My favorite by far would be the one in Live and Let Die. The somber, mournful procession comes slowly down the street, the secret agent/bystander asks “Whose funeral is this?” and the assassin/bystander says “Yours”, killing him, then the pallbearers come over and hide the body into that trick casket, then the procession erupts into joyful dance and song and proceeds on its merry way. Beautiful.
That’s the scene I meant, ArchiveGuy–scariest, most disturbing scene of any movie I have seen.
Heck, the whole movie is a funeral. Excellent bittersweet dark humor. Must see. No, really. It should be on every high school or college ‘reading list.’
Peace.
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Four Weddings and a Funeral
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the “funeral” in Waking Ned Devine
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the funeral in The Full Monty
Qui-Gon Jinn’s funeral in The Phantom Menace-the music just makes me weepy.
The opening of Doctor Zhivago, where little Yuri is watching his mother being buried.
Matthew’s funeral in Anne of Green Gables. No matter HOW many times I see that movie, I always cry buckets.
How could I forget!!!
The funeral in Cinema Paradiso is actually better than Spock’s!
I love Eve.
That is all.
Damn coding boo-boo.
I meant I love Eve.
Donny’s funeral would have to be my second favorite behind Blue’s funeral in Old School.
Well two of mine have already been mentioned…Harold and Maude and MAS*H (the movie),
How 'bout anything from The Loved One ?
Not sure if they’re in my top three but some good ones not mentioned are:
- Interview with a Vampire – little Claudia is entertaining a whole family (mum, dad, kids and pretty baby) with her piano-playing; she smiles slyly at Lestat – next thing you know, the whole family is being carried out in coffins. My, that’s dark. Speaking of which…
The funeral of Nesbitt in Sleepy Hollow – the graveyard is so atmospheric, and there’s a statue of death spookily lurking in the corner of the screen, which reminded me of a similar shot in Frankenstein.
Finally, the burning ship at the end of The Vikings. Powerful, melancholy and touching. Good music too. Da-DUM!-dum! Da-DUM! Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum, dum-DUM!-dum-dum.
Oh, but my favourite one is not in a film, but in the episode ‘Humbug’ of the X-files, in which Mulder and Scully attend a funeral of an ex-freakshow and the mourners include bearded ladies, dwarves and geeks. Half way through the burial mound starts shaking and Jim Rose appears, drills a nail into his nostril and runs off.
The opening scene from “The Big Chill,” particularly William Hurt taking a 'lude and then fishing his stash out from under the Porsche, and Jo Beth Williams playing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” on the church organ.
Poor Kevin Costner, he played the corpse and you never even got to see his face.
Don’t forget Frankie Ballou’s funeral in *Cat Ballou *:
In a drunken stupor, Kid Shaleen sings “Happy Birthday” and blows out the candles on the menorah.
On a more serious note, the wake in *One Night Stand. *