BEST SCREEN VILLAINS - The Cowboys (1972) Discussion

[–] tietjen31 19 years ago

no one can hold a candle to bruce dern aka asa watts,,,,,no one

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] doobienick 19 years ago

Bruce Dern has played many bad guys but Asa Watts had to be his best bad guy. Real gutter trash back shooting bastard. Dern actually got death threats and a BUNCH of hate mail over this role.

Michael Biehn as Johnny Ringo was great.

James Remar as Albert Ganz in "48 Hours".

But maybe the top bad guy in all of film? Darth Vader.

Asa Watts is a very close second.

I spend my money on dope, sex and cheap thrills.
The rest of it, I waste.

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[–] WolfyLarsen 16 years ago

Robert Mitchum as "Preacher" Harry Powell in "Night Of The Hunter" still to this day gives me the creeps. Great job Mitch.

Clifford Stern...."Last time I was inside a woman was when I visited the Statue of Liberty"

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[–] uhighflyer39 19 years ago

Chuck Connors as Buck Hannassey in "The Big Country"...you wanted to see this stereotypical bully/coward get it in the end!

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[–] joekiddlouischama 19 years ago

Andy Robinson's "Scorpio" in Dirty Harry is a match for Dern in The Cowboys.

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] tietjen31 18 years ago

bruce dern is the standard, by which all movies vilians will be judged by.

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[–] Zymm 18 years ago

True; even if he's a sympathetic character in another film, he'll always be the man that killed John Wayne!

... I admire a person that's willing to do whatever is necessary.

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[–] tietjen31 18 years ago

go get em bruce,you rotten,no-good very fine actor.

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[–] jameshoran8 9 years ago

DeVeran Bookwalter in The Enforcer. He carved up Dirty Harry's partner with a military knife and later killed Harry's female partner played by Tyne Daley. Clint blew him up in the Alcatraz guard tower at the end with a Lars rocket.

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[–] tedthorne 9 years ago

If you want to see the best screen villian of all time then look at Richard Widmark's screen debut as the giggling psychopath Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death (1947), especially with the wheelchair scene.

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[–] indy_go_blue44 18 years ago

In a movie review book about John Wayne, there was a piece about shooting this movie. During the scene that Asa (Dern) was killing Wayne, he was having makeup applied. He pulled himself up on his elbows, looked over at Bruce, and said, "ya know Bruce, they'll never forgive you for this." As I understand it, it very nearly ended his career. There was a sci-fi movie written some years later in which he was the hero/star that was specifically written to bring his career back.
I enjoyed his performance as the admiral in the movie "Up Periscope" with Kelsey Grammar. I would have loved to have seen him participating in the "In the Navy" finish.

The only other actor/actress who even comes close to being as chilling and hateable as Dern's Asa, IMO, is Martine Bartlett as the mother of "Sybil."

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[–] Buskieboy 18 years ago

The thing with Bruce Dern's villan is his eyes! When he is terrorizing the kid telling him
he'll slit his throat etc. His eyes are demented, evil and he looks phucking scary.

The way he licks his teeth, running his serpentine tongue across them is sick. He really is a sick puppy and is a complete sociopathic, pychopath!

Another one would have to be Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde from "Reservoir Dogs (1992)".
He is actually enjoying slicing up the cop, and is SO looking forward to setting him on fire after doucing him with gasoline!

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[–] boomerang534 18 years ago

Bruce Dern was absolutely terrifying as Asa but I think he falls way down on the list of all-time villians. Michael Biehn as Johnny Ringo and Gene Hackman as Little Bill are two that come to mind as far as westerns go. In my opinion Patrick McGoohan in Braveheart stii takes the prize for the best all-time bad guy. He disposed of his son's lover like he was putting out a cigarette and one would believe he would do the same to his own son if provoked. Also to his credit he never killed The Duke.

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[–] wtl471629 18 years ago

I agree that he was great in this movie as he was in many more movies. The movie should really have helped his career instead of hurting it because he just did his job of acting. He should have got a best supporting actor nomination for this movie.
He was also great as the good bad guy in the Kirk Douglas movie Posse.

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[–] wtl471629 18 years ago

Also remember that Wayne got to kill Dern in the movie The War Wagon. Remember the line Mine was taller.

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[–] WhomanJim 18 years ago

As far as EVIL Western Villans go, let's not forget Henry Fonda's "Frank" in Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon A Time In The West'!

With that said, Bruce Dern's "Longhair" baddie tops my list. I was 9 years old when 'The Cowboys' came out in early '72, and back then, HE SCARED THE SH*T OUTTA ME!!!!! Of course, I cheered when the boys got their revenge on him, lol!

Looking back, it somewhat p*sses me off that Bruce DIDN'T get nominated for Best Supporting Actor - HE WAS THAT DAMN GOOD!!!!! I honestly think if that had been the case, he would've won, too.

