Fiction icons stimulate us and can often even inspire us. Film is a great medium to tell a narrative, is visceral, often surreal and sticks with you long after. You often remember a film because of its great storytelling pushed along but its great characters. Many such characters have been dark, masculine, and extremely Alpha. They get want they want and often don’t give a fuck how. The ends ALWAYS justify the means for them.
Even though we don’t wish to emulate their largely antisocial behaviors, we can learn a bit from watching these unusual men in action. Here are some of the finest examples of such characters within modern filmmaking. Yes, there are plenty more, and please give your thoughts on those in the comments section after the article. WARNING: SPOILERS!
Conan (Conan The Barbarian, 1982)
The Hyborean Age. As a young boy, Conan was taught by his didactic father the he could trust only his sword and nothing that breathes, and watches his village burn and his parents killed at the hands of snake cult leader Thulsa Doom and his raiding Vanir riders.
Sold into a youth of slavery grinding grain, then as a pit fighter pet as a young adult, Conan gets set free with only one goal in mind: revenge. Along the way he meets companions and is rather indifferent to them (he even abandons his woman without warning at one point), showcases an odd relationship with his god Crom, sheds no tears over the death of his woman, and after killing Thulsa Doom and his top brass sits down stone-faced and contemplative before burning down Thulsa Doom’s fortress and wandering the lands in search of more adventure.
Khan Noonien Singh (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, 1982)
Abandoned by a man he once trusted on a hostile planet, Khan and his loyal band of followers lie in wait for years before confronting Kirk and the crew of The Enterprise, and the hunt plays out in true Captain Ahab fashion in one of the greatest sequels in cinematic history (granted, the first film was quite the borefest as is).
Khan’s vengeance is not only to serve himself, but also his beloved and loyal crew members. With a cool demeanor and menacing glare, Khan plots and calculates like a bird of prey (pun intended? Perhaps!) to get his revenge, only to go out in a blaze of glory quoting Captain Ahab with his last few breaths. At least Spock served as collateral damage of sorts in the end.
Richard Kuklinski (The Iceman, 2013)
Poor Little Richard. Dubbing porn films actually shot on film (I bet some gems were in there!) for the mob, Richard displays sociopathic behavior on the regular and gets sucked into doing hits for the mob instead. His wife and two daughters are completely ignorant of his “extracurricular” activities.
As much of a loose cannon as he is, Richard puts family above all and wants them to have the best of everything, even a private school education! Cross Richie and it doesn’t matter who you are, you’re going down, fast. Mob boss, mob crony, competitive hitman, anytime, anywhere. An undercover sting operation catches Richie and he gets sentences to two life sentences, never seeing his family again and languishing in prison before dying suspiciously right before he was due to confess against the Gambinos. Makes you wonder…
Tony Montana (Scarface, 1983)
Tony came from rather humble beginnings as a refugee during the last decade of Communism’s yoke on half of the world, and at the nascent era of cocaine’s glitz and glamor in Miami. Keen on the art of survival and cunning like a fox, Tony worked his way from menial jobs to building a cartel empire that reached all throughout the Americas, often stomping on whoever got in his way.
His unwavering devotion to a rather naïve sister and misunderstanding mother show how important family is to him, and his cronies are well taken care of. Tony’s morals kick in when put on the spot to take out a group that includes a wife and children in a very “direct” way. In the end, Montana goes out in a fury of one-liners and a hail of bullets, standing his ground to the bitter end.
Lou Bloom (Nightcrawler, 2014)
A man without scruples, Lou is as sleazy as it gets. A wordsmith, a charmer, a fast talker, Lou’s only goals seems to be money, and whatever he can use as cannon fodder in the process will do just fine. Living in a less than friendly area of Los Angeles, Bloom has no hesitations about pillaging and plundering to advance his agenda.
Starting with a crappy second-hand camcorder, Lou chases bloody, newsworthy scenes and sells the footage for a substantial sum only he can settle for. His car gets nicer, he sacrifices his awkward assistant’s life for a few shots of a story about a pair of murderers on the run, and in the end has a full team with video production vans at his disposal.
Patrick Bateman (American Psycho, 2000)
The odd man of this list, Bateman is your typical Manhattan spoiled brat socialite but with inner demons he often isn’t shy to display. Being into “murders and decapitations” (a play on “mergers and acquisitions”), Bateman gallivants around The Capital of the World cavorting every which way and indulging in the finest and most expensive of everything under The Sun (legal or not).
