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 The
American Film Institute's (AFI) sixth polling, 100 Heroes
and Villains, again celebrates American cinema, to reveal America’s
100 greatest good and bad guys/gals (50 of each), as chosen by voters
- a jury of 1,500 directors, actors, screenwriters, critics, historians
and others. [The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) had previously
polled their own membership of Internet-based cinema journalists for
the
top 100 greatest screen villains of all time.]
The ballot of 400
nominated films was the basis for the selected heroes/villains,
either fact-based or fantastically-fictional. The AFI left the judgment
calls to jurors about the categorization of virtuous heroes and wicked
villains, advising them only to not vote for a character as both.
The
selections for the 400 nominated
films were made according to the following criteria:
- Hero - Sometimes mythic figures, sometimes
ordinary people who prevail in extreme circumstances, heroes dramatize
a sense of morality, courage and purpose often lacking in our everyday
world. Heroes do what is good, just and right; and even though they
may be ambiguous or flawed characters, they often sacrifice themselves
to show humanity at its best and most humane. For voting purposes,
AFI defined a "hero" as a single character, a duo or a team
of characters.
- Villain - Characters that movie goers love
to hate - and hate to love. Villains are characters whose wickedness
of mind, selfishness of character and will to power are sometimes
masked by beauty and nobility. Others rage unmasked. Daring the worst
to gain the most, the movie villains we remember best can be horrifically
evil, merely sleazy or grandiosely funny, but are usually complex,
moving and tragic. For voting purposes, AFI defined a "villain"
as a single character, a duo or a team of characters.
- Cultural Impact - Characters that have made
a mark on American society in matters of style and substance.
- Legacy - Characters that elicit strong reactions
across time, enriching America's film heritage and inspiring artists
and audiences today.
- Feature Length Feature Films - Only feature-length
American films released before January 1, 2002 are to be considered.
AFI defined a feature-length film as a motion picture of narrative
format that is typically over 60 minutes in length. AFI defined an
American film as an English language film with significant creative
and/or financial production elements from the United States.
The results were unveiled in a three-hour television
special broadcast by CBS in June 2003. AFI's other pollings were for:
Facts
About the Nominees Ballot:
- The ballot featured 400 nominees -- alphabetical
from Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey in Swimming with Sharks (1994))
to Zorro (Tyrone Power in The Mark of Zorro (1940)), with 398
others.
- 19 of the nominated candidates were team entries
-- Nick & Nora Charles in The Thin Man
(1934), Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson in The Hound of
the Baskervilles (1939), Dr. Einstein & Jonathan Brewster
in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Phillip
Morgan & Brandon Shaw in Rope (1948), Noah Cullen &
John "Joker" Jackson in The Defiant
Ones (1958), Clyde Barrow & Bonnie Parker in
Bonnie and Clyde (1967),
Perry Smith & Dick Hickock in In Cold Blood (1967), Minnie
& Roman Castavet in Rosemary's Baby (1968),
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid in Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Wyatt ("Captain
America") & Billy in
Easy Rider (1969),
Kit and Holly in Badlands (1973), Bob
Woodward & Carl Bernstein in All the President's Men (1976),
Martin Riggs & Roger Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon (1987),
Harry Lime & Marv Merchants in Home Alone (1990), Thelma
Dickinson & Louise Sawyer in Thelma & Louise (1991),
Vincent Vega & Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction (1994),
Annie Porter & Jack Traven in Speed (1994), Carl Showalter
& Gaear Grimsrud in Fargo (1996),
Agent J & Agent K in Men in Black (1997).
- Some of the candidates were nominated en masse
-- the Three Musketeers in The Three Musketeers (1948), the
"Magnificent Seven" in The Magnificent Seven (1960),
the "Dirty Dozen" in The Dirty Dozen (1967), the
Zombies in Night of the Living Dead (1968), and the "Wild
Bunch" in
The Wild Bunch (1969).
- The most represented male actor on the ballot was
John "Duke" Wayne with seven characters, including The Ringo
Kid in
Stagecoach (1939),
Sgt. John M. Stryker in The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Captain
Nathan Brittles in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Ethan Edwards
in
The Searchers (1956),
Davy Crockett in The Alamo (1960), Tom Doniphon in The Man
Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and "Rooster" Cogburn
in True Grit (1969). Harrison Ford, Gary Cooper and Henry Fonda
each portrayed six different nominated characters.
- Bette Davis was the most represented actress with
four mentions, including Julie Marsden in Jezebel
(1938), Leslie Crosbie in The Letter
(1940), Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes (1941),
and Jane Hudson in What Ever Happened to Baby
Jane? (1962). Faye Dunaway and Sigourney Weaver both portrayed
three different nominated characters. Other prominent women among
the heroic nominees (who didn't place) included: Kay Miniver (#245)
in Mrs. Miniver (1942), Foxy Brown (#39) in Foxy Brown (1974),
Sarah Connor in The Terminator, and
Scarlett O'Hara (#264) in
Gone With the Wind (1939).
- Alfred Hitchcock directed 11 films starring nominated
characters, the most on the ballot. Directors John Ford and Steven
Spielberg each directed 7 nominated characters.
