I have to third Kevin Spacey as Jack Vincennes in L.A. Confidential and second Connery in The Untouchables.
I’ll add Alec Guinness as Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai:
He realizes his great mistake, is fatally wounded, and manages to fall on the detanator, destroying the bridge.
Also, I’ll add (somewhat beyond the OP, but within the spirit) from The Game: Do not read if you ever plan to see this movie. This really will spoil it!
Both Sean Penn getting shot and Michael Douglas leaping to his death. Of course, you see why it’s a grey area.
Those of you moved by funeral scenes may possibly find Last Orders (2001) with Michael Caine, Helen Mirren, Bob Hoskins, David Hemmings, Tom Courtenay and Ray Winstone, to be a substantially rewarding film. I saw it for the first time within the past year on cable and then again a few months later. It’s basically a day-long funeral and the story line and acting are superb.
What? No Sonny shot on the Causeway in The Godfather?
All that rage and anger.
But the Don’s reaction in the funeral home tops that for emotion.
The Cheifs death in Apocalypse Now. First his unbelieving action that with everything he’s been through he gets done in by “A spear,”
Then his attempt to take Willard with him.
One of my tops was in the Illinois Shakespeare Festival a few years back. They were doing Hamlet, and in the scene of Ophelia’s funeral, the stage was set-up so that the ‘grave’ was actually something like a drawer pulled out of part of the stage. It was obvious that when the scene was over, the drawer would be pushed back in again. My assumption was that Ophelia would get out backstage.
Nope. The scene ends, and Ophelia gets up and starts walking, slowly, and ethereally, off-stage. No one else looks at her…
Except Hamlet. And his expression is one of horror.
He’s still seeing ghosts.
That, and two other moments ‘made’ the play for me. Allow me my brief hijack for the other two. One’s even death related.
At the end of the play, right before the duel starts, EVERY character who has died comes out on a balcony over the stage, pale, ghostly make-up, slow movements… Staring directly at the duel as it starts. The dead watch, and wait… Made me shiver.
The other was just a tiny thing, but it was incredible. When Polonius and the King ‘withdraw’ before Hamlet comes out to talk to Ophelia, the king tries to hide behind a tapestry, but it won’t come loose from the wall to cover him. He keeps tugging at it and tugging at at, and finally Polonius motions to let him try, and with a simple flick of the wrist gets it loose. The king looks at him in absolute surprise and horror, as if to say, “Oh… You’ve… Done this before, haven’t you?”
It was an absolutely amazing moment in a great, great performance.
To contribute some from TV, I’ll go with both Nathan Sr.'s and Nathan Jr.'s funerals in Six Feet Under. Francis Conroy as Ruth, wailing at her husband’s funeral makes me burst into tears no matter how many times I see it (particularly impressive after watching some of the “making-of” specials, where they talked about how she had to do this scene over and over again, it looks just so physically wrenching). And Nate’s whole speech about death being so sanitized is appropriate when taken in context of his own funeral years later, where they just roll him into into the ground wrapped in a sheet and bury him themselves. Everyone’s reactions as they picked up the shovel was so different…Ruth and David were heartbroken, Brenda was just disgusted…well played.
Does any of the Kenny deaths from South Park count?
On the TV show Homicide Life on the Street detective Steve Crosetti comits suicide. Because it’s a suicide the department wouldn’t have an honor guard for him. Before the funeral detective Frank Pembleton, who could be considered a real hard ass, says he won’t go to the church. He is harrased by the other officers for this.
They had a New Orleans style procession with a sax player walking in front of the hearse with all the cops in regular clothes following behind. As the procession went past the police station there was Pembleton in his dress uniform with his white gloves giving a crisp salute.
Gets me every time I’ve seen it.
On the same series there was an episode where a 10 year old boy gets accidentally shot at a mall. He is brain dead and after agonizing over it, his parents decide to pull the plug and have his organs removed for transplant. They showed his parents crying holding him in their laps when the shut the machine off. The tone goes to a flatline and he died in their arms.