In true OCD-fashion must have every item pristine, set a certain way, and has to one-up everybody else within earshot. Delivering some of the most memorable lines ever, Bateman’s slow descent into madness is shown in a very comical yet still jarring way. Yet in the end, it was all just in his head. The nightmare continues.
Daniel Plainview (There Will Be Blood, 2007)
Daniel is an opportunist, an oil prospector during California’s oil boom of the last century. A mishap in New Mexico is mitigated by news of a potential large deposit in California, and what a large deposit it is. Daniel slowly starts acting like a stereotypical oil tycoon, displaying megalomania and even threatening the lives of others if they dare say anything he can interpret as in insult.
He doesn’t hesitate to show his disdain for religion and mankind in general any opportunity he gets. Even his son isn’t spared his wrath, as he berates him and reveals to him that he was adopted and is glad he has none of his genes. The ending has the by now tiresome “I drink your milkshake” line of many stupid internet memes and a rather silly bowling alley sequence, and after Daniel throws one last tirade he sits down and simply tells his assistant “I’m done”.
Read More: 8 Films With Masculine Virtue
What about Karl Ruprecht Kroenen??? or Max Cady from Cape Fear?
sweet so to become a badass i just have to kill someome/lotsof people or develop a severe mental disorder or both. thnx!
Nice job using Dubs Guy in place of Patrick Bateman.
Once again you people miss the mark. Kuklinski an alpha?? Are you people braindead? For him to be an alpha, people would have to want to follow him. Hes a psychopathic Omega.
Daniel Plainview is an Omega. No one wants to be around this guy, apart from professionally, and even then only a few are willing to attempt a close partnership. Hes a miserable unlikeable bastard with one good quality: his cleverness and ruthlessness in approaching his work .
You guys really need to learn to think critically and work on your pattern recognition.
Jesus, does Roosh even look at these articles? Fuck man. QUALITY over quantity. I k ow you need clucks for cash but shit, have some pride.
You guys want to see a movie Alpha? David Morse in “Indian Runner”. Emulate David Morse in Indian Runner. A true man. Not his sociopath brother played by Viggo Mortensen.
You want to see the ultimate Alpha badass? His name was Jesus H. Christ.
READ THE GREAT BOOKS
On Daniel Plainview: “Hes a miserable unlikeable bastard with one good quality: his cleverness and ruthlessness in approaching his work”
He doesn’t give a shit about anything besides making money. He wants only one thing and he knows exactly how to get it. That’s as alpha as it gets. What kind of weakling worries about being popular?
And how is Jesus alpha? “Turn the other cheek?” That’s pussy shit. Standing up for yourself is admirable.
http://cdn.ebaumsworld.com/mediaFiles/picture/2146605/82592976.jpg
What’s Jesus’ idea of a good time? Getting stoned and hammered.
ebaumsworld. ’nuff said
Do you really have to talk shit about the best person that ever lived?
Don’t bother replying – the lack of wisdom shows – but Jesus and God will always be there to have your back if you truly seek them out.
Youre an ignoramous.
I too respond with personal attacks when I can’t formulate a real response.
Weak response yes, but you said some straight up dumb shit and I highly doubt you actually know much about Jesus.
Turning the other cheek out of fear or cowardice is “pussy shit” but being able to do that out of a mature spiritual understanding takes more strength and courage than you or I will probably ever have. If you slapped me it would not be very difficult to nail your balls to a wooden chair and have a little Mr. Blond fun with you courtesy of Reservoir Dogs. Me turning the other cheek and forgiving you for that insult and dishonor would be a Herculean feat.
We’ll said.
If we retain the Bible as truth, which we have to because you can’t prove it wasn’t, he walked on water, rose from the dead, and was literally God. It was a ‘long con’ alpha move, the whole time he’s being a big liberal pussy and everyone’s walking all over him, they think they kill him and bury him in a tomb, and JC just floats up to heaven giving two middle fingers to his haters as they watch. Alpha as fuck.
“And how is Jesus alpha? “Turn the other cheek?” That’s pussy shit. Standing up for yourself is admirable.”
Just one time he turned the other cheek and it was in his last night as a human. While he was being tortured and mocked by the jews and romans.
Matthew 26:53-56. “53 Or do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father to supply me at this moment more than 12 legions of angels? 54 In that case, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must take place this way?” 55 In that hour Jesus said to the crowds: “Did you come out to arrest me with swords and clubs as against a robber? Day after day I used to sit in the temple teaching, and yet you did not take me into custody. 56 But all of this has taken place for the writings* of the prophets to be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples abandoned him and fled.
