What's the single greatest scene in cinematic history?

[DrWeird]

IMHO, it is the climactic three-way standoff in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. It's got an outstanding score, amazing location, great cinematography, every shot from the close ups to the wide angle landscape shots are perfect, the editing's perfect, the performances by Eastwood, Wallach, and Van Cleef are amazing, even the blinking of an eye becomes significant, and the suspense is just incredible.

[redqueen]

1. Hmmmmm...

Right of the bat I thought of the scene depicting man's first use of tools in 2001.

I'll have to think on that one a bit...


(And THANK YOU SO MUCH for this distraction... :loveya:)

[DrWeird]

4. I'm having trouble remembering the whole sequence.

It opened with an ape gang war over a watering hole, right? Followed by them waking up to an obelisk. Then the ape finds the bone. kills a tapir with it, then another ape, then throws it up to fade into the spaceship. Is that right?

[redqueen]

23. Yes that's pretty much it.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. The scene with the eye in Andalusian Dog (Chien Andalou)

You know what I mean.

--p!
That's gotta hurt

[Lavender Brown]

Eeek!

That was scary. I believe they used a pig's eye. :scared:

[DrWeird]

3. Haven't seen it actually.

nt

[TheCentepedeShoes]

5. Two that come to me

Slim Pickens riding The Bomb and Holly searching for Cat.

[Guaranteed]

33. LOL yeah the riding the bomb- absolutely CLASSIC. nt

[sans qualia]

51. Holly searching for Cat?

There was a Red Dwarf movie?

[dean_dem]

6. The movie "Heat"

At the very end, as Pacino is standing over Robert De Niro's body, and the airport lights start glowing right on top of them. Frickin' awesome.

[DrWeird]

8. That is a good one.

the score was very important there too, if I remember correctly.

[McKenzie]

7. the opening scenes in "Apocalypse Now"

the Doors' track "The End" as the backdrop to the jungle lighting up with napalm. I love Coppola's work.

A close second is when the patrol boat reaches the last outpost and command lines have broken down. Hendrix's reverbs are a particularly appropriate metaphor for chaos.

But, for sheer power, the helicopter gunship attack with Wagner...wow!

[DrWeird]

13. My favorite scene in Apocalypse Now (out of many great ones)

is when Sheen is captured and kept in a big metal container. It's absolutely pitch black. Like it's the end of the world, or it's outer space or something. And then the camera pans across a tear in the side of the container, it's like a rip in the fabric of space and time. It just glows, you can't see anything else. And there's a dozen little vietnamese children staring in at him, chattering away. Sheen passes out, then comes to again, his vision passes over the tear again, and the children are still there, but if you look closely, you see Marlon Brando staring in with them. Like some kind of malevolent demiurge, surrounded by a host of angels.

[McKenzie]

27. repays watching again and again

one of the seminal films of the era..."Saigon...sheeeyit"

It helps to read Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" first though.

"Who's in command here soldier?" "Ain't you?"

[DrWeird]

31. "Do you know who's in charge here?"

"yeah"

:evilgrin:

[tridim]

9. I might catch hell for this..

But I think the greatest scene in cinema history is the firecracker/drug-deal-gone-bad scene in 'Boogie Nights'. Hey, it's subjective.. but I've seen lots of movies, old and new, and that scene affected me in a way no other single scene has.

BTW, the best chase scene is from "Raising Arizona" when Hi is running from the cops with the Huggies. It's absolutely perfect.

[CBGLuthier]

15. Oh that is a fine one

Certainly one of the best scenes in that movie and I think it is a great movie. Alfred Molina is a truly great actor.

[DrWeird]

18. I've only seen that once...

I remember really liking the part where he's singing along with "I wish that I had Jesse's girl" lol. Fantastic. The rest I'm a little hazy on, don't remember the firecracks, but I remember the panicky get away. The scene that sticks out in my mind is the botched donut store robbery with Don Cheadle.

