We root for the underdog and we root for the home team. We cheer on the hero. But, as M. Night Shyamalan noted in his sleeping ode to comics, Unbreakable, the heroes are nothing without the villains. Without a hero, you almost don't have a show. But without a perfect foil for the hero, one with purpose and true lethality not only to the body of the hero, but to the mind and soul, a movie falls flat.
Arguably the most interesting director these days is Christopher Nolan, and it isn't hard to see why. His breakthrough film, Memento, gets a lot of props for it's inventive storytelling and twist ending. But (spoiler alert) making the unwitting hero into the villain was a stroke of genius. Then look at the Batman movies. You can point to the villains, sure. But the true villain is what can break him without touching him...crime and corruption themselves. The villains are built on themes. Fear in the case of the Scarecrow and Chaos in the cases of the Joker and later Two-Face. They aren't just self-serving evil-doers. Instead they are the embodiments of those primal elements, and that is what makes them so good to watch. Excellent acting and direction help, but without those foundations deep in the human psyche, they wouldn't be nearly as interesting.
And then, of course, we have Inception. Who is the real villain there? Guilt. A whole movie based around fighting guilt in a personified real form. Again, another brilliant turn by Nolan. If he continues this streak, I can't wait to see what he cooks up next.
But enough of singing his praises. We need better villains. We need people to write more intelligent bad guys. Villains, not heroes, are what raise movies from B-rate action flicks, to memorable Oscar contenders. Anyone can write a mob boss, a drug lord, or a terrorist as a villain. And heck, we do need a few simple bad guys once in a while to sharpen our hero on, but the true nemesis will be the one able to break down a hero psychologically, emotionally, and philosophically. They must have a real chance at destroying the hero or the plot isn't nearly as compelling.
In the comments, lets hear about your favorite villains and why they were great.
I'll kick it off with my nomination of Darth Vader. Never mind his genesis in the first three movies. As a physically imposing figure all dressed in black, he exudes a lethal, single-minded nature. But when he reveals his true relationship to the hero, it nearly breaks his heart and causes him to deeply reflect. Without this added conflict, Star Wars would simply be another space adventure flick.
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