Greatest single shot in a movie:

[begin_within]

Poll question: Greatest single shot in a movie:

There are many more than 10, but this software only allows 10 choices in a poll, so if your favorite movie shot isn't listed here, please reply.

[Broken_Hero]

1. One of my favorites lately has been

from Superman Returns, when he is up in space at his listening post, with his eyes closed, ears open...listening to all the sounds on earth...the camera work, angle, and pace of the shot to me was very damn good....

Also, another from the movie, when he floated up into the sky, through the clouds, into the sun rays, to power himself back up...very artisitc shot...I wish both shots were on posters...I would buy both in a heart beat.

Other nods, the Elephant charge in ROTK...Battle of Helm Deep, Two Towers, and a lot of shots from the Matrix.

[qnr]

2. One I always remember is when the boys are up in the tree, eating leaves

while waiting for the sabretooth kitties to wander off, in Quest For Fire.

[MrScorpio]

3. Opening shot in HIGHLANDER in Madison Square Garden

My fave

[jobycom]

5. That movie won an Oscar for

Best Movie Ever Made. According to Ricky Bobby--I didn't look it up.

[jobycom]

4. How about the hall of mirrors shot in Citizen Kane?

Or most of the rest of that movie.

[begin_within]

19. It's jam-packed with amazing camera shots. The story left me cold, though.

[Dem2theMax]

6. Other.

Last shot in "Get on the Bus."

The chains left on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

I will NEVER forget seeing that as long as I live. I literally gasped when I saw it.

[Trajan]

7. None of those ....

My fave of late:

George Clooney in "O'Brother Where Art Thou", when he had just leapt up into the train at the start of the movie ... While his cohorts are still struggling to get aboard ....

When Pete falls, the chains pull off the shorter fella, who then drags Clooney's feet out from under him as he is talkin to the train hobos .... The look on his face as he slides backwards and out of the train is pure filmic magic ....

Same movie: The frog poppin up in Pete's shirt after the tryst with the 'Sireens' .... fucking hilarious .....

Hell, just about EVERY Coen Brothers movie has something special about it .... something wonderful ...

[blondeatlast]

11. Hadn't thought of that--the frog scene was low-key but perfect! nt

[begin_within]

15. The shot I liked best in that film was

the people walking through the woods, singing, on their way to get baptized in the river. The first half of that film is glorious, while the second half falls apart - my opinion only.

[jobycom]

91. My favorite Cohen brothers shot is from their first film--Blood Simple.

Minor SPOILER.






There's a scene where the husband and wife are talking just inside a screen door. They are both tense, both suspect the other one, but neither can say it. The audience is on the edge, waiting for one of them to do the smart thing and say what they are thinking. The screen door to the outside is visible between them, and suddenly, but not too fast, a shadow appears hurtling towards them from the outside. They don't see it. The audience has a moment to panic before it strikes the door, making everyone on both sides of the screen jump.

It's the morning paper, just thrown by the paperboy.

That whole film is so underrated. The scene where the body they are burying wakes up and starts trying to push the dirt of himself. The final scene, with the water droplet. Damn, I've loved their movies since that one.

[saltpoint]

8. David Bowie, naked, staring into the bathroom mirror in THE MAN WHO

FELL TO EARTH.

Jon Voight's late-night stupefaction at the black-garbed woman running a rubber insect over herself in MIDNIGHT COWBOY.

The Catholic nuns, their faces marked by comic guilt, revealing to the Mother Superior that they'd vandalized the Gestapo's automobile engines so that Julie Andrews could escape into the Swiss Alps to freedom in THE SOUND OF MUSIC.

Mercutio's face throughout Zefferelli's ROMEO AND JULIET.

The camera angles & lighting in SNEAKERS when Robert Redford and his pal arrange for the Republican National Committee to transfer a large amount of money to charities the Republicans would otherwise make a point to ignore.

[begin_within]

16. Cool

[Ron Green]

9. Here's one from "Murder on the Orient Express"

The train is sitting at the platform ready to depart (we've already met some of the passengers), and the camera does a long trolley shot to the front of the locomotive, to a closeup of the unlit headlight. As the headlight flashes on, there's a sudden loud chord in the music score, and the engine begins to roll. What a great beginning to a great movie!

[NashVegas]

33. Oh I Loved That

The music really made it.

