TOP TWENTY MOVIE BADASSES

So I was inspired tonight after watching James Cagney’s ferocious performance as Arthur ‘Cody’ Jarrett in 1949’s White Heat to think back on some of cinema’s baddest mother-f**ckers. Here, with apologies to the overlooked, are my Top Twenty Movie Bad-Asses.

#20
Sgt. Dudley Smith
James Cromwell
L.A. Confidential

It takes some balls to orchestrate a total takeover of Los Angeles’ entire crime syndicate, and even bigger balls to do it under the watchful eye of officers like Bud White (Russell Crowe) and Ed Exley (Guy Pierce). Sure, Sgt. Smith doesn’t get away with it, but it isn’t before he leaves one hell of a trail of corpses, cop and civilian alike.

#19
Zoe Bell
Zoe Bell
Grindhouse Presents: Death Proof

YOU try hanging on to the hood of a car while a deranged Kurt Russell spends over ten minutes trying to run you off the road.

#18
Geum-ja Lee
Yeong-ae Lee
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

With a warm face and sincerely adorable grin, Geum-ja exacts a revenge as brutal as it is fair. Actress Yeong-ae Lee elevates Chan-wook Park’s tale of vengeance above the previous pair in his trilogy with a wink and a smile - you root for her even as she does the unthinkable.

#17
Ben
Dean Stockwell
Blue Velvet

Dennis Hopper made waves (and reinvented his career) with his role as Frank Booth in David Lynch’s 1986 classic, but consider suave Ben. Played by Dean Stockwell in a brief scene that is the film’s standout, Ben is the mastermind behind Lumberton’s crime scene, running the whorehouse, the drug cartel, and ultimately, even Frank himself. In Ben’s presence, Frank is humbled; witnessing Ben lip-sync a Roy Orbison torch song, Frank just about orgasms. Not bad for a guy in mascara.

#16
Hans Gruber
Alan Rickman
Die Hard

So much has been said about Rickman’s film debut (yes, this was his first movie!), it almost seems redundant to go on. Die Hard remains a consummately re-watchable classic, and as most fans would tell you, it’s not because of Officer John McClane…

#15
Arthur ‘Cody’ Jarrett
James Cagney
White Heat

“Made it, Ma! Top of the world!” As driven as he is completely conscienceless, Jarrett is a terrifying figure in a film that, for being from 1949, is surprisingly violent and consistently engrossing. It’s no wonder that Cagney found stardom with this film, as well as a niche in playing some of cinema’s greatest larger-than-life personalities.

#14
Tony Montana
Al Pacino
Scarface

What hasn’t been said about this towering performance? Twenty-six years later it’s easy to dismiss Scarface as quotable camp, but this still remains one of the great crime sagas of the 80’s, and one of Pacino’s greatest performances. How much more of a bad-ass can you be when the audience is still rooting for you after over two hours of being a coked-out thug?

#13
Alex
Malcolm McDowell
A Clockwork Orange

Should he have been higher up on the list? Maybe; but it’s a credit to McDowell’s performance that there may have been a boy in there susceptible to guilt and remorse. Still, little Alex is one hell of a character: a twisted protagonist smashing things up in a world that may ultimately be more corrupt than he is.

#12
Don Logan
Ben Kingsley
Sexy Beast

Sure he’s ultimately relegated to the bottom of a pool, but not before terrorizing a retired thief into committing one final criminal act. As violently thuggish as he is cockney, Logan is a force of nature, a gale of obscene hostility that seems impossible to thwart.

#11
Albert Spica
Michael Gambon
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover

This film is a masterpiece, in no small part due to Gambon’s intense performance as thief Albert Spica, a monstrous thug who runs a gourmet restaurant despite not knowing a thing about fine food. Despite the fact that he spends the duration of the film beating his wife and torturing innocent people, Spica emerges as the film’s most consistently watchable character, as hilariously tactless as he is brutal.

#10
Blondie
Clint Eastwood
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Also referred to as The Man With No Name, Blondie is one of those characters that you know will outlive the closing credits, despite being surrounded by sharp-shooting scoundrels. His immediate infallibility may have kept him from being higher on this list, but he is nonetheless one of cinema’s greatest protagonists, especially when exchanging jabs with Eli Wallach’s equally iconic Tuco.

