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
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
Seeing Things Secondhand 