Evil British in Hollywood

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Bob__Euchre

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people are looking for a problem that doesn't exist. first of all, its mel gibson, he isn't known for accuracy. the patriot wasn't a bio pic. wasn't sold as one, and there is no general acceptance in wider culture that it is anymore real than the hunt for red october. to make an issue of it is to distort reality to justify an argument.

second, everyone likes complaining about being the baddie. you heard this from the arabs, claiming they were always the baddie. but wait, didn't the brits say that? but wait, look back at those action films, so many were south african baddies as well, so who is it? people are only seeing what they want to see.



:P yea sure ian mckellen was magneto. but professor x was also british so what is it? american tv is full of british actors, whereas the same cannot be said of british tv. so whos more insular really? americans on spooks are always baddies. and with horrible accents to boot, the latest blond cia agent is esp bad.
 
i don't think so. american actors would happily play a serial killer or some other eccentric if they were offered the part. john malk in con air for example, or kevin spacey as kaiser soze and the serial killer in se7en. sometimes having a different accent adRAB to eccentricity to perhaps more parts are given to brits. but i'm not sure about that, i've not counted it up. i think people are just selectively blind to make a point. for instance ralph feinnes was a serial killer in red dragon. but he spoke in an american accent.
 
Possible. Maybe the pantomime tradition helps?

I actually think it evokes memories of the war of independence and beating back those evil, arrogant British oppressors.

If the French and Spanish hadn't interfered those Americans would still be speaking English. :cool:
 
On a serious note I do think that prominent American actors tend towarRAB being clean living, good looking, all American good guys with shiny white teeth while prominent European actors tend to be 'characters' with rough edges, a glint of menace, and a hint of mystery about them.

Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise couldn't play a bad guy to save their lives, although I'll concede with the likes of Pacino and Pitt.
 
I just replied to this statement on imdb......
"The Patriot - horribly negative view of the British as war-mongering, child-murdering psychopaths and the colonists as the true heroes and martyrs. Sure, the Brits have had their share of unbecoming moments throughout the history but this movie paints it as completely black and white."

My reply "Hmmm yep the brits have a bad rep in their history but Americans conveniently forget they are the only nation to have used nuclear weapons on civilians in wartime."

Why does Hollywood insist on portraying Brits as being arrogant and nasty while they forget America isn't so squeaky clean themselves?
 
yeah i would go with the independance arguement too as well as my theory

Some excellent British actors who play villains

Sean Bean
Alan Rickman
Jason Isaacs
 
:rolleyes: Perchance if the Americans started to employ the equivalent percentage of British actors which the British in turn employ Americans, then! true fairness and contention will materialize!
 
I'd avoid any Mel Gibson film to be honest, the guy's a bigot.

I haven't seen many films where Britain as a whole is portrayed negatively though, but I have seen many bad guys in films that are English.

In fact, a large proportion of American films seem to have Brits as the baddies.

Why? Because we're the only ones with actors good enough to pull it off :p
 
Oh, I think we Brits love being portayed as the baddie in Hollywood films because it feels like we're being rebellious, rather than the boring, weak lap-dogs that we actually are.
I'm not sure where the notion comes from within our frienRAB over the pond - they seem to have a strangely polarised view of us - we're either "quaint, inhibited folk with bad teeth" or "evil megalomaniacs".
 
Even their TV. "Flashforward" is full of British baddies. In the new version of 'The Prisoner" I'm pretty sure Sir Ian McKellen is the baddie too!
 
I don't think its because we have better actors, most of the greatest screen actors are American.
I think because as a nation England has become very subservient to the US culturally.
(And I do mean England as opposed to the rest of the UK)
We are too timid to say to the American film & tv producers that what they are doing is pure prejudice.
Its not just the odd character with a cut glass English accent who is portrayed as evil.
There have been US films made in recent years which are little more than anti-English propaganda pieces.
Any English characters are given the worse personality traits possible, sneering, evil, snobbish and cowardly.
It's anti-English racism from our American "cousins", pure and simple.
 
I watched an old episode of Frasier the other day, Daphne had her brothers over for a visit, now we all know she has a Manchester accent, one brother was a Scot (Robbie Coltrane) and one of the others was a plummy Londoner (Richard E Grant).
Made me laugh :D
 
you like to claim this but frankly the only realistic type shows or films with baddies between us these days seems to be from the uk with the americans as baddies. spooks is one notorious example. there is no us counter part.

i mean seriously are you going to complain about doctor evil without mentioning austin powers? basically thats what it is.

the only prejudice is from you here. look at all the recent comic book hero films. what was the english baddie in batman dark knight? the joker is hardly english. spiderman? is green goblin/sandman/doctor octopus english? the watchmen, basically no english. iron man.. no english. incredible hulk, no english.. Valkyrie hell even a nazi doesn't have an english accent this time. star trek nero and romulan co are using american accents.

mostly it seems if you have anti american leanings you only see what you want to see. lets get it clear here, there is no wide spread anti english sentiment in the us to match that of anti americanism in the uk.
 
My mother experiences this same opinion that British actors are somehow 'better'. She explained it by saying British actors were often 'actOrs' with a kind of pronounced 'OR'. WTF? :confused: Is that some kind of reference to period or Shakespearian acting?

The fact is that a good actor is profoundly good at carrying across the subtle or emotional nuances of an intense and varied character, amongst other things I'm sure. There are plenty of actors that do this in both countries.
 
Oh come on !
I am talking about those films involving discernably British (particulary English) characters
Have a look at titanic, not a great film but very popular and the British characters are universally portrayed as cold hearted and brutal, thats just one example.
And don't get me started on the likes of The Patriot (the British soldiers are child murdering brutes ) or Braveheart (the English are raping, sneering brutes)
And as someone else said there is a list as long as your arm and leg of British actors who are cast as the main evil character in US films.
 
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