1. Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange)
You only need glance at a poster of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange to know that its main character is trouble - "Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are rape, ultra violence and Beethoven." Alex DeLarge and his Droogs go out on a crime spree every night - beating up tramps, terrorizing future Dystopian Middle England by breaking into their homes, beating them senseless and raping them. Alex is caught one night and jailed for murder of a woman in her own home, he then volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy created by the government to stop crime whilst taking away Alex freedom of choice. The reason this is number one is solely because it is almost impossible to think of a more likeable anti-hero than Alex. Malcolm McDowell plays rapist/murderer Alex with such cheekiness and glee that even when he is at his worst, he is somehow charming you. The performance is one so strong and loveable, that by the end of the film, you are actually glad that he has his freedom back, even if it does come at a hefty price to society. The film itself questions so many issues: do we have real freedom of choice? Should we be controlled by our government to maintain safer streets? Is crime to do with ignorance in class divides? None of these questions would be half as entertaining if we didn't see it through the eyes of our 'humble narrator.' You may not like the way Alex behaves, and nobody of sane mind would, but McDowell is so controversial in the way that he plays it: here is a man that every moral fiber wants you to loathe, but within the first few minutes he has captivated you with his cheeky, loveable rogue personality. So much so that you forgive him for anything else he does during the rest of the film's running time.
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