Nowadays movie audiences are spoiled by the embarrassing riches of action-oriented movie characters kicking butt and taking names as the majestic mayhem builds up around their hedonistic antics. In today's cinema climate the majority of legitimate movie bad asses routinely includes comic book superheroes, daring space adventurers, renegade governmental officials, martial artists as well as the standby plethora of rule-breaking cops, spies and private detectives. The traditional tough guy/gal syndrome in the millennium age of movie-making will never diminish and will always be pushed to the fullest bombastic exploits possible. There is nothing like the colorful recklessness of the uncontrollable bad ass.

However, some younger movie audiences never give it a second thought as to where the swagger and defiance of the current cinematic bad asses first originated. Well, in Top 10 Old School Movie Bad Asses we will revisit the celebrated big screen toughies from yesteryear and give a salutary nod to their gritty greatness. For these harried hot rods mentioned they certainly personify the profile of the bad ass whether on the legal or illegal side of the law. In ALPHABETICAL order the Top 10 Old School Movie Bad Asses are as follows:

1.) "Dirty" Harry Callahan from DIRTY HARRY (1971) THE REEL DEAL: It is rather self-explanatory when including the definitive calculating cop when discussing urban street bad asses and Clint Eastwood's iconic gun-slinging Detective Harry Callahan certainly made his menacing mark in cinema throughout the seventies and eighties with equally popular sequels to follow. Attaching the nickname "Dirty" to Callahan's name was a no-brainer because the eye-squinting avenger did not mind breaking the rules or destroying the San Francisco streets just to apprehend the law-breaking scum that he routinely recited those colorfully caustic catchphrases that he is famously known for dramatic, edgy effect. Dirty Harry Callahan would remain a deliciously brutal blueprint for the renegade cops that would soon populate the big screen from DIE HARD's daredevil John McClain to LETHAL WEAPON's crazed Martin Riggs.

2.) US Marshal Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn from TRUE GRIT (1969) THE REEL DEAL: Legendary Hollywood hotshot John "The Duke" Wayne was the original western bad ass that had the movie monopoly on toughness when aimlessly discharging guns or his fists when it came to exerting his brand of decorative justice. Whether in westerns, military dramas or the occasional cop caper The Duke was larger-than-life and took no guff from the adversaries that dared to tame him. In his Oscar-winning role as the cantankerous, booze-guzzling aging lawman Rooster Cogburn in 1969's TRUE GRIT and the sequel in 1975's ROOSTER COGBURN. Wayne's Marshal Cogburn was unruly, moody, unrelentingly brash and unpredictable. Still, Cogburn was a gruff old bird with a badge that certainly knew how to make his presence known on the frontier that both cheered and jeered his undisciplined approach to law and order.

3.) Paul Kersey from DEATH WISH (1974) THE REEL DEAL: The DEATH WISH film franchise seemed to be a big screen career lifesaver for veteran rugged bad boy Charles Bronson. Bronson had always been identified as the explosive firecracker you would not want to active in any of his previous films. Bronson film titles even had a catchy edge to them with such fair as THE EVIL THAT MEN DO, DEATH HUNT, THE MECHANIC, THE STONE KILLER, MESSENGER OF DEATH and of course the DEATH WISH film series. As Paul Kersey, Bronson's architect-turned-urban street vigilante was driven to madness when his wife and married daughter were traumatized by some thugs breaking into his apartment during Kersey's absence. Now widowed and caring for a catatonic daughter Kersey decides to take drastic matters into his own hands and dedicate his existence to eradicating the scuzzy vermin that dare to present imminent dangers to those rendered vulnerable. Vigilante justice and internalized alienation was the cinematic calling card of Bronson's highly heralded bad ass Paul Kersey as he echoed the fatalistic fantasy of getting even with the riff raff element without guilt or hesitation in mind.

4.) Beatrix Kiddo from KILL BILL VOLUMES 1 and 2 (2003) THE REEL DEAL: Okay, the selection of Quentin Tarantino's volatile vixen Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman) from the two-part martial arts marathon movie KILL BILL might seem out of place in this category because a.) she is merely considered "new school" courtesy of her 2003 emergence from Tarantino's crafty creation machine and b.) she is the only female represented in this listing of old school bad ass bunch. With that said, Thurman's frenetic phemon in the bumble bee yellow jump suit took martial arts mayhem to a whole new spectrum as the KILL BILL destructive diva out for revenge and redemption. Kiddo (a.k.a. "Black Mamba" or "The Bride") was part of an elite assassin squad as she was trained by Master Pai Mei. When her superior and lover Bill (David Carradine) engineered her demise at the altar before exchanging vows Kiddo made it her sworn mission to seek retaliation for the calculating Bill and her fellow deceptive Deadly Viper associates. Kiddo was an amazing spectacle as she vigorously became the bad ass beauty to systematically combat the blood-thirsty obstacles before finally getting her golden chance to "kill" the elusive Bill.

