It is the start of a new week and like over 10 million other people, I planted my ass in a movie seat this weekend and witnessed the already massive and record-breaking success that is The Dark Knight. By now, you've read approximately 1 million articles or stories on the film, and every article says the exact same thing; "The Dark Knight pisses excellence." While I could easily slip the kneepads on and write a very in-depth, very homoerotic blog expressing my thoughts and a review of The Dark Knight, it seemed very unoriginal. I decided instead to take something that stood out from the movie and look at it on a grander scale. It should come as no surprise that the one thing that stands out above the rest in the new Batman movie is Heath Ledger as the "so insane that he's sane" Joker. Much has been said about the job Ledger did in capturing the Joker in the way that he did. After seeing the movie, I can firmly attest that anytime the Joker is offscreen, the audience was just itching to have him back. While any movie villain tends to be a character of great intrigue (much to the same tune as girls who are attracted to the guys most likely to physically abuse them), its very rare to find an antagonist that undoubtedly steals the show. I have compiled a list (in no particular order) of movie/TV antagonists in recent memory (the last 10 years or so) that were a driving force in their particular medium.
The Joker. The Dark Knight. (Heath Ledger)
Don't worry, I'm not going to blow it and tell you that Edward Norton turns out to be Tyler Durden at the end, or something that may actually happen in the movie. It seems like beating a dead horse by now, but those of you who have seen The Dark Knight will no doubt agree that you can't say enough about the Joker. The portrayal that Heath Ledger lays out is that of an absolute maniac. The Joker is as cerebral as Hannibal Lecter, and as maniacal Jack Torrance (The Shining). As intuitive and cunning as Batman himself, and as terrifying as a terrorist sect. A lot of villains usually have bad morals, or were scorned and just feel like being a dick. With the Joker, it is more like he believes that wrong is the only right. He is motivated by evil and nothing else. He is ruthless, but still very calculating. The Joker always has the upper hand, and is completely unrelenting in his pursuit of annihilating every speck of good in Gotham City. After seeing this movie, I have come to the conclusion that everyone hanging onto the argument for Jack Nicholson being the better Joker, and the original Batman movies being the superior, need to just let it go. I cannot push my beliefs on other people, but after seeing both depictions of the Joker, I have no choice but to assume anyone arguing against Heath Ledger's Joker is a cynical, stubborn, fool who is hanging on to every morsel of nostalgia he or she can. Get over it.
Alonzo Harris. Training Day. (Denzel Washington)
Comparing Alonzo Harris to the Joker would be like comparing night and day (in no way was that a black joke). However, that is partly because you don't know that Alonzo is a bad guy until the middle of Training Day. Alonzo also carries out his master plan that is the basis for this film because he is in a dire situation, which normally would provide some sympathy, and sense of forgiveness on the audience's part, which is even more surprising considering that Denzel Washington played the part. It is no wonder the man won an Oscar. Denzel Washington is one of the most sympathetic actors on-screen (probably second behind Morgan Freeman), and he has no trouble swaying the audience to wish harm upon his character. His gameplan is absolutely brilliant. Often times, crooked cops are such a hated character because of their uncanny prowess to just throw around their authority and nothing else. While Alonzo does use and abuse his power, he manages to leave no stone unturned for the most part. Alonzo comes off as someone who has always been a jerk, and probably someone who didn't really operate within the realm of law as defined by anyone else but himself. He probably had made a life about obtaining glory, prestige, and money by hook or by crook. His character gives us a distorted view to living by the axiom : the ends justifies the means.
Anton Chigurh. No Country for Old Men. (Javier Bardem)
If you've seen this movie, than you probably still can't answer my question. What is this guy's deal? Anton Chigurh, a character who definitely should not have had a name, is a walking question mark. The only thing you know for sure is when he is on screen, violence is never far behind. More so than anyone on this list, I am baffled by Anton Chigurh. Was he a raving lunatic? Did he just suffer from a bad case of bloodlust? Was he the judge, jury, and executioner for his own bizarre set of morals? If you can answer these let me know, because even now, after thinking about this for almost an hour, staring into my computer screen and subsequently damaging my retinas beyond repair, I can't tell you. What I can most definitely say is that killing was a way of life for Anton, but I can't assert that he actually enjoyed it (though he most likely did crack a fat at times during murder). It seemed more like it was something he had to do. The most frightening part about Anton is that not once in the movie did he show any emotion. Things happened the way they happened with Anton, and he reacted to them however he saw fit.
Big Ern McCracken. Kingpin. (Bill Murray)
If we were playing the classic Sesame Street game of "which of these things just doesn't belong here?" than Big Ern would definitely be elected in a landslide. However, I thought I'd put him in here because he falls under the "guys you love to hate" category. It is hard to be very funny, and still maintain a "heel" status. While conducting my extensive research for this blog, I read that Bill Murray ad-libbed much of this role, which makes it that much better, not to mention impressive. For instance, the entire "Big Brother Foundation-esque" commercial that he's in is totally off the cuff. I also ran into the tidbit that the 3 consecutive strikes he bowls in the tenth frame are genuine... again, impressive. Bill Murray overshadows the rest of this cast in hilarity, and still, it is impossible to root for him.
