Only demoted on the list because his villainy is spread over multiple roles and timelines and movies, Thomas F. Wilson's brilliant portrayal of the Tannen clan is under appreciated and needs hi-lighting. Everyone knows Biff, but what about Rich Grown Up Biff in the alternate timeline in Back to the Future II? He's a Trump-esque figure and Biff plus entitlement and money is a very dangerous combination. Also, what about Old Biff? Not a villain so much, but still a wonderful bully. Griff, the future version of Biff in BTTF2 is one of the most deliriously over-the-top performances ever given. And Wilson is able to make his performance fit into the old west timeline of Back to the Future III as well. Just tremendous work throughout the series, and had to be on my list.
9. Amon Goeth - Schindler's List
Ralph Fiennes' narcissistic, psychopathic portrayal of real life Nazi Amon Goeth is a chilling piece of work from the great actor. Nazi are, rightfully, given the villain role in movie after movie in the history of post-war cinema, but none have been as blood-draining-out-of-your-face cold as this one. When Schindler (Liam Neeson) tries to appeal to Goeth to stop killing so many Jews in the concentration camps, he does it by appealing to Goeth's superiority complex, trying to convince Goeth that he can pardon the lives of the Jews because he is so God-like powerful within the camp. Fiennes' reading of the line "I pardon you" will probably haunt me forever in its narcissistic happiness.
8. Terrence Fletcher - Whiplash
One of the few great movie villains who has real humanity and purpose underneath is JK Simmons' Oscar-winning work in Whiplash. Fletcher is on a lifelong quest to find the next Charlie Parker, and his method of doing that is to systematically beat down each and every student who comes through his school. Like a drill sergeant, he wants to take away their humanity, but instead of being built up into a soldier who follows orders, he wants a free thinking genius who will challenge him back. When he gets so far down on Andrew (an equally brilliant performance by Miles Teller) that Andrew gets him fired and quits playing music himself, he sets out to take Andrew down again, only for Andrew to rise from the ashes and challenge Fletcher like he'd always wanted someone to come back at him. It's a dark ending, one that both celebrates Andrew's victory over Fletcher, but one where we realize that something awful has just happened. A new Fletcher has likely been made. That's frightening due to what we have seen from Simmons' career best work.
7. Don Logan - Sexy Beast
In a performance that topped my Best Supporting Actor Performances list last year, Ben Kingsley leaves all memories of his defining role as Ghandi as he emerges as cobra-put-into-human form that is Don Logan. Lashing out through a stream of constant and inventive swearing, Kingsley is actually able to make legendary movie tough guy Ray Winstone seem meek and ineffectual. Kingsley's work is so otherworldly amazing that the movie as a whole can't recover when he's not on screen. Logan, and Kingsley, are so good they essentially ruin the movie by making everything else around them seem boring and dull.
6. Noah Cross - Chinatown
What seems like a character representing the corruption of the rich, who control our past, present, and even "the future, Mr. Gitts" instead slowly gets revealed to personify most of the evils of humanity. Whether it's murder, rape, incest, or any other dark corner of mankind, Noah Cross is a dark, towering figure in the landscape. His southern charm, and reassuring John Huston voice, turns oily and snake-like before long. That he doesn't pay for his sins, and even gets to keep the nasty cycle of his existence going by the end of the movie gives the fatalistic weight to the final line of the movie "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown" giving us the feeling that there's nothing we can do sometimes in the face of true evil. A powerful ending to one of the great movies, and it wouldn't work if it weren't for the villainous Noah Cross and the great performance from John Huston.
5. The Joker - The Dark Knight
There are certain characters that just have that certain indefinable thing that makes them compelling. I think The Joker is the best example of that. While some folks like Jack Nicholson's performance of the role in Tim Burton's Batman, I think it's nothing special. An overrated performance in a terrible movie. Jared Leto's terrible performance in the also terrible Suicide Squad is another awful bit of writing, directing, and acting. But sometimes you get something like Mark Hamill's take on the character in Batman: The Animated Series. His maniacal vocal performance of the character I had long thought would be the high water mark, until Heath Ledger's instantly iconic role in The Dark Knight. I was one of those vocally against Ledger's casting, as he'd had a long dry spell before his brilliant work in Brokeback Mountain. And when the first publicity still was released, it looked like Ledger would be playing Marilyn Manson. But when that first trailer was released I got chills. I got chills when I saw his work opening day, and his performance really cemented The Joker as one of the great villains, for me.
