretaker. But it takes the inexorable weather, the relentless desolation and the hotel’s own hidden secrets, to unleash the foaming, angry devil inside him. Once that comes out in the open, the stage is set for obvious mayhem (‘Here’s Johnny!’). But the master that he is, Nicholson makes sure to dole out the spills and chills early on itself- just watch him lose his temper over a typewriter or embrace his son with a murderous gleam in his famous eyes.
8- Gollum (The Lord Of The Rings)
Actor- Andy Serkis
You would wonder- how would Peter Jackson’s mammoth Tolkien adaptations be that popular without Gollum? A marvel of new age motion-capture performance and faultless CGI animation, Gollum is also, in every sense, a classic villain who breathes throbbing menace and devilish wit into every scene that features him. Talking about his tragic, flawed origins is robbing the fun of seeing him at his devious best. Here is an utterly pitiless soul, a creature who has surrendered willingly to the evil, crippling charms of his ‘precious’. And here is also a sly, unforgivably back-stabbing traitor who will do anything to make sure that he gets the same for his own. Initially, one might just think of him as a loon but in Jackson’s increasingly exciting second and third films, Gollum evolves in the film’s truly terrifying villain, aided by Serkis’ magnificently creepy motion-capture performance. Take that, Saruman.
7- HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey)
Actor- Douglas Rain
HAL 9000 might be the most evil robot in film history- the perfectly psychopathic killing machine whose cold indifference about human lives has been imitated endlessly (from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator to James Spader’s Ultron) but, frankly, never bettered. What differentiates this talking, super-intelligent computer is the deceptively calm veneer of reassuring loyalty beneath which he conceals all-too-human concerns for his own safety. Douglas Rain’s magnificently chilling voice brings troubled emotions to Stanley Kubrick’s terrifyingly beautiful machine. The way he takes down the crew is both quietly devastating and explicitly shocking. And then, when he is finally sputtering in despair his last mechanical breath, we can all feel the familiar insecurity inside that mess of wires. That is what makes him so terrible as a villain- HAL 9000, for all his robotic decisions, is all too human.
6- Rita/Camilla Rhodes (Mulholland Drive)
Actor- Laura Harring
No one- repeat, no one- ever makes femme fatales as deliciously seductive and dangerously addictive as David Lynch. From the Lady In The Radiator of ‘Eraserhead’ to Dorothy of ‘Blue Velvet’ to Renee/Alice in ‘Lost Highway’, women are his greatest wild cards, thrown into the beautiful chaos of dreams and nightmares and sculpted as beautiful, troubled and troubling characters who take control of the weird world around them. Harring’s nameless damsel-in-distress kicks off ‘Mulholland Drive’- she borrows a name from a Rita Hayworth poster and sets in motion a whole chain of events that would unleash the tortured crux of the film. Yes, it is Rita, gorgeous Rita who steals sweet Betty’s (Naomi Watts) idealistic heart. And it is her again, this time as the sensuously manipulative Camilla Rhodes who shatters all her dreams with one poisoned smile. Watts might be delivering the performance of her career but ‘Mulholland Drive’ could have been a lot less painful without such heartbreak around.
5- Colonel Hans Landa (Inglourious Basterds)
Actor- Christoph Waltz
One can imagine the cheers when it was announced that ‘Spectre’ would have the Austrian crowd-favourite playing Ernst Stavro Blofeld. And one can also imagine the sighs of disappointment when the talented actor’s promising character got so little to do. In any case, it will be very hard to beat Waltz’ penultimate cinematic villain- the calabash-smoking, cunning and silver-tongued Hans Landa. If you thought your average movie Nazi villains to be stiff and serious, Landa’s unforgettable, perversely thrilling performance punctures that bubble of thought perfectly. Sly, witty, prone to pontificate on matters with a grin of bemused wonder, Landa is however quick, cruel and ruthless when it comes to his startling decisions- from massacring a family of fugitive Jews to even betraying his own homeland in a split-second gambit. And then, there are his words- chunks of extraordinary Tarantino dialogue spoken with a deceptive ease of air which scalds as much as stuns your senses.
