# ID this grisly scene from a movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 30, 2010, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-grisly-scene-from-a-movie/527008 "2010-01-30T07:07:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-grisly-scene-from-a-movie/527008/1 "2010-01-30T07:07:48Z")
I saw it on TV years ago. Bad guys have captured a man and tied him to the mast of a ship. They then begin to skin him alive. (Nothing is actually shown – it’s done with rapid cuts and camera angles to imply what’s going on.) The hero, unable to stand the prisoner’s suffering, shoots him in the head to put him out of his misery. That’s all I can remember. I didn’t see the rest of the movie and I can’t even remember if it was set in the past or the present day. But it was such a vivid scene that it’s stuck with me. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-grisly-scene-from-a-movie/527008/2 "2010-01-30T08:08:47Z")
Try posting this [here](http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000001/threads/) on IMDb. The more descriptive a title you use, the faster you’ll get an answer. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-grisly-scene-from-a-movie/527008/3 "2010-01-30T08:13:05Z")
IIRC it was episode 2 of [The Raging Queen](http://snltranscripts.jt.org/78/78rcowperthwaite.phtml) titled “I am nailed to The Hull”. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-grisly-scene-from-a-movie/527008/4 "2010-01-30T12:08:36Z")
Could it be _The Sand Pebbles_? There is a somewhat _similar_ scene to what you describe—though not identical, in several important respects. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-grisly-scene-from-a-movie/527008/5 "2010-01-30T17:24:45Z")
It sounds a lot like the scene from \* The Last of the Mohicans\*, except the guy was burning, not being skinned on a mast…? ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-grisly-scene-from-a-movie/527008/6 "2010-01-30T20:55:47Z")
Was it a pirate flick? Because I want to say I saw a pirate movie once in which this happened. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-grisly-scene-from-a-movie/527008/7 "2010-01-30T21:11:53Z")
> [@astro](#): > > IIRC it was episode 2 of [The Raging Queen](http://snltranscripts.jt.org/78/78rcowperthwaite.phtml) titled “I am nailed to The Hull”. “No, punish me!” ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-grisly-scene-from-a-movie/527008/8 "2010-01-30T21:21:44Z")
You could be thinking of _The Sand Pebbles_ (1966), where Steve McQueen’s character has to watch from on board a ship as a friend of his is strung up on the shore and treated much as you describe, by a mob of communist Chinese. McQueen grabs a rifle and puts his friend out of his misery much to the annoyance of the captain, who has been ordered not to interfere. ---
**Author:** ![Umbriel2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/4af34b/32.png) [@Umbriel2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbriel2)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-grisly-scene-from-a-movie/527008/9 "2010-01-31T23:17:36Z")
My guess is [_The Light at the Edge of the World_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067345/), starring Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner – a not-especially-science-fictiony Jules Verne adventure adaptation. Rather brutal and graphic for a mainstream film of its day (PG rated, but far more visceral than the notorious _Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom_). I remember seeing it at a drive-in as a lad of about 12 with my parents, where we had gone to see the rather more family-friendly [_Bingo Long_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074207/). We were all a bit startled by it – the viciousness of the bad guys and the body count among sympathetic characters raised the stakes above most adventure movies of the day. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-grisly-scene-from-a-movie/527008/10 "2010-02-01T01:03:59Z")
That’s definately the pirate film I was thinking of. I also saw it at a drive-in. My dad wasn’t one to take us to the kiddy movies. If we were going to the movies, we went to the drive-in and saw a double feature with something he wanted to see. I was probably around 11 or 12 when we saw this one and it was gory enough to make an impression on me back in those days. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-grisly-scene-from-a-movie/527008/11 "2010-02-01T05:11:43Z")
The Light at the Edge of the World sounds very much like it might be it. I’m going to Google to get more information to confirm. Thanks! That scene has stuck in my head for years.