The shootout in Michael Mann’s “Heat” (1995) remains one of the best ever filmed, in my opinion. Mann himself even tried topping it in Miami Vice (which is good in it’s own right), but this scene (which occurs some minutes in) is so loved, Rockstar Games actually developed a mission in Grand Theft Auto 4 to mimic it.
A group of bank robbers, led by Neal McCauley (Robert DeNiro) finally take down their score, only to find that the police squad out to get them has been tipped off. The video starts as the robbery begins. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino), along with his team arrive just as the crew is coming out of the bank with the money. The rest is mayhem, with the gunfire sounds echoing all around. Elliot Goldenthal’s score for the piece sets the tone for the robbery, a piece called Force Marker (along with Brian Eno).
What I wouldn’t give to catch this in a theatre somewhere. Enjoy.
There’s a part of me that really wants to see M. Night Shyamalan come back into his own again. I think somewhere between The Village and Lady in the Water, he started this strange descent. But back in 2000, he had “Unbreakable” which wasn’t bad at all. The story of a man who discovers he has abilities far beyond normal people, Unbreakable could be considered one of the first ‘every person superhero’ films. As with some origin stories, Unbreakable’s David Dunn has to come to terms with what he can do. Once he’s put on the path by a Comic Book aficionado (played by Samuel L. Jackson), he heads off to do some good.
The above is David Dunn taking down a home invader with a simple choke hold. Enjoy.
The first time I saw this scene was on DVD, with my little brother. This part in particular left us with smiles. It’s not so much what takes place, but the music behind it. James Newton Howard’s score takes what would normally be a quick action theme (for a story like this) and uses a dramatic piece to cover the scene. I thought it worked really well here. It also reminds me that as he wasn’t working on The Dark Knight Rises score with Hans Zimmer, you might not find a lot of those softer themes. Then again, with Gotham in turmoil, maybe that’s not the kind of music it needs right now.
Today, Arleigh and Pantsukudasai have left town to attend the Anime Expo and I find myself momentarily alone here at the TSL Bunker, curled up on the couch in my beloved Pirates t-shirt and Hello Kitty panties, and cursing my asthma. As I lay here, it occurs to me that it’s been a while since I’ve shared a “scene that I love” here on the site. So, why not rectify that situation now?
Norman Jewison’s 1972 film version of Jesus Christ Superstar is a film that I’ve been meaning to review for a while but for now, I just want to share my favorite scene from that film, the performance of Simon Zealotes/Poor Jerusalem.
There’s several reasons I love that scene but mostly it just comes down to the fact that it captures the explosive energy that comes from watching a live performance. Larry Marshall (who plays Simon Zealotes) has one of the most fascinating faces that I’ve ever seen in film and when he sings, he sings as if the fate of the entire world depends on it. That said, I’ve never been sold on Ted Neely’s performance as Jesus but Carl Anderson burns with charisma in the role of Judas.
Mostly, however, I just love the choreography and watching the dancers. I guess that’s not that surprising considering just how important dance was (and still is, even if I’m now just dancing for fun) in my life but, to be honest, I’m probably one of the most hyper critical people out there when it comes to dance in film, regarding both the the way that it’s often choreographed and usually filmed. But this scene is probably about as close to perfect in both regards as I’ve ever seen. It goes beyond the fact that the dancers obviously have a lot of energy and enthusiasm and that they all look good while dancing. The great thing about the choreography in this scene is that it all feels so spontaneous. There’s less emphasis on technical perfection and more emphasis on capturing emotion and thought through movement. What I love is that the number is choreographed to make it appear as if not all of the dancers in this scene are on the exact same beat. Some of them appear to come in a second or two late, which is something that would have made a lot of my former teachers and choreographers scream and curse because, far too often, people become so obsessed with technical perfection that they forget that passion is just as important as perfect technique. (I’m biased, of course, because I’ve always been more passionate than perfect.) The dancers in this scene have a lot of passion and it’s thrilling to watch.
So, last week, our newest contributor here at the Shattered Lens, The Trash Film Guru, posted his wonderful review of Herschell Gordon Lewis’s The Gruesome Twosome. Reading that review got me thinking about the unique cinematic vision of Mr. Lewis. Though I’ll be reviewing Scum of the Earth and Something Weird later on this week, I would like to first share with you one of my favorite scenes from the work of Herschell Gordon Lewis.
Below, in all it’s glory, is the famous Egyptian feast conversation from Lewis’s 1963 epic, Blood Feast. The caterer here is played by Mal Arnold, who appeared in several of Lewis’s films.
