English women are depicted as ice maidens secretly burning for a jolly good hard shag from a manly American.

::starts packing for England::

Wait, you said depicted....

It's like the US movie industry is constantly replaying the whole bloody War of Independence in some kind of pathetic Oedipal thing again and again and again

Tee hee. Fay, that actually was one of my explanations. "Culturally, you're our parents. And we're basically an adolescent country, so..."

The complimentary (ish?) version is basically what tommyrot said. We tend to associate a British accent with a higher IQ. I blame PBS for that. So you're the villains because your higher intelligence makes you a a more formidable adversary. Hey, it could be worse: An accent from the southern U.S. is usually shorthand for "inbred and dangerously violent."

Lemme see if I can dig up his rant about it, because it was amusing.

Aha. This followed extensive venting about Titanic and Braveheart and several other movies, which I would quote except he does run on. Anyway:

I must just mention 'Pitch Black' at this point though, because I saw it in New York and when - surprise surprise - the 'stupid selfish Englishman' crawls away from the others and knackers their light defence against the beasties, I turned to the people next to me and grunted "A Brit? Being a git in a film? What a shock, eh..?" Unfortunately, however, I am 6' 4", was built like a brick shit-house at the time, had a skinhead (almost), and was wearing a big black leather 'lock-stock' coat. As a consequence, said couple almost crapped themselves. I thought New Yorkers were supposed to be hard? Tsh.

And part of my response:

I will attempt to explain (though not defend) using Brits as baddies: we've got an inferiority complex. It's the same reason teenagers like seeing adults made to look stupid. "Ooo, we're the United States, we're rich and powerful!" "Ah. Yes. We did that. Was fun. Have at it." "No! We're RULING THE WORLD! FEAR US!" "Yes, quite. Have fun, give us a ring on Sunday, we're just keeping Western Culture respectable over here, cheers." "ARGH!"

You'd be toast if we didn't adore your accents so much. (And I *think* that the Evil Bastard English always have upper-class, veddy proper accents. If it's Cockney-esque, you can be the good guy.) We love the Irish because they're the drunken brother who's still living at home. "Oo, he's so rebellious and punk and surly!" The Scots and Welsh haven't proved interesting enough to have strong feelings about. Poor middle children.

Patrick Stewart.

Also, generally English men are depicted as gay and/or spineless

I think the former is due to many mannerisms and markers stereotypically associated with gay men in this country being derived from British culture.

we've got an inferiority complex.

BUT YOU RULE THE WORLD!!!!!

is baffled

Rule. The world.

I think the former is due to many mannerisms and markers stereotypically associated with gay men in this country being derived from British culture.

Huh. Interesting.

So here's my drunken explanation for why being the villain is a compliment to the British, or at least should be taken that way.

Every movie where the hero is Bruce Willis or some other low-brow, big-muscly American dude with a heart of gold, and the villain is the intellectual British chap with the diabolical plan to destroy and/or conquer the world is an exercise in self-delusion that the American Dream is right. That any low-born American can overcome the perils derived by the best and brightest the rest of the world can offer with a good dose of apple pie and testosterone.

But the fact is, the "best and brightest the rest of the world can offer" is still interpreted in our shriveled up brains as the British, despite the fact that your Empire has been a bit shrunken to the point of nonexistance for quite a while now. It's an inferiority complex, thing, like Strega said up above and much more eloquently.

Surely the fact that we find the accent, at least the high-class Eton variety, to be intimidating and disturbing in and of itself is a sign that we respect (or at least fear) the British on the whole. That's a compliment, if ever there was one. We're sure you'll produce the supervillain.

I also agree that this goes right back to the James Bond movies, and there the hero was rather British himself. Anytime the hero wins using native intelligence and suavity, he's perfectly allowed to be British: that's what we attribute to you people by nature. You're suave, sophisticated, smart, and scary as shit (in our demented, retarded minds); thus, you make great villains.

Personally, I simply find the accent hot, and I really like it when the bad guys are hot. So that works for me.

I think the tradition of Brit villains dates to Die Hard and how AWESOME Alan Rickman was in it, so you can blame him.

I was going to say it came from all the locally-cast Empire officers in Star Wars, but thinking of Alan Rickman is more enjoyable.

BUT YOU RULE THE WORLD!!!!!

But you did it first!!!

God I love Eddie Izzard. How many other stand-up comedians work General Lafayette in there?

I think Brits = Bad Guys because they are different, but not *really* different. If you cast an African or an Asian as the bad guy, and your good guys are whitebread Americans, then the antagonism is assumed to include a racial subtext. If you therefore need to cast an antagonist who looks like your protagonist, you've got more subtle differences to play with based on accent and bearing and such.

And when you're talking subtle acting, British-trained actors are your folks.

Either that, or it's just gross stereotyping.

You're suave, sophisticated, smart, and scary as shit (in our demented, retarded minds); thus, you make great villains.

...to be fair, this is what I base my behaviour management technique on, whilst teaching. Huh.

(Well, that and threatening to give people detention/giving stickers to the good kids.)

...to be fair, this is what I base my behaviour management technique on, whilst teaching. Huh.

Honestly, it's a description I'd give to most buffistas. But the English accent carries it at a gut level.