Can anyone stand up for himself in a more admirable manner?
Jesus was alpha. Going into the Temple and turning over the bankers tables, throwing big ass parties (water to wine) etc. Not to mention he’s had legions of followers for 2000 years. He caused such a commotion they nailed him to a cross in a crown of thorns.
Alpha is not the “leader of the pack” – that the Blue Pill and women tell you.
Alpha/Sigma may be a psychopath, a drug dealer, a murderer – those individuals get 10x more pussy than than most “good men” out there.
It’s better to be a positive Alpha, but it shows that there are so few examples in recent movie history.
women hate good men who make for a good society.
It’s because most women are wicked and selfish themselves.
No it is the opposite. Alpha has always been the “leader of the pack”. It’s because of the perversion of women that we believe Alpha is also “a psychopath, a drug dealer, a murderer”. It’s because we see women fall for some of these men, that we think they must be the best of men. But how can a woman tell us what man is best? She is a woman not a man, she has no frame of reference.
If you were applying this logic to Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot etc. then they weren’t “alpha”, when in fact everything points towards them being alpha. Sure, they weren’t good men, but they were powerful and confident leaders. I agree with Zelcorpion, seeing “alphas” as good, virtuous men is wishful thinking. That doesn’t mean that Martin Luther King or Gandhi weren’t more positive examples. And I certainly wouldn’t recommend anyone striving to become the next Stalin or Hitler. But you shouldn’t make the “alpha” term so black and white. Moral values don’t play as much of a role as you’d like to attribute them to the alpha/beta/gamme etc. schema.
Just because Hollywood made a cool guy out of him doesn´t make the real Iceman a cool alpha guy. He was just a fat idiot who probably never worked for the mafia and never killed as many people as he claimed (that´s what investigators actually believe).
Again:
Assholes and alphas are not the same. People without self-control can´t be alpha. Real men need self-control and dignity. Active violence is a sign of weakness and big mental problems.
True, but the lack of empathy and remorse is something I envy and regard as qualities.
There’s enough ”badasses” from history stretching back several thousand years to learn from, no need to resort to Hollywood movies.
Currently reading a biography of Gregory Zhukov, the Marshal of the Soviet Union (Russian equivalent to a 5 star general). This guy is more interesting and ”alpha” than any fictional character.
The guy was fucking real and rose from nothing to the highest rank in the Soviet military to play a key role in the many of the greatest battles of WW2, including the battles of Kursk and Moscow. And he did it in Stalin’s era, when military officers were being sent to gulags or were lined up against a wall and shot for the smallest infractions or for association with the wrong people. ”Wrong people” could change on a daily basis due to Stalin’s paranoia.
You also have to remember that the deadliest and most horrific battles of WW2 were fought on the Eastern front between the Germans and the Soviet Union.
I presume most of you on here are Americans, so you’ve probably never heard of him. He was similar to Erwin Rommel in that he was more or less universally respected (and feared) for his skill of generalship.
Agreed. History provides and endless supply of iron willed military men who pulled of feats that most people can only dream of carrying out. My personal favorites are Simho Hayha and Otto Skorzeny.
The former still holds the record for the highest number of kills by a sniper during any major conflict and was an absolute whirlwind of death that elevated the art of killing Soviet troops to an art form. He eventually got half his face shot off and still managed to live and make a full recovery. The latter managed to break out Mussolini with only a small contingent of German commandos and without a single shot fired in the process. Moreover, the actual raid itself took only several minutes to execute.
Remember Gladiator, the movie? Zhukov was wont to grab a handful of soil from the field to feel its texture and smell its aroma.
Stalin was jealous of his gifts but couldn’t afford to have him bumped off.
He is Georgy not Gregory.
Didn’t realize I made the typo.
faggot
The author didn’t use the word alpha. He also didn’t suggest that these were role models. The point is that these characters took the initiative and didn’t let anything stand in their way.
Thor would kick Jesus’s butt anyday.
Jesus alpha? First alpha virgin I’ve heard about. Seems they come in all shapes and forms, hey?
Man i am really starting to hate this fucking website. So long.
Goodbye.
Don’t forget to let us know the url of the better website which you are going to create.
*grin*
Betcha he comes back.
It would be fun to see a list of badasses compiled for real life, historical and present. My nominations: Alexander the Great, Muhammad, Genghis Khan, Henry VIII, Napoleon, Rasputin, George S. Patton, and if I had to pick a living one I’d say Vladimir Putin.