All the episodes of Six Feet Under started with a death. (Except the second to last episode where Nate and Brenda’s baby is born.) Some were funny, some silly and some sad. The series finally had flash forwards to all of the cast members dying one by one. That was unexpected and quite a nice bit of writing.
Which leads to one of the great movie lines…after the running “It’s a good day to die” line, and we’re starting to buy into woo-woo Native American mysticism
grandfather opens his eyes, shrugs, and says “sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn’t”.
From Shakespeare: at the end of Henry VI, Richard kills one of his rivals. At the beginning of Richard III, he not only attends the man’s funeral, but tries to seduce his widow. [It’s not a comedy! Shakespeare plays it completely straight!]
In the Laurence Olivier movie, the widow spits in his eye. He calmly wipes his face, turns toward the camera, smiles, and says, “I’ll have her.”
And the really scary thing is, he does.
The Al Pacino movie Looking for Richard does a good job of explaining how and why Richard succeeded.
[quote] Marley23: I could’ve sworn something equivalent (but less dramatic) happened in the Zeffirelli version, but maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps they’re just off by milliseconds.{/quote]
Zeffirelli version: Just after Romeo dies from taking the poison, we see Juliet’s fingers move. She quickly regains consciousness. When she sees Romeo’s body and kisses him, her anguished cry of “Thy lips are warm!” is memorable.
There are a couple of cheerful moments at funerals that I like to remember:
In The Big Chill when one of the deceased’s friends plays “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” on the organ. (The death was a suicide.)
On Mary Tyler Moore at the funeral of Chuckles the Clown when he was, I think, dressed in a peanut costume in a parade and got shelled by an elephant. Mary got a case of the giggles during the funeral and couldn’t suppress them.
Heather’s death in Highlander. We see that Connor hasn’t gotten older at all, while Heather, who walks uphill into the scene, is white haired and lined with age. Cut to hut interior. Connor is sitting up in bed with Heather’s head in his lap. She asks, “Tell me a story, Connor.” He starts to set the scene, looking into the past of the many years they’ve shared together. Then he realizes that she has died, his voice breaks, and he begins to cry. In the next scene, we see her grave, marked with his sword, in the foreground. In the distance we see the hut burning as Connor walks away and doesn’t look back.
In the pilot episode of Firefly, the Alliance agent getting shot killed the last doubts about whether I would like the series. Any other movie or TV series I can think of would have had a tense stand-off, negotiation, back and forth dialog. Nope, Mal just shoots the bugger mid-stride and tells the others to throw the body out. Yes!
Something very similar happened to me. The first time I watched Mrs. Miniver someone at Bravo screwed up, and the screen went to white as Kay and Carol were driving home from the garden party, at night, in the middle of the air raid. I found that incorrect ending stunning for a WWII flick and fully agreed with all the awards afforded the director and cast. Only much later did I see the saccharine ending and wish Wilder had made the film I originally “saw”.[//hijack]
Good choices. In the same style: Willem Dafoe’s death in Flight of the Intruder “Do it, Sandy. Do it now. I’d do it for you.” and then the slow shot of the Skyraider rolling in.
Spock and Donny have been mentioned, only other death/funerals I can think of is Arnie’s demise in T2, thumbs up to the end before we see his vision going as he melts. Hey, I liked it!
The death of Leon in the self named film is great too, for the expression on Jean Reno and Gary Oldman’s faces alone.
Tommy’s death (“Oh n–”) and Jimmy’s reaction to the news in Goodfellas.
The first time I saw The Dresser, when Sir collapses after the final curtain call, even though he got up a moment later, I knew it would have to end with him dying. Every aspect of his life, not to mention Norman’s, was melodramatic; it couldn’t just end with them taking the train to the next engagement. He had a great last line, too. “My Life [the title of his autobiography] will have to do.”
And since ST: TNG has already been mentioned, Lal’s death in The Offspring never fails to make me tear up. Also touching was Data’s perfectly-in-character reaction: “I have incorporated her memory banks into mine.”
