Great Scenes in Cinema

Wages Of Fear has some crackers. The oil-spill scene is probably the most resonant emotionally but I always come back to what I think of as the ‘platform scene’. When you consider it is essentially just a scene of someone reversing a truck it’s crazy how tense it is.

I don’t think you get the full impact looking at the scene in isolation, because allot of works been done to build the stakes and tension to that point, which you carry into the scene. But the way the camera focuses in on small details is great. The shot of the straining hooks, capturing the detail of the falling dust, is an amazing bit of photography and just feels so visceral it still makes me sweat even though I’ve seen the film countless times and know what is coming

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It never occurred to me that Rutger Hauer passed away the same year as his infamous character, 2019.

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Damn! Me neither.

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He did this stunt a few times but what’s especially hair raising about this time is if you watch his left arm you can see the window frame actually hits him on the way down. He damn near ate it that time.

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I never thought of that either. In many ways 2049 is a better film yet I still prefer the original due to Hauer’s Batty. Truly one of cinema’s great antagonists.

One of my favourite comedy scenes is the bank witness interview from Police Squad! (In Color). The wordplay is genius with people’s names causing all kinds of confusion.

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The Great Muppet Caper has “Happiness Hotel” and the song 'n dance ode to Miss Piggy. The latter is capped with what might be the greatest line in all cinema: Nicky (Charles Grodin) denies framing Piggy for the gem theft, even though he did. As the cops come for her, she responds, “You know what else? You can’t sing, either! YOUR VOICE WAS DUBBED!!”

Never ever gets old. (Hail to thee, Jim Henson. I still miss you terribly.)

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Probably a weird take, but …

One of my favorite scenes in a film is from David Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner. I love Mamet’s writing, and this particular scene is where the protagonist (played by Campbell Scott) meets with his bosses and their lawyer in regards to ownership of and compensation for Scott’s “process” (we never learn what this is). There’s a fair amount of dense interlocking dialogue, as Mamet does, but we learn nothing. If I remember correctly, no character in the scene even manages to finish a sentence.

And it’s oddly fascinating to watch.

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I’ll just throw in the whole darn thing (well, as much as I can off the top of my head)

  • The house/train dream sequence in You, the Living by Roy Andersson.

  • So many in Let the Right One In (the ending attack, the sleepover, the kiss: Oskar has his eyes closed, but Eli is staring intently (what is he thinking?), before giving way and closing his eyes too)

  • The Dark Knight - Joker in the cop car, hanging out the window, no music.

  • Hiroshima Mon Amour - The first 15 minutes

  • North By Northwest - Cropduster

  • Psycho - the shower

  • 8½ - opening scene, the dream

  • Sanjuro - final duel

  • Once Upon a Time in the West - final duel, individual theme songs merge

  • Solaris - final sequence, home, but not quite

  • Nostalgia - keeping the candle alive

  • Oldboy - corridor fight scene with hammer

  • The Lady From Shanghai - house of mirrors scene

  • Enter the Dragon - room of mirrors scene

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The rain scene in Stalker. It quietly conveys the characters’ isolation and powerlessness in a place of inscrutable weirdness.

And of course, the ambiguous final scene.

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That final scene warrants my highest accolade - 5 ‘bellissimo’ hand gesture emojis

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Fun (well, not really in context) trivia fact about this scene; at the time it was filmed, the entire crew literally could not watch it coming down because they were terrified they were about to kill the star, while Buster himself admitted later that had they killed him he honestly wouldn’t have cared because he was practically suicidal at that moment. His then-wife’s family was bleeding him dry financially (like, he was literally just having the studio send her his paychecks while at the same time she was refusing to perform any “wifely duties”, having already gotten two children out of the marriage), his producer Harry brand was micromanaging his films to the point of nanomanaging, to coin a phrase, and to top it off, when he went to Joseph Schenk to complain about Brand he was shocked to hear that Schenk was getting out of the independent movie business and as a result Buster’s production company was about to be shuttered. Schenk HAD already negotiated a deal with MGM to take Buster on as their first full-fledged comedy star, with several concessions to Buster, but with a huge catch; he’d have to give up the full creative control he enjoyed over his films and MGM would have final say over everything in his films.

Buster eventually did take the deal because at the time Steamboat Bill Jr. was something of a box office flop and he felt like he didn’t have any real choice, but he later called it the greatest mistake of his life.

If you’d like to read more about Buster’s life and career, there’s a lot to tell:

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Nice choice. My favorite scene from “Network” is when the left wing terrorist group is negotiating their TV series deal. Hilarious. Paddy Chayevsky at his best. I love it when people use the “I’m mad as hell…” speech for political purposes without realizing - Howard Beale is NOT the hero of this movie. He’s a crazy person… not to be emulated!

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To add on to the great scenes in cinema, I give you the opening sequence of Jaws:

It’s utterly terrifying because you NEVER SEE THE SHARK. All you see is this poor girl being dragged around in the water screaming in terror and agony before she’s abruptly yanked under to her doom. One of the most memorable sequences in film to exist.

For another, I have to turn to what may be my current favorite genre of film; superhero movies. I saw that the final battle of Endgame was already included, so I won’t bother to mention that one, but there are some amazing other scenes that I have to mention:

That’s probably enough, although there’s a literal TON of others. Some are action, some tug at your heartstrings, and some are just flat out amazing, but they all fit the criteria, for me, of being great.

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I acknowledge that it’s been two years but those are still some heavy spoilers you’re dripping there.

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Yeah, I knew I was leaving some great scenes out and right after I posted I thought of the scene you mentioned. Probably the funniest scene in the picture. Marlene Warfield was fantastic - “The Communist Party’s not gonna see a nickel off this goddamn show until we go into syndication!”

Another hilarious scene was the one where Conchata Ferrell summarizes all the pilots they’re considering to Faye Dunaway, and they’re all exactly the same with tiny variations.

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Texas Chainsaw Massacre (74)
Sally Cry/Laughing in the truck bed, is one of my all time favorite movie scenes. There’s a lot of emotion in that quick shot.

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Any of the imagination scenes from The Fall starring Lee Pace. The use of colors, setting, scenery…all just amazing to me.

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Still one of my favorite intros ever.

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The scene in School of Rock where Dewey forms the band always slaps a big grin on my face.

There’s also a dozen scenes from Amadeus that are strong contenders for this thread, but I’m gonna go with the climax, as Mozart dictates another masterpiece to Salieri. Even here, at the end, Salieri is unable to grasp the depths of his enemy’s genius. (Spoilers, obviously)

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