Since the thread is back, I have a few more.
Charles Laughton as Quasimodo: the “I can hear my friends!” scene in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939).
Lon Chaney being whipped in the 1923 silent version.
Spencer Tracy’s transformation in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941).
In pump up the volume a Kristian Slater vehicle in the early 90’s, there’s one scene where the lead high school aged male and female characters are aware of their desire for each other, but are still too shy yet to act on it. In an era of movies where everyone jumps into bed at the drop of a hat, this scene seemed to catch their vulnerability in a way that touched me like few other scenes have since.
-fornit
I have to place my bet on the money drop-off in The Big Lebowski. When I first saw it in the theatre, I seriously could not stop laughing. The timing of everything was just genius, from Walter rolling out of the car, the Dude’s car getting shot to hell, and finally crashing the car into the telephone pole. Comedy gold.
Dude: What’s in the bag, Walter?
Walter: An uzi. You didn’t think I was gonna roll outta here naked, did ya Dude? (opens the door and drops out) SEMPER FI!
Two simple things at the end of Life is Beautiful:
–greenphan
At the end of No Mans Land…Where the camera pans out from the guy still lying there on the bomb. The madness of war.That scene hit me like a train.
I’ve always enjoyed Mrs Robinson’s “seduction” of Benjamin in ‘The Graduate’. One of the funniest scenes ever, IMO.
Lester’s final speech in ‘American Beauty’ impressed me significantly when I first saw it as well.
In Adaptation, everything that transpires on the screen the second after Nicolas Cage says “What am I doing here? Where did I come from?”.
That’s pretty much the coolest thing ever.
Mrs. Jumbo comforting little Dumbo from behind bars.
I have to echo De Niro in Goodfellas while Sunshine of Your Love is playing (Scorcese couldn’t have chosen a better song for that scene.)
My other favorite is also a De Niro scene. The rooftop scene in Godfather part II when De Niro as the young Vito stalks the then current Don from the rooftops in old New York during the parade. Masterpiece
In A Hard Day’s Night, which is a classic and great all the way through, I love the whole part about Ringo out on his own, particularly when he’s hanging out with the kid along the river.
Also George in the office of the advertising company/trend watchers.
I like Act I of “Springtime for Hitler” in “The Producers”.
Any scene in the first 45 minutes of “Full Metal Jacket” qualifies as great comedy IMO.
Equus: When Alan Strang is riding Nugget the horse through the field (“The Field of Ha-Ha”, I believe) in the dead of night.
I like the almost Shakesperian soliloquoy in Aliens 3 when they’re throwing the little girl’s body into the fire, that big black guy is talking and it cuts to Sigourney Weaver with a nosebleed…something very poetic about that part.
Joe Pesci’s freak out scene in the hotel room in JFK
The Walken/Hopper from True Romance
The village bombing in Apocalypse Now with Wagner on the loudspeakers
The intro to The Hunger with Bauhaus playing in the background (possibly coolest scene ever)
Election…when they cut to the caveman in the museum with Broderick narrating in the background…amazing movie and a part I couldn’t stop laughng at
Jason Patric describing how he raped some kid in high school in Your Friends and Neighbours
Mickey Knox’s live interview in Natural Born Killers
the end of Cinema Paradiso with the all the censored kisses onscreen
Sandra Bernhardt trying to seduce a tied-up Jerry Lewis in King of Comedy
Ben Stiller jumping against the window in that highrise in Permanent Midnight
Brad Pitt/James Gandolfini scene in True Romance " Fucking condescend me man…fucking kill ya man."
Jack Lemmon/Al Pacino scene in Glen Garry Glenross talking about the rush of the sale
so many more
that scene is great…the dialog is very cool…espec…“when u get to hell tell the devil u have never seen evil so singularly personified as in the man who sent u there”
the last five minutes of scarface…say hello to my little friend
Near the end of Paths of Glory where the captured German girl is forced to sing in front of the french troops who are ogling her body. You cannot hear what she is singing at first for the laughing and catcalls, but the men fall silent as they realize she is singing a folk song that is in both French and German culture. It is a song about a soldier who rushes from war to say goodbye to his love as she lay dying. The men are ashamed, a few start to cry. Then they join in with her. The real enemy is not the Germans. “I have seen the enemy and he is myself.”
Also, DeNiro’s repentance scene in The Mission. Very powerful. There are many things in this film I find to be truly great, but it is flawed in many regards. 'Tis sad.
IMHO, these are the best: from the original 12 Angry Men, the deliberations are riveting as Fonda exposes the prejudice and baggage each juror has brought to the room.
To Kill a Mockingbird, as Gregory Peck eloquently defends the jailhouse from the lynch mob.
In the Heat of the Night is still Sydney Portier’s crown jewel of acting from this perspective. The final scene when it has all been put together, and “You take care” from the Sheriff the following morning is beautiful.
Cool Hand Luke brought us the phrase, “What we have here, is a failure…to communicate.”
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is in my mind. Burl Ives, as Big Daddy, says to Paul Newman, as Brick, “There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity.”
For true chase scene excitement, what tops Bullitt ?
The total emotion grabber would have to be Woody Harrrelson speaking to Demi Moore at the end of An Indecent Proposal : I thought we were invincible, but now I know that the things that people in love do to each other, they remember, and if they stay together, it’s not because they forget, it’s because they forgive.
I just saw The Lady from Shanghai for the first time. It has one of the most imitated scenes in filmdom – the Crazy House Mirrors scene. It certainly lived up to its billing and even though I’d seen countless imitations before it, the original still is a marvel of pacing and editing. Yes, the premise is so hooky that it comes close to insulting your intelligence, but the scene pays off.
Others:
Gabrielle and the mystery box in Kiss Me Deadly (Fans of “Pulp Fiction” should see this one.)
The transition scenes in Memento, where you learn what happened prior to the scene you just saw.
The cuckoo-clock speech in The Third Man.
And another vote for Slim Pickens on the bomb in Dr. Strangelove. Chilling, crazy and funny all at once.
The scene in Schindler’s List where several of the Jews are shipped to Aushwitz, stripped of their clothes, and are herded into “a communal shower for de-louse-ing”.
We know better.
The terrified women see the door slammed behind them, and they stare at the ceiling at the spray heads, waiting for the inevitable…
Agonizing seconds go by…
And the showerheads spray forth…
…water.
Pulp Fiction has been mentioned many times but I just have to add the scene where the third guy bursts out of the bathroom and unloads his revolver in the direction of the two hit men…but misses every shot. The reaction of Jules & Vincent is priceless – I was laughing so hard, I had to turn off the VCR for 15 whole minutes. (And woke up my roommate, too.) God only knows what would have happened if I saw it in the theater!!
Also: Planes, Trains & Automobiles, when Steve Martin goes back to the rental counter and launches into a profanity-laded tirade that includes 32 uses of the F-word.
Silence of the Lambs, pretty much every scene with Dr. Lecter & Clarice, but especially when Lecter hands Clarice back her case file, and ever so gently caresses her finger. Creepiest scene ever!
The scene in The Fisher King where Robin Williams walks through Grand Central Station and all the rushing commuters around him start dancing and then resume their business as he passes from the room…
The big shootout in the amphitheater in Who’ll Stop the Rain – strobe lights flashing, folk music blaring over tinny speakers and Nick Nolte having it out with the bad guys.