After posting in this thread, I decided to run out and rent “The Color Purple” again. The movie is just an unbelievable work of art, full of some really powerful moments.
But the scene where Albert is kicking Nettie off the farm, and Celie is trying to stop him… That has to be number 1 on my list of the most powerful moments in moviemaking history. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so well acted - powerful, raw, emotional… Damn.
Number 2 would probably be the scene where they’re arresting Sally Field’s character in Norma Rae. I watched an interview once where someone asked her where she had summoned that performance. She said that she had asked director Martin Ritt something along the lines of “What’s my motivation?” He told her “Don’t let them put you in that car.” It clearly worked, and according to her, she actually broke a fellow actor’s rib during the filming.
This is a much subtler scene than the ones just described but I consider it powerful.
In “The Godfather” after Don Corleone is nearly murdered and Al Pacino has a run-in with the corrupt Police Chief, there is a scene back at Don Corleone’s house in which all the major characters are talking.
Sonny wants to shoot everybody in the other “families”, and Tom Hagen says if that were done it would set off a war, all the political protection would run away, etc.
Then Michael Corleone speaks in a calm and calculating manner. He will go to a meeting with the Chief and Solozzo (sp?) in a public place where they’ll all feel safe especially since Michael is NOT in the family “business”. All during this speech, the camera is slowly moving into a closeup of Al Pacino whereby he ends his speech with “and I’ll kill them both”. This is probably one of the most definitive moment in cinematic history.
Granted, immediately after that speech, Sonny laughs that his kid brother is going to do something like that, but you can tell from what Michael just said (and the way it was filmed) that it will be Michael that is destined to run things from now on.
Perhaps not ALL moviemaking, but a few of my personal favorites:
In The Silence of the Lambs, the scene when Clarice first meets Hannibal Lecter. Great acting, great setting, great writing. Perfect all around.
In The Hudsucker Proxy, the opening flyover of the city when it’s snowing is amazing, and gives a perfect sense as to the scale of the movie.
In Little Shop of Horrors, the scene when Audrey II first makes the sucking sound and snaps at Seymour’s finger, and finally Seymour gives up the blood is rather powerful, IMO, because it’s the first time you really realize just what you’re dealing with.
Finally, the most powerful scene I’ve ever seen in a movie is in Life is Beautiful, there’s a scene near the end when Guido is carrying his sleeping son back to their room in the concentration camp. It’s dark and fog is swirling around, and we hear an Offenbach opera (a recurring theme throughout the film) and Guido telling his son that maybe it’s all a dream, when suddenly he stops and stares straight ahead. We see him from the front, a look of unbelievable disbelief and horror on his face, and then the camera cuts to what he’s looking at: It’s partially obscured by the swirls of fog, but as the fog swirls and clears we can see a huge pile of human bodies. It’s only onscreen for a second or so, but I believe that’s the most powerful thing I’ve ever seen on film.
To continue in the Godfather genre, in Godfather Part II, when Fredo is executed in the rowboat, and the camera moves back to shore, to a house with a very lonely looking figure standing in the window.
The last 10 minutes of To Kill a Mockingbird, especially the scene when Scout realizes who her benefactor was that evening, and in fact, for quite a large portion of her young life.
In The Untouchables: When Ness lets go of Nitti, allowing Nitti to fall off of the courthouse roof to his death, then, with ice in his veins, tells Stone that Nitti is “in the car.”
In Fatal Attraction, the most powerful moment to me was not one of Alex’s loudly verbal moments of insanity, but… the calmly demented look on her face when she’s absconded with the little girl to Playland, and they’re riding on the roller coaster. It is the visual embodiment of psychopathy, and made me shiver to my socks.
In Lady Jane: Lady Jane, played by a young Helena Bonham Carter, has been ousted from the throne and is now to be beheaded for her “crimes.” She is blindfolded and shoved to her knees, and is told to put her head down on the chopping block, but she cannot find it. There is a dreadful, heartstopping moment as she flails, blindly, to find the chopping block in front of her, then the executioner leans over to guide her to the place of her death. I’ve seen this only once and more than a decade ago but it has stuck in my mind and I still get mildly nauseated if I think about it too hard.
Waiting for Lawrence to come out of the Nufou Desert where he returned to save a man who fell off his camel is one of my all time favorite cinematic moments.
Its hot… dusty … dry … and there is nothing to see waaaay off in the horizon. In fact, it’s hard to see the horizon as the ground is uninterrupted with any bush, tree, rock. It’s dusty so it is even hard to distinguish the dusty bluish sky from the horizong. All you know is that it is very hot.
The sun burns and there is very little shade.
The rest of the group has arrived at the next water well, drank their fill and are waiting for the obvious news that Lawrence did not return.
One of his servants waits with water while sitting on a sand dune. Another has ridden his camel to the edge of the Devil’s Anvil. Then there is a black smidgen on the horizon [wiggly as a mirage]. The servant urges his camel on slowly. Camera pans the ground as the camel begins to take a couple of steps, then trots. Soon the camel is running. Side shot of the servant shouting, waving arms with camel running full tilt.
Panorama shot of the servant and his camel running past Lawrence with the survivor both extremel exhausted.
About the only other piece of art that gives me the same elation is Ode to Joy.
In Titanic from when Rose gets placed on the lifeboat by Jack and Cal to when she and Jack meet up at the staircase after Rose jumped off the lifeboat. I always loved that sequence… in itself worth the price of admission.
the most powerful moment from that great film: at the end of the trial, as Atticus Finch is leaving the courthouse, all of the people in the balcony stand. An elderly black gentleman says to Atticus’s daughter: “Stand up, Miss Scout, your father is passing.”
The minute or so of film right before Forest Gump asks Jenny “Is…is he…smart?”
The scene in Saving Private Ryan where Ryan’s mother steps out the front door to greet the callers and when they step from the car she silently falls to the floor. Spelberg cleverly plays away from the emotion by shooting from behind through the doorway and it always brings a tear to my eye.
Schindler’s List is chock full of them, but for me, it’s the little things.
The Jew sitting at a table sorting through diamonds when a Nazi guard dumps a bunch of teeth with gold fillings in front of him.
The women pricking their fingers and rubbing the blood on their faces to give them a “healthy” look before inspection.
The little boy running through the camp, looking for hiding places, before hiding in the filth beneath the latrine.
But of course, the final scene, as Oskar breaks down before he and his wife escape in the car…I’ve seen the movie more than once, and that scene always leaves me curled up in a fetal position.
Just watched it again last night. The scene in Jaws onboard the Orca, where Quint
tells the story of the Indianapolis. It is, for me, a perfect mezmorising scene.
I have to second the Utah Beach scend in Saving Private Ryan. I saw that movie exactly once, and this scene so affected me I won’t ever see it again. I don’t want to become jaded to it.
I also nominate the scene in Field of Dreams, where Ray recognizes his dad and asks him if he wants to have a catch with him.