Why are British people always bag guys in movies?

Post Reply New Topic

You obviously read only a small part of my list.

To clarify it for you....

The first two films, along with all films from Thunderball to Diamonds Are Forever, involved Blofeld and SPECTRE. That is a freelance terrorist organisation.

In Goldfinger, the title character is working with the Chinese. Ditto with Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun.

Live and Let Die, Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me, Licence to Kill, Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day. These all involve freelance agents working to their own ends.

In For Your Eyes Only, the villain is working for the Russians, but isn't Russian.

In Octopussy, the main villain is a war-mongering Russian general, but is opposed by other Russians.

In A View to a Kill, the main villain worked for the Russians, but is now a freelance agent.

In The Living Daylights, the main villain is a Russian who defected to the West.

Three movies, out of 21, has a main Russian villain or a villain working for them.

Now, eat your words.

Sorry, I probably got confused.

Eat my words? Umm... OK... Now, don't get your panties up in a bunch. I said I only read a part of your list, but apparently not enough for you. Your post wasn't very interesting to me because it was too long, was confusing, and I don't care much about James Bond films. I realize that you do have an interest in British Flicks (which don't count because it's a british film) from looking at your profile.

Riddle me this Quartermass, why does James Bond have blond hair in Casino Royale?

You need to realize not everyone is interested or cares about Bond Flicks.

Also, are you attempting to argue with me?

No, I enjoy British TV. My use of the username Quatermass stemmed, in part, from my enjoyment of Doctor Who.

Because he has. I know Ian Fleming wrote James Bond with dark hair, but isn't Daniel Craig like the Bond in the novels? Or haven't you read the novels?

No. But you asked about British actor heavies. Then, it came to Russian heavies due to my mentioning James Bond. I thought it relevant, in the context.

No. I am just proving myself right. I am not attempting to argue with you. I put my statement forward that you were wrong about most of the bad guys in Bond films being Russians.

That's neat about your username. Is Doctor Who the James Bond flick that takes place during the Vietnam war?

My username is the name of an 80's band, in case you wanted to know.

Is that his name, Daniel Craig. I learned something new. Unfortunately, I have not read any of Ian Fleming's novels. I like how you ask the question It comes off as sounding like, you believe you're superior to me, because you have read all of Ian Fleming's Bond novels. Which may or not of been your intent.

What do you mean by "heavies?" Is "heavies" the same thing as a bad guy?

Doctor Who is a science fiction TV series. You are confusing it with Dr No.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who

Lemme put it this way. You seem to like Star Wars a lot, yes? Well, this is better than Star Wars. I know people are going to tear into me for that...

But Star Wars doesn't have time travel, or the Daleks.

I wasn't trying to sound superior. Not in that instance.

'Heavy' is another name for a bad guy, yes.

I did mix up Doctor Who with Dr. No. I have actually seen quite a few episodes of Doctor Who.

Dr No is the bond flick that takes place in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. James Bond is supposed to kill some Vietnamese guy and prevent the Vietnamese guy from launching a rocket into outer space, that does something. I think it shoots a laser.

I'm not a big Star Wars fan. I only used that as an example because I couldn't think of other films where people with British accents were the bad guys at the time I posted. I only like The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi. I don't know much about Star Wars at all, in fact, I can't watch the other four movies without turning it off.

Star Wars is just a ripoff of some other movie I saw, but I forgot that movies name. It was some asian film.

Time Travel is pretty cool, like the first Back to the Future movie and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

One good reason why British folk are so often asked to
be the movie bad guys is that they still have a Queen
to look up to (King George III was the original
American arch-villain).

Another good reason is that many British actors
are well-schooled in Shakespeare's plays; these
plays feature such villains as Richard III, Iago
(Othello's nemesis), Edmund (bastard son of
Gloucester in King Lear), the title character
in "The Scottish Tragedy" and his Lady, and others.

A third good reason: British people, like others,
find the heavy role to be a world of fun to play.

Last edited by Douglas_MacNeill on 07 May 2008, 8:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

...Because there's No British-American Anti-Defamation League , that's why .
Seriously - Really , of the various ethnicities that Americans can point to as " wehere they came from " , British-ness has , more or less , generally , been the highest-ranking ( My family's own , basically anyhow , background . ) , and I guess it's only " fitting " , then , that , therefore , they have the least to complain about in having villians be British .
Besides , consider all the actors playing heroes/good guys/symphthetic characters in American movies who are Brits , it balances out , I think , basically ! !! !! !! !!
I haven't read this whole line , so , if anyone...

Why do you guys think Stewie has an english accent in Family Guy?

ahh alan rickman an american would have messed up playing Hans Gruber. Here's an example die hard one british actor played the villian and it was excellent then die hard 2 american played villian and it was awful then you got die hard 3 was alright, way better compared to die hard 2 the villan was played by guess who a brit! So the bottom line brits are better actor in terms of bad guys then american for example sean bean as alex travalyn.

Sean Bean is a bad example. While the James Bond series is funded and produced by Americans, it is filmed with British cast and often on British soil.

Now, I'm going to name the American villains on Doctor Who, regardless of whether they have been played by them.

Lemme see...

Some of the cast of The Gunfighters. Laurence Payne, who played Johnny Ringo, was British, while Shane Rimmer, who played Seth Harper, was Canadian.

Robert Beatty, playing General Cutler in The Tenth Planet. While technically not a villain, he doesn't listen to reason, and is even prepared to kill the Doctor and his companions for interfering with his plans. A Canadian playing an American.

Eric Roberts playing the Master in the Doctor Who television Movie.

Corey Johnson playing Henry Van Statten in Dalek.

Eric Loren as Mr Diagoras in Daleks In Manhattan, and Human Dalek Sec in Evolution of the Daleks

At least Americans know the British exist. When was the last time you saw a Canadian character in a movie? Canadian actors - lots. Canadian characters, not so much. I don't really think Wolverine counts since he's an American fantasy of a Canadian (played by an Aussie), but maybe that's all anyone gets is American fantasy versions of other countries.

I've heard that British actors are better trained than Americans. I think that helps when casting villains.

We're well aware that Canadians exist. In my trade we see Canadians on the job from time to time and we usually all get along fine. I'm old enough to remember that Canadian Embassy personal got some Americans out of Iran when our Embassy was seized.

canadians don't have that evil sounding accent