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The Ten Greatest Movie Scenes

Great movies are made up of many wonderful scenes. Some are truly memorable and leave an indelible mark on us. Some movies are just a collection of great scenes and none or necessarily more memorable than the others, but together they form a masterpiece. Many times it’s neither the scenes nor the scenery that capture our attention, but powerhouse acting performances. There are those occasions where a movie has grabbed us, made us love it, but in reality, it’s that one scene that brought it all together. Without that one scene, the movie would be a mere shell of what it is today. This list comprises the best of the best, in terms of one scene, that embodies the entire movie. There will be no horse’s head in the bed from the Godfather. There won’t be Ryan Gosling embracing the beautiful Rachel McAdams and there sure as hell won’t be any Baby in the corner. These are, in my opinion classic scenes that made each movie what it is.

Disclaimer: If you haven’t seen the movie, you might not want to read about the scene.  I have attached links to most of the scenes.  Some are only partial scenes. 

10. The Contender – The scene towards the end, when the dust has settled regarding the inquiry into her sexual past and Joan Allen who portrays the vice presidential nominee sits with the President, portrayed by Jeff Bridges, smoking cigars. She turns to him and explains that it wasn’t her in the room, and delivers the line "principals only mean something if you stick to them when they're inconvenient...". Some felt this scene was a betrayal, but I felt it was brilliant and the subtlety in which it is delivered is acting genius. Here’s a woman, given the opportunity of a lifetime and she almost buries the man who gave it to her and herself, to stand up for her morals. The film, right there became perfect. Allen gives possibly the greatest performance by an actress I’ve ever seen and somehow lost out to Julia Robert’s Erin Brockovich for breast, I mean best actress. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs3s2rR5pFo

9. Audition – The scene where the young object of the lead characters affection is seen sitting in her home, the phone ringing and a large burlap sack is seen in the background. The camera sticks to the young woman and all of the sudden the bag moves and it becomes quite clear that there is someone tucked away inside. The thing that is so wonderfully shocking about this scene is that nothing really had happened for about an hour and twenty minutes and you realize that the main character, who had held a mock audition to meet the girl of his dreams, is totally fucked. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azeK3-pv2CE

8. Big - If there is ever a scene that captures youthful exuberance that doesn't contain an actual child, it is the scene in which Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia perform Chopstick with their feet in FAO Schwartz.  The scene starts with just Hanks playing, but when Loggia jumps in and they play their duet to the delight of onlookers it becomes movie history.  Big had some great scenes of the young boy trapped in a man's body, but this scene truly stole the show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKrZiddRphw

7. Texas Chainsaw Massacre - It is my opinion that the original is the best horror film ever made.  The low budget look actually makes the movie even better.  People forget that there is almost no gore in the movie, but it is still incredibly scary.  The greatest scene is the one where one of the guys goes looking inside the house and suddenly this steel door opens and you get your first look at Leatherface.  He hits the guy in the head sending him to the floor in convulsions.  Hits him again, and then drags him into his "kitchen," then slams the door shut.  The whole scene takes second, but it introduces you to one of horror's greatest characters.

6.  American Werewolf In London - Today we have gotten so used to computer graphics shaping our monsters and superheroes that we've almost become numb to it.  We accept that people have these abilities and don't really need to be wowed about how they come to look like they do.  Nearly thirty years ago, this movie showed a man's transformation into a werewolf that was so realistic that I still squirm a bit while watching.  The pain that is endured as his body stretches into the wolf looks so real that you feel for the character.  The irony of the scene is that as the humble David Naughton turns into this blood seeking creature, Blue Moon sung by Sam Cooke is playing in the background.  The movie's score, was almost a bit of a joke throughout, with CCR's Bad Moon Rising playing before the transformation and Moondance playing when the main character first makes love to his girlfriend.  Inside jokes aside, this scene still amazes even today.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSuYWeh0GPo&feature=related

