Geralddddd Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 There is a Jaguar commercial asking why all bad guys in movies are Brits ? The commercial says since they get to drive cool Jaguars, they don't mind. My question is: Have any of you found this to be the case ? And if so why ? Is it the accent or the culture or something else that makes them the stereotypical archenemy who wants to rule the world ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo2 Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 OH yeah, this is such a common practice in Hollywood movies, that it has become clich?, Geraldddddd...and thus the reason it is mentioned in that new Jaguar F-type(and a VERY beautiful car, I might add) ad. In my case, the Brit actor Alan Rickman comes immediately to mind, and who was masterful as the villain in the original "Die Hard". (...I'm sure others will soon chime in with a list of their favorite actors who spell words usin' that superfluous letter 'u' in some that really don't need 'em, and who have made memorable villains in movies opposite good ol' American boys!!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleAbner Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 I don't know why British actors are considered bad guys... Maybe it *is* the accent. Although, personally I love the accent. I first thought of James Mason. But then I thought of one of the greatest bad guys of all time: The great and wonderful, *Boris Karloff!* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 The "British" accent can take on many forms. A well clipped accent, such as Mason's or George Sanders lends an air of wit and intelligence, thus making for a "bad guy" with a certain sophistication, and likely the "boss" of a well organized crime company. The cruder sounding "cockney" accent leaves one feeling the speaker is less educated and erudite. However, I wonder just how many British badguys there actually were. Probably no more than American badguys. I'm more familiar with either the Brit being the GOOD guy( Sherlock Holmes, Simon Templar, James Bond), Or there being an equal number of good vs bad Brits. Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 George Sanders, of course. A very elegant bad guy. (Although I'd be more afraid of his withering wit than any physical harm he could do me.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Faiola Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 FRANCIS L. SULLIVAN!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamradio Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Charles Gray as Blofeld Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo2 Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Well, yeah SURE, Ham!...when he isn't doin' "The Time Warp" again, anyway, 'cause somehow the guy doesn't seem all that intimidatingly "Badguy British" when he's doin' THAT!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roverrocks Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Just ask the Irish, Scots, Boers, and Welsh how bad the English Bad Boys are. Here is Patrick MaGoohan portraying the murderous King Edward (Longshanks) in BRAVEHEART. He did a deft job of being English insidious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 But I'll bet even the British bad guys speak the King's English exquisitely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo2 Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Well, OF COURSE they do, finance! That's part of their whole SHTICK, dude! (...makes 'em sound SO "sophisticated", ya know...and the chicks ESPECIALLY eat it up!!!) LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrroberts Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 When he's not playing Holmes, Basil Rathbone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrroberts Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 The Brits seem to be able to easily project that sly, devious, snooty , (etc,etc) personality to us Americans. I can only imagine what they may think of us sometimes. Aussies also seem to have that effect, but interestingly our Canadian neighbours don't ever have that effect. I guess all of the British hooligans got sent to Australia and the mild mannered ones to Canada. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo2 Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 >The Brits seem to be able to easily project that sly, devious, snooty , (etc,etc) personality to us Americans. AND which brings us to the REAL reason Hollywood often uses them to portray the "Bad Guy" in movies: They personify the antithesis of what "America supposedly stands for"...Populists Ideals, and the thought that no one is any better than anyone else in the grand scheme of things! And if you somehow project that mentality of being "above" to others by use of "highfalutin" talk, you're going to be "suspect" in the minds of all "REAL" Americans. >I can only imagine what they may think of us sometimes. Oh, while I'm sure I'm overstating the following, I think most of 'em think of us as fairly "unsophisticated cowboy" types over here, but ALSO fairly nice people in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dothery Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 David Warner takes the prize for me. If you've never seen him in "Time After Time" doing the most horrendous version of Jack the Ripper, you haven't seen evil. Perfect portrayal of a man out of his own time into ours and finding, chillingly, that he fitted perfectly in a world full of mayhem and violence. Terrific movie, wonderful performances by Malcolm McDowell as H. G. Wells and Mary Steenburgen as Amy the modern woman now (and back then). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamradio Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 David Warner also played the corrupt corporate senior executive, Ed Dillinger (nice last name) and the evil enforcer Sark of the MCP in the movie "Tron" (1982). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo2 Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 So, this morning on the "Today" show, Kiefer Sutherland is on it plugging his new movie "Pompeii" in which he plays an evil and conniving Roman Senator of the 1st Century. They then show a clip of him in the film, and I'll give you folks three guesses as to what kind of accent the Canadian actor affects in this thing. (...yep, you guessed it...he plays the character using one of those snooty upper-crust British accents, alright!..."shocking", isn't it!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Dothery brought up MALCOM McDOWELL, who, while Brtitsh, was a serious "bad boy" in CLOCKWORK ORANGE, but one who DIDN'T speak that well-heeled, Oxford educated British accent that even evil Roman senators used. Actually, I never much thought about British badguys in any cinematic sense. Never noticed a plethora of Brits being the bad guys a lot at all. Maybe in much older movies? Like Claude Rains in NOTORIOUS, or like that. Mostly I recall actors using a "mock-Euro" accent, that accent that doesn't sound "country specific", but was used by characters playing badguys from just about any European country of choice. Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo2 Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Good point about the "Continental Eurpean" accent being used a lot back in studio era films for delineating the "evil" characters in a lot of films back then, as with maybe Conrad Veidt being a prime example of such. However, disregarding the thought that many a WWII Hollywood war movie had Nazi officers speaking in Brit accents, could that whole "Continental European/Evil Character" thing have been due to the Brits being our allies in WWII and to many an American's ear "all those Europeans accents sound the same", and thus the stereotypical "Euro accent" would have naturally been the fallback one to use in this genre of film during these years. Gotta say though Sepia, I'm a bit surprised you haven't noticed the trend in recent times for Hollywood films to use Brit actors as the villain, and for(IMO, and I'm pretty sure I'm right about this) the very reason I stated earlier...that accent subconsciously signifies to American audiences the idea that the character "thinks too highly of himself" and that it goes against America's "populist ideals". and thus MUST be an "Elitist". (...and I think we've recently seen many occasions in "real life" in which the "Elitist" term has been thrown at others, and often incorrectly, and in attempts to marginalize and subtly "vilify" others in the minds of the American public, haven't we?!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 It seems to me in recent times, all the "bad guys" in Hollywood movies have darker skin tones, beards, wear Bedouin garb and speak in Middle Eastern accents. However, many of the villians in sci-fi movies( attempting to invade some planet) DO speak in British accents. Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistervegan Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 i'll cast a vote for sir cedric hardwicke. sir cedric does not always play a british bad guy, but he certainly plays some of the most creepiest roles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manderstoke Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 While we are remembering the many fine British badguys, let's not forget who was the original thespian badass - James Mason. He created the antihero, a new type of sinister, sexy, complex "man you loved to hate." From Stephen Deremid in THE NIGHT HAS EYES to Lord Rohan in THE MAN IN GREY followed by Lord Manderstoke in MAN OF EVIL next Geoffrey Lee in THEY WERE SISTERS, and, of course, Nicholas Cunningham in THE SEVENTH VEIL, Mason thrilled audiences with this new screen persona that exuded dangerous sexuality. Of course, it didn't hurt that he was a beautiful man in his thirties and forties and possessed a voice as of yet unmatched. Antiheroes are everywhere these days, but Mason was the first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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