Though it’s probably cliched by now, Rutger Hauer’s performance in Blade Runner.
In The Magdalene Sisters where the priest starts itching, and stripping off all of his clothes, and all the girls are laughing at him. Until Crispina starts itching “down there”, then repeatedly shouts at the priest “You’re not a man of God! You’re not a man of God!”
The Dresser, where Sir arrives at the train station just as his train is pulling out. In the voice that only a great actor can have, he bellows “STOP. THAT. TRAIN!!” And it stops.
Scrooge, where the title character finally accepts the dinner invitation from his nephew. Guaranteed to get this fully grown heterosexual man bawling like a baby at a musical.
The Big Night. The omelette scene.
The scene in Glory where Denzel Washington’s character is whipped for deserting.
A number of scenes from The Hills Have Eyes highly disturbed me. The most powerful of which was where the two children drag their freshly dead mother onto a lawn chair as bait, bawling the whole time. (The ending, however, didn’t do much for me.)
The last 10 minutes or so of The Good the Bad and the Ugly. I simply cannot peel my eyes from the tv screen when Tuco is running through the graveyard.
Aragorn and everyone else bowing down to the hobbits in Return of the King, as well as Aragorn’s speech at The Black Gate (it was at the Black Gate right?)
The ending to The Shawshank Redemption
All of Casablanca
The final scene in Last of the Mohicans.
Nothing showcased the “Wow” factor in movies than the opening space battle in Star Wars, especially when the Empire’s ship kept filling and filling the screen.
It also helped that I was 10 at the time.
I know it’s stupid and probably emotionally manipulative, but in Finding Nemo, when Nigel hears the gossip about Marlin and goes to tell Nemo that his dad is on his way, always makes me cry.
Also, there is a film that was actually a performance art piece that involved Madonna (but not in the way she expected). It’s called Dangerous Game, and most people see it as a terrible, banal, pointless film, and mostly it is. But the film wasn’t what the director, Abel Ferrarra cared about. As a world-class misogynist, Ferrarra set out to break Madonna, who he saw as the ultimate American woman (liberated, wealthy, self-made, and sexual) and capture it all on film. He betrayed her trust by taking director-actor conferences that had been filmed “for his private use” and using them as part of the final cut, making what was essentially documentary footage look like fiction. Except that anyone who knew Madonna, who saw the film, realized the truth.
Anyone who has ever wanted to see Madonna weak, vulnerable, miserable and terrified can get their satisfaction by watching that film.
King Rat - the egg scene is nothing short of astonishing. Also the impact of seeing the well-fed Corporal King and British paratrooper against a background of hundreds of near-skeletal prisoners is ineffable.
Saving Private Ryan - the landing.
War and Peace (the seven-hour Russian one) - I didn’t like it much, but one scene was just striking:
Austerlitz aftermath, where the commander of the Russian artillery scares Napoleon’s pursuit off with a mere four cannons and is subsequently humiliated by his fellow generals.
I always thought that moment was a superb bit of acting on Tom Hank’s part, just for the look on his face when Jenny tells him that yes, his child is smart, he’s the smartest in his class, etc. His expression goes from worried to relieved to trying to cover up his relief in order to maintain his pride, all in a matter of seconds. I’ve always thought that was one of his best moments.
I hate to keep returning to the film from which I took my posting name, but my choice is the scene in **Paths of Glory ** in which Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) orders Lieutenant Roget (Wayne Morris) to command the firing squad that will shoot the three soldiers whose court-martial and execution is the focus of the movie’s second half.
Roget is a cowardly officer who covered up the fact that he killed one of his own men on a patrol and selected one of the three soldiers who are to be executed because the soldier knew what Roget had done.
I don’t remember the key dialogue exactly, but it goes something like this:
"It’s very simple, really. You ask each of the condemned men if he wants a blindfold, and if he says yes, you tie it on him. Then you tell the firing squad ready, aim, fire. That’s it.
“Oh, and then you shoot each of the men in the head to make sure he’s dead.”
A tremendous scene in a superb film, IMHO.
The very last shot in Galipoli. 'Nuff said.
The Verdict, when we realize that there is still plot to come, there has to be, because we want to know what happens when he answers the phone… and the credits start rolling. The audible gasps from the audience pretty much say it all.
And as long as I’m mentioning awesome ends of films, I can’t get away without mentioning Birdy. The word “What?” has never struck such an array of emotions in me.
The final courtroom scene in And Justice for All. When Al Pacino explodes: YOU’RE out of order! YOU’RE out of order! THE WHOLE TRIAL is out of order!
That’s the first one that jumped into my mind. Spielberg is the Antichrist, my ass. What a terrific scene.
Another one that stands out is in “Fail Safe,” the Kubrick original (the TV live version was cool, though) when the President finally tells the Soviet premier what his plan is to prove America sincerely isn’t trying to start a war, and you realize why he’s doing what he’s doing.
The POW “Russian roulette” scene with DeNiro and Walken in The Deer Hunter. Though the scene does not fully pay off until the the next roulette sequence in Saigon, it is still great on its own.
It wasn’t the ‘wow’ scene or the climax to the movie, but in The Last Picture Show Ruth Popper, the coach’s wife, (Cloris Leachman) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) have been, ahem, seeing each other. He’s supposed to stop by in the afternoon, but instead falls into a dalliance with Jacy (Cybill Shepherd). No dialog, no motion to speak of even, just a four second shot of Ruth in her kitchen realizing that Duane isn’t going to be showing up, ever.
I know, I know, it was ooky that she was using him at all, but in that moment, you feel for the poor woman.
DD
Rick Jay
The Kubrick ‘original’ of “Fail Safe” was “Dr Strangelove”.
It was Suney Lumet who directed the original “Fail Safe”.
Theoden’s speech before the battle at the Pelennor Fields in RotK, as well as the bits JoeSki mentioned.
Not really dramatic like most of the scenes already mentioned, but the “Tiny Dancer” scene from Almost Famous made me love that movie. It really conveyed the sense of the excitement of traveling with a rock and roll band.
“Sidney.”
Miller’s Crossing is just one brilliant scene after the other, but my favorite is the one in Caspar’s office, when Tommy learns that the Dane has ratted him out and told Caspar that Tommy was two-timing him.
There’s that sinking sense of dread as you realize what’s happened, desperation along with Tommy as he tries to talk his way out of it, and then shock and horror at the sudden explosion of violence, with the bit of bizarre humor of the boxer’s screaming through the entire scene. And of course, the closing line: “Always put one in the brain!”
I can still vividly remember seeing the movie for the first time, and after that scene finished, realizing that I was watching the best movie ever made.
Adaptation had a brilliant opening. Totally black screen, and you can hear nothing but Charlie Kaufman’s voice-over, going through all his self-doubts. It took me a minute to realize that the movie’d started and I wasn’t just still listening to my own internal monologue.
Silence of the Lambs has two huge ones, for me: one is when we first see the inside of Jame Gumb’s basement. There’s no dialogue, just the sound of echoing music playing on a radio as the camera does a fly-through of the area. It never stops to rest on anything, so you just see glances of brick walls, moths, mannequins (is that human skin?), someone hunched over a sewing machine, a dark corner, a well, and hear someone screaming from the bottom.
The other was when Starling visits Lecter to make their deal; the tension has been building all throughout the movie as we’ve seen how dangerous and manipulative he is and how close he’s getting to her. Time is running out, and she’s going to lose everything if she can’t convince him to make the deal. She passes him a folder through the bars of his cage, and there’s a very brief shot as his hand touches hers. That, more than anything else, is what made me jump out of my seat.