A few weeks ago, I wrote a post here at SleuthSayers called "Whoa, Look at THAT," about current YouTube channels showing moviewatchers' reactions--fright, sorrow, delight, shock, etc.--to what they see on the screen, and how those emotion-charged scenes can be an inspiration to us, as fiction writers. After all, we want to make our readers feel those same things.
Anyhow, since watching a few of those channels told me what movies and parts of movies the "reactors" liked most, I've been doing some thinking about which movie scenes triggered the biggest reactions from me. And the funny thing is, those reactions didn't only happen the first time I saw these movies, some of them many years ago; the feelings are rekindled every time I see them. And I re-watch a lot of movies.
So think of this post as "Whoa, Look at THAT, Part 2." I have listed, below, thirty scenes that always, even now, keep me glued to the screen. I'm sure you won't agree with me on all of them--some aren't even scenes from great or well-known movies--but for me they're all entertaining and bring forth truly strong emotions.
NOTE 1: I'm including links to the videos, instead of embedding functional clips. Otherwise this post would be a mile long. (Besides, the Blogger program, for some reason, wouldn't allow me to.)
NOTE 2: I'm NOT including the Bates Motel shower scene, Rhett leaving Scarlett, requests for a bigger boat, San Francisco car chases, songs in the rain, napalm in the morning, Sam playing the piano, etc., because most of us have seen those scenes many, many times. Some of the following you actually might not know about. And a warning: big spoilers ahead!
1. Surprise
Poltergeist: TV people
The Usual Suspects: The greatest trick the devil ever pulled
12 Angry Men: It's a very unusual knife
Romancing the Stone: Together, forever
Dead Poets Society: O captain, my captain
The Sixth Sense: They don't know they're dead
Superman (1978): All those powers--and I couldn't even save him
The Natural: Awright, Hobbs, knock the cover off the ball
2. Sadness
Cool Hand Luke: He was smilin'
Somersby: God bless you, Jack
Shane: There aren't any more guns in the valley
Lonesome Dove: Hell of a vision
The Last Sunset: Primroses
Old Yeller: Travis, bring your gun
Dances with Wolves: Do you see that I am your friend?
3. Tension
For a Few Dollars More: Try and shoot me, Colonel
Goldfinger: What kept you?
The Black Stallion: There's some problem with the Mystery Horse
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968): Left early
Star Trek II: Here it comes
Aliens: Punch it, Bishop
Raiders of the Lost Ark: Throw me the idol, I throw you the whip
Once Upon a Time in the West: You bring a horse for me?
4. Happiness
It's a Wonderful Life: Every time a bell rings
Flashdance: What a feeling
Witness: He'll need his city clothes
Forrest Gump: Run, Forrest, run
Rocky: Ain't gonna be no rematch
The Graduate: Elaine!
An Officer and a Gentleman: Way to go, Paula
Something I didn't mention earlier: For me, music plays a big part in how I'm affected by movie scenes. For example, think about how different that final shot in Gone with the Wind would be, as the camera tracks back from Scarlett to show the live oak tree beside her and Tara in the distance, if it weren't for that fantastic Max Steiner score. That, of course, and visual elements like lighting, colors, and camera movement, is something we writers can't create on the page; we have to work a little harder at causing those emotions. But it can be done. I still remember the tears that came to my eyes when the little boy died in the hot car at the end of the novel Cujo (in the movie version, he lives), and when Boo Radley is finally revealed to Scout in the final pages of To Kill a Mockingbird.
Now, a question for you: Which movie scenes do you recall affecting you the most, emotionally? Happiest, saddest, most surprising, most suspenseful? Are any of them the same as those I've remembered? Have you been influenced by any particular scenes, for your own writing?
I think I'll go see if I can find some more (and yes, Honey, it's still research).
Go ye and do likewise.
Sadness: Having paid full price for a theater ticket to see HAROLD AND MAUDE, a film I despise to this day. See also "Horror" and "Disgust" -- two categories you did not bother to list.
ReplyDeleteHa! Jerry, I needed that. I too saw Harold and Maude, long ago, and--how should I say this--it'll never show up on one of my favorites lists.
