Since today is Raoul Walsh’s birthday, it only makes sense that our scene that I love should come from one of Walsh’s best films.
In 1948’s White Heat, James Cagney plays Cody Jarrett, a gangster who loves his mother and goes out like a raging inferno. Here, for those who don’t mind a spoiler or two, is the end of Raoul Walsh’s White Heat.
Today, Chuck Norris celebrates his 86th birthday and it only feels appropriate that today’s scene that I love should come from one of his greatest films. From 1985’s Invasion U.S.A., watch as Chuck Norris saves America from Richard Lynch!
First released in 2006, Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly is one of the unacknowledged great films of the past ten years. The scene below, featuring Rory Cochrane as the hapless Charles Freck, is all the stronger for being adapted almost word-for-word from Philip K. Dick’s source novel.
Today’s scene that I love comes from director Hal Needham. It really doesn’t get more early 80s than Barry Bostwick flying a motorcycle while wearing a headband and a skintight suit.
From Megaforce:
Today, we celebrate the birthday of actor and musician, Ronn Moss!
In honor of this day, here is a classic scene from Hard Ticket to Hawaii! In this scene that I love, Ronn Moss not only blows up a skateboard assassin but the assassin’s sex doll as well. No one messes with Ronn Moss, his driver, or the Molokai cops!
Today, we wish filmmaker George Miller a happy birthday!
Today’s scene that I love comes from 1983’s Mad Max 2 (a.k.a. The Road Warrior). In the scene, Lord Humongous and his followers arrive at a compound. Humongous and his followers are both ludicrous and menacing at the same time. While watching this scene, Miller makes sure that the viewer knows that, even if Humongous’s followers are a little bit daft, Humongous himself is truly dangerous.
I always enjoy it when good actors go totally over-the-top and that is certainly the case with today’s scene that I love. In 1976’s Logan’s Run, the normally very reserved Michael York tries to let the people of the City know that “you can live! LIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!”
Actually, as much as I enjoy York’s performance here, what truly makes the scene memorable is the way that everyone just ignores him and shuffles off to “renewal,” despite Logan’s attempts to convince them that they “don’t have to DIE!” Logan’s Run is often dismissed as being a campy but enjoyable sci-fi film but, in this scene, we get a good portrayal of what a brainwashed populace truly looks like.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to actor Rory Cochrane.
In this scene, from 1993’s Dazed and Confused, Rory Cochrane plays archetypical stoner Slater and gives everyone a history lesson. If you want to know why Cochrane’s performance is remembered while Shawn Andrews’s performance as Pickford is derided even by his fellow cast members, just watch this scene.
Today would have been the 94th birthday of one of the greatest film stars of all time, Elizabeth Taylor!
Today’s scene that I love comes from 1963’s Cleopatra. Cleopatra is often dismissed as the film that nearly bankrupted a studio but it’s enjoyable if you’re in the right mood and you’ve got four hours of free time. Elizabeth Taylor may not have been a historically accurate Cleopatra but who cares? It seems appropriate that the most glamorous woman of what was then the modern world played the most glamorous woman of the ancient world.
In this scene, Cleopatra arrives in Rome with all of the fanfare befitting the world’s most beautiful and powerful woman. Keep in mind that this scene was done in the days before AI. Every costume was real. Every extra was real. Everything about this scene was real.
Through the Shattered Lens 