Memorable movie scenes

Although I have been taught to never say never in life and that there is always time to do whatever you want, every day that passes by my life, I always wonder what would have happened if I had decided to become a filmmaker, following the steps of Kubrick, Spieldberg, Nolan, Scott and so many others.

As many of my followers know, I am a huge movie fan who also happens to be a great appreciator of the art of filming. I never get tired of watching great films and also never get tired of watching memorable movie scenes. Thanks to the magic of youtube, today I want to share some of my most favorite with you:

Confrontation in the dark: Jodie Foster and Ted Levine. Director: Jonathan Demme. The Silence of the Lambs 

While the clip cuts a few seconds prior from where I would have recorded it, it still manages to capture the essence of what's happening.

Novice FBI agent Clarence Starling is assigned to her first case and boy what a case it is. After tracking down the whereabouts of serial killer Buffalo Bill, she finally lands at his home's basement where he has been keeping his victims. The music is loud, the basement is huge and she nervously keeps searching door by door for Bill -who had ran away from her upstairs-, only to land at a room with a bathtub and a heavily decomposed body. Lights go off and she loses all sight of where she is, while Bill -using night-vision goggles-, has trapped Clarice and has her at his own mercy. Clarice isn't nervous anymore: now she's freaking scared to death.

Jodie Foster's acting here is as good as it gets, portraying the 249 emotions, things and thoughts that must be going through her head, being trapped in a basement with no lights, a serial killer on the lose, no backup to call or anybody available to help. Other than her heavy breathing, the soundless take lasts the longest 60 seconds of her life. After ten more seconds or so, the orchestral violin soundtrack softly fades in, with Bill's left hand trying to reach Clarice's hair, as in to say "I want to have you", while she's still panicking as you can see in her eyes, giving a completely lost sight, and her left arm trying to reach out for something she doesn't even know. Then Bill finally raises his right arm and points his .357 at Clarice, getting ready to put her out of her misery. He makes one fatal mistake. Being an un experienced gun handler, he cocks his revolver, making Clarice aware that he's behind her, who quickly turns around facing him, which makes him scared and misfire a shot that gives away his position. Clarice, in middle of desperation, exasperation and madness, unloads her .38 revolver and puts an end to his life, while also breaking a window glass that allows outside light into the room, letting her see Bill laying on the ground.

Tech Noir: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lind Hamilton and Michael Beir. Director: James Cameron. The Terminator

Ironically, the reason why is scene is so great, is also the reason why it has aged well, but not as well as other memorable scenes.

The movie opens with two naked guys being sent in time to L.A. Not much info on the guys is given, but they do not seek the cops' help nor do they make a big fuzz of their arrival. They are on their own on the loose. Sarah Connor, on the other hand, is a young waitress who on a regular L.A. day, finds out that two other Sarah Connors have been killed. One we see getting killed by one of the guys we saw at the beginning: some mute tall muscle man guy. The other we find out was killed, on a a broadcast while Sarah is in a bar, and this is the essence that makes the scene so great.

Back then, when I first saw the movie I assumed it was THE OTHER GUY who killed that Sarah, and that both of them were on a race to kill the third Sarah (our Sarah), especially when we see the other guy sort of follow Sarah through the dark streets of L.A., till she decides to hide on a club called Tech-Noir and call the cops for help. The cops tell her she'll be fine as long as she stays in the club, because it's a public place, but when she sees the guy that was following her across the bar, she starts to think this may be it for her.

At this time, the first tall muscle man, had made his way into the bar -not paying by the way-, and while at a distance, he makes visual contact with Sarah. What follows next is a cathedratic lesson on suspense: the music of the club, while still loud, fades away to let the movie's soundtrack take over the score. The motion of the characters slows down and now it is at this moment that we know who The Terminator really is, and what he is there to do.

After a violent shooting and a direct confrontation between the unknown other guy and the Terminator, Sarah on the floor hears the words that stuck in our minds for years to come: "Come with me if you want to live"

The Baptism - Al Pacino. The Godfather. Director: Francis Ford Coppola.

I won't take long to describe this one, because we can summarize this whole scene in just one word: Juxtaposition.

Michael Chorleone baptizes his sister's son, becoming godfather to him, while at the same time settles all family business, having his men murder the members of the five families. As Michael's voice in the baptsism utters the words swearing to God he accepts his faith, believes in him, renouncing satan and asks for forgiveness for all his sins, his actions prove exactly the contrary.

