In most cases, antagonists in film don’t arouse feelings of sympathy or compassion. Why should they? As opponents of the hero their only function is to get the plot going, challenging the “good guy” and in doing so, giving him the possibility to prove his worth and “goodness”.
Observing this battle of good versus evil it’s only natural that the audience identifies with the (sometimes ambivalent but generally likeable) protagonist.
Anyways, there are a few films that make it not that easy for you to side with the supposed good guy. On the contrary, those films provide their antagonists with a certain charisma that lets you secretly sympathize with them.
Due to my early shaped disposition, I consider myself very easily attracted to oddly likeable antagonists. In the following I present to you my personal top four extraordinary charismatic villains in film.
Nota bene: This list is not about antiheroes like Tom Ripley (The talented Mr. Ripley) or Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) – as these dubious guys are the protagonists from the very start of the movie, it’s only consequent to feel for them. Instead, this list focuses on evil opponents who are capable of upstaging the protagonists!
Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men)
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Just as his haircut, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) appears profoundly alien. Equipped with a captive bolt pistol, this psychopathic killer murders without remorse. Although working as hitman, cold-blooded Chigurh is definitely his own master. When Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) arouses his hunter instinct, tracking his rival becomes to him a matter of heart and he’s not willing to surrender.
Nervous Accountant: Are you going to shoot me?
Chigurh: That depends. Do you see me?
Understanding Anton Chigurgh is impossible – he lives in his own insane world and according to his own mysterious rules and principles (cf. the coin toss). However, you can’t help but recognize his killer genius. Just look at Chigurh’s highly concentrated face when he’s lying on the floor, busy with strangling the policeman with the chain of his handcuffs!
Favorite scene:
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Max Cady (Cape Fear)
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Can you feel sympathy for a brutal and sadistic rapist? In case of Max Cady (Robert De Niro) you definitely can – at least during some parts of Martin Scorsese’s thriller remake. Maybe it’s Cady’s determination, his uncompromising will to destroy that man’s life who destroyed his own, that makes him so intriguing.
Released from prison, Cady has only one thing in his mind: revenge. While imprisoned, he taught himself reading and studied law, understanding that his lawyer Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) betrayed him, not defending him properly.
Cady tracks Bowden and begins to terrorize him and his family. However, the protagonist’s family is just about to fall apart already at the beginning of the film: You learn that Bowden and his rather frustrated wife don’t really get along anymore and that the lawyer appears to have an affair with his colleague. Bowden’s mediocrity helps you sympathize with extremely intelligent but equally psychopathic Cady.
In fact, only Max Cady’s appearance can “safe” this family, giving Bowden, his wife and teenage daughter a chance to grow together again.
Favorite quote:
›I am like God, and God like me. I am as large as God, He is as small as I. He cannot above me, nor I beneath Him be.‹ Silesius, 17th Century. (Sounds better in German, tough.)
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Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs)
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Former psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) is a man of great intelligence and (sometimes) perfect manners. His degree of sophistication can’t be but mesmerizing. When detective Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) enters his high-security cell, Lecter is even capable of identifying her perfume!
It’s this strange mixture of intelligence and insanity, this combination of nobility and evil, his being perfectly accomplished and totally abalienated at the same time that makes Hannibal Lecter particularly fascinating to me.
Favorite quote:
If I help you, Clarice, it will be turns with us, too. Quid pro quo. I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though. About yourself. Quid pro quo. Yes or no?
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Frank Booth (Blue Velvet)
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Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) seems to have sprung from a nightmare: He’s a cruel gangster and violent lunatic, full of rage and malice and unpredictable in his actions. When college student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) spies on nightclub singer Dorothy, he discovers her to be Frank’s sex slave and is determined to stop this crazy sociopath whose indeed “bizarre sexual proclivities” and sadomasochistic tendencies prove an extremely deranged personality.
I believe Frank to be a product of the protagonist’s own subconscious representing a condensation of Jeffrey’s drives and desires. Frank is Jeffrey and Jeffrey needs to fight Frank in order to overcome his issues and to establish a proper symbolic order.
Even tough Frank Booth is the spawn of the very evil, you can’t deny his humor and rejoice his entertaining qualities. Unfortunately Hopper (who plays Frank inhaling an unidentified gas with a mask) refused to inhale helium. Try to imagine Frank speaking with an infantile voice – that surely would have made this freaky figure even more perfect!
Favorite scene:
Weltraumaffen. Ein Blog von Sybille Nord. 