The scene was all the more meaningful because many of the actors were French, and the movie was actually being filmed during WW2; it’s likely that a fair bit of the emotion on their faces was very real.
The restaurant scene in The Godfather. Everything about it is just perfection. The slow, quiet build up while the men talk and eat. The fact that Michael and Sollozo talk in Italian and FFC didn’t bother to have it subtitled, so we can concentrate on subtleties in the characters’ expressions and body language, particularly Michael’s (I guess if you speak Italian then the scene may feel slightly different). But the one aspect I like above all else is the sound editing, with the increasing volume of the el train as it moves past the restaurant when Michael is psyching himself up for his big moment. We could take this to be a representation of Michael’s inner turmoil, his racing heart or just the tension ratcheting up in the scene as he reaches the point of no return in his story.
Technically, and just as a way of starting a film, the first 4 minutes (I think it’s about 4 minutes, although it feels longer) of the movie Touch of Evil does it for me. It’s a single tracking shot that follows a car and a couple on foot as their routes cross paths in a US-Mexico border town, building the tension (because the audience knows something that the others don’t) until something very dramatic happens.
As a side note, and in spite of the movie’s title, I find this film an endearing time capsule of another, more innocent era – for films, for life in general, and even in Janet Leigh’s career. Because during the whole film, we never feel that her character’s life is in any real danger (at least that’s the way it seems to me).
I love Sherlock Holmes type deductions.
So this is my favourite scene (even better than the glorious Marseillaise in Casablanca. 
)
It’s from Manhunter … and the music adds considerably to the atmosphere.
The D-Day landing scene in Saving Private Ryan is the best depiction of an actual battle that I have ever seen on film. Not that I have been in any battles, but I watched it with my dad and uncle who served in WWII and they told me so and participated in many landings (dad in the Sout Pacific and my uncle was at D-Day). It sent chills down their spines.
The harvest scene from ‘Days of Heaven’
My friend from Italy says they are speaking Sicilian dialect in that scene, and even he doesn’t precisely know what they’re saying. But I totally agree it was a great choice not to subtitle the scene.
If I go through my movie collection and only include films I think are really high quality, this is what I come up with (spoilers, obviously):
The switchblade scene in 12 Angry Men
Two from Almost Famous:
The plane ride
Being There - Chance the Gardener emerges into the real world
Several scenes from The Caine Mutiny, but the really famous one is The Strawberries
Close Encounters - “Excuse me…”
Contact - Jodie Foster detects the signal (can’t find a clip)
Crimson Tide - “Captain, I cannot concur.”
Buffalo Hunt in Dances with Wolves
Klaatu’s final speech in The Day the Earth Stood Still
Edward G. Robinson lectures the boss in Double Indemnity
Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket
The Great Escape - Steve McQueen’s crazy idea
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat…”
Also Jaws: The USS Indianapolis speech
Seeing the dinosaurs for the first time in Jurassic Park
The Magnificent Seven - “Aw hell, if that’s all that’s holding things up I’ll drive the rig”
Midnight Cowboy - “I bet you’re lonesome.”
Too difficult to select individual scenes from Pulp Fiction. Pretty much the whole thing.
The Princess Bride - the first sword fight
The Producers - Gene Wilder hits upon the failed play scheme (can’t find the clip)
Return of the Pink Panther - Inspector Clouseau at his most clueless
Schindler’s List - final scene in which we see their descendents
The Sunshine Boys (George Burns and Walter Matthau meet to rehearse (can’t find clip)
Twelve O’Clock High - General Savage dresses down an officer
Think I love movies at all?
I was 28 when I saw SPR. My friends and I were awfully quiet when we were walking out of the theatre afterwards. While the battle scenes were undeniably impactful (see below), the thing about that movie that really got me was the elderly Private Ryan in the cemetery at Normandy, confronting the ghosts that had been haunting him for 50+ years: had he, or had he not, lived the kind of life that was worthy of the sacrifice of all of those soldiers who went looking for him?
Many World War II veterans described the opening of Saving Private Ryan as depicting the most realistic representation of combat. Another veteran, interviewed by Time , said “I remember when I walked out into the lobby of the moviehouse, not a single person coming out of that showing said one word … everybody was stunned by it … It just brought back so many memories.”[111][114] There were various reports of some veterans being unable to finish watching Saving Private Ryan because of the memories it brought back.[v] The United States Department of Veterans Affairs created a dedicated phoneline for viewers affected by the film, and more veterans visited counselors for post traumatic stress disorder.[27][15][116]
I see a lot of good scenes mentioned, AND movies I’ve not seen but will try to watch. I considered Amadeus, but almost nominated the early scene where Salieri suddenly discovers that the youth cavorting on the floor is the great genius. And for Saving Private Ryan I thought of the final cemetery scene which Machine_Elf mentions, but now agree it’s the D-Day scene which is one of the greatest ever.
