100 Decent Folk In Cinema - Page 3

If Bunny Breckinridge from Ed Wood isn't up already. Consider him my choice.

64 or so

Elwood P. Dowd, Harvey. He has a good time wherever he is, whomever he's with. And he's Jimmy Stewart.

On second thought, I withdraw mine for being too easy. And my backup was Lionel Barrymore's Grandpa from You Can't Take It With You, so I think I just suck at this game.

Going to the Miyazaki well for these two:

Osono-Kiki's Delivery Service-She is completely warm, loving, good-humored and someone you'd love to have as a mother.

Dad-My Neighbor Totoro-Ebert pointed this out, but it bears repeating: Not for a moment does Satsuki and Mei's dad doubt or dismiss their reports of fantastic creatures like many movie parents. He is completely kind and trusting, and practically a big kid himself: "That's great! I've always wanted to live in a haunted house!"

What number are we on, curiously?

Here is the a list of those chosen so far:

1. Bobby Cannavale as Joe Oramas in The Station Agent
2. Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mocking Bird
3. Richard Jenkins as Ted Treffon in Burn after Reading
4. Mageina Tovah as Ursula Ditkovich in Spider-Man 2 and 3
5. Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption
6. Raul Julia as Gomez Addams in The Addams Family
7. Danny Glover as Simon in Grand Canyon
8. Russel Means as Old Indian in Natural Born Killers
9. Dennis Hopper as Clifford Worley in 'True Romance'
10. Frances McDormand as Margie Gunderson in Fargo
11. Steve Buscemi as "Donnie" in The Big Lebowski
12. Laurence Fishburne as Furious Styles in Boyz n the Hood
13. Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in No Country For Old Men
14. Giuletta Masina as Gelsomina in La Strada
15. Hal Holbrook as Ron Franz in Into the Wild
16. O.P. Heggie & Gene Hackman as the Blind Hermit in Bride of Frankenstein & Young Frankenstein
17. Glenn Ford as Jonathan Kent in Superman
18. Henry Fonda as Tom Joad in Grapes of Wrath
19. Martin Sheen as Detective Captain Oliver Queenan in The Departed
20. Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life
21. Charlie Chaplin as The Tramp in City Lights
22. Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb in The Green Mile
23. Reginald VelJohnson as Sgt. Al Powell in 'Die Hard'
24. Christian Bale as Theodore "Laurie" Lawrence in Little Women
25. Jimmy Stewart as Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
26. Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine in Casablanca
27. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter as Ted "Theodore" Logan and Bill S. Preston Esq. in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
28. Steve Carell as Andy Stitzer in The 40 Year Old Virgin
29. Clive Owen as Theo Fanon and Micheal Caine as Jasper in Children of Men
30. Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell in Moon
31. Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho II
32. Mia Sara as Sloane Peterson in Ferris Bueller's Day Off
33. Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe in 'The Long Goodbye'
34. John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything
35. Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stanz in Ghostbusters
36. Sean Astin as Samwise 'Sam' Gamgee in Lord of the Rings Trilogy
37. Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth in Batman Begins & The Dark Knight
38. Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter) in The Incredibles
40. Cliff Robertson as Ben Parker in Spiderman
41. Jonathan Price as Sam Lowry in Brazil
42. Clancy Brown as Lt. Jimmy Williams in The Hurricane
43. Russell Crowe as Officer Wendell 'Bud' White in LA Confidential
45. Roy Scheider as Martin Brody in Jaws
46. John Candy as Del Griffith in Planes, Trains & Automobiles
47. Ben Kingsley as Vice President Nance in Dave
48. Justin Long as Clay Dalton in Drag Me to Hell
49. Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca in The Original Star Wars Trilogy
50. Gregory Peck as James McKay in The Big Country
51. Graham Greene as Kicking Bird in Dances With Wolves
52. TC "Twin Cities" Ellis as himself in Graffiti Bridge
53. Reggie Bannister as himself in Phantasm
54. Brian Cox as James Brogan in 25th Hour
55. Chris Messina and Melanie Lynskey as Tom and Munch Garnett in Away We Go
56. Robert Forster as Max Cherry in Jackie Brown
57. Ellen Burstyn as Edna Mae McCauley in Resurrection
58. Siobhan Fallon as Brenda in Dancer In The Dark
59. Catherine Keener as Harper Lee in Capote
60. Cameron Diaz as Mary in There's Something About Mary
61. Ben Kingsley as Itzak Stern in Schindler's List
62. The many roles of John C. Reilly
63. Stephen Dillane as Leonard Woolf in The Hours
64. John Voight as “Ed” in Deliverance
65. Timothy Hutton as Brian Moreland in Taps
66. Bill Murray as Bunny Breckinridge in Ed Wood
67. Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey
68. Osono (voiced by Keiko Toda/Tress MacNeille) in Kiki's Delivery Service
69. “Dad” (voiced by Shigesato Itoi/Timothy Daly) in My Neighbor Totoro
70. Barbara Bel Geddes as Midge Wood in Vertigo
71. Seymour Cassel as Bert Fischer in Rushmore
72. Scatman Crothers as Dick Hallorann The Shining
73. Eric Bana as Avner in Munich
74. Charles Grodin as Jonathan Mardukas in Midnight Run
75. Ashitaka (voiced by Yôji Matsuda/Billy Crudup) in Princess Mononoke
76. Toby Jones as Olly Weeks in The Mist
77. Bruce Greenwood as Captain Christopher Pike in Star Trek (2009)
78. Kermit the Frog (voiced by Jim Henson) in The Muppet Movie
80. Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed in Rocky III
81. Amy Adams as Giselle in Enchanted
82. Catherine O'Hara & Eugene Levy as Cookie and Gerry Fleck in Best in Show

