Identity, the scene where Ed is forced, via a mirror, to confront who he is and what he is a part of, as well as the scenes that immediately follow it are some of the most riveting that contemporary film is capable of.
The build up and the excruciating ending of Seven. No movie has bullied me so effectively since.
Any scene with Anthony Perkins in Psycho is the apotheosis of a world-class performance.
The Shawshank Redemption. Too many scenes to list them all, but when Andy locks himself in the prison intercom room and plays the album with the intensely soothing sounds of the two Italian women singing and the sweeping shots of the prison reacting is perfect. You can almost see the spirits of the inmates being freed from the prison.
The exchanges between William Munny and The Scofield Kid in Unforgivenafter they complete their job of killing the men who cut up the prostitute are matter of fact and marvelous. The scenes immediately after involving the shootout at the tavern are without flaw.
Deadwood. Almost every moment of that show is bursting with great scenes and wonderful dialog.
Apocalypse Now The hellicopter attack to the sound of Wagner. And the camoflagued head of the protagonist riseing out of the water.
Though maybe that second one loses some points because there was no need for him to have been in the water at the time anyway (at least given the original version of the film)
Well, I just saw Mr. Holland’s Opus again this weekend, which has a number of them, IMO. The two that stick out the most to me are:
The confrontation between Glenn & his wife Iris, when Cole is about 8 or so, and can’t speak at all…they’re discussing the cost of deaf school. He yells (in response to Cole caterwauling), “What does he…? Give him what he wants!”, to which she responds,
The other one has no dialogue. It’s after the special concert that the high school puts on for the deaf students. There’s moderately loud music, and Glenn & Iris come downstairs to find Cole sitting on one of the speakers, with all sorts of records spread out around him; he’s bouncing his feet in rhythem to the music. He makes a gesture (not speaking ASL) to the effect that he wanted to turn it up but wasn’t allowed to. His dad gestures back that he can turn it up, and does so. The smiles on everyone’s face - the breakthrough - is wonderful.
The Conversation, where Gene Hackman throws away the envelope and then, without pausing, walks back to retrieve it. A lesser director would have done it with a close-up, with Hackman stopping, registering the struggle, and then resignedly going back. Doing it in long shot with no pause - he tosses it, keeps on walking and then just loops back - is genius; you know exactly what’s going on in Hackman’s head, why his conscience is going to lose out, and how he feels about it. And damn, but Hackman’s good: how is it even possible to act in a long shot?
Also, the closing scene in The Third Man after the funeral, in which Holly stands by the side of the road and waits for Anna to catch up with him so he can speak with her one last time. She walks past him without acknowledging him - she doesn’t turn her head, doesn’t blink, doesn’t change expression. He is invisible to her.
One thing that makes this scene work is its length. The long build-up to an anticlimax summarizes one of the central themes of the movie: the shattering of Holly’s beliefs about himself, his friends and his place in the world.
Harry Lime’s speech dismissing Switzerland’s centuries of peace and prosperity for only producing the cuckoo clock, while extolling Renaissance Italy’s murder, treachery and bloodshed for its benefits to mankind is breathtaking.
One scene that I always find chilling in The Birds: when Melanie is waiting outside the school and you can hear the children singing one of those “counting songs” in the distance in the classroom. She’s sitting with her back to the playground equipment and can’t see what’s going on behind her. Thenthere’s a slight sound of flapping wings and she turns around to see hundreds of birds just sitting there, watching and waiting…
In The Professional, when Mathilde lies down on the bed and tells Leon that she is in love with him…that scene is such a perfect expression of her innocence and her loss of innocence at the same time. She is both a child and a woman in that scene. And Leon knows this. And in some ways he is both a boy and a man. A very powerful scene that defines their relationship in many ways.
I don’t want to nitpick, I love this movie too. My oldest sister is Deaf and it has a very special place in my heart. It has been a long time since I was fluent in ASL, but I believe what Cole says to his dad is “Teach me.” and his dad replies, “i would love to.”
Thanks for sharing that, actually; I only know a few signs. However, I think it is a testament to the power of the scene that even without knowing ASL, I understood the point being made.
The first ten minutes or so of ‘Master and Commander, the Far Side of the World’, from the overhead shot of HMS Surprise at night to the escape into the fog bank. Damn near perfect film-making.