DeleteGreat article, John. Some of my favorites are a combination, like Happiness and Surprise. Who isn't thrilled when Han Solo zooms in at the end of Star Wars (Episode 4) to thwart Darth Vader? Or Ron Weasley showing up in the flying car to rescue Harry Potter? Or Eric Liddell getting knocked down during a Chariots of Fire qualifier, his race over. And then he gets up...
ReplyDeleteHey Dan. You're right, and in fact I think *most* of the surprises are happy events. (Some, of course, are not--I should've included the shooting of Kevin Spacey right in the middle of L.A. Confidential, or the dispatching of Samuel L.Jackson halfway through Deep Blue Sea.) So many memories . . .
DeleteVery nice article, John.
ReplyDeleteThe Graduate scene has always been a favorite of mine, yet it also troubles me: It only "works" because Elaine goes along with it. And there is little evidence from which Ben can conclude that she will. Without her turn-about at the end the ending of the movie would be a text-book example of very creepy stalking. I suppose, as they say, faith is risk that must be borne but I sure wouldn't want to be in his (or her) shoes if the faith were in fact unfounded!
Hey Dale! Yep, I can just see Elaine saying to her new husband, "Don't mind him, let's get out of here." But I guess the chance that Ben might fail is one of the neatest things about what he did.
DeleteIt would've been a long walk back to his gas-empty car.
Yes but. It's not actually a happy ending. The ending is what happens afterward, when they're left looking at one another on the bus, wondering what next. As we all know, the answer is not "lifelong magic."
DeleteLiz, I suspect the next conversation she has with her parents will be interesting.
DeleteOops! That previous comment was by me, Dale Andrews!
ReplyDeleteCasablanca, when they sing La Marseillaise! That captures your music plus acting, John. Courage rising from despair - for me, that's the 'heart stuck in throat' scene of my life. (Could have something to do with my Dad in Holland with the Canadian troops, long before I was born...)
ReplyDeleteThis is a great example of music stirring the emotions, Melodie--moviemakers know exactly what they're doing, with those scenes! I have watched that one many times, and yes, it gives you goosebumps. (And only twenty minutes earlier, Dooley Wilson played, and sang, "As Time Goes By" for a dreamy-eyed Ingrid Bergman. What a movie!)
DeleteTwo moments of sadness: Baby Gage Creed being run over by a tanker truck in Pet Sematary and Ray Charles' brother drowning in the washtub in the biopic Ray.
ReplyDeleteBTW the boy lives in the film version of Cujo.
I know he does. That's a rare instance where I liked the movie version better than the book. (The others include Dances with Wolves, Forrest Gump, and The Godfather.)
DeleteAs for Pet Sematary, Justin, that scene with the truck is one of only two times in movies where I actually put my hands over my eyes and peeked through my fingers. The other was when the two young ladies scaled the tower in the fairly recent movie Fall--that was maybe the scariest movie I've ever seen.
I'd like to pick up on your mention of the use of music in films and two moments in the film "Bridge on the River Kwai." The musical score was composed by Malcolm Arnold. Two uses of music stand out for me, both involving the “Colonel Bogey March,” which written at the start of World I by Kenneth Alford. The energetic march with its confidently-stated patriotism was employed again during World War II, when the movie is set, with lyrics that announced “Hitler Has Only Got One Ball.” The director David Lean envisioned the British soldiers proudly marching into the Japanese prisoner of war camp where they will be confined and singing the lyrics. The producer, Sam Spiegel, thought the words were too vulgar, and so he and Lean decided that the soldiers would enter the camp whistling the melody. But while the idea was striking—nonchalant whistling as the men face confinement and torture, a group of men whistling, even when surreptitiously accompanied by a piccolo, didn’t dominate the scene aurally. And so, Arnold wrote a countermelody to Alford’s march, and the scene was developed so that the men enter whistling and when their commanding officer, Captain Nicholson played by Alec Guinness, stands before them, looking at his soldiers with pride, Arnold’s countermelody is brought in played by the orchestra, lending more sound, surely, but also more texture to the scene. It is suddenly as if we are seeing and hearing the men as Nicholson sees and hears them, as if they are marching on parade back in England, brave and true, a tribute to their country. The next scene goes to the end of the movie. A commando unit sent from England has blown up the bridge the prisoners had been ordered to build. The bridge and the train that was crossing it are in the river, and the beach is littered with dead. The camp’s doctor witnesses this happening and exclaims, “Madness!” As he walks onto the beach, music is heard on the soundtrack. The natural inclination might have been to play the “Colonel Bogey March.” But, given the destruction we have just seen, that would have come across as too jaunty, too carefree. Instead, we begin to hear Arnold’s countermelody, which is understated, as are most countermelodies, which support the main melody. We hear it softly at first, and then it gradually grows louder as the camera pulls back and gives us a fuller view of the destruction. We begin to hear crowds cheering, giving the tribute the dead will never hear, and it is, once again, as if we are seeing and hearing with Colonel Nicholson’s eyes and ears, with the full orchestra saluting his and his men’s sacrifice.
