# "I guess you had to be there" moments in movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 27, 2015, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321 "2015-07-27T15:27:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321/21 "2015-07-30T19:23:28Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Michael confronting Carlo. It’s not the words on the page it’s the look in Pacino’s eyes. Same with the scene where Michael shoots Sollozzo in the Italian restaurant. On paper it’s “Michael comes back from the bathroom, sits down and waits a few moments.” On screen you see Michael wrestling internally with the enormity of what he’s about to do. Pacino’s acting at its finest. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321/22 "2015-07-30T19:25:20Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Can you please explain / spoiler the spoiler? The title character is a 13-year-old girl living under the Taliban in Afghanistan, who masquerades as a boy to get an education. When she is found out, the old man takes her into his household. In the scene, he’s performing an ablution, something a reverent Muslim must do after sex. In other words, he’s just raped the girl. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321/23 "2015-07-31T05:21:23Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > Same with the scene where Michael shoots Sollozzo in the Italian restaurant. On paper it’s “Michael comes back from the bathroom, sits down and waits a few moments.” On screen you see Michael wrestling internally with the enormity of what he’s about to do. Pacino’s acting at its finest. There’s probably a hundred such moments from the first two films alone. Another worthy of mention was the point in the Cuban nightclub when Michael realises that Fredo has lied to him. No words, no histrionics just silent despair. ---
**Author:** ![fjs1fs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9e8a1a/32.png) [@fjs1fs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fjs1fs)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321/24 "2015-07-31T13:00:45Z")
Amazingly these examples of “you had to be there” are living up to their billing. Those that I have seen are making me laugh (or react) again whereas my reaction to those I am not familiar with is “huh?” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321/25 "2015-07-31T13:30:51Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > There’s probably a hundred such moments from the first two films alone. > > Another worthy of mention was the point in the Cuban nightclub when Michael realises that Fredo has lied to him. No words, no histrionics just silent despair. Seeing Pacino over the last few decades makes you forget he could be a subtle actor. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321/26 "2015-07-31T13:34:23Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The title character is a 13-year-old girl living under the Taliban in Afghanistan, who masquerades as a boy to get an education. When she is found out, the old man takes her into his household. In the scene, he’s performing an ablution, something a reverent Muslim must do after sex. In other words, he’s just raped the girl. ☹ Wow, that’s quite heart rending. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321/27 "2015-07-31T14:45:08Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Surely you can’t be serious. Unless the person you’re talking to has seen the movie, the standard response to this line gets a blank stare. If they have seen it, they crack up. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321/28 "2015-07-31T15:11:14Z")
[This moment in Tremors 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QvhCDsFkk0) isn’t funny just from the clip. But if you’ve seen the first one and know the context it was so funny it made me shoot Pepsi out of my nose. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321/29 "2015-07-31T17:05:29Z")
From the first Avengers movie, where Hulk is pounding Loki into the floor. After, IIRC, the third smash, he just holds Loki up for a second, as if judging “is he done yet?” and then going on to smash him a couple more times before the “puny God” line. Describing it, it doesn’t sound like much but that pause, if you’re watching for it, is absolute wonderfulness. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321/30 "2015-07-31T17:20:19Z")
It’s been done since, and will continue to be done and lose it’s impact, but in Raiders when Ford just shoots the sword guy was a wonderful moment of surprise and ultra-realism inserted in a fantastic movie. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321/31 "2015-08-04T03:24:58Z")
The first time I saw it, pretty much all of Pulp Fiction. I had no idea where it was going and WTF crazy violent disturbing thing would happen next. A couple of moments make me disproportionately sad. There’s a scene in Skool Daze where the women perform Be Alone Tonight and it reminds me of a girl at school who died senior year and she and a group of friends had performed that. And in The Waterdance when William Forsythe’s character realizes the thing he was pinning his hopes on won’t work out and he is so sad and angry and it reminds me of my brother who is a big lug like that, and even though his character is an unlikeable guy, I just break down. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-guess-you-had-to-be-there-moments-in-movies/726321.md?page=1)