Cool/interesting little touches you notice in movies

Cafe Society
101

Random thought, was it him or the other guy (I seem to recall there are two guys who basically run the frat) whose girlfriend turned out to be sleeping with the professor? If it was him, that makes the whole realization that girls lie about sex too kinda funnier.

So, in Hunt For Red October, we get to sit in on a conversation between Captain Ramius and the Political Officer, Putin (heh), about how they were going to be training against Captain Tupolev, an old student of Captain Ramius’s. Putin says, with a touch of snark, that many say that Tupolev has a spot in his heart for Ramius, to which Ramius replies that there is no room in Tupolev’s heart for anyone except Tupolev. Thus, we know that Tupolev is a narcissistic jerk that Ramius can’t stand.

Later, in the scene that introduces Captain Tupolev, he gets his orders to intercept and destroy Red October, after the Russians have figured out what Ramius is doing. When one of his officers asks him what the orders are, seeing him visibly upset, he says that they’ve been “ordered to kill a friend. We’ve been ordered to kill Ramius.”

Tupolev thinks that Ramius and he are friends, is heartbroken that he is being ordered to kill him, but is going to because it’s his duty. Ramius thinks that Tupolev is a freaking prick. Kinda sad, actually. :smiley:

102

Some people seem to have gone insane analyzing perversely subtle subliminal messages and symbolism in The Shining. Google around; it’s entertaining.

103

I recently read this article about the making of GoodFellas. it is all straight from the mouths of the principles and full of fascinating details.

Scorsese giving the actors in a scene different accounts of how the scene would go to get good reactions.

DeNiro asking another actor to say something to set him off.

How only one line was actually written for the “DO I AMUSE YOU?” scene.

104

In Jurassic Park, Dr. Grant can’t get his seatbelt on in the helicopter because he has two female connectors, but in the end he just improvises and ties the two ends together. And then all the dinosaurs breed even though they are all females.

105

Wow. I’m glad you shared that. I really hope that was an intentional reference because if so, it’s really fucking cool.

106

Sir? My mind? Blown. :eek:

107

I read that somewhere on the internet (maybe even SDMB). I am not sure if it was intentional or not but if it is it is really cool

108

You may have read it here:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11418334&postcount=343

I know I did.

109

I think the word you want is foreshadowing, and I’m sure it’s intentional. There’s plenty of discussion in the book on how a sexually-segregated population of pseudo-reptiles might manage to reproduce; Malcolm sees it coming a mile away in my favorite bit, when he’s addressing the mathematics of the situation, and neither Grant nor Sattler is surprised when they see it happen. But there’s no room for that in an action movie, so Spielberg opted for subtlety.

110

It is actually a plot point of the movie. At the beginning Ripley freaks out that an android is coming with them after what happened with Ash in the first movie and both Burke and Bishop go out of their way to calm her down telling her there is no way Bishop can hurt anyone.

111

So, in The Godfather Micheal is meeting with The Turk and Captain McCluskey, as they sit down to eat, the Turk turns to the Captain and says “I’m going to speak Italian with him for now, if that’s all right with you.” There was no reason for him to say that, the Captain didn’t seem to care what language they spoke amongst each other, as he was just there as hired muscle.

Still, the Turk asked, evidently just to show respect to the Captain, presumably so he wouldn’t be startled and put ill at ease if they had just leapt into Italian without warning. Just a sort of subtle touch. The Captain was in Sollozzo’s pocket, but he was still a police captain and could still cause them some grief if he wanted to, so they show him respect even as they pay him off.

112

Regarding that restaurant scene in the Godfather, I like the very smooth way that the waiter uncorks the wine bottle.

113

I would argue that he did have a sense of self-preservation, when he volunteers to go out to fix the relay everyone looks surprised and he says something like, “Believe me, I’d rather not, I may be synthetic but I’m not stupid”

Bishop is just one more great character in a movie filled with great characters, “Magnificent, isn’t it?” :smiley:

I recall reading somewhere in additional info about the Aliens story universe that unrestricted combat-androids are one of the very few weapons that are universally banned, I suppose thats because on their own initiative they could use every other weapon to achieve their objective!