Tonight’s latest episode of The Walking Dead had a climactic scene which mirrored something similar in one of my favorite films ever. I’m not talking just favorite horror film ever, but just favorite film in general with George A. Romero’s original Dawn of the Deadthat was released in 1978.
This was the film which codified what to me was what every zombie apocalypse stories and films should be. It was epic in scope despite having such a small leading cast. The film’s story expanded on the rules of the zombie apocalypse but also expanded on the idea that its not even zombies who are the biggest threat to other survivors. It’s almost become a cliche in zombie films nowadays that every major threat to the main group of survivors would be bikers and/or raiders who used chopper bikes to get around.
The scene I always saw as one of my many favorites in this film occurs around the 7:00min mark after the video starts. It’s the raiders and bikers finally getting their comeuppance for bursting into the secured mall compound the survivors sacrificed so much to make their own. This scene matches the same scene spiritually since make-up effects work had improved from 1978 to 2012 where The Walking Dead lives in. the effects work may look cartoonish and fake, but it still doesn’t minimize the impact of seeing someone disemboweled and eaten while still alive and screaming.
Since February is Oscar month, I figured why not start things off with one of my favorite dance scenes of all time? When Danny Boyle won his Oscar for directing Slumdog Millionaire (which, of course, was also named the best picture of 2008), he specifically thanked choreographer Longinus Fernandes for creating the “Jai Ho” dance sequence that is used to punctuate the film’s finale. Indeed, the credit was deserved because that dance sequence not only served as a perfect coda for Boyle’s kinetic vision but it also elevated the entire film and transformed an otherwise grim little story about poverty and crime into the “feel good movie of 2008.”
To me, this scene epitomizes everything that caused me to fall in love with film in the first place.
The month of January has always been a slow one in regards to quality films being released in the theaters, but this weekend a good one comes out with Joe Carnahan’s latest, The Grey. I plan to see this film over the weekend, but tonight I decided to pass the time and feel better from a bout of the flu by watching one of my favorite films of the past decade: Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy.
The latest “Scenes I Love” pick takes a scene from this classic film of revenge. It’s a scene where we have our film’s protagonist, Oh Dae-su, tracking down one of those responsible for keeping him locked up for 15-years without reason or cause. The scene starts off with some DIY dental work that still makes me cringe every time I see it. Once Oh Dae-su finishes with said dental work he has to get through a gauntlet of thugs and goons with just a claw hammer.
This scene is not just great because of how action-packed it was but how Park Chan-wook ended up shooting the whole scene. A fight scene begins which looks to be shot using just one long take and made to look like those classic side-scrolling action games like Double Dragon and the like. Whether the intention of how the scene was shot was to pay homage to such games or by accident doesn’t diminish the fact that the fight scene ended up becoming one of this film’s iconic sequences that continues to be talked about by new and old fans alike.
Kurt Russell I consider one of the biggest badasses of Hollywood and his work in 1993’s Tombstone showed just how much a badass he was and still is.
This scene from that film was one of the best scenes in the entire film. It shows Russell channeling his inner-Wyatt Earp and bitchslapping Billy Bob Thornton (who probably deserves it both in and out of this film). I just love how his demeanor was so confident and how well he judged Thornton’s character as nothing but a blowhard and a bully. This scene even has some killer lines from Russell. How often have we wished we could do what he did in this scene to our own douchebag bosses at work. I know I have imagined it many times.
One cool thing about this scene is how it doesn’t end in the saloon, but continues outside with Val Kilmer just killing it as Doc Holliday. Love how Doc and the Earp’s just ignore Thornton’s Johnny Tyler and how he just stands there looking like the idiot he is. Good thing he said thank you in the end or he may have just gotten another bitchslap session from Wyatt.
Some people love this film. Some people don’t like this film, but I’d be hardpressed to find anyone who didn’t think this scene was the epitome of cool and badassery.
One reason that I love the old school grindhouse and exploitation films is because they’re often a far more honest reflection of their times than more mainstream films. If you want to learn about history through film, don’t waste your time watching whatever film won best picture in 1936. Instead, watch the movies that were specifically designed to exploit the times by presenting a somewhat more honest portrait of them.
So, what can we learn about 1936 from watching a classic exploitation film like Reefer Madness? Reefer Madness, of course, tells the story of what happens after a group of clean-cut high school students are introduced to marijuana, the weed with roots in Hell.
Well, from the clip below, we can guess that, in 1936, high school was full of people in their 40s. That and the marijuana of the 1930s was apparently laced with speed.
For giving the audience this unexpected insight into the past, this is truly a scene that I love.
Through the Shattered Lens