4- Darth Vader (The Star Wars Anthology)
Actor- Dave Prowse and James Earl Jones
Fellow ‘Star Wars’ fans will probably kill me for this; I mean, is it right that cinema’s most enduringly popular villain lands up on the 4th position in my list? Hear me out. Darth Vader, for all that incredibly formidable persona, that memorable voice and those dazzling lightsaber skills, is not really the greatest villain in the galaxy; hell, that has to be Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who almost made it to this list. But the sheer influence of Vader is undeniable. That mask- a blend of a Nazi helmet and a rusty breathing muzzle- is still the face of crushing terror and his voice- delivered extraordinarily by the great James Earl Jones- is enough to remind us that he rules the galaxy, more or less. His story, too, has all the hallmarks of a villain capable of humanity and redemption. You can still feel his inspiration in greats like Frank Booth, Hannibal Lecter and Tom Hardy’s Bane.
3- Norman Bates (Psycho)
Actor- Anthony Perkins
A boy’s best friend is his mother, he said. For Norman Bates, however, his best friend might be….well, let’s leave it at that. The very inclusion of Alfred Hitchcock’s most everlasting cinematic creation is like giving away the spoiler of all spoilers. As the manager of the mysterious Bates Motel, which suffers from an inconvenient location, Bates is as affably mediocre as you can expect him to be. Sure, he is awfully nervous and he lives with his aging mother, who won’t even let him breathe. A girl is murdered one night in his motel and it is only then that we see Bates crumble under pressure on all fronts. And all the while, Perkins’ brilliantly measured performance oscillates between high-strung anxieties to slippery efficacy with devastating effect. Do I need to say anything more? Discover for yourself and let me know if you still don’t think poor Norman as a villain.
2- The Joker (The Dark Knight)
Actor- Heath Ledger
As an interesting observation, it is easy for all to see that Christopher Nolan’s version of The Joker looks not at all like the character as we have seen him in the comics and animated films. And that does not matter. The truth is that Heath Ledger grabbed the character’s basics in his hands and turned him into a freak for our times, a down and dirty criminal kingpin who left an unforgettably indelible impression on us all. The Joker is not just a loon with a gun and a bagful of tricks; he is a terrorist without an affiliation, a trouble-maker without a clear motive. To phrase Alfred, he is a man who wants to watch the world burn. And so he sets out, propelled by Ledger’s extraordinary performance, to wreck chaos and explain his senseless and shocking exploits with a hefty slice of shattering logic. For here is a villain who is more than just the crazy look in his face- here is a villain who knows us more than we do. Clearly, this is a portrayal that is impossible to beat.
1. Bill ‘Butcher’ Cutting (Gangs Of New York)
Actor- Daniel Day-Lewis
What makes a truly unforgettable villain? Does he have to be just plainly evil? Or should he be a tragic one, with a sad backstory? Well, it is rare to find a villain who remains so absolutely irresistible even with all his evil that, in the end, you are rooting for him to live and not die.
And Daniel Day-Lewis might have created the greatest sociopath of all time with ‘There Will Be Blood’ but with Bill Cutting, he creates something else- a fearsome, domineering and showboating villain who gladly chomps up the frames in Martin Scorsese’ fiery period drama. A right-wing patriot at heart, a relentless street fighter and a political heavyweight who rules the roost, Cutting is an unforgettable creation, one of repulsive brutality and rousing fury and Day-Lewis performs like a demented master, bringing to enthralling life all these facets with extraordinary conviction.
But is there a soul, too, beneath all the pompous, larger-than-life evil? Trust Scorsese and this magically gifted actor (clearly the finest of our generation) to dig up that too. It is when Cutting gushes with paternal warmth and vulnerability- as in that stunning monologue on how he has survived through the years or the way he finally embraces death as a true American- that we get to realise his incontestable status as a villain for ages, played suitably by an actor who always outdoes himself to create true miracles of performances.
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