10 Best Portrayals of War Movie Villains, Ranked

Providing its audience with an unflinching portrait of the life-or-death nature of armed conflict, war movies have formed an intrinsic part of popular culture since the earliest days of cinema, to the point that famous names in the style of Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, and The Deer Hunter are widely considered to be some of the best films of all time. Furthermore, many of the best war films of all time owe much of their success to a superb villain who carries the story with his wicked presence, serving as the perfect antagonistic foil.

In many cases, the villain is the best character in the film, with the actor tasked with bringing them to life, producing a nuanced and convincing performance that has the potential to overshadow the efforts of the film’s protagonists. From morally destitute war criminals and renegade soldiers to Machiavellian double agents, the best portraits of war movie villains have resulted in some of the most memorable, lauded and influential characters of all time, bringing to life a series of unforgettable antagonists from humanity’s most famous conflicts.

10

Franco Nero as Captain Lescovar

Force 10 from Navarone (1978)

Loosely based on Alistair MacLean’s 1978 novel of the same name Navarone Strength 10 serves as a sequel to 1961 The cannons of Navarone. Swapping Gregory Peck and David Niven for Robert Shaw and Edward Fox, Guy Hamilton’s photo finds Mallory and Miller tasked with a new objective; destroy a vital enemy bridge while trying to eradicate the escaped Nazi spy who tried to sabotage your previous mission.

Said spy takes the form of one of the genre’s most memorable and cunning villains in Franco Nero’s Captain Lescovar. Posing as a partisan, Lescovar is actually a German double agent named Colonel Von Ingolsleben; a high-ranking intelligence officer tasked with undermining the partisan war effort. Nero delivers a mesmerizing turn as Lescovar, with his brooding take on the German spy serving as the perfect antagonistic foil for our heroes against the backdrop of one of the genre’s most underrated offerings.

9

Sessue Hayakawa as Colonel Saito

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Universally considered one of the greatest films in cinema history, 1957 The bridge over the River Kwai chronicles the efforts of a group of British prisoners of war who are recruited to build the film’s titular structure for their Japanese captors. The film’s main antagonist is Sessue Hayakawa’s Colonel Saito, the Japanese commander tasked with overseeing the POW camp and bridge construction efforts.

A solemn, autocratic man who adheres to the Bushido code, Saito is a ruthless individual who refuses to let pesky things like the Geneva Convention interfere with his plans. Hayakawa’s magnificent performance deftly balances the cold, ruthless nature one would associate with a POW camp commander with an air of almost savage desperation to see the bridge completed; as a Japanese official, Saito must commit ritual suicide if the construction is not completed on time.

8

Paul Scofield as Franz Von Waldheim

The Train (1964)

A Black and White Masterpiece by John Frankenheimer, 1964 The train sees Burt Lancaster’s Paul Labiche attempt to foil a Nazi plot to transport priceless stolen art pieces on a locomotive from France to Germany. Labiche’s efforts brought him up against the evil German Colonel Franz von Waldheim, played in a first-rate performance by the late Triple Crown Acting winner Paul Scofield.

The Englishman bows magnificently like the official German worship, happily relishing the creative freedom afforded by his villainous role. Scofield’s imposing presence is complemented by his character’s obsessive nature, a passion for the arts that borders on the fanatical. A worthy adversary of cinema icon Lancaster in one of his best films, von Waldheim’s sinister presence continues The train gliding smoothly along its tracks from start to finish.

7

Ed Harris as Erwin König

Enemy at the Gates (2001)

Starring Jude Law as Soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev, Enemy at the Gates depicts a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between a pair of elite snipers amid the bloody chaos of the Battle of Stalingrad. One of the most underrated war films of the 2000s, Law’s nemesis in the 2001 film is Ed Harris’ Major Erwin König, a Wehrmacht sniper school instructor who is sent to Russia to kill Zaitsev after the proficient exploits of the Russian on the battlefield earned him almost a celebrity. status.

A ruthlessly cunning individual of the highest caliber brought to life in a chilling performance by HarrisKönig uses every trick in the book to gain an advantage over Vasily. In addition to using the Russian’s comrades to goad the sniper into exposing himself, the skilled sniper also kills a boy friend of Vasily, hanging his body on display in an effort to lure his prey. A calculating villain with piercing blue eyes that barely reveal a flicker of emotion, König is one of the genre’s most memorable antagonists.

6

Idris Elba as Commander

Beasts Without a Nation (2015)

A harrowing war drama from True Detective former student Cary Joji Fukunaga, Beasts without a nation chronicles a bloody civil war in an unnamed West African country, from the perspective of Abraham Attah’s child soldier, Agu. Fukunaga’s 2015 offering received highly positive reviews, with particular praise directed towards Idris Elba’s performance as the film’s main villain, an unidentified soldier known as Commander.

