It’s Good to be Bad!
Marilyn Monroe once famously remarked that blondes have more fun. Well, when it comes to our favourite books, movies and TV series, I think the same can be said about the villains that inhabit them. Actors often remark that playing bad guys is more enjoyable, as it often is equally enjoyable for us to watch them wield their superpowers and plans with no guilty conscience attached. Bad guys have more fun, and what’s not to love about that?
I learnt all about the concept of “good” and “bad” from a very young age, educated by bedroom stories of evil stepmothers and handsome princes. When I could read to myself, I immersed myself in the wicked exploits of such delicious nasties as the depraved lead characters from Roald Dahl’s The Witches or The Twits.
Saturday afternoons were often spent with Dad watching old Westerns or working our way through all of the James Bond movies. Our hero 007 always saved the day, but such villainous bad guys as Goldfinger and Baron Samedi certainly put up a good fight. Of course, I always wanted the cowboys in the white hats to win at the end of the day, but what would a good Western be without a couple of black hatted cowboys thrown in for good measure? In celebration of all the wonderfully wicked fictional villains there are out there, we asked a few of our abouTime readers to share their favourites with us. This is what they said.
Stringer Bell from The Wire – George Langlands
No doubt, The Wire is the greatest TV show ever. Creators David Simon and Ed Burns somehow managed to take a drama about the war on drugs in Baltimore and elevate it to Shakespearean levels of storytelling. And their Iago is Russell “Stringer” Bell.
Credit has to be laid at the feet of British actor Idris Elba. He fills Stringer with a subtle mixture of menace, intelligence and charm. Watching the ruthless way he dismisses the idea of “honour among thieves” leaves the viewer in no doubt that this is not a man that you would want to mess with.
Ultimately, the real evidence of this villain’s greatness is that all the way through his attempts to bring boardroom theory to the street, you find yourself hoping that he will get away with it.
Garfield – Sharon Weaving
My favourite villainous character is someone who is able to hide his wicked thoughts behind a façade of cute and cuddly fluffiness. He epitomises the conniving nature of his species, luring unsuspecting prey by exposing his soft belly for a tickle. Then angel turns villain in a matter of seconds and a flash of claws, and one wonders what one did to deserve such treatment!
I am talking about that lovable scoundrel Garfield, of course. The one minute he is winding himself lovingly around Jon’s legs, and the next he is devouring a stolen doughnut snatched from his owner’s grasp. Then, of course, there is all the nastiness he inflicts on poor Odie – deeds initiated in a deceptively caring manner to the detriment of this poor trusting, gullible dog. Yet despite all of his many acts of villainy, I cannot help but have a soft spot in my heart for this feline bad boy.
Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean – Angie Curtis
My favourite bad guy? Hmm… Think long hair adorned with beads and feathers, dirty fingernails and an attitude to fill his large ship. Ah, Captain Jack Sparrow. There is something marvellous about a pirate, aside from the rum on his breath and his intention to steal. There is an air of mystery and excitement about him.
In his debut in this role in The Curse of the Black Pearl, we fell in love with the “bad ass” who saved Elizabeth Swann as the soldiers watched on helplessly. As he so aptly put it in the first movie of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise: “A dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest.”
You can definitely trust Sparrow to steal you blind, save you afterwards and wink at you as he abandons you on a desert island claiming: “It wouldn’t have worked between us, darling”!
Harley Quinn from Batman – Joanne Mc Laren
My favourite villain is Harley Quinn. She was introduced into the Batman series as the girlfriend of Batman’s nemesis, the Joker. Nevertheless, this is one girl who definitely knows how to hold her own. She is one of the comic world’s few truly powerful and independent female villains. She wears a “traditional” harlequin jester outfit in red and black but like all great female bad girls, hers is skin tight. She is dangerously violent with a peculiar sense of humour, and I find her quirky mannerisms great entertainment.
Her crazy love relationship with the Joker is also rather intriguing as it is “mad” in every sense of the word – these two lovebirds found true love when they were both ended up in Arkham Asylum (the loony bin)!
And I am not the only one who finds Ms Harley Quinn an intriguing rogue. She was listed as number 45 on IGN’s 2009 list of the “Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time”.
Tsotsi from Tsotsi – Dee Marco
Delving into memories of my favourite childhood superheroes and villains from various comic strips and books was rather fun, but my favourite villain is a little less clear cut. He is the central character of the 2006 award winning film Tsotsi, based on Athol Fugard’s novel of the same name. While the young township hoodlum struck me as an everyday South African villain, he also, strangely, exhibits some heroic characteristics.
The young gangster unexpectedly finds himself in a suburban Joburg neighbourhood when he sees a woman struggling to open the gate to her driveway. He sees it as a perfect opportunity to score by stealing a high-end car. However, as he drives away, he hears a baby crying in the backseat. While the tsotsi (gangster) is certainly the villain in the story, he is also a rather unexpected hero who has to care for the baby because he cannot bring himself to kill it.
Although the viewer feels some pity for him, this quickly translates into resentment as he decides to hide the child in his shack. The end of the movie leads the viewer back to feelings of remorse, pity, genuine sympathy and then, unforeseen pride for the young man as he gets arrested and the child is returned to the mother. His remarkable journey from villain to hero makes him my favourite “bad” guy.
abouTime’s Favourite Villains
- Gru from Despicable Me
- Voldemort from the Harry Potter books
- Wilhelmina Slater from Ugly Betty
- Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmations
- Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs
- Lady Macbeth from Macbeth
- Duke Sigmund Igthorn from The Gummi Bears
- James Bond villain Jaws from The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker
- Hans Lander from Inglourious Basterds
- Scrooge from A Christmas Carol
- Mr Burns from The Simpsons
- Sauron from The Lord of the Rings
- Gargamel from The Smurfs
- Iago from Othello
- Sue Sylvester from Glee
Story compiled by Nicky Furniss