Michael's baptism serves for himself being baptized as Godfather to the family.

The Duel - Clint Eastwood, Lee van Cleef, Eli Wallach. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Director: Sergio Leone.

Same as above, not much to say about this one. It is an eight minute scene that simply flows around the fact that three almost equally skilled shooters have been racing each other to find a gold fortune burried in a cemetery.

What I like about the scene is the building of a five minute tension between the three of them and what goes on the mind of each:

The Ugly, doesn't know what to do. He knows he's good. Good enough to kill both, The Good and The Bad. But the question is, who should he shoot first?

The Bad KNOWS what to do. He knows he has to shoot The Good first because he knows that he is the better shooter. But he also knows that if he does this, then the Ugly will shoot him.

The Good also KNOWS what to do, and here is where you see the beauty of the scene and overall, the beauty of the entire movie. Throughout the film he keeps being labeled as "The Good", despite the fact that we haven't really seen ANY good deeds coming from him. It is now, only in the end when we do. He knows Tuco's gun is unloaded, so he doesn't have to worry about him, so theoritically, his only preocupation is Angel Eyes. So if this is true, he could have shot him right away and get it over with, but he doesn't. In fact, he doesn't make a move at all, until the very last second, when he sees Angel Eyes grabbed his gun and is going to shoot him. To me, this serves as an act of good.

Blondie gave Angel Eyes a "last chance". The last chance was, what was fair for all three men who arrived by their own means to the cemetery. Angel Eyes didn't want that chance and took a chance to shoot, which resulted in Blondie shooting him dead in self defense.

The end of the scene contains a memorable line: "In this world there are two kinds of people. Those with guns and those who dig. You dig."

Dallas Dies - Nostromo crew (minus two), Xenomorph. Alien. Director: Ridley Scott.

While the chest-bursting scene has become the classic and I do acknowledge its greatness, I could watch Dallas' death scene over and over for days without getting bored of it. As in the Clarice Starling clip, here the uploaded posted the clip also cutting a few seconds from earlier that help up build the tension up.

After seeing his fellow crew member get attacked by an alien egg on an unkwown planet they landed, then see this creature attached to his fellow crew member magically remove itself, then seeing a tiny alien creature burst out of the crew member -killing him- and finally, seeing another crew member being abducted by the creature, Captain Dallas of the Nostromo asks himself whether or not he screwed up by braking quarantine protocol and bringing up a living creature that is as deadly as it gets to a cargo ship in space, where - as the tagline says- no one can hear you scream.

After coming up with a plan to chase the creature out of the ship through the ventilation shafts, Dallas walks into the "mother computer" and asks "what are his chances?" against the deadly alien creature. From that moment when he is already doubting his own plan, he knows and we know, he's done for, and he will be next to die.

Cut now to where the clip starts and the faces, reaction, dialogues of the other crew members say the rest:

A panicking Lambert feels Dallas' fate as soon as he walks through the shaft
A nervous Parker feels Dallas is hopeless against an unknown enemy
A cold-blooded (later to be found cyborg) Ash is emotionless realizing the Alien's superiority
A passionate Ripley, feels for Dallas, nothing but sadness.

and finally Dallas himself. This scene, similar to Clarice's deals with the sense of isolation. Being alone against an unknown killer, who you know -not hint, know- has the upper hand, and will likely end up killing you.

The ending. Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, John Travolta. Pulp Fiction. Director: Quentin Tarantino

I remember when I first saw Pulp Fiction at my local cinema, throughout the movie as each minute passed by, I knew I was witnessing a classic, but still had a few doubts on how big a classic it was. The ending scene however, cleared and erased all doubts. This movie was THE classic.

There isn't much to be said about the scene, as there aren't enough words to describe how perfect it is, so I'll just say it is perfectly acted, perfectly written and perfectly directed. Even the freaking soundtrack to finish the movie is so casual, as casual is the walk Jules and Vincent walk, leaving the cafeteria with their guns in their dork shorts.

Unfortunately, there is no youtube clip of it as I would have like to appreciate it, but there are two clips that sort of do it justice.

The ending (cuts the final seconds)

The ending (true ending)

Gene Kelly. Singing in the rain. Singing in the rain. Directors: Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly

This scene talks for itself

Assault scene. Malcolm McDowell. A Clockwork Orange. Director: Stanley Kubrick

What makes the previous selection even best, is Malcolm McDowell's version of it in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange

Cheers,

H