Favorite movie scenes

How many soon-to-be movie stars can you fit in one kitchen scene:-) All star "young" caste.



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From "Raiders of the Lost Ark", one of the greatest action sequences ever put on film in my humble opinion: nazis have seized the Ark of the Covenant, loaded it into a truck with a heavily guarded convoy, with Indiana Jones in pursuit on horseback.


By the way, I just noticed that the bald "nazi boss" looks a little like younger Joe Biden (he has his comeuppance ;-)).
 
The cave scene in "First Blood" when Rambo makes his way through the darkness with only a torch for light. He also uses the torch for direction when he realizes there is a draft of air that indicates there is an escape. All he has is that light and the resilience to keep moving. During the last three years, at times, have felt like this for me.

 
unkl brws said:
The cave scene in "First Blood" when Rambo makes his way through the darkness with only a torch for light. He also uses the torch for direction when he realizes there is a draft of air that indicates there is an escape. All he has is that light and the resilience to keep moving. During the last three years, at times, have felt like this for me.

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I like your explanation of scenes you enjoy, helps people get to know each other better!

Here’s one of the scenes I appreciate from Rambo, shows what can happen when you’re not decent to people.

 
benkostka said:
I like your explanation of scenes you enjoy, helps people get to know each other better!
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Exactly - otherwise these scenes are just scenes that may or may not speak of our personal relationship to them. So maybe the challenge here is to chose scenes and share something on why they matter or have lasted with us out of context (though I suspect the scenes folk select reflect the fact that the film itself has left some kind of deeper imprint).

So here's four initial selections from my personal favourities (plus a cheat 5th slipped in) and some kind of attempt at why.

1. AMADEUS - WRITING THE CONFUTATIS IN REAL TIME

First as a stage play and then later realized by Milos Foremen in perfection as a film, this masterpiece left an indelible mark on me when both came out in the 1980's (so much so I ended up directing a production myself many years later). At the heart is the fated 'tragedy' of humans being but a mere channel for the creative well sourced from the divine realm - and how we are but death torn vessels for the seemingly impossible, for good or ill, depending on our choice.

No scene better captures this better for me than the late on scene between Mozart and Salieri as the former lies dying and the latter pretends to aide him in composing one of the awesome segments from the Requiem/death mass. Or rather acts as cynical notary as the young genius summons up sounds Salieri can only dream of - in the hope and belief that once Mozart dies he can claim the work as his own and so somehow snatch a degree of immortality from both the hands of the dying Mozart and from God himself.

Anyway, whatever the backstory, its the wonder of watching something so indescribably iridescent being summoned up from seemingly nowhere and in real time - the time of the instant now. All involved of course excel - but the real star is the music and the seeming impossibility of how one man brings it instantly into layered being. For me no other scene captures as accurately as this how the true flame of creative fire is actually instant - and when in the hands of such a channel as someone like Mozart, quite incomprehensible and in essence an expression of the immortality of the universe itself. It has remained both personally inspirational and a perpetual reminder of keeping faith ever since.


2. ANYTHING FROM THE ENGLISH PATIENT - BUT I'LL TAKE THIS FOR NOW

Personally, Anthony Minghella's 'The English Patient' is my most perfect film (though not necessarily my most favorite movie). I can't say why but it just is. Everything in it is a master class in complex, layered, subtle, timeless beautiful, haunting emotional rich adult story telling. And it has for me the most deeply rewarding sound track ever composed. I could choose any scene really but I'll go for the following because I can imagine when Minghella first read the screenplay it was this pivotal moment - and its later devastating mirror - that made him say I want to go through the slog of filming this challenging piece just so I can make those two scenes happen!

Its something about the almost biblical rawness of love found and love destroyed against a backdrop of the harsh yet beautiful desert that brings out an archetypal response in me. I've watched this film perhaps 20 times over the years and yet my response to it remains as primal now as the first time I saw it.


3. OF COURSE THE LOR - BUT WHAT!?!

I suspect we'll get plenty of scene selections from the 3 films. I could chose so many but I'm going to go first for the following which unfortunately I can't find as a single file so it will have to do with 2 links that have some overlap but together cover what you might call one single scene. Jackson clearly imagined this staggering sequence in it entirety as one flowing, interconnecting multi-narrative and then with his editor and the genius of Howard Shore realized it to perfection as a single seeming unit within the Return of the King. Its the shear bravado, the epic mythic scope, the personal subtlety and emotional depth intertwined with the sheer scale of the story that he captures here. Its where for 6 continuous minutes cinema becomes transcendent magic that just goes on giving me hope for humanity. If we can imagine this we can imagine anything.



Second, what is known as the gift giving sequence that was thankfully rescued from the cutting room floor by Jackson for the extended version of the Fellowship of the Ring (probably my favorite film - but only in the extended from). Again there is something so rich and satisfying in the layering of multiple threads that gets me every time. And Howard Shore's music of course - what an extraordinary achievement and gift he gave with these three films. There is something so beautiful, so kind, so hopeful about this sequence yet at the same time so filled with desperate and implicit loss. Well that seems to be my single unifying thread here - love and loss.

