Oh and of course Russian Ark would have to be included
The whole movie is one camera shot!
Return of the Jedi - the final lightsaber battler, when Luke, angry, takes the fight to Vader. The camera pans back to show the entire cabin with Luke and Vader going from left to right, fighting vigerously all the way… so sweet.
There are some scenes I love that don’t have remarkable camera work or composition, but are memorable for the expression of the actor.
In Ben Hur: Judah is one of a number of prisoners on their way to be galley slaves, being marched through Judea. Desperate with thirst, they stop at a well, where the Roman guard in charge of them allows them a little water – except for Judah, for whom he seems to have a special dislike. However, they’re at the house of a local carpenter, who gives Judah water and washes his face with his own hands. The guard is enraged and steps forward, raising his lash to strike the carpenter – but when he looks him in the face, he stops, and slowly backs off. I don’t know the name of the character actor playing the guard, but in that shot he combined bafflement, shame and almost a whistfulness for something he didn’t understand. I’m not religious at all, but it was a moving shot.
In It’s a Wonderful Life: when Mr. Gower, at George Bailey’s urging, checks the capsules he was sending to a sick child, and realizes it’s a lethal poison, the look on his face is raw and real, even if much of the movie is schmaltzy. My favorite moment in the picture.
The overhead shot of the charge of the riders of Rohan in ROTK still gives me chills.
I recall seeing that as an 11 year-old and thinking, “Man, I didn’t come here to read!”
Indeed, such as Augustus McRae’s reaction to Jake Spoon’s “suicide” in Lonesome Dove. Duvall has called that his best moment in acting…and it was almost edited out of the miniseries!
According to IMDB, it was one long extended shot, and a Tarantino trademark.
Another from Last of the Mohicans – the shot after Uncas is killed, where Alice is looking back at Magua, just before she jumps.
Miller’s Crossing – the cut away in the forest to a distance shot, when Tom is on his knees and Eddie Dane takes his hat off and throws it into the trees. Hard to decide on just one for this movie, though – it’s got so many. The whole thing is wonderfully done.
A lot of movies have copied this one. And it’s not “almost impossible”… it just requires a very hefty amount of choreography. Hell, theatre productions do it for two hours straight… 
But you’re right, it is a fucking incredible shot.
How’s this for a great shot? Near the end of Aliens, when Newt and Ripley are standing alone on the platform… two minutes to reach minimum safe distance… and the second elevator opens up, revealing the Alien queen…
… Then the dropship hovers back into view. Cue music.
Beautiful stuff.
But that’s what makes it so incredible- it is in fact one shot. Normally a steadicam shot cannot exceed four minutes because a standard load for a steadicam is 400 feet of film, giving roughly four minutes and thirty seconds of usable film. For that shot they had 500 foot loads specially made by Kodak, and used Panavision 500 foot lightweight mags (hence my "almost impossible"comment SPOOFE). That entire sequence is one unbroken shot, exceeding the usual length of any normal steadicam shot. It is one of the most memorable shots in cinematic history, and undeniably “a shot”. If anyone is curious about a cite for this information, Larry McKonkey told me this was how they did it, and he was the steadicam operator for that shot.
FilmGeek, I hope this answer makes you happy:
Every damned shot in The Man Who Wasn’t There - it doesn’t have incredible, Scorcese-esque long takes, it doesn’t have breathtaking vistas, it doesn’t have billions of extras.
All that leaves is flawless cinematography. Never have I seen another movie that, shot for shot, matches up to such aesthetic perfection. Never have I paused a movie so many times as I have watching TMWWT just to gaze at a particular take. Much as I love our planet’s splashes of vivid colour, sometimes I long for a world filled with this crisp, quiet, stunning grayscale.
For sheer technical excellence, I nominate Russian Ark’s single shot. If only the film itself was as impressive.
Many of my faves have already been listed here. Kudos to whomever mentioned The Train; there’s some brilliant camera work in that one. I’d nominate the first of the staged derailments that are supposed to block the art train from continuing towards Germany; from the point of view of a camera mounted at ground level between the rails, a locomotive derails, barely missing the camera, then cars pile up behind it, one ending up tilted to the side with one of its wheels slowly turning a couple of inches in front of the lens. I believe that John Frankenheimer, the director, has said that the camera was intended to have been well away from the wreck but that the train driver got a bit overenthusiastic with the throttle. Still an incredible shot.
Another one I’m thinking of is one of the first shots in The Road Warrior. The black and white montage explaining how civilization has fallen apart, and filmed in the aspect ratio of an old 16mm film, ends with the camera zooming from the air down to a position just inches off the surface of a highway, with the white lines hurtling past at incredible speed. The screen fades to black, then a moment later brightens again as the camera pulls back, seemingly coming out of a supercharger’s intake, to reveal, in widescreen color, Max’s battered Interceptor screaming down the road, with Mel Gibson’s haggard face visible behind the wheel. Gives me chills just thinking about it.
