Sunday, March 29, 2009

Heroes and Villains

Entertainment Weekly, in its far-less-than-infinite wisdom, has come out with another of their polls designed to tick people off (like me) and get them writing (also like me). This one's on the Top 20 Heroes and Villains of All Time, combining movie and television characters within the same list. Some of their choices are spot-on, others just plain flat-out insane. Here are their lists. See how many you agree with.

Top 20 Heroes:

1. James Bond
2. Indiana Jones
3. Superman
4. Harry Potter
5. Ellen Ripley (the Alien movies)
6. John McClane (Die Hard)
7. Han Solo
8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
9. Robin Hood
10. Spider-man
11. Mad Max
12. James T. Kirk
13. Foxy Brown
14. Will Kane (High Noon)
15. Harry Calahan
16. Jack Bauer (24)
17. Nancy Drew
18. Batman
19. Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)
20. Sydney Bristow (Alias)

Top 20 Villains:

1. The Wicked Witch of the West
2. Darth Vader
3. Hannibal Lecter
4. The Joker
5. Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange)
6. Mr. Burns (The Simpsons)
7. Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct)
8. Voldemort (Harry Potter and..well, everything)
9. Dracula
10. Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
11. J.R. Ewing
12. Norman Bates (Psycho)
13. Frank Booth (Blue Velvet)
14. Annie Wilkes (Misery)
15. Snow White's Evil Queen
16. Hans Gruber (Die Hard)
17. Michael Myers (Halloween)
18. Gordon Gekko (Wall Street)
19. Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction)
20. Jack Torrance (The Shining)

On the one hand, it was nice to see older characters like Robin Hood, Atticus Finch, and the Wicked Witch represented. But on the other hand... Gordon Gekko? Mr. Burns?? Nancy Drew??!!?? Are you @#$%ing kidding me? I'll add a post later with my own choices, after I give it some thought. Hmmmmm.....

7 comments:

  1. Here are my choices for the 20 Top Heroes of All Time:

    1. James Bond (I agree with their no. 1 pick)
    2. Atticus Finch (2nd all-time fave book, 4th all-time fave film -- he's gotta be up there)
    3. Indiana Jones (Another agreement)
    4. John McClane (Absolutely)
    5. Jack Bauer (The best hero on TV -- ever)
    6. Robin Hood (The epitome of the swashbuckler)
    7. Harry Callahan (Who would argue with him?)
    8. Jefferson Smith (His one-man filibuster is a lock for this list)
    9. Batman (Definitely deserved the top ten)
    10. Aragorn (More badass than Frodo, more stalwart than Gandalf -- gets this spot for Helm's Deep alone)
    11. Ellen Ripley (Gotta admit, EW got this one right, too)
    12. Tequila (the hero of Hard Boiled, my all-time fave action film -- rescues babies from a hospital nursery while rappeling down a wall, shooting psychos, and his pants legs on fire)
    13. Rooster Cogburn (The one-on-four face-off at the end of True Grit gets him this slot)
    14. Logan/Wolverine (Again -- who's gonna argue with him?)
    15. Fox Mulder (The hero of nerd geeks everywhere)
    16. Andy Dufresne (The picture of perseverence, from Shawshank Redemption)
    17. Jack Ryan (Mostly from Harrison Ford, but Alec Baldwin wasn't bad, either)
    18. Harry Potter (Well, okay, I'll give him this slot)
    19. Han Solo (A wise-ass Robin Hood in outer space)
    20. Spider-Man (Would have been higher if he didn't cry so much in his movies)

    I'll be back with my villains...

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  2. I agree with quite a few, but have a few changes of my own. I am getting the lists together and will post them later. This will be fun!

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  3. Here are my choices for the Top 20 Villains of All Time:

    1. Dracula (played by Christopher Lee in a half-dozen films, Bela Lugosi twice, and assorted others)
    2. Hannibal Lecter (No. 2 on the list, and with minimal screen time, which should tell you something)
    3. Norman Bates (Of course)
    4. Scorpio (Andy Robinson's psycho sniper in the first Dirty Harry movie. Shocked that he wasn't included in the original list)
    5. The Joker (Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson -- just don't mention Cesar Romero)
    6. The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton, the greatest villainess ever)
    7. Dr. Miguelito Loveless (West's archenemy on TV's Wild Wild West, played by Michael Dunn -- greatest TV villain ever)
    8. Sauron (Hardly ever seen, but he's all over the Rings trilogy)
    9. Emperor Palpatine (the REAL villain of the Star Wars saga. Sorry, can't include Vader on this list, because the scumbag redeemed himself. But Palpatine started out a slimy bureaucrat and just kept getting more and more repulsive)
    10. Auric Goldfinger (Fat, greedy, amoral, willing to kill tens of thousands of people -- best Bond villain ever)
    11. Jack Torrance (Nicholson's abusive father in The Shining, completely deranged and scary as hell)
    12. Michael Myers (Silent, deadly, and he just keeps coming. Begat Jason, Freddy, et al, but we won't hold that against him)
    13. Long Hair (Bruce Dern in The Cowboys. Shot John Wayne in the back in front of a bunch of kids. 'Nuff said)
    14. Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates in Misery. The "hobbling" scene puts her on this list for sure)
    15. Fatso Judson (Ernest Borgnine in From Here to Eternity, his stockade sergeant beats Frank Sinatra to death. A sadistic bully)
    16. Doyle Lonergan (Robert Shaw's cold-blooded gangster in The Sting. No socially redeeming values whatsoever. Plus, he cheats at poker)
    17. Voldemort (Well, okay, I'll give him this slot, too)
    18. Hans Gruber (Nicely played by Alan Rickman, but more of a thief than a psycho. After all, he let the pregnant woman in Die Hard go to the bathroom)
    19. Nurse Ratched (I hated Louise Fletcher's guts in Cuckoo's Nest, which was the point)
    20. Alex Forrest (My wife still hasn't seen Fatal Attraction, mainly because I'll change the chanel if it ever comes on. I don't want her getting ideas)

    There were a lot of similar choices across both lists, but with the heroes, quantity often won out over quality. With the villains, it was the opposite, because most of them died in one picture. Go figure.

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  4. #13 definately. That character and what he does in the movie (the kids glasses scene) has caused me to hate and get chills when I see this actor in anything else. The Cowboys is my favorite John Wayne movie.

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  5. Betts, if you want to see Bruce Dern in a completely different change-of-pace role, try "Family Plot," Alfred Hitchcock's last picture. It's a comedy thriller with Barbara Harris as a crackpot psychic and Dern as her cabbie boyfriend; they get mixed up in a kidnapping/heist scam, which is about all I can reveal without giving away the story. It's a lot of fun and fairly lighthearted, an unusual final film for ol' Hitch. Dern did this one just a few years after "The Cowboys," and it shows quite a range for him.

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  6. Adding to the heroes.
    1. Blade (the "Daywalker")
    2. Hawkeye (Last of the Mohicans, The Deerslayer))

    Adding to the villians
    1. Magua (Last of the Mohicans)
    2. Liberty Valance (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance)

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  7. Yes, I would have to include Liberty Valance on an update of my villains list -- good choice. And in hindsight, after seeing his solo picture, I'm inclined to drop Wolverine lower on my heroes list (if not off the damn thing altogether).

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