The disqualified:
39. William Atherton as Walter Peck in Ghostbusters

As Number 70 I choose:
Barbara Bel Geddes as Midge Wood in Vertigo

A woman who was more handsome than beautiful. Yet she stayed by Jimmy Stewart's side through a nervous breakdown because she loved him, even though he was blind to the fact. A figure that was almost more tragic than Jimmy Stewart's character in the film.

/Edited to bring the list up to date.

Seymour Cassel as Bert Fischer in Rushmore.

"Mr. Fischer's my father's name. Call me Bert."

72. Scatman Crothers as Dick Hallorann The Shining

Takes truly a good heart to leave a vacation, drive through a snowstorm, and risk supernatural danger just to save a bratty little white kid!

Eric Bana as Avner in MUNICH.

Not only is he patriotic, kosher, and a great family man, but he sacrifices pieces of his soul and years of his life hunting down terrorists. In the end, he has the old-fashioned goodwill to actually face down the moral crisis of revenge. And what has he gained? He can't stop thinking about Munich, even while screaming during sex. And the Twin Towers loom over his shoulder.

Jonathan Mardukas (Charles Grodin) in Midnight Run

When Mardukas found out the company he was accountant at was run by the Mafia, he embezzled millions and gave it to charity. Relentlessly friendly and optimistic, he just wants to be your buddy and raise his family and have a good life.

75. Ashitaka (Billy Crudup) in Princess Mononoke

While defending his village from an unknown monster, he is cursed by the creature, and told that he will die from it. He must go into exile, and whilst in exile, finds himself in the middle of various factions at war (nature vs. technology). During this time, he acts as the viewers eyes, and serves as the film's moral center.

His ultimate goal is to stop the fighting that exists all around him.

Sound pretty decent to me.

77. Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood)-Star Trek (2009)-He knows Kirk has the makings of a great captain, he will gladly give himself up for the safety of his crew, and he's played by Bruce Greenwood, who I'm not sure is capable of playing a scumbag. What more could you want?

'Double Jeopardy'.

Can we go ahead and do that, by the way? There's no way he deserves to be with the other characters on this list. It was a joke suggestion that slid by.

I'd have no problem deleting him (he was my suggestion). I nominated him to try and stir up some discussion regarding 'decency'.

Nice. It's a real testament to Jones' acting that he would shortly after totally flip the script and very effectively play one of the most un-decent cocksuckers in history (Karl Rove).