2 shots in The Shining have stuck in my mind. Firstly the Steadicam shot where the camera follows Danny as he travels through the ground floor of The Hotel on his tricycle - there’s this awful suspense which slowly builds up, as you expect something horrible to jump out from behind the next corner…
Also the Room 237 sequence, from Jack’s P.O.V., where he opens the door, moves through the bedroom, looking from side to side, focuses on the bathroom door that’s ajar, goes in, sees the Woman in the Bath…you know the rest. It’s so freaking creepy. I also love the way Jack Nicholson’s expression slowly morphs from disbelief, to caution, to lust, to alarm, to horror… Beautifully done.
I also have a soft spot for the shot in Fargo of Carl Showalter burying the money next to the fence, and then looking up for a landmark, and the camera shows the identical snow-covered landscape stretching away on either side of him. Priceless.
I noticed that too.
I would like to second the entirety of LOTR, specifically:
– The scene where Sauron’s finger was cut off was both artistically rendered yet looked totally natural.
– Many shots of shire villages in the hills
– Gandalf and Bilbo smoking, at about a 45 degree angle to the camera. Sure, the angle hits you over the head, but it totally reminds me of a 70’s poster.
– Traveling up to Orthanc: why didnt Gandalf notice the decay of the trees?
– Most of the shots in the tower at Weathertop
– All of Rivendell. The. Most. Beautiful. Place. Ever.
– Probably the most effective “wilderness” shot was in the Hollin foothills, as it wasn’t an out of the way place like a wasteland or swamp, but yet still desolate.
– The stone trolls.
– This may not be a “shot”, per se, but when they are trapped inside Moria, when gandalf turns on the light then walks across the screen, with the stereo following him accompanied by an echo, is the most effective use of stereo in a film, ever.
– The extended version shots of mithril.
– The first shots of the mining complex. But all in all, visually, Moria was a disappointment to me.
– The first shot of the chasm.
– The shot of Gandalf facing the Balrog as viewed from the side. Calm and powerful even when faced with a larger enemy.
– All of the shots of masonry/water/architecture in Lothlorien.
– The shot of the mountain with the dialog from the previous movie playing over.
– The “panning out” shot viewing the Dead Marsh.
– When Saruman shows Grima his army of rows upon countless rows of orcs.
– The artillery attacking desolated Osgiliath
– While Fangorn is the creepiest forest ever shown on film, and the trees were set up very well, they just weren’t real enough for me to note here.
– Nothing from RotK was visually memorable! :eek:
Can you tell I think the first was a much better movie, visually?
Knowing all that makes me even more impressed with the shot. Thanks!
The best, which I’m sure was a tip of the hat to the famous opening shot of Star Wars, was when we first see Barad-Dur: this enormous spiky fortification, which makes you think, “That’s a mean fortress”. Then the camera pulls back slowly as it spirals upwards, revealing that the “mean fortress” was just the tiniest battlement in this massive…thing. Fantastic combination of miniatures, CGI and camerawork.
A close second is when the camera swoops down from Gandalf slumped in his imprisonment on the pinnacle of Orthanc, and swiftly weaves down through all the activity of Saruman’s dark satanic mills, to finally come to rest on Saruman himself: showy, sure, but that one shot, with no dialogue, tells you all you need to know about what Saruman’s up to.
Gladiator - his hand touching the stalks of wheat…
The Big Blue - when they zoom in on the hotel island from waaaaay out to sea
The Professional - when he falls to the floor in slow motion at the end
Forrest Gump - the feather floating around…
Matrix - when the pillar crumbles to the floor after the lobby scene
conan - him on the throne at the end
blair witch - prolly a half dozen in this one…the camera sideways at the end
usual suspects - verbal kint’s limp going straight as he walks
patton - the flag backdrop during the opening speech
my name is nobody - the charge of “the wild bunch”
pulp fiction - the back of marsellas wallace’s head
bad boys II - when the props from the boat come through the windshield
road warrior - the kids driving away in the bus at the end
hard boiled - when he puts the bullet on the table and they all focus on it
lotsa movies have great ending shots…Jaws, Shawshank, Hero -
just my picks…
D.
I think we have a winner.
Anyone mention the crazy long one shot opening scene of The Player?
Great movie.
From The Good, the Bad and the Ugly:
In the desert.
Tuco is huge in the foreground, at the left of the frame. He is holding a parasol for shade and looking back towards Blondie. To the right of the parasol’s shaft, small due to distance, Blondie is struggling to walk along the sand while Tuco laughs and drinks water.
This was what I was going to say. That’s one hell of a long and pace-setting shot.
Reputedly it was a bitch and a half to shoot…requiring so many takes that you can see dawn in the background of the take they used (it’s supposed to be a night shot).
Raiders of the Lost Arc - The big Arab guy waving the huge scemitar in the marketplace. They build up the scene so you expect there’s going to be some huge fight and Indy just rolls his eyes and casually shoots him.