114

One thing that struck me about the Shining (after having watched it for the umpteenth million time) was how it manipulated ‘size.’ The film opens with an ariel view of the Rocky mountains - Jack Torrence’s car is a tiny speck on the road. All the early scenes in the movie are shot at a wide angle, with the actors appearing like small figures in expansive rooms. But as the story progresses, the shots gradually become tighter and tighter, and the actors are shot from a downward angle to show the ceiling more - it’s to emphasize the claustrophobic atmosphere; their surroundings are gradually growing smaller and more confining.

As an example, check out the scenes set in the hedge maze. Early on, Wendy & Danny wander through it, and the hedges rise above them almost like skyscrapers. But in the finale, when Jack is chasing Danny through it, the camera is tightly focused on Jack himself, barely showing any of the surrounding hedges.

Goodfellas - one really small, throwaway detail stood out for me. Towards the end of the film when Ray Liotta’s character is about to be busted for dealing. One of his kids is reading a comic book, issue #6 (IIRC) of “the New Teen Titans.” It’s one that I had myself (I was an avid comic book collector junkie back then.) When I first saw the film, I thought “that’s a nice detail, showing the kid reading a comic book that was actually popular in 1980 (?), when the scene took place.”

At a later date, I happened to read the book and got the date when the actual bust took place. And being a complete geek, I double-checked the cover date of the “Titans” issue from that movie scene and realized it was just a few months off - the cover date was about two months later than the date that this bust went down. “So close,” I thought.

Then I remembered that comic books, like many magazines, are (or were) post-dated. The date on the cover is always about two months ahead of when the issue was released - it’s sort of a “sell until this date” suggestion to retailers.

So in a movie made in 1991, for a scene set in (about) 1980, for a five-second shot of a kid reading a comic book, not only did the set decorator track down not only a back-issue of a series that was very popular during the time period, but the specific issue a kid would probably be reading, and even corrected for the post-dating of the cover date!

115

In one of the few interesting moments of the awful movie “Hannibal,” Giancarlo Giannini is looking online at the FBI’s Most Wanted List. He sees the picture of Hannibal Lecter (whom he has met in Italy, posing as an art historian).

Lecter’s picture was right next to that of… Osama Bin Laden. This was BEFORE 9/11, of course.

116

Of course, as we see, McCluskey himself didn’t CARE about that kind of polite deference. He couldn’t have cared less what language the mobsters spoke. But the fact that Sollozzo asked showed that such things WERE extremely important to SOLLOZZO.

Just as Clemenza and Tessio KNEW they would be. Remember, when Michael, Tessio and Clemenza are making plans for how to kill Sollozzo, Clemenza tells Michael “Tell Sollozzo you have to go to the bathroom… no, better yet, ask his PERMISSION!”

Clemenza knew that Sollozzo would expect to be treated with that kind of delicacy and deference. McCluskey, of course, saw that as a silly Italian affectation. So, when Michael DID ask permission, McClusky just scoffed “You gotta go, you gotta go.”

117

Osama has been on the list since '98, after the Kenyan embassy bombings (maybe you know that? I can’t tell from your post)

118

That’s in the Colonial Marines Technical Manual (probably my most favorite, wonderfully geeky, perfectly fitting in and expanding upon the setting, scifi technical manual of all time)—particularly jarring in that, yeah, nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons are mentioned as being employed tactically. And that one Marine being interviewed mentions offhand that androids may be manufactured by Cyberdyne!

119

In This is Spinal Tap, just after Paul Schaffer joins the band in their hotel room, a roadie opening the door to admit a room service cart fumbles and drops what is apparently a vial of cocaine onto the carpet.

120

I like a good special effect when it doesn’t overpower a movie.

One that I completely missed the first time was the boggart scene in HP3. The camera view starts from the perspective of the student and moves through the reflection of them in the mirror and ends up back at the children in one seamless move. Here is the scene in Japanese.

In the same movie the animators drop a bit of realism in the Hippogriff lesson that most people miss. The beast fertilizes the landscape just before Harry is introduced to it.