- John Huston penned the most screenplays featuring
nominated characters (7), including Julie Marsden in Jezebel
(1938), Alvin C. York in Sergeant York (1941), Kasper
Gutman and Brigid O'Shaughnessy in
The Maltese Falcon (1941),
Fred C. Dobbs in
The Treasure of the Sierra
Madre (1948), Henry Fleming in The Red Badge of Courage
(1951), and Johnny Rocco in Key Largo (1948). Other screenwriters
with multiple nominated characters included James Cameron (6), William
Goldman (6), Oliver Stone (5), and David Webb Peoples (5).
- Luke Skywalker from the
Star Wars (1976) trilogy
was joined on the ballot by four of his film comrades: Darth Vader,
Han Solo, Princess Leia and Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi. No other film placed
more characters on the nominee list. However, Luke Skywalker (and
Princess Leia) did not place in the top 50 Heroes list - they were
superceded by Han Solo (#14) and Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi (#37). Vader made
the top 50 Villains list at #3.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger was nominated twice in opposing
roles as the android killer & protector robot: for the original
The Terminator (1984), and again for
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).
He was honored for his villainous role (at #22), but not for his heroic
role.
- Non-human characters were on the ballot, including
the Vampire in A Fool There Was (1915), the Monster in
Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (Imhotep) in The Mummy
(1932), Kong in
King Kong (1933),
the Wicked Witch of the West in
The Wizard of Oz (1939),
the Wolf Man in The Wolf Man (1941), Lassie in Lassie Come
Home (1943), Rin Tin Tin in The Return of Rin Tin Tin (1947),
Klaatu in The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), the Thing in
The Thing (From Another World) (1951), the Martians in The
War of the Worlds (1953), the Blob in The Blob (1958),
the Gill-Man in Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954), the
Birds in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963),
the HAL 9000 Computer in
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968),
the Robot Gunslinger in Westworld (1973), the Shark in
Jaws (1975), the Alien
in Alien (1979), Darth Vader in The
Empire Strikes Back (1980), Jason Voorhies in Friday the 13th:
Part 3 (1982), Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street
(1984), the Terminator (T-800) in The Terminator
(1984), the Predator in Predator (1987), the T-1000
in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991),
the pig in Babe (1995), and the Headless "Hessian"
Horseman in Sleepy Hollow (1999).
- There were two no-shows within the nominees: the
Blair Witch in The Blair Witch Project (1999), and 'The Man'
in Bambi (1942).
- Comic book or animated characters included: the Queen
in
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
(1937), Stromboli in Pinocchio (1940), Lady Tremaine
(Stepmother) in Cinderella (1950), Peter Pan in Peter Pan
(1953), Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959), Cruella DeVil
in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Lex Luthor and Superman
(Clark Kent) in Superman (1978), Batman and The Joker (Jack
Nicholson) in Batman (1989), Ursula in The Little Mermaid
(1989), Dick Tracy in Dick Tracy (1990), Belle in Beauty
and the Beast (1991), Catwoman and the Penguin in Batman Returns
(1992), Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 2 (1999), and Shrek
in Shrek (2001).
- Real-life characters included the following, among
others: Louis Pasteur (Paul Muni) in The Story of Louis Pasteur
(1936), Emile Zola (Paul Muni) in The Life of Emile Zola (1937),
Geronimo (Chief Thundercloud) in Geronimo (1939), Abraham Lincoln
(Henry Fonda) in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Thomas Alva Edison
(Mickey Rooney) in Young Tom Edison (1940), Lou Gehrig (Gary
Cooper) in The Pride of the Yankees (1942), Marie Curie (Greer
Garson) in Madame Curie (1943), John Dillinger (Lawrence Tierney)
in Dillinger (1945), Lt. Colonel James H. Doolittle (Spencer
Tracy) in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1945), Wyatt Earp (Henry
Fonda) in
My Darling Clementine (1946),
Joan of Arc (Ingrid Bergman) in Joan of Arc (1948), Annie Oakley
(Betty Hutton) in Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Calamity Jane
(Doris Day) in Calamity Jane (1953), Audie Murphy (Audie Murphy)
in To Hell and Back (1955), El Cid (Charlton Heston) in El
Cid (1961), T. E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) in
Lawrence of Arabia (1962),
Jack Jefferson (James Earl Jones) in The Great White Hope (1970),
Gen. George Patton (George C. Scott) in Patton
(1970), Gen. Douglas MacArthur (Gregory Peck) in MacArthur
(1977), Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) in The Boys From Brazil
(1978), Gandhi (Ben Kingsley) in Gandhi (1982), Chuck Yeager
(Sam Shepard) in The Right Stuff (1983), Karen Silkwood (Meryl
Streep) in Silkwood (1983), Steve Biko (Denzel Washington)
in Cry Freedom (1987), Al Capone (Robert DeNiro) and Eliot
Ness (Kevin Costner) in The Untouchables (1987), Dian Fossey
(Sigourney Weaver) in Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey
(1988), Malcolm X (Denzel Washington) in Malcolm X (1992),
Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) in Apollo 13 (1995), William Wallace
(Mel Gibson) in Braveheart (1995), Jeffrey Wigand (Russell
Crowe) in The Insider (1999), and Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts)
in Erin Brockovich (2000).
Note: The films that are marked with a yellow
star
are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100
Greatest Films.
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