In Paul Feig’s The School for Good and Evil — based on Soman Chainani’s YA book series of the same name — students enroll in training grounds for heroes and villains of the fairy-tale world. It’s a place where the sons and daughters of legendary characters like King Arthur, the Sheriff of Nottingham and Captain Hook roam the halls. Tudum asked director Feig to choose his own five favorite cinematic forces for good and evil. In some cases, he wasn’t quite sure which category to place them in — in a way, that seems only fitting.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
“Who’s more of a badass than Charlize in that movie? Just so cool.”
Alien (1979)
“Except Ripley. She’s the original hero in my book. Good lord, Sigourney is incredible and Ripley is such a cool and original and definitive character.”
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
“You can’t go wrong with that guy — I’d follow his adventures wherever they go.”
Star Wars (1977)
“I like that she was in the center of these two big personalities — three if you can count Chewbacca — and she just held her own the whole time.”
The Terminator (1984)
“I love heroes who get thrown into situations and don’t realize they’re going to be heroes. That’s my favorite thing.”
Die Hard (1988)
“Alan Rickman is so delicious in that role. It’s the relish he gives it, but not annoying relish. I’d never seen a villain played like that before, and it was just so great.”
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
“I think that’s my favorite villain of all time, because it’s so over the top and hilarious. It’s the funniest ‘scary’ villain I’ve ever seen. And I just love the way he looks.”
Casino Royale (2006)
“I love that character. Talk about relish. Literally, he bleeds from his eye. That’s how evil he is!”
Frankenstein (1931)
“I actually go back and forth. In the first movie, he’s a villain, but I think in the second movie [1935’s The Bride of Frankenstein], he’s really a hero. But he does kill a child, so that’s a fairly villainous thing to do. I just think he’s such a misunderstood villain, and I especially love Frankenstein in the Mary Shelley books. You feel so bad for him because he’s been brought into this world he didn’t want to be in. He’s trying to be nice to people, and everybody’s so horrified by him that he just has to become a villain because nobody will take him any other way, which is heartbreaking.”
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
“He’s just foreclosing on people and manipulating everybody, and he never gets better. He never has an epiphany; he’s just terrible the whole time. And he’s got a guy pushing him around and he has a crow. Thanks for not having any character growth whatsoever, Mr. Potter.”
