Most despicable non-anime villain

[rocklobster]

Who are the most despicable villains not from anime?
My votes go to:
Emperor Palpatine--he was soo manipulative!
Joker--If you go by Tim Burton's version, he's pretty despicable.
Ra's Al Ghul--do I need to explain? Just watch Batman Begins and ask yourself why Batman just leaves him to die on that monorail. Assuming he actually died (He had a nasty habit of faking his death in the comics. But then, what comic book villain hasn't done that at least once?:evil:)

[GeneD]

The Joker was pretty evil.

The man that started me down the path of villain appreciation is the main villain, Col. William Tavington, from The Patriot.

[Fish and Chips]

I like it that no matter what thread I want to make, if I wait long enough, Rocklobster will make it for me.

[bigsleepj]

• Antonio Salieri from Amadeus, one of the most theologically fascinating movies ever made.
The insane genius of Amadeus is that it creates an utterly loathsome villain that can generate sympathy; a man who literally declares war on God for not granting him talents equal or greater than that of Mozart; he sinks into madness, yet seems to almost illustrate any artist's wish to create something beautiful.

• Adolf Hitler in The Downfall (2003). Historical villain makes horrifying movie villain.
The Nazis have been regulated to standard Hollywood badguys for so long that few actually realize just what an intellectual cancer their ideology was. This movie does not depict Hitler as a raving lunatic, but as a seemingly rational character who can barely grasp what he has brought down onto himself and his people. But don't mistake this portrayal as sympathetic. Lurking beneath Bruno Ganz's eerie performance lies a man who is essentially a shallow, contradicting person pieced together from confused philosophies and burning hatreds. If anything, Hitler is essentially defined by his obsessions and is unable to act beyond that. Unrepentant to the last about the Holocaust, when he does actually manage to realize that his dream is doomed to failure he says that he would rather see Germany burn and die for failing him and the dream of the Third Reich than order a surrender that would save the lives of his followers.

• The Badguy from the Korean movie Oldboy. I'm not naming him because that might be a spoiler. Sort of.
On many levels this villain is utterly pathetic, but his obsession pushes him beyond empathy and sympathy towards one of the most evil (fictional) badguys to ever grace the silver screen.

[Kurama]

I agree on Ra's Al Ghul. xD

[That Dude]

Mrs Prentiss Shaw in the Manchurian Candidate remake. Meryl Streep makes my skin crawl in that movie.

[the_wolfs_howl]

Ooh, good point on Salieri, bigsleepj! I'll definitely second that one.

And...what about Saruman from the LotR movies? He's pretty despicable, if you ask me. Cutting down trees, mutating Orcs (who were already mutated from Elves) into Uruk-hai, sealing a pact with Sauron himself in his thirst for power. I would say he's the most in-your-face villain of the whole story, more so than Sauron who just sits around in his tower as a big burning eye. (And then he goes and almost ruins the Shire, but that's not in the movies anyway, so never mind.)

Ooh, and Voldemort! Ralph Fiennes portrays him perfectly in the fourth and fifth Harry Potter movies, as the villain who will stop at nothing to conquer death and gain immortality. He's also pretty crafty at how he tries to kill Harry.

Viki from I, Robot! "My logic is undeniable." The best villains are always the ones who genuinely believe their course of action is the only viable one. Also, when Viki "dies", she sounds an awful lot like Shodan from System Shock

Why are all the best villains in movies that are based on books?

Those are the only ones I can think of now. My problem with coming up with villains is that there's such a fine line between 'despicable' and 'delightfully horrid', for me anyway. It's hard not to like bad guys sometimes.

[Robin Firedrake]

The only one i can think of at the moment is Tim Burtons Joker. But as for evil i already have some incredibly despicable villains for my book >=)

[DragoonKnight]

I would say that... I am the most despicable non-anime villain. I...destroy...COMPUTERS!

[Radical Dreamer]

I'm surprised that Jack Nicholson's Joker is getting so much attention in this thread. No Heath Ledger? I thought his Joker was more despicable in a lot of ways. XD