20 Greatest 90s Movie Villains

5. Schindler's List - Amon Goth

Most of these characters are fictional, but this one, unfortunately, actually existed.

Amon Goth was the commander of the Krakow-Płaszów concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland and was infamous for his cruelty to prisoners. Schindler's List pulls no punches in depicting his vicious brutality, and Ralph Fiennes gives one of the absolute best performances of his career in the role. Fiennes losing out for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars - he lost to Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive, who gave a good but unchallenging performance as a grumpy marshal - has deservedly gone down as one of the worst Oscar injustices to date. 

Goth is responsible for many horrendous acts throughout the story, so it's sobering to learn that the real character was even worse. Hell, the Nazis themselves dismissed him, as even they felt he was too much. 

The way Schindler's List presents Goth is especially clever, as he feels remarkably similar to a lot of the worst people you hear about on the news. There is something weirdly childlike about Goth; Fiennes intelligently plays him like a spiteful, petulant little boy who has, unfortunately, been given control over who lives and dies.

It is the most dangerous thing imaginable to give such an individual any sort of power, and tragically, such people wreak devastation on a daily basis all around the world. As such, not only is this screen depiction a harrowing record of a real-life monster, it is also a prescient warning that feels painfully relevant today.