Greatest Iconic Film images of the 20th century!

Cafe Society
1

With all the great moments in 20th century film making what do you consider the greatest moments

here are mine Admittedly they are hollywood based…

  1. Major Kong Riding the Bomb to teh target (Dr Strangelove)
  2. The slow pull out from the train station showing the coinfederate wounded (Gone with the Wind)
  3. Kong falling from the Empire State Building (King Kong 1933)
  4. Bickle staring into the mirror “are you talking to me?” (Taxi driver)
  5. Dracula walking down the stair case “Good evening I’m Dracula”(Dracula 1931)
  6. The Tramp reuniting with the kid after the orphanage ties to take the kid away (The Kid)
  7. Jack Nicholson’s “Here’s Johnny” (The Shining)
  8. Taylor in front of the remains of The statue of Liberty (Planet of the Apes)
  9. Don Corleone holding a kitten in his office (the Godfather)
  10. Cary Grant running from a biplane (North by Northwest)

So, what are your top ten?

2
  1. Andy Dufrense standing in the rain after escaping from Shawshank prison.
  2. The star destroyed flying overhead.
  3. Indiana Jones running from the boulder in Raider’s of the Lost Ark.

Too tired to think of more right now.

3

Milton Buddle holding the red stapler in Office Space :smiley:

4

Charles Kane on stage
Elliott and ET in front of the moon
Several years ago TCM had a commerical that played the Kinks “Celluloid Heroes” as they played iconic moments, it really gave me goosebumps.

5

Hmm, iconic moments or great moments? There seems to be a slight difference there.

Roy Batty takes Tyrell’s head in his hand and says “I want more life, fucker.”

6

To me, it’s an iconic image if it’s an instantly recognizeable visual with no dialogue needed.

Rhett and Scarlet’s kiss, or the silhouette shot of her by the tree vowing never to starve again, the burning of Atlanta, Rhett’s turning from to leave.

Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, Lion and Toto on the yellow brick road, the first swarm of flying monkeys, the great and powerful Oz, the melting witch.

7

[ul]
[li]The closeup on Deckard’s eye during the flying cab ride. (Maybe I got this wrong. It’s the central image in this montage.)[/li][li]Norman’s insane smile at the end of Psycho.[/li][li]Orlok rising from his coffin on the ship in Nosferatu.[/li][li]Groucho dancing with his ‘mirror image’ in Duck Soup.[/li][/ul]

8

Willem Dafoe cops it in Platoon.
Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jck Nicholson on the highway in Easy Rider
Michael J Fox on stage in Back To the Future
Any shot from the shower scene in Psycho

a nice collection here and these guys have posted their choices as images.

9

To get one from the real early days I want to add the dancers filmed in black and white but then each frame was hand colored. It was probably from the first decade of motion picture. It was one of the first scenes in that TCM commercial I mentioned. It gave the scene this fascinating ephemeral quality.

10

Here’s another one that may not spring to mind, but it was shot on film and shown in theaters.

When they zoom in on the dead Bugs Bunny, killed by Elmer Fudd in “What’s Opera, Doc?” with just that little bit of light.

11

In no particular order:
The knife raised to strike behind the shower curtain in Pyscho.
Marilyn Monroe’s dress being blown up in The Seven Year Itch (such an iconic moment we don’t even realise it was from a film!)
King Kong falling from the Empire State Building (any version).
Marlon Brando stroking a cat in The Godfather.
James Bond about to get his bollocks lasered off in Goldfinger.
Hannibal Lector standing in the centre of a cell, just staring, in Silence of the Lambs.
Darth Vader walking onto the captured Rebel ship at the beginning of A New Hope.
Clint Eastwood (as The Man With No Name) sitting atop his horse, cigar in teeth (could be from any one of his films, really).
A tiny figure dangling from Washington’s nose (in North by Northwest).
The Bat-Signal! (Yes, I’m a geek at heart).

12

Rick Blaine and the bottle of booze.
Rick Blaine and Louie walking off into the fog.

13

Two more from the Browning-Lugosi DRACULA-
the three Brides silently coming forth to confront Renfield.
Renfield’s grinning heh-heh-heh as he emerges from the ship’s hold.