I figured that was it, but it kind of just passed without discussion when it happened and now it looks really odd on the list. Although the question of whether or not Peck just doing his job qualifies him as decent is interesting. I'd argue that it doesn't, due to the relish with which he belittles people and his general dickish behavior.

edited for typo

Agreed 100%, although it really is Venkman who sets him off. When he makes his first appearance, he really is being quite reasonable in his request on behalf of the EPA. It's entirely possible that, had Venkman obliged his request then and there, everything would have turned out fine for the company.

That's valid, Venkman wouldn't make it on this list either. I wonder if the fact that Peck's played by William Atherton would be evidence enough for his exclusion. Has that dude EVER played a decent human being?

This conversation makes me that "Villains Who Were Just Doing Their Jobs" would be an interesting thread. But I think it already exists somewhere.

Check out 'Sugarland Express' sometime, it will make you re-evaluate what he's capable of. I've also seen him play normal people in bit parts here and there ('The Last Samurai' comes to mind), but his bread and butter has really been as the go-to guy when you want a top notch ASSHOLE.

There has been a thread regarding 'bad guys who were actually good guys' (I think he's on there for Peck), and there's also been a 'top cinematic assholes' thread where he was the undisputed winner.

That's the thread I was thinking of.

I have seen Sugarland Express and it is awesome, and he is awesome in it. I totally forgot about it. I'm too lazy for even a cursory IMDB filmography perusal.

I'd be happy to remove Walter Peck from the list, but I would still would like him to appear so others can see how the list is evolving. Is there any way to do strikethrough text on these forums?

I've tried any number of tags. [s] [/s] [strike] [/strike] [line] [/line] [slash] [/slash] [strikethrough] [/strikethough] all don't seem to fit the bill and those were the ones that came up in a google search.

Really? That's quite interesting; what kind of scumbag, curiously?

[QUOTE= There has been a thread regarding 'bad guys who were actually good guys' (I think he's on there for Peck), and there's also been a 'top cinematic assholes' thread where he was the undisputed winner.[/QUOTE]

Here ya go: http://chud.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118066

Atherton's not a bad guy in Day of the Locust.

He was the bad guy in the film. He fakes his own murder and frames his wife for it, he kills the woman that he runs off with, and he attempts the murder of his wife when she finally catches up with him. He's also a smarmy, arrogant asshole throughout the entire second half of the film.

It's not a great movie, but he's plays a very effective bad guy.

(78) Kermit the Frog in The Muppet Movie - I think you could pick any scene from this movie since Kermit is the most decent of all the Muppets.

However, I've always loved that scene where Kermit has a conversation with his conscience about the journey to Hollywood.

He does have some pretty sarcastic lines at points: "I don't know why to thank you guys," for example. Otherwise, I completely agree.

I'm not sure if this has been posted or suggested yet, but Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen struck me as being too nice a guy for his own good throughout that flick.

80. Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed - Rocky III.

Sure, he was an arrogant prick in the first two movies, and he directly contributed to the extreme trauma to Rocky Balboa's brain. But when Mr. T showed up, he knew only one thing could defeat him. And instead of taking the glory for himself, he gave the Eye of the Tiger to Rocky.

Plus, any man who runs in knee-highs and short-shorts on the beach has gotta be "decent folk".

This list needs more women on it.

81-Amy Adams as... well, pretty much any of her roles, but especially 'Enchanted'. It's a movie that's good-but-flawed, but Adams stands head and shoulders above it. What's marvelous is that she's super-sweet and nice without being irritating, which is a hard balance, but Adams makes Giselle someone you'd love to have as a friend.

A friend who fucks you. A lot.

Well, that too.

82. Catherine O'Hara & Eugene Levy as Cookie and Gerry Fleck in Best in Show.

Two fundamentally decent people who decided to take up the hobby of showing dogs. They share hopes of winning but are humble enough not to expect it and I couldn't think of any characters more deserving of the prize in the film. They seem like a couple that would help you out in any situation no matter how dire, even though there is a chance they would talk your ears off while doing so.

