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
The character: Waldo Lydecker The actor: Clifton Webb The movie: Laura (1944) A guy wearing a mask and holding a chainsaw or a knife or controlling a garage door is an explicit threat. A guy who is well-groomed and whose vocabulary is better than yours is an implicit threat. A guy who can do both… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Villain #47
The character: Captain Alan Thorndike The actor: Walter Pidgeon The movie: Man Hunt A person seeking revenge against the Third Reich makes it his mission to assassinate Hitler by using the best tools at his disposal. This is the Melanie Laurent plot in Inglourious Basterds, which is a movie everyone loves, but it’s also the… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Hero #47
The character: Fredo Corleone The actor: John Cazale The movie: The Godfather Part II The original AFI Villains list includes Michael Corleone in this same film as their eleventh greatest villain. It is probably the most boring place to call Michael Corleone a great villain, or at least the safest. (The heel turn in The… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Villain #48
The character: Mame Dennis The actor: Rosalind Russell The movie: Auntie Mame (1958) Mame has the depth of a teaspoon, and it is in shallowness that her greatness lies. Auntie Mame has one of the most essential and insane sets of any film this side of The Ladies’ Man, and it’s because of Mame that… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Hero #48
The character: Rupert of Hentzau The actor: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. The movie: The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) If you were a boy at the turn of the last century, you had your choice of two fantasies. The first was to be part of Dracula. Perhaps that boy dreams of himself as Van Helsing, the outcast… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Villain #49
The character: Kelly The actor: Constance Towers The movie: The Naked Kiss (1964) For me, this is Sam Fuller’s most affecting film. From the beginning, I’ve always found Fuller to be a little bit secondhand. He is a filmmaker of ideas, and while it’s certainly possible to be a filmmaker of ideas with remarkable reliance… Read More Better than AFI’s Heroes and Villains: Hero #49
Seeing Things Secondhand 