5. State of Grace — Duly putting to rest any Irish stereotypes, State of Grace features an unwashed and unruly punk-ass Gary Oldman as Jackie Flannery — binge-drinking, fiery-tempered, always-liable-to-throw-down-at-the-drop-of-a-hat and go off like Mel Gibson when Oksana mentioned the jacuzzi. Here he foresees multiple Oscars for Sean Penn and not even a nomination for for himself for 20 years. Who wouldn’t grab a firearm?
Remain calm… remain… calm…
4. Sid & Nancy – For a kid on heroin, Oldman’s Vicious was surprisingly caffeinated. Then again if Nancy Spungen was anything like Chloe Webb in this 1986 gem, you’d be aggravated too. Complete with tiger stripe briefs and punk rock NSFW-ness. Go here.
3. The Firm – Firms are football hooligans, an angry lot of (usually) Brits who only have one goal: to make sure their team wins, and to drink, pillage, wave their private parts at, and viciously beat within an inch of their lives any wanker from an opposing team. By day, hooligan Gary is a well dressed guy selling real estate. In the evening he comes home to a nagging wife and a wretched suburban duplex that massively cramps his style. His room is a shrine to the West Ham United, his favorite football team, and it looks more than a little Dahmer-esque. There he faithfully practices beating techniques on his pillow and self-defense against evil abominable snowmen. Say it with us now: YEH-TEE.
2. Leon/The Professional – The line between ham and psychotic is a fine one, and here Oldman walks a frayed tightrope. There’s so many great meltdowns in The Professional, it’s hard to pick one — but the most revered is this one, available in many fine remixes on the web.
1. Dracula – It’s more than a bit ironic that even after anally impaling thousands of godless enemy combatants, Prince Vlad is ultimately defeated and eternally damned because of the 15th century equivalent of a passed note in class. In perhaps the most goth scene in the history of cinema, he impales a cross, which spews a fountain of blood. The Prince then renounces god, and to clear up any confusion, drinks blood from a chalice, before doing his best Sepultura impression. Hundreds of years later, he’s still so in love that even his head is in the shape of a heart. Awww
Words by Jeff Nau (@JeffNau)
‘Siriusly’ pic courtesy of coffee c-u-p-s
Photo/clip of Dracula courtesy of Columbia Pictures
Photo/clip of Oldman in The Firm Courtesy of BBC
Photo/clip of Oldman and Portman in The Professional courtesy of Columbia Pictures
Photo/clip of Sid and Nancy courtesy of Orion/MGM
Photo/clip of State of Grace courtesy of Orion/MGM
