Further Moments in Unoriginality: Badasses

Finally, the AV Club gives me something to work with: favorite badasses in cinema/television (and sure, why not throw literature into the mix?). This, being some straight-up high school argument material right here, is the sort of AV Q+A that lead me to start this ill-intentioned parody column. I can't wait. So, favorite badasses? They actually managed to take two of my nominations: the question was predicated on a column about "The Wire" that, of course, mentioned one Omar Little, badass extraordinaire. You could find quite a few badasses in the "Wire" pantheon of drug dealers and cops-- Lester, Bunk, Stringer, Avon, Slim Charles, Snoop and Chris, the list goes on and on-- but Omar takes the cake. He's the perfect combination of predator and conflicted product of the streets. He robs drug dealers, but it's only because that's all he knows. And he's got a code, so it's not like he's some mindless wolf of a gun-toting stick-up boy. But most importantly? Omar's got style. From the way he whistles "The Farmer in the Dell," to his pithy one-liners that would do Sean Connery-era Bond proud, to even the scar/overcoat/bulletproof vest look, Omar is the suavest motherfucker ever to strut the streets of Baltimore. A classic. But a column predicated on Omar's status as badass can't just end with an affirmation of said badassness. The AV Club guys also managed to steal Yojimbo, from "Yojimbo," from me. Yojimbo is Toshiro Mifune in an Akira Kurosawa version of a Dashiell Hammett novel that was later turned into a spaghetti western by Segrio Leone (starring Clint Eastwood; I actually watched "Fistfull of Dollars" recently, and it would have been pretty good if only "Yojimbo" weren't so damn perfect). How's that for a pedigree? Basically, Yojimbo is a masterless samurai who wanders into a town controlled by two warring feudal clans and, with perfect battle-cunning and street knowledge, manages to pit both clans against each other for profit. Again, Yojimbo is a spectacular swordsman an all, but it's his style that sets him apart, a combination of minor nihilism and world-weariness combined with an inscrutable moral code (notice how he's destroying baddies.. but with badness... OH NO MORAL AMBIGUITY!). Basically, watch Yojimbo. It's a great movie. So those would definitely be two of my votes, but I have to come up with something original here. Having spent a good part of the day worrying about this, I will now cast my formal vote for Jules Winnfield of "Pulp Fiction" (the only current runner-up being Colonel Kilgore from "Apocalypse Now"). I mean, come on, how can any list of cinematic badasses be complete WITHOUT the man who delivered the Ezekiel 25:17 speech? Jules makes the cut for basically all of the above reasons: he's a cold-blooded motherfucker; he kills people, but not before scaring the shit out of them; but he's also got style, a way with words, a sense of infinite calm and reserve, and the gumption to put it all aside when possessed of a "moment of clarity." And I don't know about you, but I don't believe that nonsense that Jules was the organ player in "Kill Bill," Tarantinoverse or otherwise. Because Jules Winnfield doesn't die, he just fades away. Awesome, a fine day of imitative posting. And now it's time for your input: greatest badasses of all time?