Bunch of beta pussies who wasted their lives building and defending complex social structures. After they die, nobody will even remember their names, never mind admire them.
Is this some sort of joke? I dare you to find one person who has never heard of Alexander the Great.
“Is this some sort of joke?”
Yes.
Haha I went full blown aspie there. My bad
Been there. Done that. Don’t worry about it.
“My nominations: Alexander the Great, Muhammad, Genghis Khan, Henry VIII, Napoleon, Rasputin, George S. Patton, and if I had to pick a living one I’d say Vladimir Putin.”
Constantine (1st Christian Roman emperor), St. Vladimir of Kiev (1st Christian Rus ruler), Alexander the 1st (dethroner of Napoleon), Putin.
That’s 1700 years of Byzantine (Christianized Roman empire) empire to Russian civilization that held off Islam (Muhammad), outlasted and drove off the Mongols (Genghis), beat Napoleon, killed Rasputin (a little too late), and is going to beat, outlast, or at least mutually destroy Patton’s America as well.
The list you have, on the other hand, is just a bunch of random guys with no real connection with eachother.
My pick for favourite historical alpha would be Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson: baddest motherfucker who ever set sail.
The killing of Rasputin was not something great or noble like the other examples cited. Rasputin for better or worse, with all his warts and flaws was a Holy Man, a man of God.
“The killing of Rasputin was not something great or noble like the other examples cited. Rasputin for better or worse, with all his warts and flaws was a Holy Man, a man of God.”
No he wasn’t. He was killed by Orthodox Russians trying to save the empire from his influence, not by “Jews.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1421276/Crusade-to-make-Rasputin-a-saint-splits-church.html
A bitter rift has opened in the Russian Orthodox Church over a campaign to canonise Rasputin and Ivan the Terrible.
The movement, which leading Orthodox officials have sought to quash, is spearheaded by a growing revisionist movement in the Church. It believes that Grigori Rasputin, a notoriously dissolute Siberian monk who was murdered by two royalists in 1916 because of his growing influence over Empress Alexandra, was the victim of a Jewish conspiracy.
The movement also contends that Ivan the Terrible, who murdered hundreds of priests and even his son, was a deeply religious and humble man who showed great mercy to his enemies. The campaign began in the early 1990s with a spate of pamphlets and books. Since then the movement has attracted a growing number of adherents, particularly in the countryside.
The crusade has gained such momentum that theologians allied to the Church leadership have felt compelled to condemn it publicly.
Last week they spoke out against the growing number of newspapers and internet sites backing the campaign and said the debate could lead to a schism. “These publications juggle the facts of Church history, distort the foundations of the Orthodox faith and ultimately create a sectarian mentality,” they said.
[…]
In an official statement issued in 2001, Patriarch Alexy II said: “This is madness. What believer would want to stay in a Church that equally venerates murderers and martyrs, lechers and saints?”
Viktor Malukhin, the Church’s chief spokesman, said that if Ivan the Terrible, Russia’s first tsar, were canonised, it would automatically mean that his many victims, including Moscow’s Metropolitan Filip, would be de-canonised. He said: “You cannot give glory at the same time to martyrs and their persecutors. This goes against God’s laws and human law.”
Konstantin Dushenov, the editor of Rus Pravoslavnaya, a St Petersburg newspaper backing the campaign, said: “Rasputin was a good man whose reputation was destroyed by his political opponents.
“We want to discuss this with the heads of the Church, but all they will ever say is that Rasputin was a womaniser and Ivan the Terrible a murderer. “There are already many icons of them [made by us] and there is even an icon of Ivan the Terrible in the Kremlin [made by who, the KGB under Communism?]. The Church is furious only because we belong to a [fringe sectarian] movement that is outside its control.”
Greetings in Christ Jesus, we will probably have to agree to disagree moi droog. I think the “Jews” had just as much culpability as the Russian Nobility. It was the “Jews” who were fomenting revolution, throwing bombs and committing assassinations. The Russian Nobility were aghast that some “Peasant” could have influence over them (and rightly so) but it was the revolutionaries both Jew and Gentile that were agitating, slandering and pushing anti-Czarist / Pro-Marxist propaganda. The Jews are master manipulators and always have been. Why do you think Rome razed everything in Judea to the ground and scattered them to the four winds in the first place?