[pokerfan]

10. The "Jaws shot"

The zooming-out, tracking-in shot of Roy Scheider when he realizes the shark is attacking the little boy.

Apollo 13. Right after the launch, there is a shot looking directly down from what seems to be about 3000 feet of the Saturn V stack rising. All CGI, but a creative prespective nevertheless.

[Broken_Hero]

14. That was a good shot

One of the things I have to admit, that was amazing about Jaws was Roys expressions thoughout the movie. The best reaction was when he was chumming...that look, and move, was spot on, and probably what I would have done...(but I probably would have pissed myself too)...

[pokerfan]

48. ''We're gonna need a bigger boat''

Because of all the crappy sequels, I think people tend to forget what an excellent film Jaws was with great performances by the three leads. Robert Shaw's monologue of the sinking of the Indianapolis was based on a true story making it even more chilling:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_%28CA-35%29#Delayed_rescue:_Five_days_of_horror_in_the_water

[malmapus]

92. haha I love that, and yeah probaly my reaction same as yours

with the soaked pants lol. But yeah back away slowly and as far from the water as I can get (in a boat). LOL

[YankeyMCC]

12. How about

Gandalf and that Balrog falling and fighting down to the roots of the moutain in "Return of the King"

[bleedingheart]

13. As a mother the most moving was the scene in Saving Private Ryan

where the military cars arrive at the Ryan farm...and they approach the mother and she falls to the porch....it breaks my heart every time....and the audience knows that the news is just horrific...that not one but three of her sons are dead.

[SixStrings]

32. Hear, hear. Rest of that movie was just too campy though.

[RedStateShame]

17. The 3 suns on Tattooine in "Star Wars: A New Hope"

Maybe it's the John Williams music that touches a nerve. Maybe I'm a huge dork. Maybe some from column A, some from column B.

[begin_within]

18. I thought it was 2 suns. I rememberd that last night when I was making

up the poll. I saw that movie in the theater in 1977, about a month after it first came out, and I remembered the 2 suns shot for a long time afterwards, wondering how they did it. They didn't have too much in the way of computer-generated special effects then.

[RedStateShame]

25. Maybe it was 2. I guess the John Williams music is what does it for me.

[elperromagico]

20. There are a few I'd name:

The long crane shot in Gone With The Wind (1939) that ends on a tattered Confederate flag whipping in the wind,

The famous moving camera shot in the Babylonian sequence of Griffith's Intolerance (1916),

The "Vertigo effect" shots in Vertigo (1958), produced by a combination of zooming in/dollying back simultaneously,

The final shot of Chaplin's City Lights (1931),

Pretty much any long shot in a David Lean film,

The close-up of Malcolm McDowell that opens A Clockwork Orange (1971).

Those are the ones that I can think of right now.

[begin_within]

21. Good ones

Though I haven't seen 2 of them (Intolerance or City Lights) I agree with the others.

[elperromagico]

22. "Intolerance" can be a bit creaky,

not surprising considering that it's nine decades old, but it's still pretty damned exciting.

City Lights is typical Chaplin, a mix of comedy and pathos, but it works better than most of his other attempts at the form. The reason the shot is so effective is because of what's gone on before. Chaplin's character has fallen in love with a blind flower seller who thinks he's a millionaire. He works and slaves to get her the money she needs for an operation to restore her eyesight. He succeeds and she gets the operation.

The next time he sees her, she's working in an upscale flower shop. Not realizing who he is, she has pity on him (he's a tramp, after all) and gives him a flower. Then she realizes it's her benefactor. "You?" she says (through a title card - the film is silent). He nods and asks, "You can see now?" "Yes," she replies. Then there's a close-up of Chaplin, with a look on his face that's a combination of joy and uncertainty. Fade out.

Gets me every time.

