This video has been floating around for a while. I first freaked out and sent it to all of my friends a couple of weeks ago, when it showed up on Pajiba. It stuck with me, though, as few YouTube videos ever do, so that I felt compelled to share it with all of you. It’s an unusually creative manifestation of the list-making impulse, with well-selected clips and music, on a topic close to many film fans’ hearts–human villains.

Compiler hh1edits cuts a nice swathe through historical cinema, but doesn’t skimp on recent movie manifestations of evil, leading off with Chigurh and later giving a meaty chunk of screen time to Heath Ledger’s much-lauded take on the Joker. I’m very glad Kurt Russell’s wildly underrated Stuntman Mike gets some love.

The choices are skewed toward American and European film, but I know Kurosawa has several brilliant villains to offer. Probably also Takashi Miike, though I’ve admittedly never sat through any of his films. I’d be pleased to see Lee Woo-jin from Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy” take his rightful place in the villainous ranking.

Check out the comments on that Pajiba post linked above for the inevitable squabbling over passed-over favorites. For my part, I think it’s a shame that Gary Oldman’s Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg didn’t get a nod, besides the aforementioned “Oldboy” adversary. Who do you think is missing? Remember, Darth Vader doesn’t count as human!

Links: www.pajiba.com, YouTube, Wikipedia