“It’s alive!” from Karloff’s FRANKENSTEIN
The Monster’s wooing and the Bride’s rebuff in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

“Sanctuary!” from Charles Laughton’s HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
The flogging on the wheel from Lon Chaney’s HBofND

The unmasking in Chaney’s PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

The making of the Female Android in METROPOLIS

The wedding chant “One of Us” and the fate of the Trapeze Artist in FREAKS

14

The light shining out from the window on to the street when Fr Merrin arrives at the house, from The Exorcist

The ape holding a bone and using it as a primitve tool, from 2001:A Space Odyssey

Maria waltzing around the hills in The Sound Of Music

Sally Bowles in bowler hat and fishnets in classic Bob Foose pose, from Cabaret

Superman flying towards camera, Superman

Astaire and Rogers dancing cheek to cheek, from Top Hat

Jason and crew facing the skeleton army, Jason And The Argonauts

The race around the quadrangle, Chariots of Fire

The horse’s head in the bed, The Godfather

Shirley Eaton lying covered in gold paint, Goldfinger

The liquid metal Terminator walking out of the flaming wreckage, Terminator 2

Harold Llyod dangling from something at a dizzying height, various

The front of a house falling down on Buster Keaton, and the empty doorframe just happening to coincide with where he’s standing, Steamboat Bill Jr

Stan and Ollie trying to shift a piano up some steps on a hillside, The Music Box

Bruce Lee, stripped to the waist, glistening, ready for action, Enter The Dragon

15

…in classic Bob Fosse pose…

I should have written. Although the legendary Bob Foose was a great choreographer in his own way.

16

Macauley Culkin doing the scream
Charlton Heston carrying the Ten Commandments
Dorothy, with Toto in basket, right after the tornado, and she opens the front door, and there’s . . . color!
The Emerald City
Charlie Chaplin eating his shoe
Bette Davis coming down the steps in “All About Eve”
Bette Davis smoking, in countless movies
Harold Lloyd hanging from the flagpole
The “Big Dubya” at the end of “It’s a Mad . . . World”
James Stewart and Donna Reed by the Christmas tree.
Julie Andrews, spinning around on the hills
The chariot race from Ben Hur
Ray Walston wearing a grass skirt and coconut bra in “South Pacific”
The monolith from 2001.
Lassie coming home
Streisand in the Staten Island Ferry in “Funny Girl”
Tony Perkins’ “mother” in her rocking chair

Scarlet O’Hara wearing the curtain rod . . . oh wait

17

That first time we see the dinosaurs eating leaves off the trees in Jurassic Park. Say what you will about the film in general; I will never, ever forget that image.

By the way:

Just for the record, he was hanging from a clock face, in the film Safety Last. Incidentally, that was shot very carefully to appear as though he were on a sheer building face, but there was actually a ledge with a mattress on it below him. Not to say there was no danger; he could easily have fallen and bounced off the mattress and right over the edge. But there was slightly less danger than there appeared to be in the film. Which normally wouldn’t be worth mentioning (movie magic and all that), but the popular legend that he was actually dangling unprotected hundreds of feet above pavement is a bit of romantic invention.

18

Garbo’s final closeup in Queen Christina

Dietrich singing on that barrel in Der Blau Engel

The Feast of Belshazaar in Intolerance

Gloria Swanson’s starcase descent in Sunset Boulevard

The unmasking of The Phantom of the Opera

19

Omar Shariff riding out of the desert in Laurence of Arabia;
William Holden floating face down in Sunset Boulevard;
Mongo riding the bull into town in Blazing Saddles;
Kay looking at Michael as the door closes in The Godfather;
The ape/hominid/protohuman smashing the antelope’s skull in 2001

20

Nitpick: I’d say Kong standing on top of the Empire State Building with the biplanes buzzing him, not him falling.

To second suggestions I was beaten to:
Darth Vader, almost any pose or scene
Apes & Monolith, 2001
Ben Hur chariot race

More suggestions:
Yul Brynner as the defaced robot gunslinger in West World.
Ursula Andress rising from the ocean in Dr. No