100 Essential Male Film Performances

Part 2: The Dark Side

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[28 July 2009]

By PopMatters Staff

These are the men who confronted, made, or actually were monsters in one way or another. Some are villains, others were just born bad, some still are just misunderstood or a little disturbed, but each actor listed here intrepidly confronts some form of evil.

Carl Boehm Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)

It is now accepted with some historical certainty that Peeping Tom destroyed director Powell’s career. The theater rows like pews were crop-dusted with disgust and vitriol from the film establishment, eager to distance themselves from the film’s transgressive equation of both erotic and violent titillation with the cinema’s inherent voyeuristic gaze. But perhaps the major culprit in the death of the respected British auteur’s career is the killer he cast in the lead, the Austrian-born actor Boehm. Boehm’s performance as quietly disaffected serial killer Mark Lewis was so polite, so gentle, so reserved, and so convincing that it still unsettles today after nearly 50 odd years of three-dimensional villains.

Perhaps what’s so disturbing is how Mark’s dashing Aryan good looks and his shy-schoolboy social anxiety make the audience root for him. The audience’s hope is not for him to succeed in murdering red-headed women, but for him to get away with murder in the hopes that he may one day get away from murder. His suggested, albeit naïve, path to transformation through Moira Shearer’s Vivian, Mark’s stand-in mother figure and a compassionate alternative to his cruel and clinical father figure (played by Powell), seems at times palpable as he desperately attempts to find a connection through Vivian to a humanity not dominated by fear and hypnotized by a life lived through images. In moments with Vivian, Boehm’s Mark appears tortured by his decisions and exuberant at the new possibilities of creating children’s books with her, inventing a new narrative. The fantasy of a second chance is a defiance of typical revenge fantasies, which demand Mark’s corpse at the end. His end then is deeply unsatisfying, particularly in the ways that it perfectly completes the film Mark has been directing his entire life. Though Boehm went on to do some fine work, notably with Fassbinder, his Mark Lewis was his most iconic and perhaps one of the best career-killing performances of all time. Timothy Gabriele

 
Bruce Campbell Evil Dead II (Sam Raimi, 1987)

“Groovy”—that’s all you need to know. As Sam Raimi’s retrofitted Stooge, Moe, Larry and Curly all collected in one marvelously manic fake Shemp, lifelong friend Campbell became the physical embodiment of horror comedy. Flashing a jaw-line that just wouldn’t quit and a machismo that masked a lothario’s longing to cut and run, Ash would become a fright flick icon for a demographic of disaffected youth who wanted a far more outlandish superman fighting off demons and the diabolical. Campbell’s performance goes beyond the call of cinematic duty. Required to bring Raimi’s ridiculous ideas to life, we believe the undead chaos in the Evil Dead films for one reason and one reason only—Big Bruce MAKES us believe. In a genre that frequently gets maligned for less than stellar acting, Campbell creates the most unrealistically real champion ever. Groovy, indeed. Bill Gibron

 
Robert Englund A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984)

“This is God”, says dream-invading slasher Freddy Krueger, raising a razor-fingered hand, in his first appearance in the popular Nightmare on Elm Street series. Suggesting the primacy of fear and the subconscious over rationality, the Nightmare films provided a dark and much needed tonic to the ascendant 1980s view of adolescence as traumatic but safe. Here the everyday loci and accoutrements of teen life that figure as the backdrop for romance and healthy competition among peers in popular films by John Hughes like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club become the site of surreal life and death struggles: the teenager’s room, the hot rod, the bathtub, the telephone. Neighborhood teens all start to have the same horrific dreams in which they are terrorized by the burn-scarred Krueger, who has the ability to enter children’s dreams and cause them real harm.

Freddie so dominates the film that it’s surprising to discover how little screen time Robert Englund has as the villain. Add to that the fact that Freddie is more conglomeration of effects (heavy facial makeup, elongated arms, sepulchral voice altered in post-production) and metonymic paraphernalia (the crumpled fedora, the striped sweater, and of course the finger-razor gloves) than character, and it’s all the more striking that Englund makes the role cohere as the embodiment of all teenage fears. Part Lucifer, part Pee Wee Herman, Englund delivers Krueger’s simultaneously murderous and lecherous dirty-old-man taunts so they play for sick laughs, but also resonate as the fodder of the teen subconscious. “I’m your boyfriend now, Nancy”, he says to the heroine through a phone that has morphed into a lolling, lascivious tongue. Englund has reprised the role many times since, most effectively in New Nightmare (1994), but never with the same primal terror of this initial performance. Michael Curtis Nelson