5.) Bruce Lee (including ALL of his martial arts characterizations and movies) THE REEL DEAL: Hands down the late great martial arts maverick Bruce Lee (1940-1973) was a worldwide sensation as his profitable and pop cultural impact on the action film genre escalated to extraordinary proportions. Lee's tremendous martial arts skills in television and film made him a household name globally with rebellious and high energized martial arts flicks that featured the trim and muscular karate-chopping dynamo at his high-octane best. Memorable fare such as THE BIG BOSS, ENTER THE DRAGON, FISTS OF FURY, GAME OF DEATH and WAY OF THE DRAGON would cement Lee's screen legacy beyond imagination. Indeed, Lee was a bare knuckles bad ass on the big screen as he epitomized the ultimate equalizer capable of settling the score no matter what odds were against him in all his celluloid glory. Unfortunately, it would take a real-life mysterious death to silence the seemingly indestructible martial arts machine at the tender age of 32.

6.) Tony Montana from SCARFACE (1983) THE REEL DEAL: Filmmaker Brian DePalma's Cuban immigrant-turned-Miami drug tycoon Tony Montana (Al Pacino) was a complete bad ass in every sense of the label. Montana was feisty, arrogant, gaudy and impatient. Incredibly, short-tempered Montana managed to rise to the top of Miami's drug cartel operations and did not mind strutting around in over-exaggerated style. Tony Montana stopped it nothing to let those aware that he was here to stay and dominate the drug scene in Florida and beyond. With notable catchphrases such as "say hello to my little friend" and "so say goodnight to the bad guy". Montana demonstrated dangerous swagger that would ultimately be the messy end of him. Montana was so ridiculously bad ass that the deadly rounds of bullets that riddled his coke-induced body seemed to bounce off the Cuban crime lord with no real effect. Montana was profoundly toxic in witticisms and wickedness.

7.) Tom Powers from THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931) THE REEL DEAL: Nobody represented the diminutive dynamo of fear other than the classic creepiness of hostile hoodlum Tom Powers (James Cagney) from the explosive crime caper THE PUBLIC ENEMY. Cagney's maniacal Tom Powers was an eerie force to be reckoned with while steadily climbing the ranks of Chicago's criminal underground in the early thirties. Powers was devious, demented and damaged in comparison to his fellow gangster and best friend Matt Doyle (Edward Woods). Cagney's animated menacing made man could be thought of as the abrasive architect for future big screen bad ass superstars such as Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino or Ray Liotta that have portrayed ominous mobsters in all their disturbing brilliance and bravado. Even now Cagney ("You dirty rat...") is still captivating as the cutthroat hood thirsty for terminal ribaldry as Tom Powers will go down as one of the original psychopaths in Golden Age cinema.

8.) Buford Pusser from WALKING TALL (1973) THE REEL DEAL: Real-life Tennessee-based Sheriff Buford Pusser walked tall and ensured that the law was implemented at all costs. Pusser's tremendous sense of law-abiding guidelines was carried out despite the retaliation aimed at him and his jeopardized family. Hollywood came calling and wanted to showcase Pusser's explosive exploits in the cult classic crime caper Walking Tall. Actor Joe Don Baker (and later Bo Swenson) would bring to life the violent and vigilant reputation of the countrified big screen bad ass with a badge out to corral the baddies while literally walking tall and carrying a big stick in the name of good ole Southern justice. Pusser's name even sounded rough-and-tumble which is an iron-clad moniker not to mess with at all.

9.) John Shaft from SHAFT (1971) THE REEL DEAL: Sorry to all those young audience members that can only relate to the bad ass Samuel L. Jackson as filmmaker John Singleton's cool-as-ice Detective John Shaft (nephew to the original iconic crime-buster). Before there was Singleton's 2000 version of SHAFT to calm our nostalgic nerves the pulsating 1971 Gordon Parks-directed crime caper starring Richard Roundtree was the foundation for the blaxploitation cinema explosion. SHAFT told the tale of the suave black PI out to rescue the kidnapped daughter of the city's crime lord Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn). Roundtree's Shaft was fearless and street smart and took no guff from anyone. Composer Isaac Hayes's Oscar-winning "Theme From Shaft" lyrics pretty much outlined what this stylized bad ass PI was all about: "that cat Shaft is a bad motherf&^%$# (shut your mouth)!" Nobody can capture the calculating coolness of Ernest Tidyman's creation and its sequels in 1972's “SHAFT'S BIG SCORE!” and 1973's “SHAFT IN AFRICA.”

10.) Virgil Tibbs from IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967) THE REEL DEAL: Philadelphia police detective (and homicide expert) Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) has a quiet and dignified bad ass sophistication to him. After all, he has to use his intellectual tools and policing know-how to assist in solving a murder in racially hostile Sparta, Mississippi as he works alongside a bigoted Chief Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger). Naturally, Gillespie and the surrounding small southern town find the polished northern black detective "uppity" and not used to seeing an educated African American in power and professional prestige. Despite the overt racism and ignorance Tibbs dutifully trudges along despite the limited Gillespie's hidden envy of his crime-solving talents. Det. Virgil Tibbs is quick to remind his racist naysayers that "they call him MR. TIBBS" and even slapped a white businessman in his greenhouse in response to be slapped first and simply returning the favor. Gillipsie is shocked that Tibbs dared to raise his reactionary black hands to an angry white man that hit him in the face while expecting Tibbs to cower and accept the indignant assault. Poitier's Virgil Tibbs' bad ass elegance would continue to appear in 1970's “They Call Me Mister Tibbs” and 1971's “The Organization.”