Greatest 10 minutes of movie-making

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

When Saving Private Ryan came out, its opening sequences were often proclaimed to be among “the best” or “best directed” moments in movie history. (I agree). My question, then, is what would be your coices for the best 10 minutes ever of movie-making ever? I’ll start:

  1. The Blue Danube scene (space station waltz) from 2001:A Space Odyssey - a defining moment of cinema, space exploration, popular culture, and the 60’s.

  2. The night club scene (with The Crystals singing, “Then He Kissed Me” in the background) from Goodfellas - a cinematic ballet with a rush.

  3. The girl in the red dress scene from Schindler’s List - has anything more heart-rending ever been filmed?

2

If you’re talking about brief bursts of movie directing genius, the following shootouts have all my votes:

Silverado (the sunlight streaming through the bullet holes in the walls)

The Untouchables (on the steps, it was like ballet)

Shane (in the saloon, if you can ignore the fact that Alan Ladd shot the floor, and not Jack Palance)

Bonnie and Clyde (at the end, of course)

Near Dark (wow! that car, barreling down the road full of vampires in full blaze)

I could think of more, but I’ve already lowered the tone of this thread quite enough.

3

  1. The Robert Duvall “napalm smells like victory” scene in Apocolypse Now.

  2. The scene with Harold Lloyd hanging from the clock in Safety Last.

  3. The “world series” scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

  4. Practically any ten minute segment from Citizen Kane.

4

The scenes in “The Godfather” and “The Godfather Part II”, where Michael Corleone exterminates his opposition. Both are filmed the same way - cuts from one scene of violence to another, interspersed with peaceful scenes of the family. The Scene in Part II where Fredo is killed, cutting to a shot of Michael in the window hanging his head, was brilliant.

5

I haven’t seen a lot of the classics, but my vote for the best ten seconds is the rain of bullet-casings from the helicopter in The Matrix. I wasn’t expecting to see them from underneath, and it blew me away, even the third time.

I wholeheartedly agree about the girl in Schindler’s List.

6

Unforgiven - the final shootout, plus the dialogue before. “Any man don’t wanna get killed, better move on out the back.”

Alien - Ripley sets the self-destruct, flees to the escape vessel, only to find the alien is already there, and she has to run back…

Schindler’s List - the people Oscar Schindler saved and their families placing pebbles on his gravestone. There were so many…

The Usual Suspects - the final ten minutes. Oh, that slow creeping realization…

Contact - though it was computer-generated start to finish, the opening pull-away from Earth to the end of the universe with accompanying radio signals was extremely cool.

Carrie - the prom.

Enter The Dragon - the final fight.

Fiddler On The Roof - Tzeitel’s wedding.

Psycho - the end.

And of course, any ten minutes of Young Frankenstein.

7

Man, this is harder than I thought it’d be, but once I got started, I just couldn’t stop. To me, what makes a scene great is if you can forget it. That it was so powerful that at the oddest times you will suddenly remember it.

Here’s a few I was able to come up with:

Casablanca: Visually, the ending. Dialogue-wise, any Rick/Louie exchange.

Shawshank Redemption: The whole sequence where the plot twist is explained had me riveted.

Dolores Claiborne: This is a film that’s very hard to watch because of the subject matter, but the director used colors the scenes almost a visual representation of the emotions. Bold yellows in sequences of high emotion, muted greys in scenes of sadness or depression. The one scene that always gets me is the exchange between the old woman and Dolores as the woman lay dying.

Schindler’s List: There is another scene that I can’t get out of my mind. When a Nazi soldier tries to execute a prisoner, but first one gun jams and then another. I almost shut off the movie at that point. It was just too stressful.

Raiders of the Lost Ark: The opening sequence, with the statue/sand switch, the darts, the double-cross, the huge boulder. That produced so many memorable images.

Ladyhawke: This movie is a guilty pleasure for me. But the scene where the two lovers glimpse each other for a mere split second.

Steel Magnolias: Ok, another guilty pleasure, but the funeral scene makes me sob everytime. Overacted and overwrought? Yep, but still heart wrenching for me.

Gone With the Wind: The final scene, natch.

Saving Private Ryan: When the Nazi soldier tries to calm an allied soldir, even as he stabs him to death.

I think that’s about it. I notice it’s really Spielberg heavy, but he does have that unique talent of producing scenes that are both visually stunning and emotionally powerful.

8

Well, I doubt these will be on any critic’s list, and they don’t really fit in with classics such as Citizen Kane or The Godfather; but they make my list:

For thrilling action, either the first ten minutes of Raiders or the truck chase scene.

For quirky innovation, the invention of the Hula Hoop scene set to Katchaturian’s Sabre Dance in The Hudsucker Proxy (Cohen Brothers).

In a historical epic, the chariot race from Ben-Hur (1959 version).

For laughs, the baseball scene from The Naked Gun.

In a horror movie, Ash vs. his demonic hand in Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn.

9

Braveheart, when Hamish throws the sword. Perfect.

The Princess Bride: “My name is Inigo Montoya. You murdered my father. Prepare to die.” Of course!

Wings of Desire – a greatly flawed but occasionally very moving film — there’s a scene where a young man is dying after a motorcycle crash, and the angel, who can’t save his life, nonetheless stops him from dying in despair. It’s an amazing movie moment.

The Branagh Henry V: All of it. But the long walk across the battlefield toward the end especially.

Catrandom

10

Best?

I’m not qualified to answer.

Most impactful/memorable (it is easy to be highbrow jaded and world weary, I’m going to try to avoid it and go to the gut)-

Close Encounters (I was a kid when I saw it)- The shot of the ship blacking out a section of sky after giving Dryfus a tan. This image will stay with me always.

