Despicably Yours: a study in villainy

It's harder to create a 'good' villain than a hero.He’s got to be enigmatic, complicated, riveting and, above all, really horrible. I’ve compiled a list of ten evil characters from the movies and fiction that provide an interesting insight into the power of good writing. I’ve left out some of the more famous ones: the Joker in Batman, Count Dracula, Jack the Ripper, Hannibal Lecter and so on because they’re so done. Here’s my list, not in any particular order:

Aaron Stampler from Primal Fear, 
Professor James Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories,
 Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love, 
Colonel Hans Landa from Inglorious Basterds, 
Claudius from Hamlet,
 'Big Ger' Cafferty from Ian Rankin's Rebus novels,
 Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley, 
Hans Gruber from Die Hard, 
Al Capone in The Untouchables, 
and Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects.

All these photos are downloaded from Google images.

Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear:

Remember that innocent looking boy with a multiple personality disorder? Hard to believe it was Edward Norton’s debut role. This 1996 adaptation of William Diehl’s novel would not have been so engrossing without Norton playing the young altar boy accused of violently murdering an Archbishop. He even shaded Richard Gere’s character Martin Vail. I’ll never forget the end when Gere realizes he’s been played for a fool. So there never was a Roy? He asks Stampler, referring to Aaron’s vicious alter ego. To this, Stampler replies: “There never was an Aaron, Counsellor!”

Jim Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes Series:

Although he appears in only two Sherlock Holmes stories, The Final Problem and The Valleyof Fear, Holmes’s arch enemy casts a long shadow through the entire series. Holmes himself describes the mathematical genius professor as ‘The Napoleon of Crime’. He’s maniacal, egotistic and his brain is said to rival Holmes’s. Many actors have played him over the years in the host of Sherlock adaptations. I like the way Andrew Scott (featured in the photo above) does Moriarty in the BBC version Sherlock, which is currently running on TV. He’s smartly turned out and utterly frightening.

Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love:

Lotte Lenya is so effective as the evil Colonel Rosa Klebb in the second Bond movie, we remember her as the main villain. Her poison-tipped shoe spike is an iconic weapon and it’s hard to forget the fear on Sean Connery’s face as he fights her off in the climax. The way she flinches at the slightest human touch underlines her brutality; it seems the only way she can make human contact is by stabbing people with her shoe.

Hans Landa from Inglorious Basterds:

…and with this character the world was introduced to a genius called Christoph Waltz. A German-Austrian actor who speaks English, French and Italian apart from his native tongue, Waltz was eerily charming in this Quentin Tarantino flick. Who else could’ve played a Nazi Colonel and made us want to see more? He’s not only a brilliant detective Jew-hunter, he loves drinking milk, too! We’re almost sorry when the American Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) disfigures him by carving a swastika into his forehead at the end of the film.

Claudius in Hamlet:

Played by Derek Jacobi in this version. Kenneth Branagh (also in the picture) is the tortured Prince of Denmark. Claudius is an interesting Shakespeare villain. He’s a capable monarch, possesses competent diplomatic skills and he’s a patient uncle/ stepfather to crazy Hamlet. It’s only after the ghost appears to Hamlet that we realize he’s behind the murder of his brother, Hamlet’s father. His confession to God in his private chapel reveals a heart bordering on repentance but since it’s a tragedy, he falls to Hamlet’s sword in the end.

'Big Ger' Cafferty in Ian Rankin's Rebus novels:

Morris Gerald Cafferty, played by James Cosmo (the photo above) in one of the Rebus series, is the perfect foil to John Rebus, Ian Rankin’s enigmatic Scottish detective. There’s plenty of dramatic tension between the two since Rebus often cuts corners in order to seek a conviction and sometimes finds himself on the wrong side of the law. Cafferty knows this and spares no opportunity to confront Rebus. Cafferty is portrayed as ruthless, physically strong and a man to be feared.

Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley:

Matt Damon is brilliant as Tom Ripley, the man who steals a rich guy’s identity, kills him and gets away with it all. An adaptation of the 1955 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith, it’s set in the 1950s in Italy and the US. Tom Ripley is the young man with dubious talents- lying, forging, stealing- struggling to make a living. He succeeds in murdering a rich man Dickie Greenleaf (played by Jude Law) and then convincing a host of people that he’s Dickie. His motives? ‘It’s better to be a fake nobody than a real somebody.’ Hmm…food for thought, what?

Hans Gruber in Die Hard:

Suave, menacing and evil, Alan Rickman made Hans Gruber an unforgettable villain in the first Die Hard movie. None of the baddies in the next four sequels came close. Gruber is basically a thief but he seems so much more. He kills without batting an eye but he can also be extremely well-mannered. Loved his German accent, too.

Al Capone in The Untouchables:

With Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Andy Garcia in the cast of this 1987 crime drama, a scary villain was required to heighten the drama. It was no other than Robert De Niro who stepped into the role of Al Capone, the Chicago mafia man of the 1920s and 30s. Capone is mercurial, loves the opera, kills without mercy and he’s slightly comical, too. Never accept his dinner invite, though, he might just bash your brains in with a baseball bat!

Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects:

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Awesome movie, awesome Kevin Spacey (extreme right in the photo). He’s Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint, a small time con artist with cerebral palsy who turns approver when a group of ‘the usual suspects’ blow up a freighter ship and kill nearly everyone on board. As he narrates the story to the cops, the name Keyser Soze turns up. Soze is a mythical figure of Turkish descent who’s rumoured to be nearly invisible. He kills not only his enemies but their families and associates, too. Only at the end do we realize, in one of the greatest movie twists of all time, that Kint is Keyser Soze. He has several great lines. One of the most famous, a paraphrase of Baudelaire: ‘The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.’

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