 
Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt Se7en (David Fincher, 1995)

Fincher’s unwieldy Se7en slices at your sensibilities like a bayonet, in no small part due to the fantastic coupling of Freeman and Pitt. Freeman’s William Somerset steps into each scene with an intellectual rigor that counterbalances a jaded perspective on life. He is the perfect foil to Pitt’s Detective David Mills, a young, cocky, impetuous cop who has just transferred into hell. Seven days before Somerset’s retirement, he and his new partner catch a case in which serial killer John Doe (Kevin Spacey) begins to kill his victims based on the biblical seven deadly sins. Gwyneth Paltrow appears as Detective Mills’ homesick wife Tracy, who seeks out advice from Somerset’s character on how to deal with the misery inflicted upon her by the soulless city that she has been forced to move to. And indeed the city is soulless. It’s a quagmire of misery that will pull the weak and weary into a black hole of desolation. Freeman and Pitt struggle with each other, John Doe, and even the city itself to defeat it.

But alas, that is not the case as Se7en ends with a doozy of a finale—- with a surprising twist and a head in a box. The audience is then left to try and reconcile a devastating sense of gross alienation and perversity. Grossing over $300 million dollars worldwide, Se7en‘s existential horror-fest was no doubt rendered more profound due to the extraordinary talents of both Freeman and Pitt. Both actors have an enviable array of films that showcase their unique abilities as leading men, but their shared responsibility for this film laid the foundation for its success. Freeman’s subtle ferocity and Pitt’s blustery bullheadedness ground the outrageous proceedings and succeed in immortalizing of one of the greatest thrillers of the last 30 years. Courtney Young

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100 Essential Male Film Performances

Comments

Fantastic list. I hope no one will mind if I engage in some shameless “But you forgot…”

Kirk Douglas - Out of the Past

Absolutely nails being a manipulative control freak whose willingness to kill is only balanced out by his strange hubris with the femme fatale. By the time you see his fate at the end, you almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

Comment by L.B. Jeffries from The South — July 28, 2009 @ 11:39 am

Awesome.  That’s more like it! Why did I even think PM would fail me on this one? :)  Keep up the good work!

Comment by stever — July 28, 2009 @ 11:48 am

How about Bruno Ganz in Der Untergang?  Great portrayal of a desperate Hitler at the end of WWII.

Comment by pogopop77 — July 28, 2009 @ 1:28 pm

@ pogopop77

Oh, don’t you worry, Bruno Ganz is indeed on this list for “Downfall”. He appears on the Friday list. That’s an unmissable performance and one of the best ever as far as I’m concerned. Very underrated actor.

Comment by SysAdmin — July 28, 2009 @ 1:53 pm

@ L.B. Jeffries from The South:

I have not seen that Douglas performance but it sounds fantastic!

Kirk just missed the final list and ranked high as one of my immediate ‘runners-up’—I couldn’t nail down a performance that I favored though. Champion, Ace in the Hole and even to a degree Lust for Life are all really great.

I will make sure to hunt down the title you mentioned!

@ stever:

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s classics! Hopefully we will continue to impress ;-)

Comment by Matt Mazur — July 28, 2009 @ 4:11 pm

Hey, what about HAL in 2001? The ultimate dark side performance. Gives me the heeby jeebies even 40+ years later.

Comment by vicki pasadena ca from Pasadena, CA — July 29, 2009 @ 11:24 am

This list is irrelevant.
It doesn’t contain the words Heath and Ledger.

Comment by Jesse — August 8, 2009 @ 5:01 pm

What about Gary Oldman in “Leon”. His pill -popping psychopathic DA agent is scenery chewing at it’s best

Comment by Richie Harris — August 21, 2009 @ 3:11 am

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I do agree that Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight deserves a mention, even though the actor himself is accorded his props for BrokeBack later in the list.

A few other thoughts would be :

De Niro as Max Cady (Cape Fear)
Either Brian Cox (Manhunter) or Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs) for Hannibal Lector
Kevin Spacey for Verbal Kint (The Usual Suspects)
Martin Landau for Leonard (North by Northwest)

Comment by Simon Payn from Newbury UK — August 21, 2009 @ 4:30 am

I know the list can’t include everything, but personally, I’d have added George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson in Doctor Strangelove. In a film of fantastic comedic performances by both Peter Sellers and Sterling Hayden, His is still the one that makes me smile the most every time.

