Cooper’s strength wasn’t in technical animation – he had no background in that. It was O’Brien and his army of technicians (Marcel Delgado, Oliver Goldner, Mario Larranaga, and others) who came up with the effects, honing themselves on projects like Creation.
Cooper’s strength was in seeing what was important and essential. He saw the potential in Creation and ran with it, combining it with his vision of a Gorilla vs. Dinosaurs. he’s the one who insisted on cutting out a lot of beautiful effects work that wasn’t needed in order to keep the length short enough and the action focused. He’s the one who insisted that Kong be a full and real-looking gorilla, rather than a human/ape hybrid (as O’Brien wanted). O’Brien insisted a full gorilla wouldn’t get audience sympathy, but Cooper said he’d have women crying for him by the end.
There was ONE piece of effects work that was Cooper’s doing, though - he’s the one responsible for having a full-size Kong head built for close-up scenes and a few interaction shots. I could have lived without the interaction shots (Kong chewing on an island native and a New Yorker), but there’s something hefty and massive about that full-size head in the few shots it appears in that give it a believability that , even at its best, O’Brien’s miniature animation models couldn’t convey.
I saw The Cassandra Crossing in the theater when it first came out and the train wreck at the end looked like crap. Years later, I caught it on TV and the train wreck looked fantastic; I figure the graininess of the TV picture gave it a sense of distance. Or something.
The Enterprise D saucer section crash landing in the middle of ST: Generations was incredible; outstanding model work. “Oh, shit!”
Considering The Wizard of Oz was released in 1939 I’d say its special effects are outstanding. From the tornado sequence at the beginning to the depiction of the wizard himself. The set design was outstanding as well. The Munchkin Village and The Emerald City are all visually spectacular. It is no wonder that the movies is considered a classic. I’d say the whole movie belongs on this list.
The scene that impressed me more was Gandalf taking tea in Bilbo’s hobbit-hole. He lifts the lid on the teapot and Bilbo pours water from the kettle into it. In actuality, the lid was held up on a stiff wire holder much closer to the camera and the angle was carefully chosen to give the impression it was on top of the pot, further way.
The only giveaway is Wood bumped the table with his knee and it shook a bit while McKellan’s half did not move.
I worked for a few months at the company that made the image generating hardware used for at least some of the CGI in that movie, specifically the owl at the beginning. They went bust about the time the movie came out.
How about the Allied bombing raid in The Train? No model work here; SNCF wanted to demolish an old rail yard before renovating it and the film company said, “Let us do it!”
If you back up to the beginning, you get to watch 42 year-old Burt Lancaster do his own stunts, too.
*Henry V* (1944) - Opening shot
From IMDB: "The opening model shot of London was huge, fifty feet by seventy feet in size, and made of plaster. It took four months to construct."
NOTE: Between 2:12 and 2:18, the camera crane bumps the table twice, as can be seen from the impact on the miniature trees in front of the Globe Theatre. Still, a magnificent shot.
As an aside, is it really a “special effect” if they just did the exact thing they were portraying and filmed it? I mean, nobody ever says “That was an amazing effect of that guy walking down the sidewalk! It looked just like he was really walking on a real sidewalk!”. So if a real trainwreck looks like a real trainwreck, well… yeah?
I may have missed it, but how about the chestbuster scene from Alien?
One of the most memorable scenes in film for the shock and horror. Apparently, the cast wasn’t aware of all the specifics and their reactions, Veronica Cartwright’s especially, to being sprayed with "blood’ were real.
It’s not of the caliber of the scenes from 2001, or many of the others mentioned here, but one of my all-time favorite non-CGI effects shots is the “Beautiful Dreamer” reveal shot from the original 1949 Mighty Joe Young
"Mighty Joe Young was the Cooper/Schoedsack third go at a Giant Ape movie, this time with a benign, scaled-down Kong. I love the scene not only for the effects, but the set-up. Max O’Hara has opened a trendy new nightclub in Los Angeles, and persuades Jill Young and her companion Joe to come over to be the central act. as in King Kong, the somehow manage to keep Joe’s nature hidden from the general public, so his appearance will definitely be a surprise in Max’s African-themed club. He comes out in a safari suit and introduces Jill, in a gown at a rococo piano and has her play “Beautiful Dreamer” “This song is an especial favorite of Mr. Joseph Young,” he tells the audience. Jill plays for a time, competently, but certainly not nightclub quality, and the audience shifts about, wondering what’s up. Then Max, with a flourish of his pith helmet, announces “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Joseph Young of Africa!” and walks off.
The platform Jill and the piano are on, brightly lit, slowly rises into the air while the mechanism is concealed in darkness. When it gets to the full height, lights come on to reveal that the “mechanism” is Joe, the giant ape, holding it up. Joe shifts briefly, rocking the platform from its fixed and stable position, as the audience reacts. Then the platform begins to turn as the orchestra picks up the musical thread.
Beautifully rendered scene. Makes me wish there was a suitably sized and trained gorilla to actually perform it.