Agree with "Raisin Arizona." That, and the guy shooting lizards off the rocks as he's racing down the highway.

[tridim]

25. You're thinking of the correct scene (Jessie's Girl)

I can't believe you don't remember the Vietnamese boy lighting firecrackers.. :) That was kind of the gist of the whole thing. Let yourself inside Dirk's head and watch it again. It gives me goosebumps every time.

[Guaranteed]

30. No, that's a great scene...with "Jessie's Girl"....

that revelation he has. Great scene.

[stopbush]

10. Bogey & Bergman, end of Casablanca.

"Here's lookin' at you, kid."

C'mon...what's better than that?

[GOPisEvil]

46. Right movie...different scene...

I prefer the scene where Sam is playing "As Time Goes By" in Rick's, for Ilsa, and Rick enters. The look on both his and Ilsa's faces are so expressive and tell a story in themselves.

[sir_captain]

11. Ending of Chaplin's City Lights

don't want to give it away, but suffice it to say that Kubrick and Orson Welles agreed with me, and it is the most indelible moment on film that I can think of.

[CBGLuthier]

12. Good Bad and Ugly hard to top

The way the music builds to a crescendo and then backs down almost to nothing again before coming to one more great climax as the guns start firing.

Another magnificent scene is the early scene in Once upon a Time in the West. When we first meet Henry Fonda's character. I will not describe it just in case anyone hasn't seen it but I have never looked at Fonda's baby blues the same way since.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

47. Once upon a Time in the West

One of the best movies ever. Those of you who haven't seen it, please go out of your way to find it.

[HEyHEY]

14. "NO PRISONERS!!............... NO PRISONERS!!!

The scene in Lawrence of Arabia when Lawrence turns into a homicidal maniac. Great scene, amazing setting, terrific costumes.

ANd the YELL...the yell sends shivers up my spine.

[terrya]

16. Not one scene, but some great ones:

The opening track shot in Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil". Amazing. Martin Scorcese did a great tracking shot in "Goodfellas". Equally amazing.

Gene Kelly performing the title song in "Singin'in the Rain" I still say to myself "wow!" when I see that wonderful moment. :-)

The "well, nobody's perfect" last line in "Some Like It Hot"

[HEyHEY]

17. Sharon Stone's interrogation Basic Instinct?

[edbermac]

43. How about Ursula Andress in Dr No?

Woof, woof...

[foreigncorrespondent]

19. I would have to say...

...the scene in 12 Angry Men, when the racist bigot is blurting off and everyone else in the room turns their back on him.

Great scene, and it speaks so much about tolerance and understanding.

[kodi]

34. fc, that is my #3. it was ed beagely, and i watched it a few days ago

and how far we have strayed from that sense of a community of human values.

the other scene with lee j cobb at the end tearing up the pix of his son and voting "not guilty" with tears in his eyes.

damn that is a great film, a powerful film.

12 angry men and to kill a mockingbird are about the best "american" films ever made in that they express the hopes of the america we yearn for set in relief with the realities of it.

[foreigncorrespondent]

45. kodi...

...I just purchased it on DVD a week ago and sat down and watched it. I had never seen it before, and got really choked up with the reality of what the movie was actually talking about. How sad that those times are no longer with us, and the religious right has done nothing but bring intolerance and bigotry into our every day lives yet again.

[NewHampshireDem]

20. The climactic last battle scene in The Seven Samurai

Good god, thatis filmmaking at its finest.

[hatredisnotavalue]

21. Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man

In the dentist chair...how many people relive that moment when sitting in the dentist chair just to have their teeth cleaned?

[kodi]

35. is it safe?

.

[SnowGoose]

22. It would almost have to be somewhere in

Baraka. The only problem is, who could pick?

Oh, man, then there's that scene in Harold and Maude where he "immoliates" himself... classic. Seen it a dozen times, still laugh my dumb ass off every time.