[KurtNYC]

29. I have weird taste .... The opening shot of "Fargo"

eg "whiteout conditions on a northern roadway, car emerges"

The opening shot in "Avalon" 1990 -- Arhmin Mueller Stahl walks toward camera on 1920s Baltimore pier, 4th of July fireworks overhead. Described by the cinematopgrapher here:

"An image from 1914 that recurs is of Sam walking up the a street completely covered with the arches of lightbulbs and strings of lightbulbs-and an American flag composed of red, white and blue lightbulbs in the background," Daviau said. "This image came from photographs taken during an exposition that was held in Baltimore in 1914. It was called Electric Park and Norman reproduced it as exactly as he could do it (According to the production office, more than18,000 lights were strung for the set). It's an extraordinary visual and it become a motif that is repeated several times with his memory of 'I came to America I 1914 and it was the most beautiful place I have ever seen' The line is repeated during the course of the film and again at the end.

http://www.cameraguild.com/interviews/chat_daviau/daviau_avalon.htm

[displacedtexan]

39. David Lean's sunlight through the trees in Dr. Zhivago...

Still gives me chills.

[Nailzberg]

23. Opening follow shot in "Touch of Evil"

I love that shot.

[seemunkee]

28. beat me to it

That scene it amazing.

I would also add the Gene Kelly's singing in the rain scene

[begin_within]

37. I thought of that one after I had posted the poll. Great scene.

[Radical Activist]

24. It has to be something in an Ingmar Bergman film

although I'm not sure which one I'd pick yet.

[Radical Activist]

57. Really the question could have been

which Ingmar Bergman film had the greatest. These films had some of my favorites:

The Seventh Seal


Persona


Shame


The Virgin Spring


The Passion of Anna
I can't find a good picture from this one but it has some amazing scenes.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. Two from The Night of the Hunter, to start with

1. Lillian Gish, with whom the children have taken refuge, sitting up all night at the window with a rifle across her lap.

2. Shelley Winters, murdered, sitting in the front seat of a model T Ford at the bottom of a river, her hair flowing with the water


In Throne of Blood (Kurosawa's retelling of Macbeth), the forest "moves" through the fog.

[mitchum]

65. Those are both sublime

[mitchum]

66. The great Klaus Kinski surrounded by monkeys on the raft...

at the end of "Aguirre, The Wrath of God"

haunting

[cemaphonic]

74. Also in Throne of Blood...

Mifune looking completely terrified as he is being shot at with real arrows.

And Night of the Hunter just has scene after scene of memorable visual compositions, though it is hard to top the two you mention. (Probably the next best one would be the framing and shadowing of their bedroom to look like a church chapel just before Winters is murdered.)

[Richardo]

27. 4-million year jump cut in 2001: A Space Odyssey

[begin_within]

36. The most famous edit in movie history

[SteppingRazor]

30. Platoon: The Death of Sgt. Elias

[SaveElmer]

31. Last of the Mohicans...

Scene where troops were crossing a bridge. The water below was so still the reflection was a perfect mirror-image of the bridge...really great shot!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

40. Good one.

I thought that was an oil-painting before they started moving across.

[Mike03]

82. Jogged My Memory

There ARE some stupendous shots in LOTM. The one that always gets me is of the sister leaping to her death, and that expression on her face before she does it. Tremendous movie.

[NashVegas]

34. Opening Scene from The Player

An 8-minute track shot.

[lost-in-nj]

35. The scene in Poltergeist

when the mom gets out of the bathtub and goes in the hall because she knows something is wrong
And then the shot lengthens the hall before she runs to the bedroom.

FWIW I'm not a big fan of the new shaky and jerky film making they are doing lately....

lost

[begin_within]

41. I absolutely hate that "drunken cameraman" style - maybe it's good for a

few seconds on "Entertainment Tonight" or MTV, as they interview the latest airhead celebrity making an arrival at a benefit event. But even for a 1-hour episode of "NYPD Blue" it's way too much. For a feature-length film, forget it. We actually walked out of "About a Boy" with Sean Penn because it was making us nauseated after only 15 minutes of it. Steadicam is 10,000% better than the drunken cameraman thing, any day.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

44. It depends. It can work real good in film.

It's like the zoom lens effect that lost-in-nj mentioned. It's ridiculously over-used. But can be done really well sometimes.

For example: the shoot-out scene in Heat, or the landing at Normandy in Saving Private Ryan, both scenes that are highly chaotic.

Wasn't "About a Boy" with Hugh Grant? Maybe you're thinking of "Sam I Am?"

[Lautremont]

49. I think bob-weaver means he saw 'About a Boy' WITH Sean Penn,

and they walked out of the theatre together.

