The character: Khan Noonien Singh The actor: Ricardo Montalban The movie: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan The most ludicrous thing that happens in The Wrath of Khan is that there’s a secret password in a secret Starfleet database that allows one ship to hack into another. It’s about as likely as the much… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Villain #42
The character: Harry Morgan The actor: John Garfield The movie: The Breaking Point (1950) It’s not called The Breaking Point for nothing, you know? As anyone who’s ever watched a POW movie or a torture movie or an especially shrill children’s movie knows, we all have that breaking point. Anyone can be forced to meet… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Hero #42
The character: Qui-Gon Jinn The actor: Liam Neeson The movie: Star Wars Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace (1999) I stand before you today not to provide revisionist takes about the prequels. The Phantom Menace, for all of its many flaws, has Qui-Gon, and Qui-Gon, for my money, is the most interesting character in any… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Hero #43
The character: James Longstreet The actor: Tom Berenger The movie: Gettysburg (1993) In the first half of the movie, John Buford (Sam Elliott) foresees what will happen if the Confederate army get to Gettysburg in force before Union troops do. He can see the frontal assault that will become Pickett’s Charge, but in his mind,… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Villain #43
The character: John Hammond The actor: Richard Attenborough The movie: Jurassic Park (1993) For a guy who gets criticized for making sentimental movies without emotional depth, it’s interesting how few great villains there are in the Spielberg oeuvre. Apologies to the AFI, but the shark in Jaws is not a villain. The Indiana Jones movies… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Villain #44
The character: Marta Hanson The actor: Irene Dunne The movie: I Remember Mama (1948) If this movie were called anything else at all, it would be recalled much more fondly. Anything. The Hansons of San Francisco. The Norwegians. Parental Sacrifice. Heck, Child Sacrifice would do better. It’s a shame, because this is one of the… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Hero #44
The character: Stanley Kowalski The actor: Marlon Brando The movie: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) I try not to degrade things that I am not deeply familiar with. Pavement, for example. I cannot stand Pavement, I do not understand the hype about Pavement, and my experience with them has convinced me that they are poseurs… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Villain #45
The character: Colonel Dax The actor: Kirk Douglas The movie: Paths of Glory (1957) There are maybe three heroes on my list of heroes that I am genuinely surprised the AFI didn’t spring for, which is another way of saying that I think I have three pretty dull heroes on my own list. The winner… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Hero #45
The character: Swan The actor: Paul Williams The movie: Phantom of the Paradise (1974) Because of Nashville and All That Jazz and Cabaret, Phantom of the Paradise can be no better than the fourth-best American diegetic musical of the 1970s. However, and this is some comfort, the Phantom soundtrack is an absolute monster. It has… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Villain #46
The character: Sister Luke The actor: Audrey Hepburn The movie: The Nun’s Story (1959) There’s a scene in the early going of The Nun’s Story that raises an interesting question. In any hierarchy, each of us must serve one master, but in a hierarchy with God, we find ourselves serving two. In Christianity, given the… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Hero #46
Seeing Things Secondhand 