4. I'M MAD AS HELL (NETWORK)

Has there been any film as accurately prophetic as Network? When it first came out people laughed sure but mostly because they thought the story it told was just so wildly wacky and off the wall crazy it was just, well nothing but a great laugh - but now... its not one bit funny. It's too realistic as we've watched of late so much of what it forecast come true. Anyway, whats not to like about the following and boy wouldn't we all all like to be Howard Beale for just 10 minutes and get away with it! Like say the lads on NewsReal - Niall? Joe?


I'd better stop there - I've about 200 more in the locker so another day perhaps...

Hope you enjoy.
 
Michael B-C said:
benkostka said:
I like your explanation of scenes you enjoy, helps people get to know each other better!
Click to expand...
Exactly - otherwise these scenes are just scenes that may or may not speak of our personal relationship to them. So maybe the challenge here is to chose scenes and share something on why they matter or have lasted with us out of context (though I suspect the scenes folk select reflect the fact that the film itself has left some kind of deeper imprint).
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Good points. When I first saw the title of the read, the speedboat scene from Miami Vice came immediately to mind. I didn't feel confident explaining why the scene is so impactful to me though, so I posted the excerpt from a review I'd read about the film that kinda covered the main points about how the film works in an overall way.

But since the scene really does move me to tears sometimes, then in light of the above points made, I'll have a crack at it.

The protagonist in the scene, played by Colin Farrell, is on the archetypal quest to slay the dragon and rescue the maiden. In this scene, he 'shoots his shot' at the maiden in question. Any man who has had the courage to act on his desire to ask a woman out for a drink - whether she is already in bed with a drug lord, or simply works in a local store - can identify with the excitement, trepidation, fear of rejection, opening up of new possibilities, venturing into the unknown world of chaos represented by the divine feminine. And her situation in the film makes his approach of her very dangerous, which adds to the excitement.

And in the scene, his potential beloved does a really good job of embodying the divine feminine, since she is not just helpless and passive, but shows herself to be the one with the real power, the one who is aware of her power over him, the keeper and guardian of the gold that he wants. Regardless of what he does, ultimately, it's up to her, it's she who selects whether he is worthy.

There's a tension, like a battle, between the two of them, through the conversation they have both before they get into the boat, and then once they're in the boat.

All of this archetype of male and female energy is itself set in and portrayed through the environment they're in. The masculine speedboat piercing through the waves of the infinite feminine sea. The masculine drive to conquer nature, to invent and innovate through technology. The boat represents power, attainment, competency, a tool: it's completely phallic. The Phallus projects outwardly from a male and symbolises the masculine drive to project himself out into the world, to impose himself on it via his intelligence in crafting and using tools, and conquer and control it. Archetypally, the female is initiated into life through her lack of control over her bodily processes during puberty, and so, must understand and accept that nature is not something that can be controlled.

And so, the dance of sexual energy happening between the two characters is perfectly mirrored by the speedboat flying through the infinite expanse of water. The incredible achievement of technology that easily navigates through the ocean is unbelievably impressive, but at the same time is completely dwarfed almost into insignificance by the sheer size of, the infinity of, nature.

Ultimately, the sensation and emotion that is conjured up inside is one of freedom. To be able to go anywhere and do anything at any time. And that freedom is the result of the marriage between the masculine and the feminine, the egoless infinity and the egocentric individuality.

Having been a musician, I could also write an analysis about how the music in the scene works to portray similar feelings. But just to say that the particular 'steps' the song takes aren't strictly conventional. Each chord used is built from a scale that is slightly different to what one normally hears as a major scale. And from the first chord, up until the climactic part of the song, the chords are moving in such a way as to lead one's feelings to said climax, and due to the nature of the scale used, there's an added tension on the way which wouldn't have been available if a normal major scale had been used to construct it.
 
I've hardly seen any of the films posted here.. should watch 'em some time!

Why I like the ones I posted without explanation:

Labyrinth - it's my favourite childhood movie.. I never get tired of it.. Could've picked many scenes but I do love the worm bit.. it's tricksy.. the simple optical illusion of the hidden gap in the wall, which is obviously NOT actually just an optical illusion because she had JUST hit her fists against that wall before talking to the worm, and it was solid - the labyrinth is changing whenever her back is turned. The muddy, debris-strewn ground and tiny sparkles of moisture or minerals in the walls... the whole place looks so dank, you can practically smell it. And then, the worm is hilarious (his little scarf!).. friendly and normal, "I'm just a worm".."Come in for a cuppa, meet the missus"... He's really just being nice but it amounts to <forget your quest, fall back to sleep> ... capped off with the cosmic joke of him directing her in the completely wrong direction while thinking he's helped her...'splained with perfect timing as soon as she leaves. The film could've been over in 15 minutes if she'd gone the other way! The whole thing is imbued with a kind of cosmic comic mischief I've always enjoyed (see: Discworld novels)... I dunno... it just speaks to me... Also love the music in that bit...

Rumble Fish - I mainly posted that clip because I love the audio.. actually I hardly remember any of the rest of the movie, just that bit.... the gentle bubbling of the fish tanks.. Mickey Rourke's quiet voice and his weird little giggle.. the extreme closeup cinematography where it's mostly just faces filling the whole screen.. of course, the fish... It feels like you're in a pocket universe...
 
Long before "Game of Thrones"...there was Conan the Barbarian. In this scene Thulsa Doom played by James Earl Jones, schools Conan on the Riddle of Steel. I first saw this film about 40 years ago (much younger then) and this philosophy stuck with me for some reason. "What is steel compared to the hand that wields it?"

 
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