Comment by Robert Pearson from Stoney Creek Ontario — August 21, 2009 @ 5:43 am

I certainly agree with most picks on this list and obiviously there isn’t enough room for every great performance in film history. Still i would like to add few titles. Since one version of Nostferatu is already on how about Klaus Kinski in Aquirre. Many people say Kinski is overrated egomaniac that can’t act. Still Aquirre is probably the best depiction of pure madness ever captured on film. Kinskis performance is essential when talking about human creed and delusion leading to the inevitable plunge into the depths of madness caused by human ego. In the final scene where Kinski is the only one left alive. Standing on the raft like some demigod still confident of his success. Just look at his eyes and you know exactly what madness is. Thats something I would consider as essential.

Comment by TS — August 21, 2009 @ 7:11 am

How could Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight be ignored? That movie became the second highest-grossing film of all time because of the brilliance of his performance. He deserved the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The entertainment industry lost an extremely valued member. He was an incredible actor that accomplished career milestones within a tragically cut short career. There will be no actor like him, and the character of the Joker cannot be continued. No one can reach the vicinity of the magnificence of his interpretation.

Another mistake is the exclusion of Christian Bale in The Machinist and American Psycho. The man lost 62 pounds to portray a guilt-ridden insomniac! He was the perfect casting choice for Patrick Bateman in one of the most controversial novels. What does the man need to do to gain the appreciation he deserves?

Comment by Angela from U.S. — August 21, 2009 @ 10:01 am

Christian Bale - American Psycho
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Christopher Waltz - Inglorious Basterds
Gene Hackman - Unforgiven
Geoffrey Rush - Quills
Willem Dafoe - Shadow Of The Vampire
John Malkovitch - Dangerous Liaisons

Comment by Linda Frost from Vancouver, Canada — August 21, 2009 @ 10:33 am

any list of great villainous performances without mention of Hannibal Lecter, Anton Chigurh, Bruno from Strangers on a Train, Joker, or Annie Wilkes is literally no worthy list at all.  i mean, no Hannibal?  REALLY?  i thought that was a given, everywhere, all the time.

Comment by Riley from Canada — August 21, 2009 @ 1:31 pm

@ Riley from Canada—I agree that Annie Wilkes is a great character, and that Kathy Bates is a tremendous actress, but this is a list of MALE performances…

And no, there is no “Hannibal”—instead we chose a different performance from that film (Ted Levine’s underrated Buffalo Bill/Jame Gumb) and Anthony Hopkins is lauded instead for another of his brilliant performances. Not really into the idea that things that are “given” on other sites or on other lists need to infiltrate projects like this one. I’m proud to offer an alternative to what people might expect or think is “given”.

@ Angela—While it is true that “the physical” is an essential component of what an actor must do in order to give a great performance, I feel that too-often film-going culture is wrapped up in gimmicks like losing or gaining weight and or muscle. This alone does not equal a great performance and, honestly, I don’t find Bale to be emotionally compelling in either of the films you mention. In fact I feel quite the opposite: that he’s rather vague in each of those turns. If Bale was going to come anywhere near this list, it would have been for something like Empire of the Sun or Metroland. In these two films, he shows range, depth and control. They don’t feel as obvious.

@ Everyone—can we call a moratorium on Heath Ledger-Joker comments, please? Ledger is a phenomenal actor, I am a big fan. I thought his Joker was brilliant. I thought that he deserved the Oscar. However, Ledger is on this list’s “Classics…” section, for his soulful, mature performance in Brokeback Mountain instead of for The Dark Knight. Only one mention per actor on the list!

Also, had I seen Inglorious Basterds prior to this project’s deadline, Christoph Waltz would have been on it! What an amazing performance!

Comment by Matt Mazur — August 21, 2009 @ 5:07 pm

finally somebody recognizes ted levine for silence of the lambs. I thought that I,m the only one that saw that incredible performance. I know is hard to aknowledge something else acting arround anthony hopkins’s hannibal lecter, but ted levine shone .

Comment by byzonoo from mangalia — August 22, 2009 @ 12:49 am

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I very much agree with the previous comment.
Thank you so much for giving Ted Levine credit for his amazing work in Silence of the Lambs as Jame Gumb.

Comment by Amanda from Sweden — August 22, 2009 @ 5:49 am

Heath Ledger was put on the list for Brokeback Mountain and we only allowed an actor to appear once on the list. Anthony Hopkins is on for Remains of the Day, so no Silence of the Lambs spot for him here.

Comment by SysAdmin — August 22, 2009 @ 10:24 am

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