83. Mike Terry (Cheiwitel Ejiofor) in Red Belt

One of the few fundamentally good men in the Mamet cannon. I guy who so thoroughly follows his code of honor it pretty much costs him everything. But, because aside from being purely decent, he also happens to be purely badass, he ends up fighting, and winning, in defense of his art and master's honor.

Gordon Pinsent as Grant Anderson in Away from Her.
Grant basically has no hope of his wife ever knowing who is he or requiting his love for her and watches as she falls in love with another man, but he spends the majority of his time taking care of her. Just because he loves her that much.

Harvey Keitel as Judas Iscariot in The Last Temptation of Christ. "I could kill someone I loved, if he did the wrong thing." I think Scorsese does an interesting thing here in making Judas the most admirable, if not the best, person in the story. With Jesus, he knows what the right thing is, always. His struggle is that he doesn't want to do what is required of him, which is understandable. Judas, on the other hand, doesn't always know what the good or right thing is, but he is completely committed to doing whatever it is and will change the course of his actions on a dime if he thinks someone else has a better idea of what the good consists in.

86. Zooey Deschanel as Dorothy Evans in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

In deleted scenes, she's emphatically a prostitute who's interested in Bob Ford's fame. In the version we got, she shows up briefly and draws him out. She gets him to explain himself through simple eye contact and direct questions, gives him (and us) a moment of respite from his self-made hell. Someone understands him. Honorable mention could maybe go to Sam Rockwell (probably just because he's Sam Rockwell, although he's unique in that he's not bloodthirsty) and the guy at the end who says "Opals are unlucky, Bob."

Jason Miller as Father Damien Karras in The Exorcist.

Probably one of the most sympathetic priests in movie history, Karras is flawed, he questions his faith, he agonizes over his mother being in an institution, yet he's still willing to meet with Ellen Burstyn about her daughter, as if there were nothing else going on in his life. And, of course, his final action on behalf of Regan.

On the William Peter Blatty tip, I'd nominate Lt. Kinderman as written in his novel Legion, but the movie version didn't put the detective's kindness (check the name) across very well at all.

88. Martin Sheen as Capt. Queenan in The Departed. In a movie where just about everyone else is corrupt or has an agenda, Captain Queenan is a voice of reason, he offers shelter and advice to a rapidly degenerating Leo, and even sacrafices himself to keep Leo alive. Just a genuinely well written, warm character.

89. Aunt Em in The Wizard of Oz. She doesn't tell off Gulch when the evil woman wants to destroy the one thing in the world that Dorothy holds dear, plus she keeps a watch over everyone, taking care of the farm and keeping everyone in line.

^^^ Quenan's already number 19.

Well crap. How did I miss that?

89. Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

There are many inspired casting choices of all the decent characters in the Harry Potter series. David Thewlis as Professor Lupin, Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, but none embody the spirit of their character from the book as completely as Michael Gambon. Richard Harris never satisfied me with his take on the character. Dumbledore in the books, while being a great mentor, also had a streak of anti-authoritarian mischief a mile wide bubbling just under the surface. Michael Gambon brought this to the character which made him all the more deep and gave him that smile with the twinkle in his eye when he flatly denied that he told Harry and Hermione to misuse the time turner. "Good night."

Which Gambon seemed to drop in the next 2 movies (where he seemed more like a paranoid barking dog), but brought back in full force in The Half-Blood Prince. Which is to say I think you should include that recent film when mentioning Gambon in this list.

Haven't seen Half-Blood yet. After the Goblet of Fire I decided the films weren't worth going to the theater for and I have been netflixing them since then.

They are not terrible, Azkaban is pretty great, but I rather go see an independent film in a theater setting.

Fair enough. Perhaps you'll stop back in and tell us what you think once you do see the latest one.

If anything I'd suggest David Thewlis as Lupin. Played the character with a quiet sadness knowing that he was a danger to almost everyone and was forever to live on the edge of society.

The last shot of him in POA walking away through the classroom should have lingered a second or two longer - just to emphasis his littlest hobo nature.