AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes & Villains

Of course, it's never possible to please everyone, and with a list like this you're always going to get some people who strongly disagree with certain choices, as everyone has different opinions on who the greatest movie heroes and villains are. Even so, I have to point out some glaring errors on this list.

Travis Bickle from TAXI DRIVER is not a villain. The first time he commits an act of violence in the film, he shoots a robber who's threatening to kill a convenience store clerk. Then he saves a young girl from a life of prostitution by killing the pimps. This guy is no more a villain than Dirty Harry Callahan.

Then there's Hans Grubber from DIE HARD. No matter how well-written and acted Hans is, he's the main bad guy in an action film. His main reason for being is to be ultimately defeated by the hero. We all knew Hans would be beaten before the first time we even saw DIE HARD. I also felt the same way about Goldfinger, but at least James Bond made the best heroes list. Why isn't John Mclaine on the hero's list?

Now, I know millions more would have been greatly upset with AFI if they didn't include her on the list, or if they hadn't ranked her so high, but one villain I think really dosen't belong anywhere on the list of greatest villains (much less in the #3 slot!) is the Wicked Witch Of The West. Already I'm sure thousands of internet users will hate me and think I'm an idiot for even suggesting such a thing, but I think the Witch from The Wizard Of Oz has got to be the most grossly overrated villain in the whole history of film for just one reason: the way she is killed. She sets her broom on fire and is ready to burn the Scarecrow, and then Dorothy pours water on the broom, and some water gets on the Witch, and she evaporates. WOW! How convenient that water JUST HAPPENED to be her Achellie's Heel! I mean, come on! A big part of what defines a hero in a story is how s/he defeats the villain. As Renny Harlin once said,"The more powerful your villain is, the more powerful the hero is." Dorothy doesn't use her brains to figure out how to beat the Witch, it's just a happy accident that water gets on her and that just happens to be the thing that kills her. I mean, what the @#%*?! After seeing that scene, I wondered whether the Witch perhaps had some cousin somewhere who'd vaporize if someone sneezed in her direction.

Anyway. With each hero and villain we get commentary from stars being interviewed on their thoughts on the character. Sometimes I did not disagree with the hero or villain being placed, but I disagreed with some of the comments. For example, Hal 9000 from 2001: A SPACE ODDESSY was on the list, and someone described Hal as being pure evil and wanting very badly to kill the astronauts. This oversimplification just isn't true. What happens is (for reasons never given in the film) Hal makes a mistake while on the voyage and tells the two astronauts a system will break down, and upon examination they find there's nothing wrong with it. The two men then discuss shutting Hal down. Hal finds out, and acts out in a move of self-preservation and for the sake of completing the mission they've been sent out on.

Also, Reagan McNeil from THE EXORCIST is on the best villains list. For the record, people, Reagan was a victim (or, rather, THE victim) in THE EXORCIST. The villain was the demon possessing her. Is that all clear?

Then there's the opening prologue just before Arnold Swartzenagger gives his introduction, where classical music plays over quick images from various films. Strangely enough, there are some films that have scenes shown during the prologue where nether any of the heroes or villains from that film made the main list. The characters from these films (Shall we call them the runners up?) are:

For the heroes: "Bandit" Bo Darville (SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT) Forrest Gump, Josey Wales (THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES) Coffie, Dick Tracy, John Rambo(The RAMBO trilogy) Lee (ENTER THE DRAGON) Natalie Cook, Dylan Sanders & Alex Munday (CHARLIE'S ANGELS) Egon, Raymond, Peter & Winston (GHOSTBUSTERS) Gene Kranz (APOLLO 13) The Enterprize crew (STAR TREK) Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (TOP GUN) Lara Croft (TOMB RAIDER) Ben Hur, William Wallace, (BRAVEHEART) Thomas "Neo" Anderson (THE MATRIX)

For the villains: Agent Smith (THE MATRIX) Dr. Evil (AUSTIN POWERS) Gillman (THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON) Jason Voorhees (the Friday THE 13TH saga) Larry Talbot (THE WOLFMAN) Graf Orlok (NOSFERATU: THE VAMPIRE)The zombies (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) Maleficent (SLEEPING BEAUTY) The Butcher (GANGS OF NEW YORK)

Finally, just for the sake of nit-picking, here are two other heroes and two villains who I would have liked to have seen make the list but didn't: Kyle Reese and Luke Skywalker, The Predator and Michael Meyers (from the HALLOWEEN movies)

Just a few choices I agree with:

The Terminator

Annie Wilkes

Hannibal

Hans Gruber

et al.

