There’s a scene in Jungle Fever where the group of black female friends is sitting in the living room in the wake of Lonette McKee getting cheated on for Annabelle Sciorra and they are discussing black male and female relations, interracial dating, etc., and it is so real. It was so true to conversations I’ve seen and rings perfectly right.
From a movie much hated on the Dope but beloved by me, Signs:
Two scenes. First when the family sits down to dinner, thinking it’s surely their last meal. Morgan Hess (Rory Culkin) wants to say a prayer, and Mel Gibson (his father, Graham) refuses, having lost his faith in God after his wife’s death. Morgan tells Graham that he hates him, and Graham replies–very visibly fighting to keep his cool–that that’s fine. Graham goes on to list all the reasons he won’t waste a moment of his life on prayer, causing his young daughter Bo (Abigail Breslin) to weep; then she and he embrace, and Graham pulls Morgan into the hug, and finally Graham’s younger brother…and then they realize the aliens are about to attack.
The second scene bookends this one. The family is huddled in the basement, waiting out the alien siege, when Morgan has an asthma attack. They haven’t his medicine, so all Graham can do is hold him, press his hand to his chest, and try to comfort him with words as he manually helps him breathe. It’s unclear (at least to the Hesses) whether young Morgan will survive. Graham, terrified but forcing himself to be a father, is talking low and comforting to his son…but for about ten seconds he sleeps. “Don’t do this to me again,” he says, seemingly to no one in particular. “I hate you–I hate you,” he adds…and you realize that he is, of course, talking to God. It’s not his belief in God that’s been lost; it’s his trust in God.
And Graham somehow gets Morgan through the attack.
I love that scene. I wish I’d been that kind of dad.
I second A Man for All Seasons, that movie was brilliant in every scene. Though if I had to pick one it would be the scene where Richard Rich storms out of More’s house and More defends Rich against William Roper.
“Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!”
I feel a chill in my spine just recalling it.
I would also mention the ferris wheel scene in The Third Man where Harry Lime calmly explains his complete disregard for human life. The acting is natuarally superb, what with Joseph Cotten and Orsen Welles, the music is beautiful, and the conversation chilling.
Don’t worry Skald, you’re not alone!
I enjoyed your description of that scene much more than Shamalamadingdong’s direction of it.
In the movie Runaway Train, Manny (Jon Voigt) and Buck (Eric Roverts) two recently escaped copnvicts, are in the train, oblivous to the fact that it has lost it’s conductor and is now a runaway. Manny is a bad man, a hardened criminal and a legend who was in solitary confinement for years until a court order let him out. Buck is slow, sterotyped criminal, not too bright and not nearly as tough as he thinks.
Here it is, (Thanks to Script-o-rama
BUCK: I know this job outside Frisco–good for half a million. They had a payroll for S&H Sugar, and S&H Sugar is a big outfit, man. Yeah, that’s what I’ve been dreaming about. A really good score, you know what I mean? And I’m gonna party. Yeah. Shit, I’m gonna go to Mardi Gras. I’m gonna go to Vegas, and I’m gonna go with enough money in my hip pocket… to catch 'em fine bitches, you know what I mean? You know, I’ve spent almost every night of my life…dreaming about this kind of shit.
MANNY: Dreaming?
BUCK: Yeah.
MANNY: Dreaming. That’s bullshit. You’re not gonna do nothing like that. I’ll tell you what you’re gonna do! You’re gonna get a job. That’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna get a little job-- some job a convict can get…Iike scraping off trays at a cafeteria or cleaning out toilets. And you’re gonna hold on to that job like gold…because it is gold! Let me tell you, Jack. That is gold. You listening to me? And when that man walks in at the end of the day… and he comes to see how you done…you ain’t gonna look in his eyes. You’re gonna look at the floor…because you don’t wanna see that fear in his eyes…when you jump up and grab his face and slam him to the floor…and make him scream and cry for his life. So you look right at the floor, Jack. Pay attention to this, motherfucker. And then he’s gonna look around the room-- see how you done. And he’s gonna say, “Oh, you missed a little spot over there. Jeez, you didn’t get this one here. What about this little bitty spot?”
And you’re gonna suck all that pain inside you… and you’re gonna clean that spot. And you’re gonna clean that spot… until you get that shining clean. And on Friday, you’ll pick up your paycheck. And if you could do that…you could be president of Chase Manhattan-- Corporations. If you could do that.