#9
Ma Jarrett
Margaret Wycherly
White Heat

Ms. Wycherly was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Sergeant York, but certainly she deserved one here as well. Violent, uncompromising, and willing to take a sure bullet in defense of her son, it’s no wonder Cagney’s ‘Cody’ Jarrett developed his taste for violence. Wycherly is fantastic in White Heat, creating a character that would have come off as laughable in less capable hands.

#8
Capt. Hank Quinlan
Orson Welles
Touch of Evil

As sleazy as he is grossly obese, Quinlan’s round sweaty grimace fills the frame as if it were saturated by scum (credit Welles himself, directing with a seemingly complete lack of self-consciousness). Murderous, racist, and completely corrupt, Quinlan is one of the great characters of American cinema, an appropriately evil foe for Charlton Heston’s heroic Mexican Mike Vargas.

#7
Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride/Black Mamba
Uma Thurman
Kill Bill, Vol. I & II

Was there ever a doubt that she’d achieve her vengeance? When even the head of the Yakuza (not to mention her eighty-eight minions) was no match for her swordplay, domesticated Bill didn’t stand a chance.

#6
Jules Winnfield
Samuel L. Jackson
Pulp Fiction

The original Bad Mother Fucker himself. We’re all a bit safer now that he’s retired.

#5
Fung Sheng Wu Chi
Kang Kam
Master of the Flying Guillotine

He may be blind, but he’s a walking death sentence. Here’s one hell of an ominous force, showing up like a phantom to hurl his signature weapon at you and pluck you head off as if he were picking lettuce. As unstoppable and destructive as a hurricane, Fung Sheng Wu Chi takes many heads in this action classic before his tense final fight with hero Liu Ti Lung, The One-Armed Boxer.

#4
Bridget Gregory / Wendy Kroy
Linda Fiorentino
The Last Seduction

Has there ever been, or will there ever be, a greater femme fatale than Bridget Gregory? Making Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson feel like Snow White, Bridget is one hell of an ice-cold bitch (she’d use the term herself), relishing her power over men as she dispatches one sniveling suitor after another before staging her ultimate grand plan. You don’t root for Bridget so much as you admire her.

#3
Lil’ Ze
Leandro Firmino
City of God

Like a rabid stray dog, Lil’ Ze tears through the streets of Brazil with a ferocious hunger, destroying everything in his path both in direct and indirect ways. Menacing and violent and as terrifying a thug as one could ever pray not to run into, Ze grows from murderous boy to underworld-controlling godfather, before being destroyed by the last gang he’d ever take seriously.

#2
Anton Chigurh
Javier Bardem
No Country for Old Men

A walking Nightmare on two legs, Chigurh is the ultimate bogeyman - a monster made flesh, a sure harbinger of death in cowboy clothes and a bad haircut. There is absolute no hope against Chigurh - to know him is to die. Bardem’s Oscar was well-deserved; one gets the idea that if there were ever a man who could have found a way to out-terminate the Terminator itself, it’s Anton Chigurh.

#1
Ellen Ripley
Sigourney Weaver
Alien / Aliens / Alien 3 / Alien: Resurrection

The last survivor of the Nostromo after a nightmarish encounter with Geiger’s monsters wiped out her crew, Ripley actually decided to go toe-to-toe again with the acid-spewing, chest-bursting creatures, if only to possibly save some innocent colonists. And if that weren’t enough, even death couldn’t’ keep her from fighting the good fight - Ripley’s clone saves the day in the admittedly imperfect Alien: Resurrection. Weaver is among very few performers to have ever received Academy Award nominations for science fiction/horror - there’s a reason for that. As Ripley, she is cinema’s greatest bad-ass: a consummately believable action heroine, driven to protect at all costs - not necessarily fearless, but dedicated enough to her mission that she will suppress her fear to survive and, in the case of Aliens, protect those she cares about. Ripley manages to outlive two crews (one of which consisted mostly of Marines), and it never feels like a gimmick - she’s just that friggin’ tough.

No doubt I left some bad-asses out. Immediately coming to mind: Bobby Peru from Wild at Heart, the Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, “Addiction” from Requiem for a Dream, and yes, the Terminator, in various incarnations, from the Terminator flicks. Feel free to comment with bad-asses of your own! No doubt I’ll be slapping myself on the head for forgetting some.

- Logan Crow, 02-18-09