5. Cinema Paradiso - In the final scene of the movie, the adult Toto is given a film real and what he sees is a montage of kisses that had been cut from his hometown's movies at the local priests request.  It's too difficult to explain the power of this scene without watching the entire film.  The movie ends on such a bittersweet note, because the emotions that are conjured up by this tiny clip in both the actor and the viewer is so powerful.  I remember sobbing and laughing while watching this the first time.  It's one of the greatest films ever made and this scene, is definitely a huge part why I feel this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gdpWeW9Kao

 4. The Killer - John Woo is the master of gunfights. Chow Yun Fat is his muse.  Towards the end of the film, Fat and Danny Lee, the cop out to get him, join forces against a Triad hit team out to get him.  The scene takes place inside a church and is so well choreographed that it's almost like watching a ballet, with bullets.  The scene caps off, what is in my opinion, the greatest action film of all time.  Fat and Woo combined for many great films, such as Hard Boiled and A Better Tomorrow, but The Killer is a masterpiece which has very few dull moments. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYz9rq0wnBA

3. No Country For Old Men - Over the years, movie villains have thrilled audiences.  Characters like Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates and Annie Wilkes draw us in and come to like them, because they are just like us.  That is until they ate someones liver, dressed up like their mother or broken somebodies ankles with a sledgehammer.  Anton Chigurh is not like these people.  From the second he's on screen, we know he's not like us.  He's not like anyone.  Ever.  In one of the most amazing scenes ever on film, Javier Bardem's character goes into a little mom and pop service station and soon gets tired of the elderly man's small talk.  He then pulls a quarter and flips it and then puts the quarter on the desk and tells the man to call it.  The man initially asks why, but soon becomes very aware that this coin flip call is for his life.  He calls correctly and Chigurh tells him to keep it, because it's his lucky quarter, explaining that he doesn't want to mix it up with the others, because then it will be just another quarter, which it is, he says as he smirks and exits the store.  Two men, no connection and a life saved over a coin flip.  So simple so brilliant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhXJcfczNIc

2. Jaws - Now in the beginning of this I explained that this list is scenes which defined the movie.  Now I know #2 is a strange place to go off of the theme, but I can't have a best scene list without this scene in it.  The scene is the drunken evening where Quint, Brody and Hooper are talking about their scars and where they got them and the joyous time gets cut short when Quint tells of the scar he got when he was on the USS Indianapolis.  He tells of being in the shark infested waters for days while those around him we dying off or getting eaten by the sharks.  The scene is so perfect, because until it, you didn't really see Quint as a real person.  The scene humanizes him, while impressing upon the others that this man has seen it all and lived.  We know right at that point that he is doomed, as if he were a cat who had already got by eight times.  One of the greatest scenes in by far one of the greatest films of all-time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nrvMNf-HEg&feature=related

1. True Romance - There are few people who would argue that the interrogation scene between Christopher Walken and the late Dennis Hopper isn't one of the greatest bits of cinema ever.  It's even more amazing, because we absolutely forget that Walken is supposed to be Sicilian and he's awful at portraying one. The scene starts to get incredible when Hopper, fully cognizant he is about to be killed, decides to have a little fun with his interrogator.  He tells Walken the history of why Sicilians went from having blue eyes and blond hair to dark hair and dark skin.  he explains that the Moors invaded Sicily and raped all the women and thus they have "nigger blood" running through their veins. Walken laughs, gets up and kisses Hopper on the head, then grabs a gun from one of his henchman and kills them him.  Ironically, TV mob boss James Gandolfini is in the scene as one of the henchman.  The movie itself is very good, and has an all-star cast, but this scene, which spans about ten minutes is the piece de resistance.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqccyUpnZwA

Obviously, other people will have other lists.  It's tough narrowing down a list to ten.  My initial list had over seventy scenes.  But I wanted to concentrate on scenes that really embodied the movie and those which I can go back and rewatch over and over again.  It was difficult to leave Kathy Bates' ankle breaking scene with James Caan, Philip Baker Hall and Samuel L Jackson meeting in Hard Eight, the false ending in Severance or Joan Crawford's brilliant wire hanger scene in Mommie Dearest, but these are ten that I think stand up on their own.  I would love to hear others opinions, if anyone still read this thing.

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