There is a scene in M. Night Shamalyans (sp?) Unbreakable that I thought was masterfully done when I first saw it in the theater, and it apparently was important enough to feature a documentary about that very scene in the DVD. Bruce Willis has finally decided to pay attention to those flashes of insight that he gets and to do something with the information. As he walks through the crowd, he brushes against people and suffers from a series of visions of their petty and not so petty venalities - a man who had sex with a passed-out girl, a jewelry thief, a drinker and abuser, etc.
The choreography involved in moving all the people around, Bruce Willis’s expressions and reactions to his visions, the cuts, the editing, the music… all of it shows a crew at their most professional, who is going beyond just doing the motions. If the scene was guilty of anything, it was a little too self-conscious, especially in music choice, but still was remarkably well done.
How about the Normandy landing scene in Saving Private Ryan
or the lobby scene in Matrix, when they go to rescue Morpheus
or Godfather II, when Michael hugs Fredo at their mothers wake, as to forgive him, then glares at his body guard, as to say… well, we all know what happens to Fredo.
Just because it’s fresh in my mind: when Ralphie is pounding on Scott Farkas in A Christmas Story and his little brother, reaches down and picks up Ralphie’s glasses. It’s brief, very subtle, but amazingly touching.
In Shakespeare in Love when the play opens and the stuttering tailor is about to do the introduction, and of course, starts to stutter. Then, after he gets “Two households…” past his lips, he kicks ass.
The scene where Andy Dufresne’s tells the guard about how he can keep from paying taxes on the inheritance he received from his brother. And in the same movie, the very ending, when Red is speaking of hope, then walking on the beach in Zihuatanejo.
In Saving Private Ryan, Normandy.
I’ll second that train station scene in Unbreakable, as well as the “I’m your huckleberry” scene from Tombstone. And yes, Val Kilmer’s version of Doc Holliday is one of the greatest characters ever filmed.
There’s a scene in The English Patient, where the Sikh soldier takes Juliet Binoche into a church, raises her up with ropes and sets off flares so she can see the murals on the cathedral’s walls. Beautiful.
When Robert Redford washes Meryl Streep’s hair in Out of Africa. Other scenes in the movie, shot from the air, are spectacular views of the African landscape.
One of the best scenes (besides the train station in Unbreakable, which was stunning) is in the Green Mile, in the final scene.
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER (I’d make a black box but I don’t know how) SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!
When John Coffey passes on the evil to Percy. Just the scene of Percy walking slowly down the Mile, drawing his gun, a single tear slipping down his face, and killing Wharton. It’s just amazing. Amazing.
Although in the Sixth Sense, when Bruce Willis realizes the truth and it runs through everything you didn’t think about the first time you saw it—that’s very impressive. <applause>
Serious: At the end of Citizen Kane, the overhead pan shot of all the boxes in Kane’s mansion, a powerful image that really sums up the theme of the film.
Comedy: The scene in Dr. Strangelove when President Muffley first gets the Russian leader Dmitri on the phone. Funniest scene in any movie, ever.
Fight: Luke and Vader’s lightsaber duel at the end of Empire Strikes Back.
Action sequence: The boat chase in Live and Let Die.
I vote for the extended scene in Casablanca where Victor Lazlow hears the Nazis singing a traditonal song about the Rhine, then asks the band to play the French national anthem, the camera pans all over the nightclub showing the patrons’ reactions as they drown out the Nazis, Strasser demands the Cafe Americain be shut down, Rick asks Louis what the grounds are, the prefect replies “I’m shocked, shocked, to find gambling going on in these premises,” and then a flunky hands him some cash, saying “Here are your winnings, sir.”
i would also cast my vote for kilmer’s characterization of doc holliday. it was the first movie in decades i saw twice in the theatre…the second time was just for kilmer.
i’m going to go into the way-back machine and pull two scenes (well, two parts of one scene i guess) from a movie whose name i can’t recall right now. rod steiger as napoleon. in the battle of waterloo one of the scenes is a cavalry charge. sounds of gunfire, clashing swords, cannonade…then the scene goes to half speed, sounds removed and replace by a lovely violin piece, closeups of the horses straining at dead gallop with the artillery bursts surrounding them. mighty evocative. think of the normandy scene except with something like “air on a g string” playing instead of the sounds of battle. amazing cinema.