Benjamin Linus. Lost. Michael Emerson.
I think this certainly will be my least popular selection with my target audience, but seeing as how my opinion of myself is so high that you people look like ants, I'm gonna roll with it anyway. (The dude's gonna win the emmy this year, so it ain't just me). Ben Linus.... if you watch Lost, the name can make you think, laugh, or shudder. The man can literally, sans super powers, make people do things with his mind. He is so unbelievably cerebral and intuitive that he can get people to do anything he wants without even breaking a sweat in an effort to persuade them. Every time you think the man is down and out, you see a smile start to form in the corner of his mouth, and you know that everything is falling exactly into place. He takes everything into consideration, and somehow always comes out on top. In fact, it got to a point where the castaways almost seem to ignore him because they know he is going to outsmart them. The thing about Ben Linus is that of all the people on this list, as well as the vast majority of villainous characters, he is the least physically intimidating. He is small, late-40s, early-50s guy with big bug eyes and a limp. Yet still (and if you decide to start watching the show, you'll notice this theme) the man almost always comes out of every situation with the overwhelmingly dominant hand.
Well there it is. Keep an eye out for my next post. Also, I think we should try and get together and make NFL predictions on this blog.
Get in the Yahoo! fantasy football league.
League ID: 189085
Password: Kobes
I'm out.
-Carmine
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3 comments:
I'll start by warning that there are significant spoilers for The Dark Knight in this post. So if you're the only one in the world that has not seen this movie, don't read my post.
Carmine, excellent job compiling that list. I will add more villians/bad guys that I feel need to be there and, like you, I will keep that list more recent and include TV as well as movie.
But first I would like to reiterate what an excellent job the late Heath Ledger has done in The Dark Knight. There is not much else to say that you have not already said but I would like to include add that there were other performances in this movie that deserve to be noted that I believe were excellent yet dwarfed by Mr. Ledger.
1- Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two Face: Eckhart just has the look to be a district attorney. Dent/Two Face was a perfect multi-dimensional character. Eckhart completely sold me on his love for both Gotham and Rachel Dawes and on top of that the anguish he felt for what had happened to him. His transformation to Two Face was perfectly haunting.
2- Gary Oldman as Lieutenent/Commisioner Gordan: Another bit role that was lost in the mix of it. Nothing was as emotional as seeing Gordon hit with the bullet at the parade. Nothing got my fist pumping and my heart thumping like when Gordon took off the mask when he finally locked the Joker up.
3- Christian Bale as Batman/Bruce Wayne: I won't say much about this since I think Bale gave as good of a performance as he did in Batman Begins. It just goes to show what kind of movie this was when you can honestly say that Christian Bale did not give the best performance.
I would also like to give a nod to Christopher Nolan and the superb directing job he did. Some individual scenes that jump out are the scene with The Joker in the interrogation room and the last scene with The Joker. Nolan did a great job at showing how sinister The Joker was by taking those close up shots of him against the black background and letting Heath Ledger take over the scene.
On to my short list of other villains that Carmine may have forgotten to mention:
Daniel Day Lewis as Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood: One of the best actors of our time and one of the best characters of our time. Plainview was a power/money hungry genius that used any means necessary to make himself more powerful.
???? as Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects. If you know the movie at all you will know why I decided to leave the name of the actor out of this.
Kevin Spacey as John Doe in Se7en. I believe this is another great performance that has been overshadowed by Heath Ledger in TDK. Spacey was flat out scary in Se7en and his speech toward the end with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman was just perfectly delivered.
I forgot to add my television villains. Here is the short list that I've come up with:
Zachary Quinto as Sylar in Heroes: Season one of Heroes was outstanding. Season two had its inconsistencies but on thing stayed on top and that was Quinto's performance as the menacing Sylar. Sylar, like the Joker, is hard to figure out. You do not know what his motives are... he is just evil making the character all that much more frightening.
Paul Blackthorne as Stephen Saunders in 24 Season 4: My favorite of the 24 bad guys. He's just a fucked up dude.
dude, amazing as that list was (especially training day since he's my absolutely favorite denzel character), you also (which shocks me) did not mention vader. seroiusly. darth vader is actually a villain, even if we got to see him before that. his character is a villain and he's the most interesting part of the whole damn story. of all the stories.
also, jack torrance. is nuts. and definitely a show stealer. but i would describe him as a villain, too. (if you don't know who that character is ..like what movie or who played him, then shame on you).
but again i'm still bitter as hell that i can't make actual dark knight comments. i will soon, trust me.
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