Premiere magazine has published a list of the top 100 movie characters of all time. It's a very peculiar list to say the least. Vito Corleone comes in at number one. What is that all about? Can anyone really say that Vito is the best movie character of all time? Bizarre. Also in the top 10 are Annie Hall and Fred C. Dobbs (Treasure of the Sierra Madre), neither of which I was expecting to place quite so high. The former I'd not have on my own list, the latter I would. Norman Bates places higher than James Bond and Indiana Jones. Gollum is at number 10. This is just odd. Verbal Kint just makes it on the list at 100 which I can agree with (though I thought he'd be higher)- but I think that Keyser Soze would have been way up there.
Personally, The Dude would have been much, much higher on my list. As for those who didn't make this travesty, here are a few to think about-
Dracula
Sherlock Holmes
Tarzan
Larry Talbot from The Wolf Man
Bub from Day of the Dead
Robert Neville from The Omega Man
Master Gau from Mr. Vampire
Count Zaroff from The Most Dangerous Game
Luana from One Million Years BC
Odd Ball from Kelly's Heroes
The Creature From The Black Lagoon - this is worth watching again just to see how well the monster moves through the water.
Leon from Leon/The Professional
Riddick from Pitch Black
Chow Yun Fat's Tequila in Hard Boiled
Elwood P. Dowd (Jimmy Stewart) in Harvey - the ultimate nice guy.
Hudson and Bishop from Aliens
Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Bomb 20 from Dark Star
Snake Plissken from Escape from New York
Tyler Durden from Fight Club
Azumi from Azumi
Leloo from The Fifth Element
KSCC2-303 fromVersus
The ants from Them!
Burt Gummer from Tremors
Jack Deth from Trancers
Miette from City of Lost Children
Louison in Delicatessen
Yul Brynner's android gunfighter in Westworld
The dinosaurs in Jurassic Park trilogy
Carl Kolchak from The Night Stalker
Darryl Revok from Scanners
Murder Legendre in White Zombie
Bill Murray in Ghosbusters
Jon Ryder in The Hitcher
Jayne Cobb from Serenity - okay, the movie's not out yet but Jayne's a fabulous character, treacherous and yet noble at the same time.
The bugs from Starship Troopers
The Thin Man from Charlie's Angels
I'm sure that given enough time I'd be able to come up with my top 100 characters. Mmm, maybe some day.
What struck me most from the list is that the really iconic figures from cinema seem to be mostly missing. Strange.
As always the best thing about these lists are being able to gripe about them and waste time thinking of who you'd like to add.
Your own thoughts are appreciated.
1 comment:
Do you think Kolchak doesn't count because (to the best of my knowledge) The Night Stalker was a TV movie. I know it's a bit snobbish of them if it is the case (and I've not checked the list throughly) but I wonder if TV movie characters count.
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