# Unique moments/scenes in film (possible spoilers)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-moments-scenes-in-film-possible-spoilers/186747>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 7, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-moments-scenes-in-film-possible-spoilers/186747 "2003-07-07T12:23:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-moments-scenes-in-film-possible-spoilers/186747/1 "2003-07-07T12:23:34Z")

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I’m looking for unique moments or scenes from films- i.e. where something is done, or a technique is used, that hasn’t been seen before.

Example- _Magnolia_- which is not a musical, but contains a scene in which the entire cast lip-synch to an Aimee Mann song (_Wise Up_) from their hospital bed/ car seat/ wherever they happen to be at that point in the story.

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-moments-scenes-in-film-possible-spoilers/186747/2 "2003-07-07T12:47:56Z")

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It was a first (and only so far) for me to see a downpour of frogs in that same movie, **hammos1**.

And if there’s been another instance of a man knocking out a horse with his fist as Alex Karras did in **Blazing Saddles** then I have yet to see it.

Nor do I recall any cases of a person being run through a wood chipper as happened in **Fargo**.

And here’s one I’d love some help identifying. I know Salvador Dali had something to do with it, and no, it’s not that weird scene in the Peck/Bergman movie **Spellbound** , but there’s this long shot and then a dolly and then an extreme close-up that focuses on an eye, and then a razor (or sharp instrument – can’t be sure) slices the eyeball open. Gives me the willies just typing about it.

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**Author:** ![Leechboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Leechboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leechboy)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-moments-scenes-in-film-possible-spoilers/186747/3 "2003-07-07T13:14:59Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Zeldar \*  
> \*\*And here’s one I’d love some help identifying. I know Salvador Dali had something to do with it, and no, it’s not that weird scene in the Peck/Bergman movie **Spellbound** , but there’s this long shot and then a dolly and then an extreme close-up that focuses on an eye, and then a razor (or sharp instrument – can’t be sure) slices the eyeball open. Gives me the willies just typing about it. \*\*

Yeah that’s the Dali / Bunuel short _ **Un Chien Andalou** _.

Thanks to a particularly awful production of Lorca’s _When Five Years Pass_ that I was involved in, I had to watch it probably about 40 times.

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-moments-scenes-in-film-possible-spoilers/186747/4 "2003-07-07T13:33:31Z")

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Grazie, **Leechboy**

Did those 40 viewings make it any easier to take?

So as not to instigate a hijacking, let me add:

That scene from _Lawrence of Arabia_ where the expanse of nothing but desert sand for the whole width of the screen is interrupted by a speck on the horizon that gradually becomes a rider on camelback. Truly amazing photography – and patience.

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**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-moments-scenes-in-film-possible-spoilers/186747/5 "2003-07-08T10:29:13Z")

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Sometimes knowing movie history can be a bad thing.

There’s a very common camera shot where they zoom in and dolly back at the same time, keeping the main subject in the shot, but chaning the perspective around them.

This was first used in Vertigo and everytime I see that shot, I think of that movie.