An eccentric cocktail of charisma and relentless violence, the Commander is one of the most despicable villains the genre has ever seen. Aided by a force of dead-eyed, brainwashed child soldiers who follow his every order to the letter, Elba’s villain commits a seemingly endless series of war crimes against a host of innocents as conflict rages across the country. It’s a magnificent performance from Luther star, with Elba capturing every horrific nuance of his abominable charge with unflinching clarity.

5

Ronald Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman

All-metal jacket (1987)

Painting a harrowing picture of the darkest aspects associated with the Vietnam War, 1987 All-metal jacket is home to one of the most memorable antagonists in cinema history. A foul-mouthed officer tasked with overseeing the basic training of the film’s central group of characters, Ronald Lee Ermey’s bow as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in one of the best war films of the 1980s is the stuff of legend. A real-life veteran who won a Golden Globe for his performance, Ermey improvised large portions of the iconic tirades of profane abuse for which his character is now synonymous.

Although USMC sergeants often behave similarly to Ermey’s character, Hartman’s status as one of the genre’s premier villains is due to the clear pleasure he takes in his abusive line of work. The sergeant may just be following orders, but he pushes a man suffering from mental illness over the edge and clearly enjoys doing so, underlining this status quo with some of the most unforgettable NSFW one-liners in film history.

4

Tom Berenger as Robert Barnes

Platoon (1986)

A seminal war offering from Oliver Stone and one of the best anti-war films ever made, 1986 Platoon pulls no punches in capturing the most harrowing elements associated with the conflict. Based on the director’s real-life experiences as a Vietnam veteran, Platoon sees the film’s titular group of soldiers gradually divided into two opposing camps of morality; a more compassionate group and their considerably more ruthless counterparts, led by the film’s main antagonist, Tom Berenger’s Sergeant Robert Barnes.

A hardened combat veteran who bears the physical and mental scars of countless military engagements.Barnes demonstrates his perverse credentials shamelessly throughout Platoon, with Berenger receiving an Oscar nomination for her stunning performance. In addition to murdering Willem Dafoe’s Sergeant Elias Grodin and blaming the Viet Cong for his death, Barnes enthusiastically encourages and actively participates in a series of horrific war crimes. One notable sequence sees Barnes even threaten to shoot a young Vietnamese girl after murdering her mother in a vicious attempt to coerce information from her father.

3

Marlon Brando as Walter Kurtz

Apocalypse Now (1978)

One of the best war films of the 1970s, Apocalypse now is a loose adaptation of the book by Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness of The godfather director Francis Ford Coppola. The film follows Captain Willard, played by Martin Sheen, a soldier on a secret mission to assassinate a rogue Special Forces colonel accused of perpetrating extrajudicial barbarities who now runs a cult of personality. Willard’s target and the film’s main antagonist take the form of Marlon Brando’s Walter Kurtz.

A highly decorated special forces officer who is revered by his followers as a demigodthe mentally unstable Kurtz commits a wide range of atrocities as part of a terrorist campaign against anyone who opposes his efforts. Despite appearing briefly in the film, Brando does a lot with little, producing a haunting performance that achieves what most actors dream of accomplishing over the course of a career in just over 15 minutes.

2

Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Arguably Quentin Tarantino’s best film since pulp Fiction2009 Inglourious Basterds chronicles two assassination efforts against the backdrop of an alternate version of World War II. Brought to life in a generational performance by Christoph Waltz, Hans Landa stars as the titular villain in Tarantino’s genre-subverting masterpiece, a role that earned the previously unknown Austrian an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

A fiercely intelligent and calculating SS officerLanda is known as “The Jew Hunter” due to his proficiency in locating Jews forced into hiding throughout occupied France. Giving his reputation as one of cinema’s most memorable villains, Landa’s fearsome reputation is juxtaposed with a facade of affected civility, a warm smile, and an eloquent way of speaking that evaporates in an instant to reveal a ruthless disposition and unshakable malice that hides behind the colonel’s eyes. The focal point of one of cinema’s most unforgettable character introductions, Landa is a villain for the ages.

1

Ralph Fiennes as Gothic Amön

Schindler’s List (1993)

Perhaps the quintessential war film that viewers can only bear to watch once, Schindler’s List is widely considered one of the best films of all time, regardless of genre. Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film is based on the real-life story of Oskar Schindler, played by Liam Neeson, a German industrialist responsible for saving more than a thousand Jewish workers from the Holocaust by giving them jobs in his factories.

The main villain of Schindler’s List is Amon Göth, an SS commander in charge of supervising the concentration camps. The personification of pure evil, Göth is a brutal sadist of the highest order, an individual who shoots field workers through his porch window if they appear to be working too slowly, and a man who personifies the malevolence that permeates this seminal war film. The despicable war criminal is played in a harrowing and authentic way by Ralph Fiennes; the actor’s failure to receive the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance is perhaps the most egregious oversight in the Academy’s history.