10 Cruelest Bad Guys In Westerns

[Buckshot Bear]

10 Cruelest Bad Guys In Westerns

 

https://screenrant.com/best-western-cruel-villains/

[Pat Riot]

I was surprised that Bruce Dern wasn’t on the list. He played Asa Watts in “The Cowboys”.

[Rye Miles #13621]

19 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I was surprised that Bruce Dern wasn’t on the list. He played Asa Watts in “The Cowboys”.

He got death threats after that movie!

[Warden Callaway]

I vote for Jack Elam in Rawhide.

 

 

 

[E.D. BLACK]

Based on the word cruel , my vote goes for Gene Hackman having a very young Sharon Stone shoot the rope about to hang her father played by Gary Sinise in Quick and the Dead .

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Cruel as opposed to just bad? Richard Boone killing the little kid and throwing him down the well in The Tall T qualifies, and he comes pretty close in Hombre, too.

[Alpo]

I've only seen the Tall T once, and that was years ago oh, so I do not recall that scene.

 

As for Hombre, I consider him more mean than cruel.

[Sixgun Seamus]

This list is incomplete without Donald Pleasence as Preacher Quint in Will Penny (1967)

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

Elliot Marsten, played by Alan Rickman in Quigley Down Under.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

3 hours ago, Alpo said:

I've only seen the Tall T once, and that was years ago oh, so I do not recall that scene.

 

As for Hombre, I consider him more mean than cruel.

 They don't actually show the scene in Tall T; when Randolph Scott  comes back to the stagecoach post with the stick of candy for the kid, he's already been killed along with his dad and thrown into the well by Boone's gang, which has taken over the station. But it makes an impression....

 

True about Hombre perhaps, except for tying up the woman to let her die of thirst in the hot sun. Boone is good in The Tall T, and great in Hombre, I think.  

 

It's well-known, of course, that Hombre was based up the Elmore Leonard book. Less well-known is that The Tall T was based on The Captives, a short story of his. I think he had more Westerns made from his books and stories than any other authors. And if you add in his crime books, I doubt if any other author comes close to the number of movie adaptations of their work.

 

 

[Smokin Gator SASS #29736]

4 hours ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

Cruel as opposed to just bad? Richard Boone killing the little kid and throwing him down the well in The Tall T qualifies, and he comes pretty close in Hombre, too.

Was that the same movie with one of the bad guys continuing to want to kill another victim and throw them down the well too? Really bugged me.

[Buckshot Bob]

Jack Palance in young guns . I know they had Powers Boothe from Tombstone but what about Michael Biehen as Ringo .

[Buckshot Bear]

Blue Duck Lonesome Dove

[Alpo]

13 minutes ago, Buckshot Bob said:

. I know they had Powers Boothe from Tombstone but what about Michael Biehen as Ringo .

They listed them together as number seven.

 

 

7 of 10 "Curly Bill Brocious" & "Johnny Ringo" Played By Powers Boothe & Michael Biehn – Tombstone (1993)

[Buckshot Bob]

5 minutes ago, Alpo said:

They listed them together as number seven.

 

 

7 of 10 "Curly Bill Brocious" & "Johnny Ringo" Played By Powers Boothe & Michael Biehn – Tombstone (1993)

I just read Curly Bill and went on . I didn’t think you could get 2 for 1 on a top 10 list 

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

No real contention about the list overall. Sure can't argue with #1. Made by blood run cold when I saw that movie. I was like....."WAIT! Henry Fonda?!?! Say it ain't so!"

JHC

[Buckshot Bob]

Open Range 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0316356/characters/nm0002091?ref_=tt_cl_c_6

[sassnetguy50]

Ignoring the dozens of scenes where indian vs cowboy/settler/soldier, were skinned, scalped, tortured, then burned alive or staked in the desert todie in the sun.

 

I'd put Greg Palmer's character in Big Jake on the list.  Hacking people up with a machete and leaving them for dead is a cruel way to kill.  He killed multiple adults, a dog, attempted to kill a boy by machete and pitchfork.  You could list Richard Boone in this as the boss who ordered him to kill.