Why did the poison not work? Why was he murdered by a homosexual? Why after poisoned, stabbed, bludgeoned, shot and drowned did they find water in his lungs? If he were dead before being thrown into the Neva River then water would not be present. Why did his predictions/prophecies come true? How did he heal? Mozart was a filthy little pervert but look how God worked through him.
More recently, retired Scotland Yard detective Richard Cullen and historian Andrew Cook proposed a new theory behind Rasputin’s death. In 2004, they claimed that his death stemmed from a British Secret Intelligence plot involving two officers, Oswald Rayner and John Scales. They based their conclusions on a connection between Yusupov and Rayner and information Scales had recorded on Rasputin [source: BBC].
Similarly, it was proposed in 2007 that a British conspiracy hatched by Prime Minister David Lloyd George led to Rasputin’s murder [source: Blomfield]. Both theories are based on Russia’s important role in World War I for Britain. With Russia fighting Germany from the East, it provided an important buffer for the Allies since the Germans could not use all of their strength for combat in the West
ANY organization who supports the World Council of Churches are NOT Christian in any sense of the word.
You quoted – “In an official statement issued in 2001, Patriarch Alexy II said:”
Dude! The Moscow Patriarchy is Sergianist to the max. http://rocorrefugees.blogspot.com/2007/05/decree-of-assembly-of-widowed-eastern.html
Even ROCOR has capitulated to this Satanic influence.
“With Metropolitan Laurus’ Synod having joined the Moscow Patriarchy; which is in schism from the Local Russian Orthodox Church, which lacks a Prelate with Apostolic succession, which causes it to be in schism from the Universal Church, which continues its membership in the World Council of Churches and the participation in the heresy of ecumenism, constitutes a joining with heretical schismatics and the departure of Metropolitan Laurus’ Synod from the Church Abroad into the sergianist schism, thereby causing a schism in the Church Abroad itself.”
And as for your slander of Rasputin – “And all men are ready to pass judgment on the priest as if he was not a being clothed with flesh, or one who inherited a human nature.” ~ Saint John Chrysostom Archbishop of Constantinople.
I believe he also said “Slander is worse than cannibalism.”
And I believe it was Saint Paul who persecuted Christians and even had them assassinated and crucified. So be careful with throwing that stone first. 😉
And if you want to get down to the nitty gritty then the Reforms of Nikon in 1666 is more of a profound contention than what Rasputin ever did. Today to be a True Christian one would have to become a stranniki, but listening to the Moscow Prelate is a sure path to hell.
“The road to Hell is paved with the bones of priests and monks, and the skulls of bishops are the lamp posts that light the path.” ~ Saint John Chrysostom
“More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened. – Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” ~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn
May God have mercy on all our souls…
Patton’s America disappeared decades ago.
Patton, absolutely. Rommel as well, amazing armored tactical genius, gentleman and his own man, not a party hack in an age when not being a party hack was more often than not a death sentence. And of course, the rest of your list, except Muhammad. Fucking kids and being a psychopath and basically crib noting your religion from other existing religions is kind of lame.
Who to add? Hmmm, great question.
Jesus Christ
Theodore Roosevelt (whose politics I loathe, btw)
George Washington (hard ass, resourceful, inspirational all wrapped up in one)
William Wallace
Winston Churchill
William the Conqueror
Aelfred the Great
The Venerable Bead
Peter the Great
Charlemagne
Erik the Red and his son…
Leif Erikson
Yves Rossy (man who invented winged jet that he wears and flies over the Alps, former Swiss Air Force fighter pilot, engineer, absolute badass)
I’ve seen Nightcrawler and there’s nothing alpha about its main character. He’s a mental case and he’s clearly suffering from autism. All these supposedly alpha characters kind of are, and I suspect even the author of this article might be autistic too, this might explain why he idealizes fictional psychopaths.
I mean really? We should all aspire to be Tony Montana? He should be a role model for us readers of RoK? Daniel Plainview?! I was almost feeling sick at the end of There Will Be Blood because I pitied him so much.
I agree with other members who say this website needs more quality control for its articles.