Many of the actors were not only French OR Central European but had themselves recently escaped before the Nazis took over.
I was born only a few years after WWII so am somewhat tuned in to the history and emotion. Perhaps this is one reason I find it to be by far the greatest movie ever, while today’s young people have no interest in it.
The sword fight between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone at the end of Adventures of Robin Hood is fantastic, especially when they duel off stage with their shadows projecting on the wall.
The scene in “The Fisher King” when Robin Williams is following Amanda Plummer through the crowd in Grand Central Station.
Absolutely. One of the best scenes ever. My heart swells every time I see it.
ETA, sorry, not sure why the reply function didn’t take, this was in reference to The Fisher King.
My own picks: Anton Walbrook’s monologue towards the end of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. One of my favorite war movies, if you’ve never seen it, the Criterion disc is phenomenal.
The Ride of the Valkyries helicopter assault in Apocalypse Now. I think it’s longer in the Redux version, which (sacrilege, I know) is really the only reason to see the longer film.
The final exchange between Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski in Paris, Texas (don’t click if you haven’t seen the movie).
The scene in Project A Part 2 (can’t find a YouTube clip) in which four or five groups of people are all hiding from each other in the same tiny house. Jackie Chan reportely took two months to shoot the scene, tweaking it constantly after watching the rushes, tyring to build up the comedic tension more and more, and the payoff is amazing.
Speaking of Hong Kong flicks, the tea house shootout that kicks off Hard Boiled.
The boombox scene in Say Anything.
Gotta agree that the Marseillaise scene is iconic for a reason, one of the best moments on film. Also seconding the Princess Bride swordfight.
But maybe the most satisfying scene for me in the past ten years is the climactic fight in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Or maybe it’s the rocks. Both are damn near perfect.
If you reply to the last post in the thread, Discourse doesn’t provide a pointer back to the post. I guess the assumption is that there’s no reason to point back to the immediately preceding post, but yeah it’s kind of annoying. One workaround is to quote the post in your reply, then make a very minor change like add or remove a period.
You have to watch the entire movie to understand it, but the scene in aftersun where the father and daughter are dancing together
‘Best’ I don’t know, but do have some favorites.
—Inigo duels the Man In Black.
—Opening of Once Upon a Time in the West.
—Final concert scene in O Brother Where Art Thou?
—Dawn of Man in 2001.
——-
Not to make anyone doubt their own favorites (because loving a movie scene is a wonderful thing), but some acclaimed scenes leave me tepid because they feel received.
Crusty drill instructors are cool — let’s turn it to 11.
Car chases are cool — let’s turn it to 11.
Intense battle scenes are cool, let’s turn it to 11.
Precisely choreographed tracking shots are cool, etc.
Of course any of those ideas can be elevated beyond received status, and it’s great when they are. Well drawn characters can make that happen. It’s an individual judgement.
Am I the only one more impressed by Inigo dueling the Six-Fingered Man?
Richard Burton in 1984, for several reasons
- He’d taken on so many embarrassing roles for the paycheck for so many years, it was a blessing he could put in one solid performance before he died.
- We’re so conditioned to see scenes like this with carpet-chewing Nazi werewolves, but in reality, cruelty is dealt out by bored bureaucrats
- In 1984 Burton held his own alongside Cyril Cusak, who in Day of the Jackal, Fahrenheit 451, and a bleak, Irish theatre Beckettian background, was the master of portraying the banality of evil.
I have a couple of favorites which aren’t dramatic moments but are perfect in their own way.
Indiana Jones vs. the scimitar-wielding killer in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
You have to have seen it in 1977 to really appreciate it, but the first time the Millennium Falcon jumps into hyperspace in Star Wars (back when we just called it “Star Wars”) the entire theater let out a collective “Oooooooooooohhhhhhhh!” and applauded.
Any of the scenes with Hoagy Carmichael playing piano, including the ones in To Have And Have Not where Lauren Bacall sings, and the one in The Best Years of Our Lives where he plays a duet with Homer (who has no hands).