The two best acting jobs as sociopaths, hands down!

[nytemare]

Both in great movies as well. I need to get Cuckoo's Nest on DVD.

[Beware the Beast Man]

1. Problem is, Angelina's probably a sociopath for real.

Ever read interviews of hers? :rotatesindexfingerclockwisearoundsideofhead:

[nytemare]

2. I think she is a little weird, but she is also a great humanitarian

I was pretty impressed with her work for the UN. The book, although simply written, is engaging.

[Melodybe]

6. I Love Angelina, she is just wonderful.

However I do think that Ed Norton in Primal Fear does a great job of being a psycho.

[tammywammy]

16. Yes he was awesome

I read the book before it was a movie, and I always wondered how they were going to pull it off. Well, Norton did it, and was awesome. But then he's all around awesome.

[MissB]

5. ayup

And she is raising a child. Sigh.

[asthmaticeog]

3. I'd go Brad Pitt in "12 Monkeys" over Angelina.

Just sayin'.

[dxstone]

36. Are you sure you mean 12 Monkeys?

He played a borderline schizophrenic in that one; manic, obsessive-compulsive, a terrific performance, yes, but not really an evil character at all...
Just sayin'...

[Fenris]

4. Deniro in "Taxi Driver"

[billbuckhead]

9. Christian Bale in American Psycho

:popcorn:

[Az]

25. That was psychotic not sociopathic

He was living in a fantasy world. A sociopath lives in our world but doesn't recognise social structures concerning right or wrong behaviour.

[Fridays Child]

11. That's what I'm sayin'.

DeNiro was freaking scary in that one.

[smirkymonkey]

7. I was going to nominate George W. Bush and Dick Cheney,

but then I saw the word "acting".

[nytemare]

10. Perhaps I should have elaborated some

Sociopathic characters who despite major character flaws, the audience relates with them.

:)

[FizzFuzz]

12. Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter

Love him.

The third movie, they made Lecter more bestial, to try and offset the hero status he had developed. Read this somewhere, that the writer (agghh can't remember his name) was not happy about it and wanted to make sure people were NOT glamourizing him.

[tammywammy]

17. Thomas Harris was the writer

And the book Hannibal was way better than the movie much more of the "oh oh oh that's gross, uggh I can't believe I'm reading this."

[nytemare]

29. Hopkins did do a great job in that

Maybe I should have gone further to say "best role of a sociopath in the loony bin"!

:)

[kevsand]

31. That would pretty much rule out

Harvey Keitel in Bad Lieutenant. He was just a total shit.

[RetroLounge]

8. I vote Reagan in the Bonzo Movies

RL

[Gyre]

13. Wolfowitz, and Bolton

Oh that's right. They were acting to COVER UP their psychopathy. Which brings to mind a question. Is it harder to convincingly dress a wolf in sheep's clothing than to dress convincingly a sheep in wolf's clothing?

Seem's like Wolfie's got the World Bank people eating up his act that he only wants the chairman position to help the poor and hungry in Africa! That had to be some world-class acting!

Gyre

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Sociopaths in classic films

That's Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter, although his performance in the original Cape Fear would have qualified, too.



That's Orson Welles as Harry Lime in The Third Man.

[nuxvomica]

20. Harry Lime was the ultimate sociopath

Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money, or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare? Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax - the only way you can save money nowadays.

[FizzFuzz]

34. Night of the Hunter is the first one I thought of

actually. Ooo that was scary. I remember being home with a cold or something as a kid and it was on TV. What a great sick day! He did the slimy sweet-talking beast perfectly!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

15. In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood

Two sociopaths for the price of one. And who should be playing the part of Perry Smith but Robert Blake? Imagine the odds.

[Zuni]

18. really? I haven't seen that in ages

I have a 1st edition copy of the book and saw the movie before, but I did not know Blake was in it.

That is uber-creepy :hide:

[kodi]

19. the character named Ganz in "48 Hour" was fine too.

.

[Zuni]

21. Joesph Cotton as Uncle Charlie in Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt

Teresa Wright is so beautiful as the heroine in that movie as well :loveya:...my all time favorite Hitchcock film
sadly she died in March of this year

[nuxvomica]

22. I was just about to post that

I was reminded by the post about The Third Man. This is part of Cotten's creepy speech to Wright:
Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know, if you rip off the fronts of houses, you'd find swine? The world's a hell. What does it matter what happens in it? Wake up, Charlie. Use your wits. Learn something.

[Zuni]

26. Classic film villain

he played the part so well, so subtly. I loved the interplay between Cotton and Wright.

BTW--Did you know that it was Hitchcock's personal favorite of his films?

[nuxvomica]

28. No I didn't. It's certainly one of his best

I find it creepier than Psycho even cuz at least Norman Bates had a moral compass, albeit a wacky one. The Merry Widow killer was just pure greed and cynicism.

[CanuckAmok]

23. Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects. Christina Ricci in The Opposite of Sex

So many to choose from....

[evlbstrd]

24. Dennis Hopper, "Blue Velvet."

Chills.

[Technowitch]

33. Ah, I think he was more a psychopath than sociopath

A sociopath is usually charming and able to get along well with people -- they just utterly lack any empathy whatsoever, and their behavior tends to be rules-based. They do what they want, but recognize there are limits to what they can get away with.

The psychopath is just completely whacked -- and that's Hopper's character to a T. ;)

[evlbstrd]

35. You're right about that.

But it seems like splitting hairs. Both are dangerous. It just takes longer to realize the danger from sociopath. The current political climate is a great example.

[dxstone]

38. You are correct, sir! Frank Booth is da man!

Hopper was my first choice, but you beat me to it...
He's just so fuckin' SUAVE, man...


DXS
"I LOVE horror movies, man... I just don't want to LIVE in one."
http://presidentevilonline.com

[Az]

27. Raymond Lemorne on the original movie The Vanishing

Played by Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu he was the perfect sociopath. You really can't tell from day to day exposure when someone is a sociopath. They are usually quite good at blending in. Unless something causes them to go down a particular path you probably won't notice them.

Want to see a sociopath? Watch the original movie not the American remake. Of course in the American remake the sociopath is the guy vibrating in the corner and looking around suspiciosly.

[CanuckAmok]

32. Most. Frightening. Movie. Ever.

He was my first thought, too.

That was the whole 'meat' of the movie; that he was a completely "normal" guy. The writer even took the time to show him as a caring father, and a good samaritan when he saved that little girl from drowning.

It's kind of the same idea that makes American Psycho's Bateman so scary; he's walking among us, completely undetected.

That's why Hannibal Lechter is so not scary... as soon as you give these guys superhuman abilities (like being able to surgically castrate a passing pickpocket in half a second throgh his clothes), or have them behave like Snydley Whiplash on a mugging bender, they lose their 'realness'.

That movie scared the pants off me!!

Love the Criterion box artwork, too... I haven't seen that before.

[maveric]

30. What about this guy?

[dxstone]

37. Laurence Olivier as the old Nazi commandant/ex-dentist in Marathon Man!

"Is it safe? Is it... safe?"
Poor Dustin Hoffman!
Yeah, that Laurence Olivier... a fine, fine actor, but only a so-so dentist.

DXS
"I LOVE horror movies, man... I just don't want to LIVE in one."
http://presidentevilonline.com

[Pert_UK]

39. What about Gary Oldman in Leon?

I thought he was magnificent......INSANE but magnificent.

Or Christopher Walkern in True Romance, although that's more just evil criminal than sociopath I suppose.