ReplyDeleteWonderful example, John. That scene where the men are marching and whistling (I have always loved the Colonel Bogey March) is another that gives me chills every time I watch it. (I had forgotten the music at the very end of the movie, which you mentioned. I have to go back and listen to that.)
DeleteI almost included in my list that marching scene from River Kwai, and one other as well: the very last scene in The Right Stuff. Bill Conti's music in that one makes you want to stand up and cheer like the folks who are watching the rocket launch.
Thank you as always, for your thoughts.
I immediately thought of the marching scene from The Bridge on the River Kwai. It had an extra punch once I was older and knew the dirty anti-Nazi version of the lyrics that was the actual point of their whistling it.
DeleteLiz, I never knew, beforehand, that piece of trivia that John Aquino mentioned--that the director and producer had to decide whether to film the scene with the lyrics or with the whistling. Interesting!
DeleteA perfect example of the catchiness of movie music. When Democrat Foster Furculo was running for Massachusetts governor in 1957, his campaign song was set to the music of "Colonel Bogey March" ("vo-ote for FOS-ter FUR-culo"). The song was already an earworm for the public because of the film, and many who would hum the song were reminded of Furculo's campaign. Needless to say, he won, and I have no doubt that the song was a major factor in his election over Lieutenant Governor Sumner Whittier (although an endorsement from Senator John F. Kennedy did not hurt). To this day, I cannot watch BRIDGE OVER THERIVER KWAI without thinking of Furculo.
DeleteJerry, I was unaware of that, but I swear it sounds like a *brilliant* move on Gov. Furculo's part. The only thing I can think of that might compare to that is the old Marlboro commercials and their ads featuring the theme from The Magnificent Seven. I and most old folks still think of the Marlboro Man anytime we hear that music.
DeleteOur daughter, who was a music major and a current music teacher, would be extremely pleased by this whole discussion.
I loved the over-the-top scene at the beginning of Romancing the Stone that turns out to be from the novel she's writing, and you see her at her typewriter with the tears streaming down her face. That's influenced my writing: when I'm crying as I write, I know I'm in the zone. It happened when Diego and Rachel Mendoza were reunited with their parents in Istanbul (Journey of Strangers, Chapter 23), and i cried again the first I forget how many times I reread it.
ReplyDeleteWhen that happens, Liz, you KNOW you've done it right! It's happened to me also, but so few times that I remember them well.
DeleteI think that "reveal" at the beginning of Romancing surprised everyone!--and in a delightful way.
Of the ones you mentioned, I seem to relate to the Happiness lines the most. And how great would it be if we could use background music in our novels and stories! I guess we could in audiobooks. I did publish a list of music for each chapter in my musical mysteries, which are currently out of print.
ReplyDeleteWhoa. I wonder if that HAS been done, with audiobooks. And I love the idea of adding a list of music for your book chapters. Interesting! Thanks, Kaye.
DeleteHappiness leading to Tension: Tombstone - "I'm your huckleberry."
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, sheer delight - the last priceless lines of "Some Like It Hot"
Good thoughts, Eve. I thought about including a scene from Tombstone, but couldn't single one out. As for the ending of Some Like It Hot . . . "Nobody's perfect" was perfect.
