Mine are:
1- Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross
2- Fredo from The Godfather and Part II
3- Somerset from Se7en
4- Amelie from Amelie
5- Wooderson
1. Travis Henderson from Paris, Texas
2. Marty Piletti from Marty
3. Milena Flaherty from Bad Timing
4. Rupert Pupkin from The King Of Comedy
5. Wendy from Wendy and Lucy
Honorable mention: George Eastman from A Place In The Sun
1. Max Fisher from Rushmore
2. Roy Batty from Blade Runner
3. Oh Dae-Su from Oldboy
4. Norman Bates from Psycho
5. Bob Harris from Lost In Translation
Fun topic, Uli. (I want to think about this some and then I’ll post my response…Nah, I’ll just do the first five taht come to mind:
1. Shimada Kanbei, Seven Samurai Shimura just doesn’t seem like he would be a credible leader in this, but boy is he!
2. Rick Blaine, Casablanca Tough, cynical on the outside; idealistic and sentimental on the inside.
3. Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc.
4. Jack Walsh, Midnight Run (De Niro’s version of Rick.)
5. Jack Burton, Big Trouble in Little China Hilarious
Some others:
George Bailey, It’s a Wonderful Life
Rocky Balboa, Rocky
Fast Eddie Felson, The Hustler and The Color of Money
Barton Keyes, Double Indemnity
Paul “Wrecking” Crew, the original The Longest Yard
Tom Logan (Robert Redford), Legal Eagles Redford surprised me with his comic ability in this. I just really liked the character, too.
John McClane, Die Hard
Kibagami Jubei, Ninja Scroll
Han Solo, Star Wars films
The Joker (Heath Ledger), Dark Knight Perhaps my favorite and most memorable villain of all time
I know this is more than five, but here’s my current list:
John from American Graffiti
Bluto, Hoover, Otter and the Dean from National Lampoon’s Animal House
Tuco from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Maximilian Bercovicz from Once Upon a Time in America
I tend to find darker characters more interesting, so…
Frank Booth (Blue Velvet)
Daniel Plainview (There Will Be Blood)
Erika Kohut (The Piano Teacher)
Don Logan (Sexy Beast)
Jef Costello (Le Samourai)
Good call on Rupert Pupkin btw – an all American classic.
@Mathias “Max Fischer – Rushmore” haha, yes, definitely
Off the top of my head (not including Max):
Royal Tennenbaum – "Anybody interested in grabbing a couple of burgers and hittin’ the cemetery? "
Bill Gillespie – In The Heat of the Night
Jack – Sideways (Miles too, but Jack just has me crying from laughter; and Haden-Church’s and Giamatti’s audio commentary take these characters to a whole new level)
Rose – Dogfight
Alex DeLarge – A Clockwork Orange
Ed Wood – Ed Wood
Shelley Duvall’s Millie in 3 Women
Mary Poppins – Mary Poppins
Philip Marlowe – The Long Goodbye
and probably about 30 different Coen bros characters.
I actually have more favorite TV characters, since on a serial there is so much more room to develop the characters (Tony Soprano and family, Michael Bluth and family, Homer SImpson and the entire town:) , etc.
Toby Dammit Toby Dammit
Oskar Matzerath Die Blechtrommel
Sam Lowry Brazil
Le curé d’Ambricourt Journal d’un curé de campagne
Un homme qui dort Un homme qui dort
Betty – Betty Blue
Tuco – The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
Popeye Doyle – The French Connection, The French Connection II
Johnny – Naked
George – Mona Lisa
Chance – Being There
Norma Desmond – Sunset Blvd.
Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald – Fitzcarraldo
Hotelportier – The Last Laugh
Walker – Point Blank
Frank Booth – Blue Velvet
Big Boy Caprice – Dick Tracy (Pacino is hilarious in this role)
Catherine the Great – The Scarlet Empress
Alvy Singer – Annie Hall
John Rubin – Hi, Mom!
HAL – 2001: A Space Odyssey
Hank Quinlan – Touch of Evil
Millie Lamoreaux – 3 Women
Debbie – The Big Heat
RoboCop – RoboCop
Travis Bickle – Taxi Driver
Charles Foster Kane – Citizen Kane
Bruno – Stroszek
Sam Spade – The Maltese Falcon
Jules – Pulp Fiction
Runner up: Harry Moseby – Night Moves
I wouldn’t count the guy in Un homme Qui Dort as a character. I think he was too unclear and flexible for being a character.