I thought the protag in Nightcrawler was pretty alpha. The guy is pretty skilled at beating someone to a bloody pulp while possessing insights on human behaviour that makes him a master manipulator. On top of that he seems to have an unrelenting entrepreneurial spirit that takes him from being a petty thief to the head of his own business. And him being a mental case is kind of a moot point since he was in a town full of superficial mental cases all chasing after an empty and hollow lifestyle. Lou was simply adapting to his environment in order to conquer it. That in itself is a pretty alpha trait.
why is being autistic not alpha?
interesting question, after all autism is supposed to be ‘extreme male behaviour’ by some views (e.g. baron cohen)
Though I’m growing tired of this alpha/beta/gamma/sigma crap (as it’s just supposed to roughly describe someone’s character as a model, not as reality) alpha does NOT mean to be a happy hippie. In fact, regarding evolutionary psychology, alpha simply means being on top of the food chain within a certain tribe. It says absolutely NOTHING about whether this is achieved in a calm, controlled and positive way or in a forceful, brutal and vicious way. Not in the least. But I’ll tell you that the latter model was far more widespread than the former. Times were brutal and you had to be ruthless. That doesn’t mean you can’t be “alpha” as a calm, controlled, kind, confident and strong man. You can. But it’s not the only way. So stop crying that, yes, sociopaths could be regarded as “alpha”, because it doesn’t imply being kind. It did often imply being a leader of some sort, but a sociopath doesn’t necessarily have any interest in that kind of thing. If he did, however, he’d most likely succeed.
Some of the individuals on the list are simply psychopaths.
I think you mean Psychotic. A psychopath is just someone who has no conscience, they do not necessarily have to be insane. Your local DA is probably a well adjusted psychopath as are many of the cops you come across on a daily basis.
American Psycho isn’t short for American Psychotic though
Psychotic is when someone hears voices in their head, are delusional, etc. It’s one of the defining symptoms of schizophrenia. Max was right, you’re wrong.
Bateman wasn’t sure if what he was doing was even real.
You mean Sociopath.
Chilly means Sociopath.
What about Ivan Drago in Rocky IV? “If he dies, he dies”.
Love that line.
When I think of being “alpha,” I think of developing your strengths (body, mind, and character) and achieving things by your own efforts, talents, will, etc. The characters from these films do some of this, but most “achieve” a lot not by developing themselves and their own work, but by lying, cheating, stealing, and murdering. That’s not being alpha. That’s being a parasite.
Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name character.
Who is an American version of Toshiro Mifune’s character from Yojimbo, of which A Fistful Of Dollars was a remake:
https://sinaphile.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/yojimbo.jpg
One of the very, very few movies I’m willing to spend time watching, along with Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and maybe a couple others.
And remade yet again with Bruce Willis in Last Man Standing
http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=JN.yI6NpHjcVfkS6Lx7zq0AEQ&pid=1.7
Last Man Standing is better than the critics say and I’ve watched it a few times, and will likely watch it a few more times.
However, in LMS John Smith is a burn out case. A man who has seen and done too much and is pretty much at the end of his line and just doesn’t give much of shit anymore.
Yojimbo, on the other hand, has seen the man behind the curtain and recognizes the whole thing as a giant farce. A farce that can get you killed, so in that sense must be taken seriously, but even that just intensifies the farcical nature of the whole thing.
Yojimbo illustrates a man who took the red pill. It’s a lesson.
LMS illustrates a man who didn’t and got reality shoved down his throat in a clenched fist. It’s a warning.
I’ve seen all of them but Throne of Blood.
There’s also Hidden Fortress, which George Lucas stole from.
Yes, I remember Hidden Fortress!
Throne of Blood is very dark and evil. Its a samurai adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but you don’t need to be familiar with it to enjoy Throne of Blood. Come to think of it, Ran was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. I had forgotten that one as well!
Um HELLO?? McFLY??
How could he forget Clint?
*facepalm*
Epic. How could he have not been on the list. I guess there was no name to list, so, well….um….
Also his role as Kelly in Kelly’s Heroes. “We’re a private enterprise”.
Rooster Cogburn rides his horse into gunfire.
Conan was indeed alpha. Everyone he met became his follower (or lover). When his girlfriend (also a badass) got iced he took her body to a magic hilltop where fire doesn’t burn, cursed out his god, and burned her there anyway. Then she hung around afterwards to help him out again. Alpha indeed.
I am sorry to say that this list is totally incomplete! #1 should have been Zed (Sean Connery) in Zardoz. Just check out this pic. You can’t get much more badass than that!
Uhhhhhh……..yeah.
Is that a Police Positive he’s carrying?
It’s a Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver.
That’s cool, never heard of those before.
HA! HA! HA! You HAVE to be a badass to wear THAT! Thanks for the laugh bro, I am going to start searching Ebay immediately for my own bandoleer suspenders with matching banana hammock.
“The gun is good! The penis is evil!”
