These Are the Different Types of Villains–Street Perspective…There are “Levels” and Here are a Few of Them…

NOTE:  This was written for fun.  Given that fact, feel free to add your thoughts on it, but this is not meant to make those in academia happy–it is meant purely just to have some sort of amusement about this topic.

The “Bonehead”…This is the type of villain that will steal, lie and cheat and is mainly used as a buffoon or comic relief–like John Astin in “Evil Roy Slade”  or Kirk Douglas in ‘The Villain”.  These are ones that are so bumbling you grow to like them…They just can’t get their stuff right!

The “Asshat”–This is one of those guys that’s like the drill sergeant  “Full Metal Jacket”.  These guys don’t know when to back off even though they are well intended (as in doing their job) and if something bad happens, the hero takes an instant dislike to him/her–and sometimes the viewers are glad if something happens to those characters–like jail time, demotions or even death just because they are such asshats! They either overdo it in the “zealous” faction or they don’t know how to do their job in a way that can benefit other characters. The Coach in “The Breakfast Club” can qualify here–and to me he IS an asshat! He definitely didn’t know how to “teach”. If this “coach” had handled up on these kids this way now, he’d have been put on probation himself. He did mistreat Bender in my book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTeYncx1xmI

The “Conniving Bitch”: –I’ll use movie examples here:  Dame Judith Anderson in “Rebecca”, Bette Davis in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” or “Jezabel”…Take your pick.  How about Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction?  Mo’Nique in “Precious”?  Their levels of evil qualify them here–and I had little to NO empathy for them. The same falls true for Farah Fawcett in “Small Sacrifices” and Elizabeth Montgomery’s role in the movie “Amos”.

Glenn Close in 1987’s hit “Fatal Attraction”.

The Jealous Wench:  This is actually ranked right below the “Conniving Bitch”…Just look at Jane Fonda in “Monster in Law“.  Some are a cross between this ranking and the “C.B”–and a good example of this lies in Angelique Bouchard–from the original  “Dark Shadows” or the “Dark Shadows Revival” series.  I didn’t care for Eva Green in the role. I felt that the script for that flick made no sense anyway. It was like watching “Occupy Collinwood”.  If Angelique controlled Collinwood, what the heck did she need Barnabas for? She didn’t. Trying to make her a bit empathetic at the end was a huge mistake. She’s a sociopath as she was portrayed in both the original series and in the ’91 series–sort of like Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction” and with almost a similar narcissistic quality. In fact, in the original series she stooped to killing her own sister.

The Ones We LOVE to Loathe:  Let’s see…This should be easy because it is definitely like “beauty”–in the eye of the beholder in a sense because these villains wire people up…  J. R. Ewing from “Dallas”.  Not that any of them are saints on “Sons of Anarchy” but Gemma Teller Morrow (Katie Sagal) takes the freaking cake…She plays several sides of a fence…Seriously.  Then there is Robert  Mitchum’s character in “The Night of the Hunter“?  That movie kept us on the edge of our seats. Check out this recent review! Very well done:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jfz9Q0Qblw

The same thing goes for two on the show “Banshee”…There are several “villains” there because most are not upstanding, law-abiding citizens, that’s for sure.  Two of the best villains on here are Rabbit (Ben Cross) and Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thompson).  Even the main characters are villains (Lucas Hood and Ana/Cassie Hopewell)–and it gives new meaning to an old bible verse about “…not one being righteous”  in that town, too.   However,  viewers are going to have empathy for some and total loathing for others and my bet for the honor of this particular title  is on these two characters–Kai Proctor and Rabbit.  Both have some bad ass underlings.

Ulrich Thomsen as “Kai Proctor” on Banshee in the above photo.

However it is hard to classify Ana/Cassie, Lucas Hood or Job as true villains when they are on the run from Rabbit and his lot and have led (for the most part) “quiet” (I am joking here!) lives for 15 years–while Lucas was locked up. It is very  hard to say that Lucas is “quiet” because he did kill some folks.  Again, hard to classify him and Ana.  However I am tempted to put Ana in the “conniving bitch” category because of how she treated her father–Rabbit and lied about who she really is to her hubby.  There is something up with that because he did love his daughter. This is where some will actually empathize with Rabbit.  However others will be baffled as to why Lucas even bothers with her because she really pulls some wicked crap that he should have grown a pair and killed her over in my book. Ah…The joys of true love. What can I say?  I mean, she cuffed him to a bed and left him for Rabbit, for Chrissake! I can say this, he is correct when he tells her that “Carrie” (as in her identity) is a “hiding place”.

Ivana Millicevic (Ana aka “Carrie) and Antony Starr (Lucas Hood) in “Banshee”.

Some do feel a bit of empathy for Rabbit when a couple of things get revealed–but he’s still gonna be one twisted, sick–well, you get it.  It’s also easy to empathize with Kai over the issues with his father and his upbringing–and that is where it ends with him.  He’s almost as twisted as Rabbit, I think, but in a different way. No, I take it back. Rabbit is NOT as twisted. Watch the scenes Proctor has with his niece and you will know why I say that…

The pic above is a screen shot of Ben Cross as “Rabbit”.