Anju in Sansho the Bailiff
Delphine in The Green Ray
Ema in Abraham Valley
Dumbo
Fred Astaire’s characters in Top Hat, Swing Time, The Band Wagon..
I don’t like putting things in order so I’ll just write it without it. (But the Morfar is the best anyway!)
Lionel – Scarecrow (Love Long Jack!)
Travis Bickle – Taxi Driver
Ferdinand (or Pierrot) – Pierrot le Fou
Morfar – Voksne Mennesker
Alex DeLarge – A Clockwork Orange
Paul – Funny Games (Also as Benny in the Benny’s Video)
Eddie – Stranger than Paradise
Grace Margaret Mulligan – Dogville
These are the ones that comes to my mind. By the way I’m not a fan but many people looks like they have forgotten the Big Lebowski.
Quint in Jaws
Doc Holiday in Tombstone
Sanjuro in Yojimbo/Sanjuru
I second Roy Batty in Blade Runner
And I think The Dark Knight was a bit of a mess but I did like The Joker (fangirl squeal).
Bea – Kill Bill
The Dude – Big Lebowski
Han Solo – Star Wars
Policewoman – Fargo
Hynkel – Great Dictator
Runners up:
Kaiser Soze – Usual Suspects
The villain in Sweet Smell Of Success
The husband in Woman Under The Influence
Adison Dewitt – All About Eve
The husband – Fanny and Alexander
The nurse – Persona
Woody – Toy Story
Jean Luc Picard – Star Trek movies
Hi – Raising Arizona
Laura Palmer/Dale Cooper – Fire Walk With Me
Seconds:
Doc Holiday in Tombstone
The Dude in _Big Lebowski
Nice picks, guys.
I don’t know, 5 is too limited, hmmm….maybe I’ll cheat and offer a top 50 :D (no order though…)
Maybe…
1) Travis Henderson (Paris, Texas)
2) She (Antichrist)
3) Baby Doll Meighan (Baby Doll)
4) Maciek (Ashes and Diamonds)
5) J.J. Husecker (Sweet Smell of Success) / Vellini (The Last Mistress)
Sorry, but I could not decide betweenthe last two.
cabiria in nights of cabiria
helena ekdahl in fanny and alexander
totoro in my neighbor totoro
der filmstar in wings of desire
c.k. dexter haven in the philadelphia story
any other day it will probably be all different :)
1. Annie:Imitation of life( mahalia jackson singing at the funeral..gut wrenching still)
2. Kaiser Soze(sp): usual suspects
3: Demetrius Williams: mississippi masala
4; Victoria grant/count victor Grazinski: victor/victoria..i thought the movie was hilarious
5. shirmira takashi: seven samurai
USA
Harry Morgan – To Have and Have Not
Indiana Jones – Raiders of the Lost Ark
Marshall Will Kane – High Noon
Alicia Huberman – Notorious
Steve Zissou – The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Non-US
Michel Poiccard – Breathless
Aguirre – Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Max – Touchez pas au Grisbi
The Samurai – Yojimbo
Octave – Rules of the Game
HAL 9000 – 2001
J.J. Gittes – Chinatown
Veronique/Weronkia – The Double Life of Veronique
Jef Costello – Le Samourai
Guido – 8 1/2
Eyes of a stick: I don’t care of your opinion. wtf seriously? :) if you listen to the text, it describes the inner life of the character, so there’s a character isn’t it? it’s boring to always explain or justify things to some people on this site.
it’s boring to always explain or justify things to some people on this site.
Why bother.
Floserber said, it’s boring to always explain or justify things to some people on this site.
I don’t know. To me, ratings or responses without much explanation is boring. The explanation is the meat of the conversation, imo—and, personally, I think we need more meat. (apologies to vegans and vegetarians for the metaphor.) Now, if someone is asking for an explanation with a bad attitude—as in, “prove to me that you know what you’re not an idiot”—then that can be annoying and tiresome. But ignore those people and share your reasons. That makes mubi a better place, imo.
@STFW10
Keyer Soze is one of the great movie villains.
Uli Cain, Cinefidel¹³
We’ve all seen too many movies, seen millions of characters roll around before our eyes, recite poetry and profanity, so who are the five characters that have really stayed with you?
Maybe they made you cry, maybe laugh, maybe they made you angry, but in the end they left a mark.