ET (ditto) - Going out to the backyard to investigate and finding a reeces-pieces-lovin’-funky-turtle-lookin’ alien. What kid wouldn’t dig that!?

Citizen Kane - That early ‘unbroken’ shot/scene that travels throught the windowpane and into the building. (Orson was a stud)

The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover - Many scenes (great use of color/costume) but two scenes in particular, where they’ve run out of buttons to feed to the boy and realize they’ve not thought of the belly button and the feeding of the book via wooden spoon.

Jacob’s Ladder - Many scenes again. The gurney traveling through doors slowly becoming more and more frightening. Dancing at the party with his girlfriend. The face in the window of the passing car.

Framed - The Dog-Bomb

Near Dark - The Bar-room scene - “I hate it when they ain’t shaved”

…and so many more that I can’t think of off the top of my head.

11

Oh wow, I probably haven’t seen enough films to rate this, but here goes…

Say Anything - the scene where Lloyd (John Cusack) tries to win Diane back by playing “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel outside her window while she sleeps…oh, if a boy did that for me! I actually have a poster with that scene on my wall, as do about 50 of my friends.

The Lady from Shanghai - the scene at the end where Rita Hayworth follows Orson Wells into the house of mirrors, and the shoot scene - wow.

Casabanca - the last ten minutes. I can recite it completely from memory, it is just so beautiful and moving.

Pretty Women (I know, I know) - the scene when Edward rides in the limo up to Vivian’s apartment and she “kisses him right back.” sheesh I’m a sucker!

The Exorcist - the whole pea soup puke, head spinning scene - oh I get chills everytime I think about it! Yuck!

Dirty Dancing, 2 scenes (I’m sorry, I’m a child of the eighties) - the last dance: “Nobody puts Baby in a corner” aw shucks!! And when they first make love, and they dance, I find that to be the MOST erotic scene ever! When my dorm watches that (0h, every week or so), just picture 30 girls sitting transfixed in front of the TV, drooling into their laps.

Battleship Potemkin - the Odessa Steps sequence, which actually inspired the stair sequence in the Untouchables.

I won’t pretend to have seen that many classics, but these scenes are my favorite and I will always remember how I felt when I first saw them :slight_smile:

12

Dennis Hopper V’s Christopher Walkin — True Romance

13

How about that stunned deer scene in “Tommy Boy”? I’m almost on the floor, laughing so hard, every time I see it.

The entire eerie sequence towards the end of “Apocalypse Now” (Martin Sheen rising out of the dark pool…) is pretty interesting.

The alien visitation in “The Abyss” was a pretty heavy visual impact, too.

For sheer terror and dramatic effect, though, it’s hard to beat the shower scene in “Psycho”.

For me, the defining moment of cinematography excellence comes at the end of “Citizen Kane”, when a man’s life is summed up in one word.

14

48 Hours, when Eddie Murphy’s character takes over the redneck bar. “I’m your worst fucking nightmare, a black man with a badge.”

15

You know, I started thinking about this, and i realized Spielburg has a real gift for those 10-minute intervals of brilliance. You mentioned the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan (I agree) and the “red dress” scene from Schindler’s List (ditto), to which I would add:

  1. The first 10 minutes of Jaws.

  2. The scene from Jaws where the three main characters are sitting in the boat at night, drinking, and Quint reveals he was on the USS Indianapolis.

Non-Spielburg:

  1. Scene from American Graffitti where Curt goes to the radio station to look for Wolfman Jack.

  2. I’ll ditto that Christopher Walken / Dennis Hopper scene from True Romance.

  3. Slingblade- The heart-to-heart talk between Karl and the boy toward the end, where Karl awkwardly tries to give the boy a little fatherly advice and love.

  4. The chase scene from Raising Arizona (after Hi robs the convenience store) has to be the funniest chase sequence ever.

  5. Two sequences from Breaking Away: The father-son heart-to-heart where they can’t quite connect verbally, but you sense something passing between them, and the closing sequence (son meets French exchange student), where the Dad does one of the funniest double-takes in movie history.

16

The ending of the Iron Giant.
“No following…”
(Man, talk about makin’ a grown man cry)

Mr Sta-Puft ala Ghostbusters

Ash creates his new chainsaw appendage ala Evil Dead 2
“groovy”

Any scene from Beautiful Girls where Timmothy Hutton and Natalie Portman interact.

Hoth Battle ala Empire Strikes Back.

Plastic bag scene ala American Beauty.

To name but a few.

17

Yep, the Chris Walken / Dennis Hopper scene in True Romance was the first thing that came to mind when I read the subject.

Another scene would be the last car chase sequence in Ronin. Absolutely amazing.

18

I haven’t seen many movies but I’ll try.

The Sixth Sense when he realizes he is dead.

Dragonheart when Bowen has to kill Draco and then his soul flies up to the sky to take its place in the constellation. sniffs That one always gets me

I have to agree with the red dress from Schindler’s List (actually its the only scene of that that I’ve seen I really must see the whole thing) and with Braveheart where the sword is thrown but you also have to include the speech where everyone is starting to leave and Wallace stops them.

Then Princess Bride where Inigo is going to kill the Count also where at the end in the bedroom when Buttercup is about to kill herself then Humperdink walks in and you KNOW that Wesley is still too weak to do anything but he does it all the same.

I’ll be back if I think of anymore.

19

Many of my favorites have been mentioned, but this one hasn’t:

the opening of Patton.

That was one hell of a performance, regardless of what you may think of the subject or the politics involved. There’s no question George C. Scott deserved the Oscar.

P.S. According to him, he didn’t turn down the Oscar, he turned down the nomination. And he did pick up the Oscar.

20

In Saving Private Ryan, the scene at the Ryan’s farm when the car comes down the road.