If you have not seen “Banshee” I highly recommend it! It is very well-written and directed,  but it is NOT a family show. There is nudity and such–after all it is Cinemax, so use your brains and put the kiddies to bed first or send ’em to Grandma’s!  After you watch that, come back and tell me which character (NOT CAST MEMBER) you want to kick in the shins! Just remember! Those men and women are ACTING!  It’s the characters we loathe–not the players!   I wonder if Mo’Nique got flak for her role in “Precious” now that I think about it…

I don’t know about the rest of you but when villains fall in the last category above, it just totally rocks! People  LOVE hating villains like these!  I am going to go a little further here.  I think the character of “Mr. Rabbit” is going to be so detested by some that he’ll end up being one of the best TV villains of all time–which would dethrone J.R. Ewing–and believe me, this guy makes J.R. look like a cub scout in comparison!

To give you an idea of how twisted the family tree is–here is one card Carrie/Ana will NEVER send to her father Rabbit–even though there might be a little truth in it:

And I am going to add here that since “Banshee” is the highest rated show Cinemax has ever aired, I think some prime time Emmy nods will come out of this–and if not, someone hasn’t got their head on straight.  This series has some excellent writing in it–so even if you’re not into the nude scenes and such–it is worth watching for the fact that it has plot, organization, innovation and originality.  Those of you anticipating Sons of Anarchy’s new season should tune in to this one in the meantime.  I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

I look for Hoon Lee, who plays “Job” on here to get a best supporting actor nod too.  Some people tune in to see what stunt he’s going to pull next! He has a lot of scenes in this series that will crack you up, so here is one of them (and it has adult language, so if you’re offended easily, sorry. This cracked me up!) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=3UQdGPp3BDs

As I dive further into the villain topic, I’m sure there are other categories to add later, but these are the main ones and these are meant for a general audience–not the academic one. If I were to go into the “Abrams Book of Literary Terms” it might bore a lot of you to death so I spared you that…However it is a good tool for writers to have on hand.  And a good resource to look at is Chuck Wendig’s “Terrible Minds” blog.  Here is a link to that too–and he’s as blunt as the Banshee writers!

http://www.terribleminds.com/

 

These Types of Movies Rock!

 

In 1962, Sophia Loren won the Best Actress Oscar in “Two Women”…In 1965, “Shelley Winters” took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “A Patch of Blue“.  Both movies were tackling issues that a lot of writers will not touch on any longer–or if they do, they do something stupid when writing it (and/or putting the cast together–like they did with “The Women” in 2008) and it crashes on the remake. Both “Two Women” and “A Patch of Blue” were somewhat ahead of their time, I think, but were important to film history itself.

This movie rivets viewers even 52 years after it’s release…

One of the most important films of the era, “A Patch of Blue” tackles racism, abuse, alcoholism in such a way it made one think back then. This film was definitely ahead of its time in many respects. It was well before the on air kiss of Captain Kirk and Uhura on “Star Trek, too…No they don’t kiss here, but it’s obvious that these characters had some type of feelings toward each other.

I feel the same way about “Chariots of Fire”.  The reason that movie has  had so much staying power over 30 years time is that there is a universal issue it tackles that has absolutely nothing to do with religious faith of some sort, but more to the point of being true to one’s self despite what society tries to dictate.  In short,  Eric Liddel and Harold Abrahams had huge sets of cojones and did not compromise on what they stood for, period.

Ben Cross and Ian Charleson portrayed them well.  It took equal amounts of cojones to even take the parts given what society says of that sort of thing now. After reading what Ben Cross did to prepare for that role, I am convinced that he and Charleson are the other two reasons that movie will have staying power for another 30 years in film history.  Argue with me all you want, but you won’t change my mind or the minds of the fans who watch these types of films again and again. The themes are timeless and universal–and that is what is severely lacking in what is being put out today in Hollywood, so they try to remake EVERYTHING.  They need to get back to some original thought and scrap the damned remakes altogether–especially when it comes to classic movies like these.

One of the best movies in 30 years–and it has new life in it again…

Instead of tossing us bones like they would to a dog, Hollywood needs to start putting some meat out there–and NO I’M NOT talking about eye candy…I’m talking about using seasoned actors and actresses that can REALLY ACT.  It doesn’t matter if they are older–I want to be able to believe if someone is going to play a murderer, then I want that actor/actress to play said murderer well enough that I’ll believe he/she IS THE CHARACTER and is about to bolt through that screen to kill my ass!  The late Jack Palance had a knack for this–in fact he was so good, he scared a fellow cast mate once.  I believe strongly that Hollywood is going to suffer some backlash if it doesn’t stop this constant marketing to teens, ‘tweens, and those who love the bloody “chick flicks”.  Baby boomers outnumber the other audiences and they are tired of this trend, I think.  I know I definitely am.  Of the movies I’ve seen in the past year and a half, “The Help” is the best one so far.

If someone were to build competing film studios in other states that marketed to my age bracket, they would make a killing because people in those states would invest in a good film. They say non-attendance in theaters is why films are made to cater to the youthful market. That is crap in my book. If they would market to us and the entire families we have, they’d make more money.  I think that for every teen that will go to a flick, there are 3 adults that will go if the movie is worth a damn. If not, they simply leave the kids to their own devices while they use Redbox, VOD, or PPV.

There are few actors and actresses that can pull of that wonderful feat of letting that character breathe through them to the extent that it seems real.  Ben Cross, Melissa Leo, Gary Cairns II, Jessica Chastain, Dallas Bryce Howard, Glenn Close and Zachary Quinto are among that number. Just a note here:  I hated the Dark Shadows remake–totally detested it, but that kid Gulliver McGrath is going to have a good career ahead of him…Even as young as he is, he is totally believable in character.   Michele Pfeiffer also did well in that film.  They were the only good things about that fiasco.