Gandhi and Dr. Evil: Together for the first time?
Could happen. Gandhi, the benevolent baldy of the Oscar-winning biopic of the same name, and Dr. Evil, the bald baddie of the Austin Powers flicks, are both candidates for inclusion on the list-lovin' American Film Institute's latest, yes, list.
AFI's new endeavor, announced Tuesday, is called "100 Heroes & Villains." And, like past attempts to summarize the last century of cinema, "100 Years...100 Passions," "100 Years...100 Thrills," "100 Years...100 Laughs," "Greatest Screen Legends" and the one that started it all, "100 Years...100 Movies," the list will seek to deliver on its title: Naming the 100 best (or worst, depending on your perspective) good guys and bad guys in the history of Hollywood.
Voters, a jury of 1,500 directors, actors, screenwriters, critics, historians and others, are being asked to select 50 of each--heroes and villains. And despite our turn of the phrases "good guys" and "bad guys," rest assured bad girls, like the aptly named Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and good girls, like the never-say-die Ripley from Alien, are among the hopefuls.
The ballot features 400 nominees--from Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey's apoplectic producer in Swimming with Sharks) to Zorro (cited for 1940's The Mark of Zorro, among others). More than a dozen of the candidates are team entries--think Bonnie and Clyde's Bonnie and Clyde, or Thelma and Louise's, well, you get the idea...
The oeuvre of John Wayne is most represented on the ballot. Seven of the Duke's larger-than-life characters, including True Grit's Rooster Cogburn, rate mentions. Bette Davis is the most represented actress, with four mentions, including her not-so-nice turn as child-star-gone-bad Jane Hudson in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
The twist in this AFI list is that the organization is letting voters decide which of the nominees are Gandhi types, and which are Dr. Evil types.
Some of the calls are easy. We're betting the Wicked Witch of the West, nominated for her dastardly deeds in The Wizard of Oz, isn't going to score many votes in the "hero" column. Likewise, we guess James Bond, noted for his world-saving efforts in Dr. No, among others, isn't going to rate many mentions on the "villain" side of the ledger.
But other calls aren't so simple. Are Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the hot-shot reporters of All the President's Men, heroes? Sure. Unless you're President Nixon (who, granted, is ineligible to vote on account of he sorta died.) Is Bugsy's Bugsy Siegel a villain? (He was a gangster.) Or a hero? (He invented Las Vegas.) Or a villain again? (We mentioned he invented Las Vegas, right?)
The AFI concedes that many of its nominees, culled from feature-length U.S.-made films made before this year, are "ambiguous"--"neither purely heroic or purely villainous." But it's leaving the judgment calls to jurors, advising them only to not vote for a character as both a hero and a villain.
Like past AFI lists, this one offers fodder for people who like to argue about issues of non-global import. Look for 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains to draw griping for the inclusion on the ballot of characters that seem to fit neither the hero's white hat, nor the villain's black hat.
As defined by AFI, heroes, either fact-based or fantastically fictional, are those who "do what is good, just and right;" villains are "characters whose wickedness of mind, selfishness of character and will to power are sometimes masked by beauty and nobility."
Fine. But where does that leave Carrie White? The telekinetic teen of Carrie blows up her high school. That makes her a bad person, right? Except we know that she blew up the high school because her classmates dropped a bucket of pig's blood on her head, so does that make her a good person? Or just a bad person with a good reason? Or, possibly, neither?
And what of the birds, a group entry for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds? Are they clawing at Tippie Hedren on purpose--the hallmark of a baddie? Or are they just a bunch of stupid birds flying around?
Voters who don't want to think too hard may want to skip straight to the index of films at the end of the ballot to see where they can find the Unholy Trinity of Really Bad Guys: Michael Myers (the Halloween franchise); Jason (Friday the 13th); and Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street).
Some slamdunks on the hero side: Superman (Superman); Rocky Balboa (Rocky); and Luke Skywalker (Star Wars).
Luke is joined on the AFI ballot by four of his Star Wars comrades: Darth Vader, Han Solo, Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi. No film placed more characters on the nominee list.
While C-3PO and R2-D2 didn't rate mentions for their work in George Lucas' space saga, non-humans were not ignored. Lassie and Rin Tin Tin represented for the canine corps (although, sadly, Benji was snubbed); the Jaws from Jaws (billed as "The Shark") represented for the marine community; the Alien from Alien represented for the E.T. community (although, sadly, the E.T. from E.T. was snubbed). The Blair Witch Project's Blair Witch got a nod for never appearing in the movie, as did "The Man" from Bambi.
Voters have until December 13 to decide whether Scarlett O'Hara is bitchy enough to be considered a villain, or plucky enough to be considered a hero, or whether Joan Crawford, as depicted in Mommie Dearest, is despicable enough to be lumped in with the likes of Dr. Josef Mengele, as seen in The Boys of Brazil.
The results will be unveiled in a three-hour special to be broadcast by CBS in June 2003.