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The Observer's Favourite Film Scenes Ever Shot || What are ours?

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VALIS said:
Yeap. One of the best scenes in the last 10 years, easy. Fuck, one of the best scenes of all time. And I'm no Tarantino fanboy.
Agreed, agreed, and agreed.

So awesome. There was adrenalin on my blood all the 20 minutes (Or something like that) that this scene lasts.
 

Wes

venison crêpe
beelzebozo said:
i posted pics with my actual choice. the rest is just discussion, and i felt more pictures would just get too busy.

It's all good! It's all good! Really liking the posts we've had so far. I have no problem with just mentioning a scene and describing it either. Main thing is we're sharing and discussing some of our favourite scenes.
 

Amir0x

Banned
HallwayFight.jpg


Oldboy - Hallway fight scene
 
nourali2 said:
Inglourious Basterds: The bar scene

basterds+tavern+scene.jpg


My favourite scene from Inglourious Basterds, besides the opening dialogue between Colonel Landa and Mr. Lapadite. I love the card game, the German language, the tension between the characters, the British agent's odd accent, Stiglitz's disgusted face he made towards the Gestapo officer, the Brit giving himself away when he ordered the drinks, and the way it all culminated, in a deadly bloodbath.

My absolute favourite moment in the scene is when the Gestapo officer stops the music, and says that he too, like Maximilion's father, finds the British agent's German accent very odd. You knew shit got real at that very moment.


Awesome scene. Even more amazing is that there are two more scenes like this in the movie that are as good (but this is my favorite).


So hard to pick a favorite scene, but I'm going to go with the death scene from Amadeus. Salieri is finally getting close to the genius he envies, drops his hatred in the presence of it if only temporarily, and then it slips through his fingers.
 
magwau.jpg


The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But

when you're inside, you look around. What do you see?

Business people, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds

of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these

people are still a part of that system, and that makes them

our enemy.


Made the movie for me. I would have liked it regardless but this scene really explains everything you need to know about the Matrix and what it is, even moreso than the battery scene (Which was also great). That smirk is still godly.

I always wonder how this movie would be received if released after 9/11. The allusions to terrorism and this idea that regular people are expendable because they are apart of the system is probably kind of edgy these days. Can't imagine the shootout at the end after he walks through the metal detectors and kills security guards/cops to be left alone either.

Edit : Oh and that song couldn't have been better. Still listen to it from time to time, the full version is actually quite epic.
 

Shubit

Member
The one movie scene or rather series of scenes that left the most lasting impression on me is the Technoir sequence from the first Terminator movie:

63xc35.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4kfqmv2PoQ

Unfortunately the linked video leaves out a small detail, the reason why Sarah took refuge in the club:
trying to get away from Kyle, mistaking him for the killer
.

The way this is built up practically from the moment Sarah is introduced in the film and eventually culminates in a series of intense action sequences makes this one of the most satisfying "threads of fate intertwining" scenes in the history of fiction.
 

harSon

Banned
Goodfellas club scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWYe-Ef3u5M

Paths of Glory trench tracking scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPtVNDvwGMo

Touch of Evil Opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg8MqjoFvy4

Once Upon a Time in the West Opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAcBlMR3wGM

25th Hour "ending" - probably one of my favorites of all time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8elKC-DLS8

Breaking News Opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJlCYNt2z9k

A Bittersweet Life gun construction scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0rz-CsnPNY&feature=related#t=4m17s

Dead Presidents final scene (I actually like the heist scene more, but I can't find a clip of it):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iulCfIXjyv4

Edit: Found the heist scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBxpvjiUppA&feature=related

The opening to The Graduate and Jackie Brown which lifted it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFP-L-Qz7PQ - The Graduate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BWA1T78WpI - Jackie Brown

The Mirror (Tarkovsky):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBZsj8FPSbo

Solyaris highway scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rswYl7RLRNE

Night of the Hunter river scene (the entire movie is a beast):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFzTBPy7nl8

Children of Men (the uprising scene towards the end as well, but I can't find it on youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en16i8BY4hI

Let the Right One In pool scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlZyOoudxoM

Nicholas Brothers dance scene in Stormy Weathers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBb9hTyLjfM

Vertigo rooftop chase scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7sznnL0NZ0

Strange Days opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlPgm2vAsJ8

Shaft opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFlsufZj9Fg

Susperia kill scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6zJGUUiG0c

James Cagney in White Heat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1nuAuowU94

