5. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) from Double Indemnity - to me, Dietrichson is the ultimate femme fatale in the definitive film noir. I find it odd that I love her so much because before seeing that movie, I felt that all femme fatales should be these incredibly gorgeous creatures. While I still feel that it should be true, Stanwyck gives a performance that has this smouldering sexuality, so even though she isn't the most beautiful woman ever to grace the silver screen, you still can see why Neff is attracted to her and what makes her such a great villain.
4. Belloq (Paul Freeman) from Raiders of the Lost Ark - I hate to be the first to name an Indiana Jones villain, but I really do feel that Belloq is one of the most interesting villains in film. Mostly because, as has been discussed so many times on this board, his characterization so closely mirrors that of the film's hero. We could easily have been rooting for Belloq if told from his point of view, and that is what makes him such a great character.
3. Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) from The Talented Mr. Ripley - this is one of those harder to classify type of characters, but given Tom's actions, I think he would qualify as a villain, despite the fact that he is the character that the audience follows throughout the entire film, whereas the film's technical hero, Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow), is sort just a tortured voice in the background screaming "he did it!" while all of the other characters ignore her. Damon gives a great performance as the confused murderer Tom Ripley in a really underrated film.
2. Catherine Tremell (Sharon Stone) from Basic Instinct - few characters have exuded as much sexuality as Catherine's in this modern Hitchcockian thriller. Every seductive swivel of her hips is just another time that the audience falls in hate with her. We are so attracted to her, yet so repulsed by her, that you can't really tell whether to be turned on or turned off. She's a cold, calculating killer, and yet when she cries, we want to believe her. She is the epitome of the saying "you can't judge a book by its cover."
1. Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl - as ClintonHammond pointed out, he can be viewed as not being a villain, however, for the sake of this list, I wish to include him. In the first film at the very least you can make a better argument for him being a villain. Again, his actions closely mirror that of the hero's (although in this case, it makes the hero more of an anti-hero), and the performance Rush gives is great. He's not a villain that you love to hate, but rather a villain that you just love. If he were to win in the end, most audience members probably wouldn't be that upset about it. He's such a great character, and one that I think will be remembered fondly in the years to come.
Honorable mentions:
The Wicked Witch (Wizard of Oz) - classic villain, and although evil, not quite characterization there to make my list.
Breathless Mahoney (Dick Tracy) - another femme fatale, it's difficult to really count her as a villain due to her moral ambiguity. Also, she's played by Madonna, and her first scene is so bad that she lost major points to make this list.
Michael Meyers (Halloween) - I wasn't really sure if we were including horror movie villains within this, but Michael gets less and less interesting as the films go on, so he didn't make the cut.
John Doe (Se7en) - Great acting (as always) from Kevin Spacey, however I just wasn't that impressed with the film in general. I watched it for the fist time a few weeks ago, and although I thought it was well done, I think because the film is so hyped about I was expecting more from it. I mean, even the "twist" at the end was incredibly predictable, and not all that much of a twist. But Doe was an interesting character despite his limited screen time.