[BOSSHOG]

24. Jack Nicholson

right after he admitted to ordering the Code Red in a Few Good Men looking up into the camera

[hatredisnotavalue]

26. And in The Shining "Here's Johnny!" n/t

[Bitter Betty]

41. I'll add my vote to that one

And my avatar.

[Lautremont]

37. Best Nicholson scene:

In the restaurant in Five Easy Pieces. "Hold it between your knees!"

[NewJeffCT]

28. too many good scenes, but my favorite in a recent movie

Was the charge of the Rohirrim in "Return of the King"

but, i think the scenes at the end of Casablanca & Gone with the Wind are the most famous.

[kodi]

29. brando/steiger/cab scene/on the waterfront

second.. brando/streetcar named desire/lamppost scene/"stella!"

[Guaranteed]

32. So many from the Godfather- but my favorite in the movie

is the restaurant, when Michael shoots Salazo and the cop. That was the beginning of it all.

[-..__...]

36. There's many I could name.

One stand out (reason I mention it is because I just watched the movie last night)... final scene of "The Bridge on the River Kwai" where Alec Guinness' character (Col. Nicholson), realizes he has helped the enemy
("What have I done"!?!). When he's mortally wounded he collapses on the plunger and blows up the bridge just as the train is crossing.

[CJCRANE]

38. "I've seen things

you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the coast of Orion. Sea-beams glittering in the Tennhauser Gate. All these things will be lost, like tears in rain".

Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner. Not the best scene ever, but definitely a classic.

[TroubleMan]

39. The final fight scene in Drunken Master II

For real....don't diss it if you ain't seen it.

[Shakespeare]

40. Maybe not the greatest, but certainly great:

In Some Like it Hot, when Marilyn Monroe is running to catch the train, and the two jets of steam shoot out immediately in front of and behind her, and as she dodges them--as only she can--Jack Lemmon says "Look at that! Look at how she moves! That's just like jello on springs!"

Maybe a 10-second scene, but so classic.

[wryter2000]

42. Scrooge

Known as A Christmas Carol in the US -- 1951, Alistair Sim. The scene where Scrooge sees his own grave. The black and white is haunting. The sound Sim makes is unearthly. All around one of the finest movies ever made.

[yellowdogintexas]

44. In "The Sting" when Redford and Newman shoot each other and

Robert Shaw is being rushed out of the bookie joint by Charles Durning and as soon as they are gone, Redford opens his eyes, spits out the fake blood and winks at Newman.

just Classic! I almost burst into tears because I thought they had turned on each other, and Redford's character was dead.


OH yeah: in "To Wong Fu, Thanks for Everything, Love Julie Newmar", when all the women in the town come out in red and all the men just stop dead in their tracks. Simply fabulous.


and when Robert Preston goes on stage instead of Julie Andrews at the end of Victor Victoria


just to mention a few

[bmbmd]

48. Two nominees.

The end of Godfather when Robert Duvall closes the door on Annette Benning, and the "leap" at the end of Billy Elliott. Took my breath away.

[leanin_green]

49. "Rosebud." Citizen Cane.

[enigmatic]

50. 2 scenes:

Robert Shaw's monolouge about the USS Indianapolis in "Jaws", and the last vingette/scene in "Night On Earth" w/ Aki the cab driver. Both are brilliant, and very haunting..

[UTUSN]

52. The Big "Anthem" Scenes

1- "Marseilleise" scene in Casablanca.

2- "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" in Cabaret.

3- Non-song, in GWTW, where whassername is trying to get the doctor to go deliver or tend to Melanie's baby, he tells her he can't get away right now, is busy, and the camera pans across thousands of wounded and dying, ending in the Confederate flag.

But since Dr Strangelove has surfaced repeatedly, where Peter SELLERS in the wheelchair does the uncontrollable arm into the Nazi salute, with actors breaking up in the background.

The first 3 are chillworthy. The last one just is hypnotic.