The Russian Ark ballroom scene (Entire film is beatiful):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEaRgxJ8NNU

I'll edit more in
 

hiryu

Member
Great thread. Pretty much everything everyone posted is correct. Two of my favorites being the car scene from Children of Men and the standoff scene from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
 
Twilight Sequence from Persona

Did you ever encounter a scene in a movie that catched you completely by surprise and somehow managed to "touch your soul" way beyond the level of good cinematography/aesthetics/story? This scene did this for me. Couldn't stop thinking about it for days, it was such a rare magical moment.
 

harSon

Banned
I'm done, I'll probably go all day if I don't force myself to stop. There's a bunch of scenes I couldn't find clips of too :p Wanted to get scenes from Tokyo Drifter, Sword of Doom and Le Cercle Rouge but couldn't find any...
 

h1nch

Member
There are too many for me to try and pick my absolute favorite, but a recent one thats definitely up there is this:

Expectations-vs-Reality.jpg


500 Days of Summer 'Expectations vs Reality'


Absolutely gut-wrenching scene for me.
 
54hapw.jpg

Scarface - Not just Angel Fernandez getting his face sawed, the entire hotel scene.

op76za.jpg

Boogie Nights - Dirk, Reed, and Todd try to rob Rahad Jackson. (Basically the 1981 Wonderland murders.)

2rr3r5z.jpg

Apollo 13 - When the crew has a successful reentry and the NASA crew goes nuts. I choke up every - single - time. :p

2enw56f.jpg

Aliens - The entire battle in the vents when they find the xenomorphs in the ceiling.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - The Belafonte crew encounters the jaguar shark.

Frank Miller's Sin City - The Big Fat Kill segment with Dwight and Jackie Boy's corpse.

Casino Royale - Aston Martin crash and torture scene.

Just to name a few...
 

Peru

Member
roadhome.jpg


Zhang Yimou's "The Road Home", when the daughter of the old woman takes the job as a teacher for one day, using her husband's/ his father's book -- the happiness on her face and then the flashbacks to her as a young woman, one last glimpse of Zhangi Ziyi running spiritedly across those fields. This movie is my #1 tearjerker and I get misty eyed just thinking about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcxzzJTdv4I
 

D2M15

DAFFY DEUS EGGS
The hill-climb near the end of Mulholland Drive, where that love theme swells, the girls share a smile, all the lights are in soft-focus, and you think that maybe everything could still turn out OK - and then they come out of the woods into a hideous, humiliating Hollywood party and the dream is dead.
 
DeathbyVolcano said:
Screenshot2010-03-14at14305AM.png

Screenshot2010-03-14at14459AM-1.png


Casablanca - La Marseillaise

This scene in Casablanca is arguably the most important in the film--yes, even more so than "here's looking at you, kid." It does a great many things. It shows Rick's not-so-secret revulsion to the Nazis, Victor Lazlo's immense influence and sway among his fellow Frenchmen, and Ilsa's explanation for her love for Lazlo, among other great side-plots. All of this though a patriotic rendition of the national anthem of France in protest to the Nazi's anthem. Powerful stuff, gents.

I'm going to do more tomorrow, I'm bushed.

This, THIS.

A million time this.
 

Mgoblue201

Won't stop picking the right nation
BlueTsunami said:
This is my most recent favorite. Perhaps the most brilliant use of style in this past decade. I'm also glad that the article mentioned the scene from All About Eve.

I think that the entire final half hour of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is perfect. The final ten minutes specifically.

I also suppose that I could mention something from the first two Godfather movies, but what? The opening wedding? Michael's meeting with Sollozzo? The revelation of Fredo's betrayal? I don't even have a favorite.

The McLuhan scene from Annie Hall is just part of the movie's brilliance. How did Diane Keaton get into so many of my favorite movies anyway?

EDIT: I haven't seen the two best parts of Network mentioned: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale (even if I don't necessary agree with it) and I'm mad as hell.
 
h1nch said:
Expectations-vs-Reality.jpg


500 Days of Summer 'Expectations vs Reality'


Absolutely gut-wrenching scene for me.

Oh man...I was about to post that too...that scene was amazing.

I also love the scene from The Professional when Stansfield takes the pill then shoots up the guys house while dancing to Beethoven...awesome.
 
Great choices, harSon. I'm a huge fan of many of those as well, especially Mirror, Night of the Hunter and 25th Hour.

