Sopranos spoiler contained within, proceed with caution
So, I started watching season 3 of The Sopranos over the weekend, and I was a little disconcerted by Dr. Melfi’s rape scene in Episode 30 (the 4th episode of the 3rd season, entitled “Employee of the Month”). Not only was I completely unprepared for it, but it was so graphically realistic, that it made me a little bit ill. While I respect the outstanding acting ability of Lorraine Braco, as well as the rest of the cast of The Soranos, I think that this scene was a little too well done for my comfort. I’m not usually squeamish about things I see on TV, but I sure wish I’d known that was coming up. Guh.
While I’m at it, I’d like to rant for a minute. For as uncomfortable as the scene made me, I was also simultaneously pissed off at how they tried to advance the plot by saying “the chain of custody of the rape kit was mishandled, so he had to be let go”. Ummm…huh? Even without the physical evidence, she still could have picked him out of a lineup, he would have had to have an alibi (or not), he was in possession of her Palm Pilot, he could have been stalking her since he worked at a place she went for lunch regularly, etc. There was still plenty of evidence with which to hold/charge him. There’s no way I’m buying the plot device of him having to be let go, even though the story line relied on her not getting justice through proper legal channels. It was poorly set up, I thought. Foo. I hate when writers do stupid things that ruin good TV for me.
Anyway…anyone else have movie scenes that are so realistic that they give you the heebie-jeebies?
'zactly. It was even worse than that, IIRC – the police read the husband the guy’s name, address, telephone #, and inseam. I wasn’t buying that for anything other than a question of whether or not she’d sic Tony onto him.
But in regards to the OP, the scene in Reservoir Dogs where the policeman gets his ear cut off and then the criminal throws gasoline on him is pretty intense.
When Mellish gets that knife pushed into his chest. The acting, the script, the sound. God that was a very disturbing scene.
There are a few scenes in “Once were Warriors” that really got to me and the rape scene in “Once Upon a Time in America” in the car is almost impossible to watch IMO.
All of the above examples while being very shocking and potentially disturbing all had their place in the movie in question IMO BTW.
When Edward Norton’s character forces the guy at gunpoint to place his open mouth on the edge of the concrete curb…and then stomps on the back of his head.
Ditto on Casino - particularly the beating up and live burial of Joe Pesci’s character.
Also, the scene in Taxi Driver when Travis shoots up the house of ill repute. Unusually, it was the sound in that scene which repulsed me more than anything. It also didn’t help that I was tripping the first time I saw it.
Also, when they put the guys head in a vise (I can’t remember the character’s name) and tighten it so much that his eye pops out. As they keep tightening it, he actually begs to be killed. Yuck!
Blood Simple has some moments that are very well done.
I was talking from a prop-master from the Startford Festival in Canada. Yep, we’re talking live threatre not film or TV. One year they did Titus Andronicus. At one point Titus gets his hand chopped off, on stage in plain sight. They built a prosthetic and filled it with fake blood… and celery stalks. The acoustics are great too, so when they sliced off the rubber hand, you could hear the wet, celery crunch. They had people fainting in the audience.
Generally speaking, that particular show was brutal in and of itself! The visual in the film version (Titus) when the daughter has the sticks shoved into her arm cavities and blood pouring out of her mouth is insane.
Scary Movie II was dumb fun, except for one scene in which a bimbo is confronted by the killer and says sarcastic things like “Oh, yeah, right, so like this is part where I scream, huh? And this is the part where I’m supposed to run except I fall and break my leg…” and snap! instant and graphic double compound leg fracture that immediately had me throwing up my hands and going ewww. The ear-slicing in Reservoir Dogs was relatively tolerable.
I’ll second Juanitatech’s mention of the rape scene in Eye For An Eye. The fact that the victim was a child makes the scene so much more disturbing. (of course, all such scenes are disturbing).
The first death in ** Jaws. ** I’ve seen it 25 times by now, and I know exactly how it was done, yet it still freaks me out. It looks completely believable.