[begin_within]

53. Oops. The one with Sean Penn is the one we walked out of. Sam I Am.

Not because the movie wasn't any good, only because the constantly moving camera made us queasy and almost nauseated. I can't imagine sitting through 2 hours of it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

43. Another great one.

I think that was Speilberg's idea. It worked well for him with Roy Schneider's close-up in Jaws.

Back when Speilberg was young and good.

[ironflange]

38. From "The Sting"

There is a long sequence showing two hands doing all sorts of difficult card tricks. All in one shot. The camera finally pans up to show that Paul Newman himself was doing it.

[pokerfan]

50. It's supposed to look like Paul Newman

but it was actually card expert John Scarne hands performing the manipulations. Next time you see it, pay close attention because there is a cut but it's done quite well. So it still counts as a great shot.

http://www.google.com/search?hs=MZq&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=%22paul+newman%22+%22john+scarne%22&btnG=Search

The poker game from that movie is one of my favorite scenes from any movie.

"What was I supposed to do - call him for cheating better than me, in front of the others?"

[Richardo]

51. "Hey, that'd be nice, Mishter Lonneman"

:D

[pokerfan]

58. Luther said you could teach me something.

I already know how to drink.

[Richardo]

59. Well, do you wanna get some breakfast or do you already know how to eat?

:D

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

42. Opening shot of The Good, the Bad, And the Ugly.

Wide shot of a blasted desert landscape which pans down to the extreme close up of a desperado. Coyote howl in the distance that's used in the unforgettable soundtrack.

The climax of the film is one of the greatest scenes in cinema. But it's a collection of very quick shots as opposed to one single shot.

[AllegroRondo]

54. The shot when they first get to the cemetary

when Ugly is running in circles looking for the grave with the gold. His look of total desparation, confusion, and greed all combined is amazing.
And the music just makes it even better.

[Ekirh]

62. Oh Hell yes. ..

That scene is just incredible . . . the music totally makes it for me. One of my fav scenes of all time.

[CBGLuthier]

68. one of the best scenes ever

No matter how many times I have seen it, it always takes my breath away.

Tuco rules man. One of the greatest "villains" ever.

[Giant Robot]

45. Opening shot in Star Wars: A New Hope

Where the star destroyer comes in overhead. That was the coolest thing known to man to a 5 year old, and quite frankly, still ranks up there 30 years later.

[malmapus]

93. Yeah, that SD seemed to go on forever =)

Freaking blew me away first time I saw it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

46. Apocalypse Now is full of great shots.

Opening shot of napalm exploding in palm grove.

Helicopters approach beach.

Purple haze and incoming fire from river bank.

Soldier ("Roach"?) saying "yeah."

Incoming arrows from river bank.

Martin Sheen coming up from the mud.

Martin Sheen awakening in container and seeing children then Brando through a crack in the wall.

Worshippers sacrificing a bull.

It's eye candy.

[Sapere aude]

47. Phoebe Cates, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, swimming pool shot

Phoebe Cates also won many young male hearts for her role as Linda Barrett in the cult high school film Fast Times at Ridgemont High, in which she was the visual impetus for Judge Reinhold’s characters self gratification (come on now, you know what we mean!).

[mitchum]

67. That is the most erotic shot in any mainstream movie

mmmmmmmm...

[pokerfan]

78. Then you've never seen Salma Hayak in Desperado

[mitchum]

83. Okay, maybe I should have said "watchable mainstream movie"...

:)
Ms Hayek is indeed fine, but I just found "Desperado" to be utter dreck. Rodriquez did a much better job the first time around with "El Mariachi" He's a man who had one good movie in him. The rest of his output has just been shit.

I repeat: Ms Hayek is indeed fine. Very fine.

[electprogdems]

52. Judy Garland

The man that got away, A Star is born

[CBGLuthier]

55. Slim Pickens riding the bomb?

How can that have not been mentioned by now?

His last scene in Dr. Strangelove.

Also, the last shot, although it was probably some tricky composite work, but the last shot from the original version of Solaris. Pulling back from what we think is Kelvin's home to show that it is actually on Solaris.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

70. Oh yes, Slim Pickens riding the bomb is a great one!

:7

[Lautremont]

56. The traffic jam in Godard's "Weekend."

It's a jaw dropper.

[CBGLuthier]

64. Yes it was a hell of a shot

I have only seen that thing once but remember that shot. I have got to find a copy of that odd little film again.

