Andrew,

Two points about your posts: 1) To the extent that Americans see villainy as a sign of corruption and over-sophistication–a chestnut of classical republican ideology, going back to (yes) Brits likes Trenchard, Gordon and Viscount Bolingbroke–then Brits are the handiest signifiers of same.

2) But where historical movies are the question, Brits were protected for decades by Hollywood, which was run mostly by Anglophile Jews. Their predilections meshed, of course, with American foriegn policy from 1917-1945. Hence there has been a dearth of movies about the American Revolution, which would place Brits in the role of villains; a relative surfeit of movies about the French and Indians Wars, where Brits are the good side. Mel Gibson’s The Patriot is a notable and rather lonely exception. Perhaps one reason it so raised the hackles of Brit and Brit-immigrant critics was because they had enjoyed such a free ride for so long.