In 1941’s Sullivan’s Travels, Joel McCrea plays a filmmaker who disguises himself as a transient so that he can experience what’s really going on outside of Hollywood. Veronica Lake plays “the Girl,” who ends up sharing his journey.
In today’s scene that I love, McCrea and Lake meet for the first time.
The final scenes of Inception have haunted me ever since I first watched them. Imagine living your entire life and then waking up.
Does the top fall over or does it keep spinning forever? I think it was wobbling before the scene cut out but who can say for sure. The important thing is that Dom is no longer watching it. Instead, he’s made peace with his life, whatever it may be.
Cyrus?
He’s the one and only.
From 1979’s The Warriors , here’s a scene that I love. Playing the role of Cyrus, the man who could bring all of the gangs of New York together, is Roger Hill. Playing the role of his assassin is the great David Patrick Kelly.
Cyrus knew what he was talking about but the world wasn’t ready for him.
Can you dig it?
I defy you not to tear up at the final scene of HBO’s 10-hour tribute to the soldiers who fought in World War II, Band of Brothers. In this scene, we learn what happened to the surviving members of Easy Company after the war and we are reminded that World War II was fought by men from all walks of life who were all united by one greater purpose.
All of the men depicted in this miniseries are gone now. The last surviving member of Easy Company died in 2022. But, thanks to Band of Brothers, their heroism will never be forgotten.
I’ve been really busy the last few days preparing to record the next episode for the THIS WEEK IN CHARLES BRONSON Podcast. We’ll be covering THE STONE KILLER where Bronson plays a tough cop who stumbles upon a mafia revenge scheme decades in the making. It’s an interesting film that I can’t wait to cover in detail with a great group of Bronson enthusiasts. Did you know that THE STONE KILLER contains an incredibly underrated “car chases a motorcycle” sequence? The 70’s were so full of great stunts that some of the very best have almost been forgotten. Well that just doesn’t set well with me, so I’m sharing that chase with all of you. It’s a sequence that was filmed in 1973, the same year I was born, so it’s extra special to me. Enjoy my friends!
In the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City and Graham Platner’s possible victory in Maine, I’ve become a lot more interested in watching anti-communist films. And really, it doesn’t get more anti-communist than a movie about an independent, non-union trucker who has no interest in being an authoritarian and who only want to be left alone so that he can raise his son and make a little money arm-wrestling.
In this scene from 1987’s Over The Top, Lincoln Hawk (played by Sylvester Stallone) explains the importance of turning his hat. That’s all it takes.
Today’s scene that I love comes from my favorite film of all time, 1972’s The Godfather.
In this scene, Kay Adams (Diane Keaton) has moved on and is working as a teacher. Suddenly, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) shows up. He’s been back from Sicily for a year and he’s working with his father. Michael promises her that the Corleone family is getting out of the rackets. We, of course, know that is never going to happen.
In this scene from Fargo, nothing is going right for Jerry. He can’t even get the ice off of his windshield and, even if he does, imagine trying to pull out of the snow-covered parking lot. One good thing about living in Texas is that I only have deal with this maybe once or twice a year.
In Alan J. Pakula’s 1974 film The Parallax View, Warren Beatty plays a seedy journalist who goes undercover to investigate the links between the mysterious Parallax Corporation and a series of recent political assassinations. In the film’s most famous sequence, Beatty — pretending to be a job applicant (read: potential assassin) for the Parallax Corporation — is shown an orientation film that has been designed to test whether or not he’s a suitable applicant. The montage is shown in its entirety, without once cutting away to show us Beatty’s reaction. The implication, of course, is that what’s important isn’t how Beatty reacts to the montage but how the viewers sitting out in the audience react.
So, at the risk of furthering the conspiracy, here’s that montage.
In honor of Ethan Hawke’s birthday, here is the wonderfully romantic Ferris wheel scene from 1995’s Before Sunrise. Director Richard Lnklater considered this scene to be an homage to The Third Man.
Through the Shattered Lens 