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s a guy, society and gender roles dictate that I am supposed to enjoy action films and thrillers. Luckily for me, I do not have to feign adoration for such films, as I do indeed like to watch them. I have scrupulously analyzed many of them, including most of the more modern editions, and I would like to examine who dons the crown as the most badass actor around.
There is an entire catalog of candidates who can fill the shoes that the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis are untying. I will narrow the list down to a few of the most prominent fist-clenching, gun-slinging, babe-wooing heroes of the silver screen. To determine victor of the BAMF award, I will use the following criteria:
1. Difficulty in surmounting bad guys and/or antagonists (60 percent of total grade)
2. Innovation of body movement and exterior utilities (30 percent)
3. Poignancy of one-liners (10 percent)
I will also analyze what I deem to be each actor’s most badass role to help me decide.
Mark Wahlberg
Marky Mark has acted in a bunch of movies that have been anything but funky. A short list of his action-packed credentials include “Three Kings,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Four Brothers,” “Invincible,” “The Departed,” “Shooter” and “The Fighter.” If I had to choose one film where he best displays his Leroy Brownness, it would be a tossup between “Four Brothers” and “Shooter.” But for time purposes, let’s just say “Four Brothers.” In the film, Wahlberg best exemplifies his skill for reducing bad guys to blood and bones, executing mob kingpin Victor Sweet in a mano-a-mano fist fight to the death atop an ice-covered lake. Wahlberg’s character, Bobby Mercer, then disposes of Sweet’s twitching body in a hole carved into the ice bed. The entire film is riddled with quick-witted one liners.
Matt Damon
Like Wahlberg, who actually beats Matt Damon’s insidious character in “The Departed,” Damon maintains his own well-groomed résumé. His tenacity for badassity is portrayed in “Saving Private Ryan,” the Bourne trilogy, the Ocean’s trilogy, “The Departed” and “True Grit.” I will delineate Damon’s merit for the award through his role as Jason Bourne in “The Bourne Identity.” I cannot fathom anything more badass than taking on the CIA by oneself without even knowing one’s identity. The cherry on top of the bowl of extreme amnesia is the CIA-trained Bourne to fight, and he was its prized possession. Kudos to Damon for his role as Jason Bourne, a badass legend.
Daniel Craig
It is difficult to watch a Daniel Craig film without being both shaken and stirred. The sitting Bond has found employment in such movies as “Casino Royale,” “Quantum of Solace,” “Skyfall,” “Defiance” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” We all know that James Bond is the epitome of badass, so I will instead highlight Craig’s role as Tuvia Bielski in “Defiance.” As the leader of a group of thousands of Jews evading Nazi slaughter in the woods of Belarus, Bielski anticipates and rebuts Nazi capture and annihilation, spearheading a charge and defeat of the lurking SS. Overall, Craig is undoubtedly one of the most badass actors that Hollywood has ever seen, making him certainly a formidable candidate on any contemporary list.
And the winner is...
If this list took acting talent and range into account, I would be faced with a tough choice between Damon and Craig. But alas, this is a BAMF contest, and I cannot watch a Mark Wahlberg movie without expecting him to pound some scum in the most awesome of ways. If you have never seen “Four Brothers,” “Shooter” or “The Departed,” I highly recommend you go about doing that (“The Departed” is definitely in my top-five favorite films of all time). So, in my subjective yet correct opinion, Mark Wahlberg is the most badass actor of his generation.
Do you think Marky Mark takes the title as biggest BAMF? Who would you add to Zac’s list? Email your thoughts to pestine@wisc.edu.
