First off, I agree with the ‘Reservoir Dogs’ ending, I still love that one, also the ‘True Romance’ one. But, "Pulp Fiction’, while not the ending, it was still a fantastic part with Samuel Jackson reciting the Bible verse and blowing ‘Brett’ away.
“Face Off” with the shoot out in the church. Yeah, it was in slow motion, but it was still cool.
“Saving Private Ryan” when the Americans hit against the wall, and it caves in showing Germans standing there. Again, not an ending, but terrific, just the same.
Jackie Chan VS Ken Lo at the end of Drunken Master II (the re-release of it is called Legend of Drunken Master and if it’s not out on video already, it should be soon…go rent/buy it, heh), the whole big 20 minute last fight…It just doesn’t get better than that.
Like a moron I completely missed that the OP meant NON-martial arts flicks, heh…
Damn…I was going to list one to make up for the wasted post above, but alas, I can’t think of any off the top of my head…I’ll post again when I can, heh…
Tsugumo (forgive me, I’m a zombie college student and my brain needs more sleep to function…)
No need to revise here, as I was just about to post those.
As far as “shoot-outs” go, these are the best, bar-none (I’d have to think about show-downs, though…).
Tarantino and too many directors to name owe a great debt of gratitude to John Woo. It’s hard to think of a great shoot-out in the last 10 years that didn’t borrow from his style.
Blazzing saddles! Jesus Christ, I laugh just thinking about it, I can’t do it justice explaining it, just go rent it.
-Raises his right hand
“See this hand?”
“Yeah, steady as a rock. So?”
-Raiases his left hand
“THIS is the hand I shoot with”
Way of the Gun has some of the best, realistic gunplay I’ve seen in quite awhile. They also trained the actors so it actually looked like they weren’t tremendous dangers to themselves and others just carrying a firearm–fingers off of triggers until they intended to shoot, etc. Each gunshot individually recorded for the sound instead of stock-sound bambambam looped over itself.
On the unrealistic side, I would’ve mentioned John Woo’s work if no one else had.
And I don’t really consider Yojimbo a martial-arts film, so I’ll bring up the final showdown between Mifune and the last bad dude. (This was the Kurosawa film that Sergio Leone based A Fistful of Dollars on, which Last Man Standing dubbed.)
Another vote for “True Romance” here. It’s the last time I can remember sitting in the theater feeling absolutely blown away (so to speak).
Quentin Tarantino said in an interview that he was tired of that oft-repeated movie cliche in which everyone’s gun is drawn and there looks like there’s going to be a ton of bullets flying, except someone comes in at the last second and resolves the situation. Yawn! What HE wanted to see is a situation where EVERYBODY SHOOTS EVERYBODY ELSE!
I was kinda thinking gunfights more than sword duals, but since you brought it up:
Rob Roy - Big Bad Liam Neison spends a good 10 minutes getting cut to pieces by the the more skillfull, yet foppish Tim Roth. I won’t spoil how it turns out, but it was pretty badass.
I didn’t care for many of his movies (Hard Target, Broken Arrow) but you definitely see his influence in movies like The Matrix, Desperado, and others.
ie
Use of two small guns instead of one big one
Lots of jumping around on wires
Shooting the bad guys 10-15 times
Pistol bullets with stopping power enough to send a man flying 10 feet in the air
Pretty unrealistic, but makes for great cinematography:)
Three Kings, the firefight over the spilt milk. The camera seems to follow each bullet, and the imagery of a gut shot spreading infection will stay with me for a while.
Seeing as we’ve done Desperado, Usual Suspects and The Matrix I’ll have to offer up From Dusk til Dawn. Especially the mega vampire ass-whooping that goes on.
It may not have the most shots fired or any slo-mo or a beautiful ballet of bullets but it has characters I really care about and you really don’t know how it’s going to end.
