When it comes to portraying aberrant psychology on the screen, its all too easy to create a cartoon villain with a checklist of traits instead of any real personality. And many filmmakers have. Take a bit of Hannibal Lecter, add a dash of generic Bond villain and - presto! - youve got a bland and anonymous antagonist. As a disciple of Elmore Leonard, Quentin Tarantino isnt having any of that. Like Leonard, he knows the importance of character, and the best way to reveal character is through dialogue. The person in question might be a hitman, and a sadist to boot, but he wont do anything until weve heard him speak. In twenty years and eight movies, as well as three pictures he wrote but didnt direct, Tarantino has created a rogues gallery thats the envy of most crime novelists, never mind his fellow filmmakers. Heres where youll find one-eyed female assassins, unhinged mobsters and twitchy henchmen, all of whom are blessed with dialogue to die for. Its his ability to elevate them well above the mundane that bagged him his two screenwriting Oscars. While we await The Hateful Eight, which features Kurt Russell as a character known as The Hangman, heres a rundown of Tarantinos previous forays into the dark side of human nature.