John Wayne should have been nominated for Best Actor as well - when it comes to 'The Cowboys', The Duke's "Wil Andersen" beats out "Rooster Cogburn" by a long shot.

But that's just my opinion.

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[–] jameshoran8 9 years ago

Preceded by Kirk Douglas's line. Mine hit the ground first.....

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[–] godsahapnin 18 years ago

Does anyone remember the "insult" Mr. Nightlingler said to Bruce Dern's character that made him want to hang him?

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] doobienick 17 years ago

Does anyone remember the "insult" Mr. Nightlingler said to Bruce Dern's character that made him want to hang him?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"What can you show me, white man, that I haven't seen before?"

I spend my money on dope, sex and cheap thrills.
The rest of it, I waste.

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[–] poppunklovebaby 16 years ago

How about that little piece of s**t in McCabe and Miss Miller. I wanted to kill that guy!!!!

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[–] tabari 18 years ago

Try Bruce Dern, along with Donald Pleasance, in Will Penny. That is enough to make your flesh crawl!

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[–] eliostar1 18 years ago

I remember watching westerns as a kid, the sight of Dern always gave me shivers. He seemed to be in a lot of movies, and always played the bad guy it seemed.

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[–] AlbertTheFlasher 18 years ago

Another all-time great screen villain is Clarence Bodicker in Robocop. What a nasty and sadistic bastard he was, especially with his slow and painful execution of Murphy. And when he popped some bullets in Bob Morton's legs. You can just tell Bodicker truly enjoys his work. Great job by Kurtwood Smith.

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[–] siflandollie 17 years ago

Try B. Dern in "The Driver". Good bad.

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[–] jim47-1 16 years ago

Yah know, just everyone mentioned so far rates highly, but then along came Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men". Talk about creepy and ruthless, and utterly without a shred of decency, except that he apparently won't kill children. And he has a really weird sense of honor.

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[–] don-appleby 14 years ago

I would pay big money to interview the kid who played Dan. Bruce bullied him so bad, I wonder how many times the director made that kid go through the scene. They absolutely nailed it and you could see Bruce must have been so keyed up to do that scene. So keyed up in fact that if I ever run into Bruce, I'm gonna ask him "how's that leg feel now Asa, huh?" Likewise when I was young, that scene scared the crap out of me.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] stealthman 17 years ago

I'm really surprised that no one mentioned Lee Marvin,
in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.
You can't get any meaner.

"WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND THEY IS US"

POGO

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[–] cincy-2 17 years ago

Yes, I was going to mention Lee Marvin as Liberty Valence as well.

And don't forget Jack Palance as Wilson in "Shane."

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[–] stealthman 17 years ago

Yes, he was truly rotten.
Remember him goading the little rebel guy into a gunfight?
What a cur!!!!

"WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND THEY IS US"

POGO

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[–] popebambi 17 years ago

Alright, cincy-2..!

I was just starting to think "all the posters are under thirty years old, none of them have even heard of Jack Palance..."

He had a truly frightening killer-shark grin, and his bad-guy role in "City Slickers" (and "City Slickers 2," whatever that was called) referenced just about his entire career in movies.

He set a new standard for "sadistic, creepy bad guy" (Jack Wilson) in Shane, that's for sure.

But for scenery-chewing badness, check out his starring role as Atilla the Hun in "Sign of the Pagan."

*

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[–] Mr_McLaurel 17 years ago

I saw a little of Heath Ledger's Joker in Dern's "Long Hair" when I watched The Cowboys today. There's even a scene where he threatens a boy with cutting "a grin" into his neck.

What's the Spanish for drunken bum?

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[–] bradmoore 16 years ago

LEE VAN CLEEF!!

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] jimbo-38 16 years ago

Without a doubt, Bruce Dern is king of the cinematic villains. As another poster said, he's the standard other villains are judged by. The scary thing about Dern: his villains have a certain quality about them I've never seen in any other bad guy. In almost every movie or TV show he's been in, there comes a point where Dern tries to convince his potential victim that he's really just a nice guy who means him no harm. Yet, by the way he says it- the look in his eye and the timbre to his voice- he's actually deliberately letting his victim know he's lying through his teeth. You see it in The Cowboys when Dern approaches Wayne for a job. And I certainly agree Lee Van Cleef is in the top five of villains along with Jack Elam. A few other top notch baddies- Brion James, Al Lettieri, Morgan Woodward and Val Avery.

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[–] TongueFu 15 years ago

Don't you mean villains?

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[–] trf100 15 years ago

I think that Dern's badguy character in "Hang 'em High" was more fun to hate than the Longhair character...

Dern was good in "Will Penny" too. And very funny in "Support Your Local Sheriff".

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