DeleteWhat a fun post! People have mentioned most of my favorites (if you didn't have them already), but for surprise, how about the courtroom scene in My Cousin Vinnie: "'Cause Chevy didn't make a Bel Air with..." or explaining the tire tracks.
ReplyDeleteOh, lord, I still remember my friends and me staggering out of the Court Street theater with tears streaming down our faces after Travis shot Old Yeller.
Music. How about the orchestrated "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling" with the brilliant jump cut editing to the train, the clock, the men in the bar, the clock, the bad guys at the station, Gary Cooper writing his will, the clock...at the climax of High Noon, still one of my favorite films. David Crosby's father was the cinematographer on that film.
Tension. Peter Sellers as the President talking to the Russian Premier on the phone in Dr. Strangelove. "The bomb, Dmitri. The Hydrogen bomb." Funny and terrifying at the same time. Or George C. Scott explaining how a really good pilot can evade the anti-aircraft missles in the same film.
More tension: "I'll help you, Susie." Roat to Susie when he opens the refrigerator door and light spills across the apartment in Wait Until Dark. By the way, the play is much better than the film. I wish I'd had the chance to see Robert Duvall as Roat on Broadway...
Hey Steve! Thanks for stopping in.
DeleteI loved My Cousin Vinnie--everybody did. ("Oh. Yeah--you blend.") And I too remember where and when I first saw Old Yeller, and yep, all of us--a group of little boys--cried our eyes out. As for "Do Not Forsake Me"--I can hum that music right now (Tex Ritter, right?). And what better way to build tension than to constantly show the ticking clock as the Marshal--and the whole town--waits for the train?
I could talk to you all day about Dr. Strangelove--my most vivid memory is Slim Pickens riding the bomb.
I never saw the Broadway version of Wait Until Dark, and I can only imagine Robert Duvall as Roat--but I gotta tell, you, Alan Arkin was pretty dern good. As for knocking out all the lightbulbs and the back-and-forth with the refrigerator light, etc., I honestly think those few minutes between Hepburn and Arkin might be the most intense and terrifying in cinema history. I saw that one in college, and I'll never forget it.
Good memories!
Flat out, the first scene, the film that leaped to mind was the Abyss. The woman who ‘sacrificed’ herself… I know it’s only a movie, but damn, I want a cozy cottage far from the ocean and lots of children with her. It’s fiction, right? Only a movie?
ReplyDeleteA shocking movie moment was in Se7en as the dénouement approached. When watching films, my mind tends to dart ahead, figuring out what comes next. I can’t help it. In this case, a couple of minutes prematurely, my brain saw how it must end and I audibly gasped. My girlfriend glanced at me, and I clutched her hand waiting for the horror I knew was coming.
One highly charged show that did nothing for me was The Exorcist. I could see the subliminal skulls, which didn’t affect me. My brother Glen was the only person I know who saw the subliminal tricks too, which made me wonder if we were genetically engineered to spot weird movie moments. Years later after VCRs became popular, I learned fans could start-stop the tape to isolate individual scare frames.
Music? Of course I liked The Exorcist’s Tubular Bells, but the classic opening of 2001 comes to mind. But the biggest musical letdown was the disappointingly uninspired American Symphony in Mr Holland’s Opus.
John, glad to see several favorites, especially A Few Dollars More and Once Upon a Time in the West. Wait Until Dark… yeah!
Leigh, I too thought The Abyss was fantastic (James Cameron doesn't made bad movies) and the ending of Se7en was great also, though I did NOT foresee it. (I confess that I did enjoy The Exorcist, mainly because having the priest sacrifice himself was the best and only way to save the girl and have a positive ending--I thought that was clever.)
DeleteI wasn't fond of Mr. Holland's Opus but I did love a little-known music-based movie called Brassed Off. Wonderful ending to that one.
I absolutely love those two spaghetti westerns--I think Sergio Leone was a cinematic genius--and we have talked before about Wait Until Dark. I only wish I had included that apartment scene (the one Steve Liskow mentioned) in my list under Surprise and/or Tension.
Thanks as always, old friend.
Music (and other categories) : Fantasia!
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