Sunday, April 20, 2008

The Bad-Ass Battle, round 1

I'm behind in the curve, so I just recently saw There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men and liked both immensely. Daniel Day Lewis and Javier Bardem both played knock-out characters who were total bad-asses, which explains why they both won Oscars this year. But whose character was more bad-ass?

Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview
He's a cut-throat oil tycoon who doesn't care about the men who die along the way to the top.
When you double-cross him, he beats you to death with a bowling pin or he just shoots you.
He'll disown you if you decide to become his competition, regardless of familial relations.
He'll profess his love to God just to expand the business.
He makes a shooting range in his own house.
He owns a Great Dane (normally not making you bad-ass, but big dogs do carry some worth).
Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead fame does the soundtrack, which really has nothing to do with Mr. Plainview, but his excellent compositions play over some great scenes involving him.
He breaks his leg, and doesn't even give a shit and just pulls himself out of his pre-oil well.

Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh
He uses a air-gun to not only unlock doors, but also to kill people.
He has no sense of morality whatsoever, and pulls a Two-Face move and uses a quarter to decide fate.
Killing is a sense of honor, not for sport or pleasure.
His shotgun with silencer attachment is the scariest thing I've seen, other than his air-gun thing.
He brings back the pageboy haircut in a huge way.
He breaks his arm, pays a boy for his shirt, and then just walks away, arm still broken.
He's the present-day T-1000. He doesn't stop until the job is done.

1 comment:

Jacqueline said...

My money is on Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh. He made my toes curl. (With fear).