Favorite Anti-Heroes:

blackshirt/the saint/luther/Turkish/raffles.

Several of Bogart's film roles would qualify as anti-heroic: "I stick my neck out for no one," but when the chips are down, he does the right thing at considerable personal risk. E.g., the Frank McCloud character in Key Largo, Harry Morgan in To Have and Have Not, and of course Rick Blaine in Casablanca.

@divegeester said
Without doubt Frankenstein’s monster as portrayed by Boris Karlof on screen but with more scope in Shelley’s original work, would have to be my first choice.

A metaphor for mankind and a certain perspective of our relationship with God, the creature is misconceived, malformed and yet he is intelligent and capable of great compassion. Immature and rejected he wreaks a ...[text shortened]... his creator and they end up in an desperate pursuit of each other in the artic wastelands.

Epic.

An unusual choice, but well-conceived. Bravo.

@suzianne said
An unusual choice, but well-conceived. Bravo.

Yes, Dr. Frankenstein is the villain in that story, bringing a new life into the world and then abandoning it.

There have been some excellent choices. I'm pleasantly surprised.
Honestly, I expected to be reading some mean-spirited sarcasms this morning.

One of my childhood favorites:
Kwai Chang Caine - (From 1970s TV's "Kung Fu". Played by David Carradine.)

The basterds from Inglourious Basterds.

@js357 said
I suppose Voltaire’s Candide is a legitimate candidate. Here is a sample concerning how Candide steps up to the role of hero: “There was never anything so gallant, so spruce, so brilliant, and so well disposed as the two armies. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, and cannon made music such as Hell itself had never heard. The cannons first of all laid flat about six thousand men ...[text shortened]... dide, who trembled like a philosopher, hid himself as well as he could during this heroic butchery.”

What I heard...

@divegeester said
Many of Clint Eastwood’s on screen characters are also favourites:

William Munny
The man with no name
Dirty Harry

And of course... James Bond

Did you mean Billy Mumy?

@wolfgang59 said
James Bond?
How so?

Bond is probably one of the most recognisable anti-heroes no??

@mudfinger said
Did you mean Billy Mumy?

No, William Munny “out of Missouri”, the character from the film Unforgiven.

@suzianne said
An unusual choice, but well-conceived. Bravo.

Why thank you!

I studied the book at college as part of my English literature course and I did write some nifty essays on it, even if I do say so myself. 🙂

@divegeester said
Bond is probably one of the most recognisable anti-heroes no??

I think James Bond is a good example - he follows his mission, he has a job to do and 'you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs'. He may be too emotional at times but that makes him human and lovable.

@divegeester said
Many of Clint Eastwood’s on screen characters are also favourites:

William Munny
The man with no name
Dirty Harry

And of course... James Bond

The man with no name? Was that the same character in High Plains Drifter who raped a woman in a barn?

@drewnogal said
The man with no name? Was that the same character in High Plains Drifter who raped a woman in a barn?

I believe "the man with no name" is an informal moniker attached to Clint's characters in Sergio Leone's unofficial, "spaghetti western trilogy" of films of the 1960s:

- A Fistful of Dollars
- For a Few Dollars More
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

@divegeester said
Bond is probably one of the most recognisable anti-heroes no??

Not my idea of an anti-hero.
Surely he displays most of the usual heroic qualities?
Bravery, duty, selflessness, guile, strength, intelligence .. and British!

A disregard for the rules sure ... but then we probably
end up defining all heroes as anti-heroes. In fact what
hero is not an anti-hero?