I admit I don’t really follow movies, but even I’m surprised at one big glaring omission:
https://mklast.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/sevensamurai.jpg
Toshiro Mifune in Seven Samurai
IMO
http://www.ixbt.com/dvd/films/sincity/sincity_marv_dontworry_large.jpg
While in jail Kuklinski admitted that at 18 years of age he burned a man alive, over an argument at a bar, in addition to countless other murders. Talk about an ideal role model.
Edmond has not been shot with a diamond bullet through his forehead like The Colonel explains at time marker 1:30 of the clip.
Pale Rider
Commando
Batman
Nut jobs are NOT badass.
Got it Mr. Bickle 😉
I agree with you… I didn’t realize we should be aspiring to be complete psychopaths… I kinda doubt anyone here actually wants to live in a place where the most evil man rules.
The only alpha on this list is Conan IMO.
I agree with you but I just find that line ironic coming from a guy with a Travis Bickle avatar.
I don’t find these guys to be inspiring nor alphas, with the exception of Conan. And forget Khan, Kirk is AMOG (where the “G” stands for “Galaxy”!).
I only agree with number one. Glad to see other people are understanding the aspect of masculinity and it’s importance.
This article really missed the mark. Out of all the movie characters he could have chosen we get Patrick Bateman and Star Trek bird man. Hell, Jackie Chan has characters that shit on these guys.
Hollywood is jewish propaganda, the “heroes” in those movies are there to advance the jewish agenda.
Let’s not forget James Bond.
The characters in Gran Torino, or Bronx Tale. Add to the list the characters from some of the old westerns but this list.? seriously? Most of these characters are just low level street thugs. Hardly guys I aspire to be
This discussion of Alpha reminds me of the age old philosophical debate about how many angels can stand on the top of a pin. Such a futile waste of time. Alpha is your inner frame…not actions you do.
Being alpha is exceeding at a chosen craft that will benefit your family, tribe, and country. Taking responsibility as man and raising a family of well adjusted and intelligent adults is alpha.
These men, excluding Conan and the Star Trek character (who are complete fucking fantasy characters anyway), are maladjusted, petty, self-destructive, weak willed men who can’t control themselves. Nothing alpha about that. They’ve done nothing for their family, tribe, or country other than brought them misery.
Porter played by Mel Gibson in Payback. You gotta watch the right version though. One ending is badass, the other is so vanilla i makes me angry.
Kuklinski? The guy was a cunt. No doubt because his parents were total cunts but still… hardly a role model.
Who will be next on the list? Ted Bundy? Such an Alpha, the way he choked and bludgeoned all those women to death while they slept.
I most definitely agree that Conan should top this list, and partially because of the lesson taught him about steel and flesh. Dad was right. Thulsa Doom was wrong.
Thulsa Doom is sitting in the White House!
Wrong.Thulsa Doom was competent, and was up front about what he was trying to do.
Good list of dark triad film characters. If you want to learn about frame and being an alpha there’s lots of great movie characters out there.
Although hes not a dark triad, Oscar Schindler from Schindlers List is the alpha standard in my book.
While I understand the sentiments about sociopaths and Hollywood movies, the fact is that a whole lot more people in our culture watch movies than study history. That goes for RoK, too. As much as I and other bloggers would enjoy intelligent discussions about actual historical figures, few people would have anything meaningful to contribute and traffic would dwindle. As for the psycho characters on the list…yeah, I would have chosen differently. I make an effort to point out admirable alpha characters in pop culture, but it can be thankless work.
Brick Top from the movie “Snatch”. In fact, almost every male character from that movie. Especially Mickey, Avi, and Tony.
Excellent movie.
There’s at least one post a week on RoK like this, which is a shame because a lot of the content here is gold. This is just another pointless, ‘list’. Fair enough if it was like this article (http://www.returnofkings.com/56271/what-5-alpha-tv-characters-can-teach-you-about-confidence) but the examples on this list are straight up really bad examples of ‘badass’.
Patrick Bateman was a loony, you can’t learn anywhere near as much from watching Tony Montana as you can watching Tony Soprano and Richard Kuklinski was a psychopathic hitman. Really? Let’s get real…
“Even though we don’t wish to emulate their largely antisocial behaviors, we can learn a bit from watching these unusual men in action.” You can learn things watching how Marlo Stanfield, Stringer Bell and Omar deal with things and behave and how Tony Soprano spins his plates but the characters listed are really, really bad examples.