[watab kid]

16 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I was surprised that Bruce Dern wasn’t on the list. He played Asa Watts in “The Cowboys”.

that was what leapt to my mind as well , 

[sassnetguy50]

19 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I was surprised that Bruce Dern wasn’t on the list. He played Asa Watts in “The Cowboys”.

Will someone please elaborate on what about this character is especially cruel?

[Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438]

2 hours ago, sassnetguy50 said:

Will someone please elaborate on what about this character is especially cruel?

 

You mean aside from beating up kids and torturing and backshooting the greatest movie hero the West ever produced?

 

I couldn't watch a Bruce Dern movies for years after seeing The Cowboys; I still grit my teeth when he shows up in other films.  The overwhelming evil of that character pushes him to the top of the list for me.  Such a snake.

 

LL

[Pat Riot]

He answered it ^^^^^
 

Thanks Loophole. 

 

 

[Buckshot Bob]

1 hour ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

 

You mean aside from beating up kids and torturing and backshooting the greatest movie hero the West ever produced?

 

I couldn't watch a Bruce Dern movies for years after seeing The Cowboys; I still grit my teeth when he shows up in other films.  The overwhelming evil of that character pushes him to the top of the list for me.  Such a snake.

 

LL

It’s kind of a complement to the writer and the actors performance when you dislike someone like that 

[Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438]

1 minute ago, Buckshot Bob said:

It’s kind of a complement to the writer and the actors performance when you dislike someone like that 

 

No doubt; but that's the intellectual response, not the gut-wrench emotional reaction.

 

LL

[Alpo]

I don't consider that cruel.

 

Both mean and evil, but not cruel.

 

Now, if he had gone up to a guy that had a horse fall on him, and the guy both had a broken leg and the foot of the broken leg was caught in the stirrup, and the guy was desperately holding the reins tight so the horse could not move its head so it could not stand up because he had a broken leg and his foot was caught in the stirrup. Now if he had gone over to that guy and cut the rein, so the horse stood up, and then startled the horse so that it took off running, dragging the broken legged guy along the ground, bouncing off rocks and cactus, and occasionally maybe the horse hitting him with a hoof - that would be cruel.

 

 

[sassnetguy50]

5 hours ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

 

You mean aside from beating up kids and torturing and backshooting the greatest movie hero the West ever produced?

 

I couldn't watch a Bruce Dern movies for years after seeing The Cowboys; I still grit my teeth when he shows up in other films.  The overwhelming evil of that character pushes him to the top of the list for me.  Such a snake.

 

LL

Yes, I mean aside from being evil, greedy and vengeful.  The character was spurred by his hurt ego, making it vengeance rather than cruel intentions.  The shooting lasted 50 seconds and he quickly dispatched the duke as soon as his front side was exposed.

 

As to the actor, Mr Dern has been highly respectful of the Duke in every interview I've seen and read.  https://outsider.com/news/entertainment/john-wayne-the-hilarious-advice-the-duke-gave-bruce-dern-day-one-filming-iconic-western/

[El CupAJoe]

Here's my vote, Not sure where he stacks up as I haven't seen many on the list, but talk about a psyco.  the setting is pretty early to be a cowboy movie, but it is the west, and he carries a colt, so I think he counts.

[Alpo]

That from one of the Antonio Banderas Zorro movies?

[El CupAJoe]

24 minutes ago, Alpo said:

That from one of the Antonio Banderas Zorro movies?

yup, kills Banderas' brother, then pickles the head and drinks from the jar.  runs a slave mine and plans on killing all the workers to keep it a secret... 

Also has sweet guns, but definitely up there with cruel villians.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Robert Duvall in Joe Kidd.

[Mezcal Charlie]

Brad Pitt as Jesse James

Scar in the Searchers

 

Just my 2 cents. 

[Blackwater 53393]

Mox Mox, played by Kevin Conway, in the Lonesome Dove movies gets my vote!

 

I can’t think of anything more cruel than burning your victims alive.

[Pulp, SASS#28319]

Dennis Haysbert as Cherokee Jack in Return to Lonesome Dove.

[Yellowhouse Sam # 25171]

Steve Forrest as Mannon in Gunsmoke.