4. Bobby Kent - Bully
Undoubtedly the least seen entry on the list is Nick Stahl's performance as real life murder victim Bobby Kent in Bully. A seething pile of suburban repressed anger, sexual frustration, and likely self hating homosexuality, Kent is one of the most reprehensible characters to ever be played on screen. Stahl gives him all the internal angst that we don't quite understand Bobby, but he's not an unknowable monster. He's a monster, that's for sure, constantly bullying his best friend Marty with violence, verbal abuse, and forced viewing of gay porn among other things. Bobby is relentless in his abuse of Marty and all those in their social circle. That is until his "friends" get so fed up that they murder him. It's a testament to Stahl's work that we are horrified by the murder, but also understand it. We even empathize with Bobby's abused friends, until we end up realizing that they're just as fucked up and broken as Bobby was. It's a sad movie, a really good one, but hard to watch. And Stahl's performance is the center of the storm.
3. HAL 9000 - 2001: A Space Odyssey
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave." HAL is a great movie villain because of two things: his power over the spaceship our protagonists are traveling on, and the flat, almost affectless vocal performance from Douglas Rain. HAL can't let the humans compromise the mission to Jupiter, and through the cold logic of a computer, he tries to take care of the situation, even if it means that no humans survive the journey. In a movie pregnant with silence, HAL is probably the most talkative character, and ends up the most memorable. The emotionless red light that we associate with HAL takes on a sinister character as well, and yet it's a testament to Stanley Kubrick's genius that it's only ever a red light. Also a testament to Kubrick is that HAL's "death" is quite an emotional experience. I've even cried on occasion when HAL says "I feel my mind going." Rarely has a computer ever taken on such character and compassion, while doling out such fear and panic. And that's what makes HAL such a memorable, complex, interesting villain.
2. Anton Chigurh - No Country for Old Men
Anton Chigurh is like a walking embodiment of Death itself. Javier Bardem's implacable face and voice lending an air of chilliness to the character, whether he's calmly taking deep breaths while he strangles a man, pulling back the curtain to minimize blood splatter when murdering a man in the shower, or thinking to remove his shoes to quiet his sneaking up on those who would hope to murder him. The compressed air tank he carries around gave me new appreciation to the sound design of a movie (as did this movie as a whole), as that little hiss becomes as sinister and imposing a sound as a shotgun or car explosion. Even the characters in the movie can't seem to make heads or tails of Chigurh, "He's a peculiar man." Woody Harrelson's character says. That unknowable quality to Bardem's work is part of what makes him so memorable. It's part of why Chigurh sticks out so much, not because he's underdeveloped as a character, but because we're not sure who he really is. It's a fine line, but Bardem walks it well and creates one of the great movie villains ever created.
1. Dolores Umbridge - Harry Potter series
I didn't intend for the top spot on both my villains and heroes list to be taken up by Harry Potter entries, but that's just how it happened. To those less familiar with the series, this might seem a strange choice. "What about Voldemort?" they might say. "Some lady in pink is really a scary villain?" yes. Yes, she is. And I think it's because she's not the powerful genius wizard that Voldemort is. She's not the grandstanding iconoclastic villain. Dolores Umbridge is the reprehensible every day kind of evil. If Voldemort is Hitler, Umbridge is the Amon Goeth letting her inner psychopath ruth amok, murdering people for fun in the camps. She takes great pleasure in torturing Harry, with the stated intent of making him live by the rules. But we can see that Umbridge also represents the mundanity of evil in that way. She's the type that didn't start the evil revolution, but she's certainly going to let her racism, superiority complex, and abusable power position all get thoroughly exercised. Stephen King called Umbridge the "greatest make-believe villain to come along since Hannibal Lecter..." I think she's much worse.
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