Today’s scene that I love comes from my favorite Greydon Clark movie, 1990’s The Forbidden Dance!
Yes, this scene is technically a spoiler. It’s got music! It’s got dancing! It has some deeply questionable stereotypes and some obvious virtue signaling! It has that classic line, “We should just boycott their ass!” It’s got Sid Haig! It’s got everything you could ever hope for!
And remember — this film is dedicated to the preservation of the rain forest.
Today’s scene that I love features future President Ronald Reagan, giving what he considered to be his best performance in 1942’s Kings Row. He liked one of the lines in this scene so much that he used it as the title for autobiography.
On what would have been Ronald Reagan’s 114th birthday, here is today’s scene that I love.
Since today is Michael Mann’s birthday, today’s scene that I love comes from his 1986 film, Manhunter.
In this scene, a blind woman (played by Joan Allen) pets a sedated tiger while her new boyfriend (Tom Noonan) watches. This would actually be a pretty romantic scene if not for the fact that her boyfriend is also a homicidal maniac. This is a scene that, when you watch the film, seems to come out of nowhere but, when you look back, you realize it was one of the key moments in the narrative. While the killer watches the woman who represents a possible redemption embrace another predator, the profiler played by William Petersen continues his way into the killer’s tortured psyche.
This scene is Michael Mann at his best.
Today would have been George Romero’s 85th birthday.
Today’s scene of the day comes from Romero’s best film, Night of the Living Dead. In this scene, an attempt to escape from a farmhouse ends in disaster. As was typical of all of Romero’s films, the disaster has less to do with the zombies and more to do with humans that simply can’t work together.
The upload isn’t great but this scene still represents Romero’s vision of a society working to destroy itself.
Today’s scene that I love comes from Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate.
You know what? I’ve read that some people consider this scene with the skating fiddler to be an example of Cimino’s tendency towards self-indulgence. The oft-made claim is that it’s a scene where Cimino is more interested in showing off than moving the story forward. That may be true but still, I don’t care what anyone says, I like this scene. It captures the communal joy of the settlers before the arrival of the mercenaries who have been hired to force them out of their homes. To understand why the settlers fight, you also have to understand what they’re being expected to give up.
Today’s scene — or really, I should say scenes — that I love comes from 1960’s The Time Machine.
Watch as Rod Taylor travels from 1900, all the way to the very far future. As you’ll notice, this upload is just of the scenes of Taylor watching the years fly by while sitting in his machine. Taylor does leave the machine twice — once to see Britain in 1917 and a second time to experience 1966 but those scenes aren’t included here. That said, the time travel effects are simple but hold up well and Taylor’s disillusioned feelings about witnessing “a new war,” were ones that were undoubtedly very relatable to audiences in 1960.
This is one of my favorite science fiction movies and one that I plan to rewatch very soon! (One could say that the time has come again.)
John Ford was born 131 years ago today and it seems appropriate that today’s scene of the day should come from his final great film (even if it wasn’t the last film that Ford directed).
In 1962’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, frontier lawyer Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) comes to political prominence due to his notoriety for being the man who, in self-defense, gunned down notorious outlaw Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Stoddard, an intellectual who opposes violence, is not happy about this. When Stoddard considers refusing to be a delegate to the upcoming statehood convention, he is reprimanded by Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). Stoddard and Doniphon are friends but they’re also romantic rivals, both being in love with Hallie (Vera Miles). In this scene, Doniphon reveals the truth about who shot Liberty Valance.
Norman Mailer was better-known as a writer than a filmmaker but, over the course of his limited directorial career, he did come up with one scene that will never be forgotten. That scene is a scene that I love from 1987’s Tough Guys Don’t Dance.
Take it away, O’Neal!
Today, we wish a happy 95th birthday to the great actor-turned-writer Gene Hackman!
Today’s scene that I love comes from one of Hackman’s best films, 1974’s The Conversation. In this scene, Hackman’s surveillance expert has a nightmare inspired by his fear that his latest job may cause two people to be murdered. Hackman won two Oscars over the course of his career and was nominated several times. The fact that he was not nominated for The Conversation was a huge oversight on the part of the Academy.
Continuing our theme of dystopian noir, today’s scene of the day comes from 1982’s Blade Runner. In this scene, we not only meet Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) but we also get a look at the future of Los Angeles, from both the sky and the ground.
(Of course, the film takes place in 2019 so its future is our past!)
This is one of the best world-building scenes that I’ve ever seen, one that works because it takes place in a world we can recognize but which has obviously developed and changed over the years. Plus, I just like Harrison Ford wearing a trench coat and looking grumpy. He should have done more noirs.
Through the Shattered Lens 