Steppenwolf said:
Twilight Sequence from Persona

Did you ever encounter a scene in a movie that catched you completely by surprise and somehow managed to "touch your soul" way beyond the level of good cinematography/aesthetics/story? This scene did this for me. Couldn't stop thinking about it for days, it was such a rare magical moment.

This is the whole reason I watch movies these days. It's probably no coincidence that Persona was one of the first films that got me actively interested in film.

Divvy said:
Can't believe no one's mentioned the staircase scene from The Untouchables

Well, it shouldn't come before the Odessa Steps sequence from Battleship Potemkin, which inspired it, and is one of the most important scenes in film history.
 

harSon

Banned
Divvy said:
Can't believe no one's mentioned the staircase scene from The Untouchables

rc9dds.jpg

Thanks to Sergei Eisenstein :p

Edit: Beaten!

creativity said:
Great choices, harSon. I'm a huge fan of many of those as well, especially Mirror, Night of the Hunter and 25th Hour.

Yeah, they're all great. Night of the Hunter is probably one of best movies, cinemagraphically, of all time. The amount of thought that went into the film's lighting is insane.
 

moojito

Member
.

I don't think that's the right screenshot, but it's supposed to be when you see the Firefly landing after that amazing tracking shot at the start of Serenity.

The long scene before it is all fairly monochrome due to being in the gunmetal grey interior of the ship. I'm a huge fan of tracking shots and would probably pick that for my choice, but I always feel the explosion of colour and noise that bursts onto the screen when that scene begins really sets the whole film up for me, continuing the enthusiasm of River's "We're going for a ride!" line at the end of the previous scene.
 
Wes said:
Whilst I appreciate all the youtube links if at all possible if you could find a picture of the scene in question it would be in keeping with the format of the original article and would be my preferred way of cataloging it all (and save me from having to find them all myself eventually).

Thanks for all the inputs. Going to have to check out some of the ones mentioned for myself.

I don't think the screen caps will capture the whole scene, but I went and edited my choices.
 
My favourite scene of all time is the zombie versus shark scene in Zombie Flesh Eaters:
bg2sm1.jpg


Video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfSqa1wmmxA

I remember from the age of five upwards going into my local independent video store and being fascinated and terrified by the boxart of the horror section, especially the cover of Zombie Flesh Eaters. When I turned 15, I got employed by the video company, and snuck home a copy of Zombie Flesh Eaters. I will never forget the sense of dread and anticipation that I was finally going to see for the film which I had desired to see for years and still knew nothing about.

It turned out to be a completely different film to how I had built it up in my mind, but forever I will never forget the perfect theme tune, the splinter scene, and the zombie versus shark scene.

Just thinking about that scene will put a smile to my face: Who the hell came up with the idea to pit a tiger shark against a zombie? Who was the extra that was brave enough to wrestle with it and offer his arm? Did they drug the shark? Where the fuck did they get it?
 
harSon said:
Night of the Hunter is probably one of best movies, cinemagraphically, of all time. The amount of thought that went into the film's lighting is insane.

It really is. It's often so beautiful that it seems unreal.

Here's some of that insane lighting:

2351082555_010d26b22a.jpg


How in the hell ...
 

Wes

venison crêpe
ChubbyHuggs said:
I don't think the screen caps will capture the whole scene, but I went and edited my choices.

Thanks for adding them, greatly appreciated. And dont worry, it's not intended to capture the whole scene, as how can one image possibly encapsulate an entire scene, instead it's just there as a quick visual reference for the reader. As was the purpose (or what I understood as the purpose) of the pictures in the original article this all came from.
 
Awesome thread.

Can't find a video for most of these:

Lost In Translation - Party scene with sweet lights and Chem. Bros. playing in the background.

In the Mood for Love - The scene when he tries to hold her hand, but she doesn't let him, and all the "standing outside in the rain" scenes as well.


There is so many more, I just can't remember.
 

harSon

Banned
2 Minutes Turkish said:
Fucking sick to death of the neglect modern movies get.

The thread is filled with a nice mixture of classic and modern films. Modern films will get their due love one day, probably in 20-30 years when they're considered classics :p
 

bud

Member
collateral (2004) - coyotes in koreatown

o08dao.png

beihyt.png


one of my all time favorite scenes is from mann's collateral. max and vincent are on their way to vincent's next target in the nightclub, and they suddenly see a bunch of coyotes crossing the street. the look of awe on their faces, the atmosphere and the choice of music (audioslave's ''shadow on the sun'') make this scene so beautiful.
 
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