Top 5 80’s Movie Villains That Were Actually Right!

The 1980’s was one of the best decades for movies.

Where it seems that movies that are released nowadays take themselves way too seriously, producers in the 80’s were unafraid to tackle serious topics in light-hearted fun ways. And this was reflected in the antagonists of many of these movies.

But were all the “Bad Guys” really “Bad Guys?”

Let’s look at Geeky Daddy’s Top 5 1980’s Movie Villains That Actually Had A Point!

1 Edward R. Rooney (Dean Of Students) In Ferris Bueller

The New York Times had a terrific review of Jeffrey Jones performance as the wannabe hero Edward R. Rooney in 1986’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when it likened him to the Looney Toons character Wile E. Coyote: A character who is simply fated to be unable to catch his elusive prey.

The dude may have been kind of an overzealous ass (I believe breaking and entering is a felony in Illinois after all), but he was just doing his job, which as a Dean of Students, was to determine if his student’s absence was due to a legitimate illness or not.

Jones probably had the best review of the movie’s premise himself when he said: “What’s amazing about Ferris Bueller, is that we’re asked to, and do, sympathize with a kid whose only complaint in life is that his sister got a car for her birthday and he got a computer.”

2 Dr. Jake Houseman (Baby’s Father) In Dirty Dancing

Terrific soundtrack aside, I have never understood the allure of the movie Dirty Dancing.

What kind of father wouldn’t be upset seeing his well-to-do 17-year-old daughter being seduced by the pelvic sorcery of a 25-year-old professional dancer named ‘Johnny,’ who’s friend the doctor just had to rescue after complications from an illegal abortion. Bear in mind, at the time, Dr. Houseman assumed the abortion was Johnny’s as well.

And how can anyone trust a dude in his mid-20s who still goes with the “y” at the end of their first name (I.E. Johnny, Joey, Davey…). Seriously, leave that crap on your faux little league baseball card!

To me, Dr. Jake Houseman’s greatest sin in the film is lack of child naming creativity. Who names their baby: “Baby.” If my parents were that uncreative, every family pet we had growing up would have simply been named “Dog.”

3 Walter Peck (EPA Inspector) In Ghost Busters

Character actor William Atherton made a career out of playing pricks in the 1980’s, but his most memorable character had to be EPA Inspector Walter Peck in the first Ghost Busters movie.

Spurred on by “wild stories in the media,” Peck is sent to “assess any possible environmental impact” by the Ghostbusters’ operation. Which is literally his job as an EPA Inspector!

He only comes back with an official inspection order and shuts down the containment unit AFTER Dr. Venkman was a complete dick to him in their first meeting.

While Peck’s theory about the Ghost Busters using hallucinogens or other drugs to induce ghost sightings among their potential customers was incorrect and rather far stretched, it was still his responsibility to investigate what the Ghost Busters were doing with these ghost, real or not. Were they dumping the ghosts in the sewer? Releasing them into the atmosphere? Rolling them into hemp paper and smoking them?

It should also be pointed out that, even though the explosion was caused by his order to shutdown the containment field, the contain unit was an un-permitted and therefore illegal in the first place.

UPDATE: I just saw that William Atherton will be returning as Walter Peck in Ghost Busters: Frozen Empire!

Related Post: Top Movie Soundtracks That Were Better Than The Movie!

4 Dr. Phillip Barbay (Dean Of The Business School) In Back To School

Dr. Phillip Barbay from Rodney Dangerfield’s Back To School was a self obsessed egotistical jerk. No denying that.

However he was not wrong about his concerns about self-made millionaire Thornton Melon’s possibly corrupt business practices and especially Melon torpedoing the integrity of the university’s business school by buying his admission and class grades.

As Dean of the university’s business school, Dr. Barbay was completely in his right and performing his duty by confronting Dean Martin about the legitimacy of enrolling Thornton Melon in the university in the first place. To which Dean Martin responds with one of my late father-in-laws favorite lines, “I don’t think you understand the amounts involved here. It was a rather large check.”

The fact is Melon was excessively disruptive during Dr. Barbay’s first lecture regarding the founding of his fictional tape recorder business. The validity of Melon’s real world experience and the lack of feasibility of Dr. Barbay’s hypothetical business plan aside, the fact is Barbay was a tenured professor and his job was to teach the class as he saw best.

Dr. Barbay later accuses Melon of academic fraud by turning in work assignments that were completed by others…which is exactly what Melon was doing!

To the point of hiring a NASA team to complete astronomy homework and contracting author Kurt Vonnegut to write a paper on Vonnegut for literature class.

Dr. Barbay was an ego maniac, unfortunately like many of the tenured professors I had in college, and an inattentive boyfriend, but he was appropriately acting in the best interest of the business school.

5 Professor Jerry Hathaway In Real Genius

In Real Genius, Professor Jerry Hathaway of Pacific Technical University was covertly hired by the CIA to develop a power source for a laser weapon that could be used for military purposes such as political assassinations. A plot that Big Bang Theory would basically plagiarize in one of their later seasons…

The department of Defense and the CIA often do outsource research and product development to universities in the way of endowments or grants for projects like this (See the NSA and Google’s creation). While at times this may lead to moral or ethical questions, the money is supposed to be used for improvements for the school, such as resources, buildings, lab equipment and possibly professor housing (at least that is how Hathaway interpreted it). Which is why universities will compete for these projects and encourage their faculty and grad students to work on them.

So Hathaway taking the money and using his students as labor to complete the project is technically part of his job. And while he may have been more than a little over zealous in threatening to blackball his star pupil Chris Knight (Val Kilmer), the fact is Chris was slacking on his work and not meeting project deadlines. Criteria that would make up part of his grade in Hathaway’s class.

Honorable Mention: Iceman in Top Gun

Tom “Iceman” Kazansky gets the ‘Honorable Mention’ here because, while not a “bad guy”, he does spend much of the first Top Gun film as an antagonist to Maverick. And Iceman does have some valid reasons be believing Maverick is too “dangerous” in the air and a risk to everyone on their team.

He rightfully questions Maverick about not covering his flight school buddy Cougar’s back when they were confronted by enemy MIG’s. The same encounter that resulted in Cougar losing his edge and turning in his wings. Which resulted in Maverick getting Cougar’s spot at Top Gun.

(Which also resulted in Goose’s death. So did Maverick indirectly kill Goose? Sounds like a future Geeky Daddy Fan Theory Article!)

Iceman also correctly points out that Maverick intentionally broke the rules of engagement by pursuing Jester below the hard deck (endangering Maverick, Goose and their plane) resulting in Maverick’s “kill” not counting.

For the mission at the end of the movie, Iceman has his reservations about Maverick being the backup pilot…and could you blame him?

Maverick was obviously suffering from PTSD from the loss of his best friend mere days earlier and no busy piloting anything. He even showed in his last hop against Jester that he was to timid to engage an enemy and not combat ready. I wouldn’t have wanted him backing me in combat either.

Well, what do you think of our my list?

What are some other 80’s Movie Bad Guys That Actually Had Valid Points? Let me know in the comments!

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