I think the whole point was of the article was indeed for it to be a whimsical lark. Some comedy on here never hurts. More articles, more writers, and more commentors lately. What’s the harm? We get plenty of advice and philosophy and quite frankly we should get to where we can venture forth into the wilderness on our with ample wisdom in our arsenal and enjoy male bonding from time to time. Unless you think women might possibly have anything interesting or pleasant or positive to ever say…
Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of the women.
Arnold is another liberal who is happy to dress up like a woman (Junior/Total Recall) to emasculate himself for his masters in Hollywood.
True, but it was an awesome line.
This guy, Alexander Karelin, is probably one of the biggest real ”bad asses” of recent times. The guy had 889 matches in his Greco-Roman Wrestling career. 887 of those matches were victories, including 3 Olympic Golds and 9 World Championship Golds.
How much money would you need to have a match against him?
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/karelin.gif
Beaten by a guy who was on the biggest loser.
He mite of been on the biggest loser, but he was still a top level wrestler at the time he fought against Karelin. And if you look at the details of that match, it was quite controversial due to a new rule being added. Karelin had wrestled him previously and completely crushed him with the ”Karelin lift”. This match he was a lot older and nursing serious injuries, still without the rule change he would have won. He got luckier than a lottery ticket winner.
No, no, no – it’s “murders and EXECUTIONS.”
Some of those are not bad ass they are plain stupid. There will be Blood has no redeeming value. In the end, he has his money but lost friends, family, love, even his staff(look into their eyes as he goes berserk).
I don’t know about the whole alpha thing, but as an interesting movie badass or villain, who got what they wanted and didn’t care how, I was always partial to the following three:
Hannibal Lecter, Silence Of The Lambs.
From a completely different genre, Darth Vader. Someday if I’m fabulously wealthy I intend to have “The Imperial March” played whenever I enter a room.
And lastly, Keyser Soze, from the Usual Suspects.
I strongly recommend the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard. Arnold’s portrayal is iconic but it differs in some crucial ways from the source material. Arnold’s Conan is more the strong silent type than Howard’s who had “gigant melancholies and giant mirth.”
It’s “murders and executions”.
No “Dark Knight” Joker? Frankly, I’m insulted. He was the Red Pill prognosticator while most SJWs were in middle school. Think of him as a criminal, and he’s a genius psychologist. Think of him as a womyn, and he’s fulfilling every unrestrained, nightmare-ish characteristic of the ‘fairer’ sex. Think of him as the ID, and he reveals dormant weakness and corruption in men and institutions we thought were pillars of society.
Don’t talk like you’re one of them. You’re not, even if you’d like to be.
The Guest (2014) with Dan Stevens. However, the ultimate badass side of him eventually fades away in the third act.
Ultimate Badasses, yet none of Charles Bronson’s characters is in that list.
Charles Bronson in all the Death Wish movies is an awesome bad a$$ character.
This has to be about the most fu*cked up list I’ve ever seen. How the hell was Lou Bloom in Night Crawler “a wordsmith, a charmer, a fast talker”! Did you see the movie? He had to basically threaten the one chick with loss of her job, so she would sleep with him. If that is Game, then we have lost all hope for the future.
Two words.
TONY STARK
Wrong! Tony Stark is a mangina/white knight in the movies. Blew up all of his suits for a woman and is afraid of SHIELD. He gave up his suit to Pepper and she saved him.
how dare you miss anything with toshiro mifune in it.
musashi I would reccomend.
dude was boss incarnate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvMKRWAJrt0 Ryu from Street Fighter was inspired by this mans life. One of the best fighters in all of history. Masutatsu Oyama.
Captain Nascimento of the incredible Elite Squad series.
These are two of the greatest movies of the past 20 years. Subtitles yes, but fairly correlated to real life experiences of BOPE police units in Rio de Janiero
The only one I disagree with was Khan. In the TV series, he tried to kill Captain Kirk and was left with his people rather than put into a prison cell in a time and world that was no longer his own.
I am surprised that Mr. Smith was not added to the list. He did his job, failed and was hunted only to become incredibly powerful, then he risked it all for control and thus lost it all… but came damn close.
Goddamn it, this list is pure distilled awesome.
It’s Montegna, not Montana, btw.
Good Alpha character- Tom Selleck in ‘Quigley Down Under.”
My favorites of all time: Blas de Lezo and Simo Hayha that inspired many movies characters without mention them.
If anyone wants to watch some other enjoyable male-oriented movied i’d suggest any of the Bud Spencer and Terrance Hill movies. Still some of the best in my opinion.