BUCK: Not me, man. I wouldn’t do that kind of shit. I’d rather be in jail.
MANNY: More’s the pity, youngster. More the pity.
BUCK:Could you do that kind of shit?
MANNY: I wish I could. I wish I could.
MUSIC.
The acting is fantastic, that is what really makes it so memorable. But also the way it shows who Manny really is, somebody who is on the wrong side of that very thin line and he knows it and it pains him. I sometimes put the DVD in to just watch that scene.
YMMV, and obviously does. Will you respect me more if I admit I ran screaming out of the theatre when I went to see Lady in the Water?
Don’t get me wrong- I respect you because you were able to get something out of that scene when I was too jaded by the movie to enjoy it. I didn’t see LitW- only because I don’t get to see anything in the theaters these days- but I gather that there were many people following you out.
Although incredibley frustrating: the last whisper in Lost in Translation…
Although there is some controversy,[
](Jaws (film) - Wikipedia)IMDB gives the writing credit to Shaw.
CMC fnord!
Ah. Gotcha. Anyway, as long as you respect me, that’s fine. 
I only want two things from my fellow Dopers: respect and complete, unflinching, reflexive, mindless, abnegatory compliance to my every whim.
One of my favorites is the penultimate scene in Big Night, when Secondo (Stanley Tucci) silently makes an omelette and shares it with his brother Primo (Tony Shalhoub) and the waiter played by Marc Anthony. No dialogue, single shot, at least five minutes long, and perfect.
The way I heard the Quint speech story, it was originally much different in the script. They shot it repeatedly and it just wasn’t working. That night Shaw went out on a bender and upon returning to the set in the morning, was still reeling from the evening’s activities. He assured Spielberg he had it down, and advised him to start rolling. He basically told the story his own way, half in the bag, in one take, and the result is one of the most gripping monologues in movie history.
Not a movie, but the last five minutes of Six Feet Under, showing the fates of the show’s principle characters as Claire drives away.
Ruth seeing her Nathaniel and Nate as she passed. Keith’s tragic ending. The subtle look of shock on David’s face when he sees Keith as a young man, just before joining him. Claire passing at 102 years old, obviously having lived a full life. Even Rico on the cruise ship. Brenda still with Billy when she dies (apparently he finally bored her to death)
That a show about our relationship with death ended the way it did…perfect.
I cried like a baby.
Mathilda desperately looks through the peephole with a bag of groceries and quietly begs Leon to “open the door…please, please” - then the door opens spilling beatific light onto her face…
Leon rushes away from the apartment with a very angry look on his face after realizing that Mathilda has just fibbed and gotten them both evicted. Three or four strides into his exit he crests a hill and we see the much shorter Mathilda double stepping to keep up while carrying Leon’s pet plant.
Lee Ermey’s speech to his new recruits in Full Metal Jacket.
Funny you mention that scene - just the other day I heard my girlfriend watching Fargo in the other room; when that scene came up I went in to watch it, and left after it was over. I tried to explain to her that it was my favorite scene in the movie, but she looked at me like I was crazy.
My contribution: “The Survivors” with Williams and Mathau, the very last scene of the movie which ends with:
RW: Tell me everything’s gonna be ok, Sonny.
WM: Everything’s gonna be ok.
RW: Yeah.
Clash of the Titans:
“Go for the Eye!!”
The fight scene in The Princess Bride between Count Ruger and Inigo. From beginning to end, it’s poetry, a ballet, an eagle in flight.
And for me, I got a chill in Mulan when she figured out how to get the arrow from the top of the pole. Of course, the song I’ll Make a Man Out of You hitting the crescendo at just the right point didn’t hurt none either. 
The scene at the end of Schindler’s List, after he gets the ring and drops it. It leaves me curled up sobbing Every Single Damn Time.
And of course, who can forget the final scene of Newhart? Talk about a winner!
Ooh, speaking of excellent ending scenes, the last scene of The Lion in Winter is one of my favorite scenes of all time. Henry is escorting Elenor to her boat to take her back to prison and as the boat leaves the shore Henry yells:
H: You know, I hope we never die!
E: So do I.
H: Do you think… there’s any chance of it?
Are you sure you don’t mean Inigo versus Wesley, near the beginning of the film? That one is a ballet; Inigo vs. the six-fingered man is a brawl.
They’re both good, one is a match between equals and one is revenge. But I like the Inigo/Ruger fight better, because the good guy wins in a spectacular fashion. The Inigo/Westley fight is a joust.