Yes, this is VERY highly objective. And I have my own not so humble opinion on what is the best single scene in filmdom. Also, comparing movie scenes can be like comparing apples and oranges.
So my very favorite scene from any movie ever is when the crowd in Rick’s place sings “La Marseillaise” to drown out the German officers singing “Watch on the Rhine” Casablanca of course.
I love the whole movie but that part is, I think, not just my favorite but the best.
And to show how different my tastes can be #2 is just the tiniest bit behind. The eight minutes near the end of Last of the Mohicans when no dialogue is spoken.
I couldn’t possibly narrow it down to one scene, but I can identify the type of scene I really admire and give some examples: Lengthy, uncut tracking shots.
The sort of scene that can’t be accomplished with edits or much trickery (at least, before CGI recently reached the stage of rendering just about anything realistically). It has to be choreographed and filmed in real time, often with a Steadicam.
For others who are interested in this subject, after a hiatus of many years Every Frame a Painting has returned to YouTube. Although other channels like Moviewise took up the mantle, EFAP was the original item for film visual appreciation on the web.
Also, and this is one few remember, the car chase scene in To Live and Die in LA. A sadly forgotten movie that was actually very good. The car chase scene is one of the best ever and loooong (as these things go).
The three-way showdown in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. I can watch that over and over without getting bored. Same for the scene of Tuco running through the cemetery.
“Lengthy, uncut tracking shots” are indeed impressive when pointed out to me but I don’t even notice them by myself. I’m more focused on plot and dialog.
Yes, Goodfellas is great. Henry taking Karen to dinner is excellent, and the only time I WAS specially impressed by a “single shot.” I agree that To Live and Die in LA is hugely under-rated but it has several short snippets that linger in my memory, rather than the long car chase.
Because of my focus on plot it’s often the final scene of a movie that is especially memorable, even if nothing else about the scene is memorable. An example is the ending of Godfather where Kay watches the capos kiss Michael’s hand.
But it is the “Marseillaise” scene in Casablanca which I have to agree is #1. Ilse’s expression has to combine pride and fear as she watches her husband sing.
If I were forced to pick a #2 best scene and a #3, I’m afraid they would also come from Casablanca !
When I first saw Saving Private Ryan the scene that stayed with me forever was in the Letter to Mrs. Bixby segment. After nearly 3 minutes of scene setting we are arriving at the Ryan home, and a couple of minutes without dialogue leads up to the most economical emotional moment ever.
The scene in Predator where the gang unloads every round they can at the predator and you watch the forest get destroyed branch by branch until the minigun runs out of ammo and Mac is still frozen on the trigger. The shot focuses on the minigun spinning away without firing.
Me too but the car chase is what I use to sell it to others. And, the car chase is legit very good. I’d put it in the top three all time best movie car chases (maybe top five…there are several really great ones).
That was a film that is superb but very hard to watch. The invasion scene, that included a soldier looking around, bending over, and picking up his own arm, was graphic enough that I had to pause for a while.
The soccer match between the True Blues and the Dirty Yellows in “Bedknobs and Broomsticks”, just ahead of the Ink and Paint Club scene from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”.
The best single shot in film is the battle/birth scene in Children of Men. I’m not going to link it because you should view it in context if you haven’t seen the movie. It’s both technically impressive as an extremely long take involving dozens of people and lots of effects, and also extremely emotionally powerful.
Little Bill telling the true story of how English Bob killed Two-Gun Corcoran at the Blue Bottle Club was to me the best scene in “Unforgiven.” Hackman kills it with the line, “Cuz he was drunk.”