[anarch]

60. the shot of vodka that Harrison Ford takes in Blade Runner

after getting punched in the face.

[ghostsofgiants]

61. The opening shot from Fellini's "8½" probably.

[Ekirh]

63. I just watched that recently

I have to agree that is a good shot.d

[Blue-Jay]

69. Playing baseball under the lights of the July 4th fireworks: The Sandlot.

While Ray Charles is singing "America the Beautiful".

Any boy who grew up loving baseball will shed a tear during that scene.

[JackDragna]

71. The continuing shot of the car from "Touch of Evil"

..the Robin Hood movie doesn't deserve to be on the list.

[dback]

72. The field of flowers and waving purple robes , end of "The Color Purple"

Some folks don't like Spielberg, but even with his bad films, he's hard to deny:

The shark jumping out of the water for the first time, "Jaws."

The mother ship turning, like giant Christmas ornament, over Devil's Tower, "Close Encounters"

The ferris wheel rolling down the pier and into the water, "1941."

The ominous yet funny last shot of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

The bikes flying past the setting sun, "E.T." (Others may opt for the moon shot.)

The vast, empty stadium filled with artifacts of war and the woman who starts playing the piano, "Empire of the Sun."

Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter dancing without touching, "Always."

The shadows of Hook and Pan dueling on the wall ("To a 10-year-old, I'm huge"), "Hook"

The endless tracking shot past abandoned suitcases of personal goods of people taken to the camps, "Schindler's List"

The T-rex chasing the jeep, "Jurassic Park"

David fitting his eyes behind a mask of his own face, "A.I."

The mechanical spiders and Tom Cruise in the tub, "Minority Report"

[Tikki]

73. The Malibu ascended........

from Repo Man....




Tikki

[cemaphonic]

75. In Cold Blood

Robert Blake talking in prison, while the shadows from the rain hitting the window make him appear to be crying.

[pscot]

76. Yojimbo

Near the beginning as the Samurai is coming into town a dog trots by with a human hand in his mouth. Tells you just what sort of place it is.

[CBGLuthier]

79. Yes, yes, yes

Finally saw Yojimbo a month ago, went on a big Kurosawa kick.

Excellent movie. And a hard to forget visual for sure.

[Calliope]

77. In America

The scene in Times Square when the family arrrives in New York

To Kill a Mockingbird The shot of Boo Radley

[Lautremont]

80. The last shot in Repulsion.

Deneuve has killed several people and descended irretrievably into madness. The camera pans slowly off her and around the room, finally settling on a family photograph of her as a girl, looking with sick apprehension up out of the corner of her eye at the stern father standing above. This is as close as the film comes to an explaination of her insanity.

[Mike03]

81. Kubrick's slow zoom: The Shining

You have two great picks on your list: Lawrence of Arabia and 2001 (why not the pan shot from the earth to the Star Child, though, or the famous jump cut from the tossed bone to the space ship?). But my pick would be the gradual zoom that is Jack's POV of the hedge maze in THE SHINING, where we see Wendy and Danny nearing the center of the maze.

Second choice would definitely be the Star Child in 2001.

[Skittles]

84. from Harold and Maude

[u4ic]

85. Two from Zentropa

the shot from the inside of the train, going by the impaled bodies; or the bombed out church with the snow falling on it.

[Frank Cannon]

86. Damn you all to hell!

[Tikki]

87. Oh yeah....that scene is one I've never forgotten.....n/t

[jobycom]

90. Good choice. nt

[peekaloo]

88. the opening of Fight Club.

[jmowreader]

89. This is DU. How could we forge DU's Favorite Movie?

Yes, I'm talking about Full Metal Jacket...and THE shot is Vincent D'Onofrio (Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence) sitting on a toilet in the head, very deliberately, one-by-one, loading a box of live ammunition into an M-14 magazine.

The lighting...the expression of someone who's just totally LOST IT...there is no other shot, in any movie, that can compare.

[begin_within]

95. What a relief! I thought you were going to bring up "Fargo," "Pulp Fiction

or "The Silence of the Lambs" - three films I can't stand which you are required to like in order to gain admission to the DU Loungs.

[MnFats]

94. William Hurt tosses lawn chair through glass door to get to..

....Kathleen Turner so both can slake their lust in "Body Heat."