Icons of Satan: Best Movie Villians

Watching Johnny Depp’s portrayl of Whitey Bolger in “Black Mass” I was inspired: “This guy is SO bad! I want to be as good as he is bad! I want to be powerfully good: pulling others with me into God’s life as he pulled the FBI and police and all his cronies into his fevered psychopathology!” A really, really bad bad guy is a mavel: a really bad bad guy is strong, courageous, resourceful, brilliant, purposeful, resolute and fearless. These are all, of course, good qualities, worthy of emulation…but unfortunately misdirected. The final purpose of the bad guy is that he elicits the greater strength and heroism of the good guy: when the bad guy is really bad, the good guy has to be really good, and even stronger in courage, resolution, and intelligence. Consider Lucifer himself: he was God’s finest creation, splendid in beauty, intelligence and power. With his fall, these qualities did not evaporate, but became directed against God Himself. There is a greatness, as Milton intuited, to Satan and his rebellion. But his excessive evil only elicits the greater splendor of the Protagonist: Jesus our Lord! So we do well to contemplate Satan and his kingdom and his power: recall the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius! And we do well to consider icons of Satan in the movies. Below are my 12 best villains: Honorable Mention goes to three outstanding performances which are really over-the-top, surreal and so mega-dramatic as to be unrealistic but quite delightful to behold: Daniel Day Lewis as Bill the Butcher in “Gangs of NY,” Al Pacino as Lucifer himself in “The Devil’s Advocate” and Jack Nicholson’s Joker. Another honorary mention goes to Satan as seen in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of Christ” in which the en-fleshed but de-gendered demon coveys a bottomless perversity. 12. Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valence is so tough and bad and mean but John Wayne’s Tom Donifon is just that much tougher: who could forget the scene when bully Valence trips the Jimmy Stewart character and laughs with malicious glee and then the Wayne voice, virile and calm and confident is heard: “That was my steak, Valence!” 11. Johnny Friendly, portrayed by Lee J Cobb in “On the Waterfront,” a classic dock mobster, very realistic, eventually elicits the heroism of Brando’s Terry Malloy. 10. Ernest Borgnine, Fatso in “From Here to Eternity,” is the quintessential bully but don’t you just love the Montgomery Cliff and Frank Sinatra characters all the more! 9. Michael and Vito Corleone, of Godfather fame, are themselves protagonists and glamorous ones at that so somewhat defective as villains. But the acting was superlative! 8. Nurse Ratchet (Louise Fletcher) in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is the only female to make the list (although most lists include the Wicked Witch of the West) but has a place of honor because the perversion of femininity is so much worse than that of masculinity. “The perversion of the best is the worst.” 7. Bane (Tom Hardy) in “The Dark Knight Rises” is high on the list because he is SO strong that he overcomes our hero Batman…penultimately…to our distress! 6. Whitey Bolger, acted by Johnny Depp in “Black Mass” is a real person, still alive and in prison, who is preternatural if not supernatural in his cruelty, notably to women. His misogyny alone identifies him deeply with Lucifer and puts him in a class of his own. 5. Amon Goeth, in a brilliant performance by Ralph Fiennes in “Schindler’s List” was also a real Nazi whose sheer, exuberant cruelty seems to overwhelm the kindness and courage of Schindler. In this world, in history this side of the parousia, goodness is always fragile and vulnerable before real Evil. 4. Darth Vadar, especially in the original “Star Wars” is unequalled for menacing strength. Ultimately, of course, he converts. He himself is subservient to the Emperor Palptine. The later is arguably a greater villain but he never rises to the level of menace that Vadar portrays with his breathing and posture in the earliest films. 3. Hannibal Lecter, an unforgettable Anthony Hopkins in “Silence of the Lambs,” is virtually invincible in every dimension but especially for his intelligence, a fundamental ingredient in every great villain. 2. Kaiser Soze, Kevin Spacey in “The Ususal Suspects,” is comparable to Lecter in brilliance and fearlessness and power. But there is a light, serendipitous touch to this film so he may not merit such a high rating. But he is my favorite. 1. The Joker, Keith Ledger in “The Dark Knight,” is number one for many reasons. He manifests the sheer transcendence of evil: he is evil beyond nature and humanity. Especially memorable is the scene in which he burns all the money to the horror of the criminals. He is beyond mere greed: he is pure evil. The performance by Ledger is unequalled. Nicholson’s had a tongue-in-cheek quality to it so we felt we were laughing with him. Not so with Ledger: he seemed to give himself over to the character. It is deeply frightening. A genuine icon of evil! These icons of the Kingdom of Darkness are worth considering! May we ourselves, in a counter-emulation, give ourselves over to the Kingdom of Light…ferociously, intelligently, courageously, purposefully, exuberantly…along with Schinler and Terry Malloy, and Luke Skywalker/Obi-Wan-Kenobi and Bruce Wayne and all the Communion of Saints!