second part of that scene was of the footsoldiers being attacked and forming ranks to protect themselves. first we see them from ground level and it looks so chaotic. then we rise into the air and see the patterning from above and it is so intricate.
guess i’m just on a battle scene tangent cuz i was thinking there were TONS of great scenes in Braveheart, including the final shots of william.
i’ll try and remember some good love scenes for next time
okay okay…since casablanca was brought up…“we’ll always have paris”
(or tons of scenes from casablanca…voted #1 movie of all time by a survey of moonchilde. best line from said movie…“why did you come to casablanca” “i came for the waters” “but this is a desert” “I WAS MIS-INFORMED”)
Gah, Peyote Coyote just beat me to it. I second that Casablanca scene at Rick’s. The French hooker with tears in her eyes as she sings always slays me. This is my #1.
Another Pulp Fiction selection: Vince bringing Mia over to Lance’s (“the day I bring an OD’ing bitch to your house. . .”). Their whole date is lots of fun.
It was in an underwhelming movie, but the lightsaber duel at the end of The Phantom Menace was breath-taking.
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned Robert Duvall (sp?) in Apocalypse Now (“I love the smell of napalm in the morning”).
That’s all I can think of at the moment.
Without a doubt, the best scene of any movie I have ever seen is the end of Fight Club. For those who have yet to see it…
Right after the buildings start to explode, Jack takes Marla’s hand, looks into her eyes, and says, “You met me at a very strange time in my life.” I either break out in goosebumps or laugh, and it never gets old. Then when Jack and Marla are holding hands, looking at all the exploding buildings and the sky just gets blacker and blacker with “Where Is My Mind” going full-force, it never fails to elicit some strong emotion in me. Just a gorgeously done scene.
While I love that whole movie, I also think the scene in the woods (“Take him out into the woods and whack him”) is particularly good.
Also, in Fellowship of the Ring, the ending of the scene with the balrog – when Gandalf falls and the others escape… I think it’s the slo-mo and the music that do it for me.
The Michael kills Solazzo fscene rom The Godfather – I’ll throw a vote for that one too.
Two others, from lesser films, spring to mind.
1 - Killing Zoe - There is a scene toward the middle of the film, where the police have already surrounded the bank, a few hostages have already been killed. Eric, the leader of the gang, is heading downstairs toward Zed who is cracking the safe. He stops, and the camera, with a bit of fisheye, just focuses on him as he contemplates the situation. There is this funky techno-bass thing going on in the soundtrack. His face twists and contorts as he comes to the conclusion that everything is fucked. If he is truly going to live up to his own motto – to experience everything – he must push everything over the edge. It’s right after that that he drags a hostage out the front door and shoots him just to show the cops he’s serious.
It’s intense.
2 - Murder in the First – the scene itself isn’t that remarkable in the performances, but I alway admire the camera work. It is the scene where Stamphill first visits Henry in the cell he’s being kept in after the murder. In one un-cut shot, the camera follows Stamphill walking down the hallway, signing in with the guard, then moves into the room, circling the cell moving around the outside of two walls and then inside of the other two, moving back outside and raising up, framing the actors between the bars. As I said, it’s one long un-cut shot – maybe about five minutes long.
When Lois Lane is dangling from the crashed helicopter on the roof of the Daily Planet, screaming for help, the crowd below looking up, the firefighters are assembling but there’s no way they can get to her in time. Clark Kent looks up, sees her in danger, [quick sight gag]passes by one of those payphone kiosks that have taken the place of phone booths [/quick sight gag], runs directly at the camera, pulling his shirt open to reveal the ‘S’ of his costume. After doing a quick change, the quick exchange with the pimp (“That is a bad outFIT!”) he launches himself into the air. Lois falls, the crowd shrieks in terror then points “Look at that!” Superman catches Lois, says “Dont’ worry, miss; I’ve got you.” She cries “You’ve got me, who’s got you?” Then the helicopter lets go, falls toward them, and with hardly a blink Superman catches it and flies it back up to the roof.
I truly do not know what was louder, the first time I saw this movie: the cheering of the crowd (in the movie) or the applause in the audience in the theatre.
I (and just about everyone else in the theater I was in on opening night) nearly crapped my pants when the T.rex first came into full view in the original Jurassic Park. You could literally hear the entire audience gasp at once, then silence as the T.rex roared, then in a barely audible tone, someone said “Holy shit…”