Villains and heroes who should have been on the list:

Vito Corleone

Frankenstein's Monster

Riggs and Murtaugh ("Lethal Weapon")

William Wallace ("Braveheart")

John McClane (THE action hero -- c'mon, AFI!)

John Matrix (dumb movie, great hero)

Dutch Schaeffer (a true screen macho hero)

John Rambo (the sequels weren't good, but he's still an infamous hero)

Michael Myers (there's no Freddy without him!)

Andy Dufresne

Hjalmar Poelzig ("The Black Cat")

Kyle Reese

Sarah Connor

John Connor

Tony Montana (say hello to a favorite villain!)

George Bailey (he was on, but should have been higher up -- same for Rick Blaine!)

I could go on!

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Okay, I agreed with some of the choices, but Thelma and Louise did not belong on there any more than Tony Montana or Hjalmar Poelzig. In fact, this list seemed to be ranked by popularity of films -- not by actual villains and heroes. Not many people have heard of Boris Karloff's Hjalmar Poelzig from "The Black Cat" (1931), but he deserved to be on there. WHY WASN'T HE ON THERE? He's creepy, scary, and truly evil.

Also, what was it with Ridley Scott? "Thelma and Louise," "Alien," Ellen Ripley, Maximus from "Gladiator" (who did NOT deserve to be on that list), etc. Some of them (Ripley, "Alien") belonged to be on there, but come on already...

Arnie does a good job presenting this, but I don't believe that the choices were as good as they should have been -- there are TONS of truly great heroes out there not even touched by this little compilation.

Oh, and all the people who deserved to be on there seemed to be misplaced. Travis Bickle is better than the psycho killer in "Fatal Attraction" any day. And what about De Niro's character in the remake of "Cape Fear"? Anyone seen "Halloween"? Where are these villains and heroes?

Worth a look, but I bet you'll disagree with at least 70 % of the choices.

AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is by far the best of all of the AFI 100 Years lists, although I think that all of the lists were pretty good. I think that the AFI did an excellent job of incorporating heroes and villains from all kinds of movies. The top ten heroes and the top ten villains were perfectly selected.

It's frustrating to see that so many people dislike the AFI lists just because their own lists are different. Of course there are movies, quotations, heroes, villains, and songs which I wanted to be on the lists but were left off. None of my four favorite movies were even on the 100 films list. I know that no list could possibly please everybody, and the AFI lists do a very good job of having at least a couple of selections that everyone can agree with.

Jack Ryan(Harrison Ford,Alec Baldwin,Ben Affleck)(Clear And Present Danger,The Hunt For Red October,Patriot Games,The Sum Of All Fears) saves the world from a nuclear holocaust, protects his family from irish terrorrists, rescues jailed special opts men in colombia.Fights for family, fights for freedom, fights to bring safely a defecting russian captain and this is just him in the movies not the Tom Clancy book series and he isn't even in the top 50 heroes. or where are the heroes such as President james marshall(Harrison Ford) or luke skywalker(Mark Hamill). Also where the villians like Capt. Siato from "Bridge On The River Kwai" Saruman & Sauron from LOTR ot what about AGENT SMITH(Hugo Weaving"The Matrix")I Give it a 6/10 because Hannibal and Indy where placed at 1# and 2#

I estimate only 40% of viewers can actually agree with the final results.

In case you didn't notice, the choices this year were all about Ridley Scott. General Maximus, Hannibal, the Alien, Lt. Ripley, Thelma & Louise, that makes up the bulk of what you see. They are all good on varying levels and I can agree with their choices. More conventional heroes (& baddies) like William Wallace, John Rambo, Jason Vorhees, and Michael Meyers are--thankfully--abandoned for a combination of goodies and nasties from all time periods. Interestingly enough, all three dominant gangsters from the 30s (Little Caesar, Tom Powers, and Tony Camonte) are used, just not in that order. Is it me or was the AFI starting to get a little sexist in their Top 10 pickings?

That aside, the results are a composition of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Harrison Ford, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Redford, and Jack Nicholson. That said, I found Gordon Gekko, the Shark, Man (you'll see what I mean), Hans Gruber, HAL 9000, the Terminator, and Amon Goeth to be my pick from villains while Harry Callahan, Patton, and Popeye Doyle receive my kudos from the heroes listing.