Today, Chuck Norris celebrates his 83rd 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!
Tag Archives: Scenes I Love
Scenes I Love: Ronn Moss Blows Up An Assassin in Hard Ticket To Hawaii
Today, we celebrate the birthday of actor and musician, Ronn Moss!
In honor of this day, I was going to share a few scenes of Ronn as Ridge Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful but then it occurred to me that, as much as all good people love B&B, Hard Ticket to Hawaii is even better. In today’s 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!
Scenes That I Love: The End of Mad Max
Mad Max (1979, dir by George Miller, DP: Dave Eggby)
Today the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to one of our favorite people, George Miller! The doctor-turned-director began his cinematic career with 1979’s Mad Max and he’s gone on to become one of the most influential and important filmmakers out there. In honor of George Miller’s birthday, today’s scene that I love is from his debut film.
In this scene, the once upstanding policeman, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), get his revenge on the last surviving member of Toecutter’s gang. Instead of merely running Johnny the Boy over, he handcuffs Johnny to a car, uses the leaking gasoline and Johnny’s lighter to create a crude timebomb, and gives Johnny a hacksaw. Johnny can either spend ten minutes cutting through the cuffs or five minutes cutting through his ankle. Max drives off and barely notices the explosion behind him. (It seems like it wouldn’t have made difference what Johnny cut through because that explosion came pretty quickly.) Max’s cold expression and the dark road in front of him indicates that Max knows what the future holds for both himself and the rest of humanity. In the scene, Max surrenders whatever traces of mercy that he had left within him. Fortunately, he gets some of his humanity back in the next movie.
Scenes I Love: “Print The Legend” From The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The legendary director John Ford was born 129 years ago today, in Maine. As I sit here writing this, you can go see The Fabelmans, which ends with a scene in which a young Steven Spielberg (or Sammy Fabelman, whatever) meets John Ford (played by David Lynch). The meeting is based on a meeting that a young Spielberg actually had with Ford shortly before Ford’s death in 1971.
However, long before John Ford met Steven Spielberg, he directed one of my favorite films, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Today’s scene that I love comes from the end of that 1962 film and it features a line that would become a classic. “Print the legend.” That was a line that Ford understood and I imagine it’s one that Spielberg eventually came to understand as well.
Rest In Peace to Lisa Loring, the original Wednesday Addams
Rest in peace to Lisa Loring, the original Wednesday Addams. She passed away as the result of a stroke yesterday. She was 64 years old.
Here she is, as Wednesday, teaching Lurch how not to be a square.
Scenes That I Love: Nick Confronts Rick Von Slonecker in Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan
The Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director Whit Stillman!
Today’s scene that I love comes from Stillman’s first film, 1990’s Metropolitan. In this scene of preppie-on-preppie violence, Nick (Chris Eigeman) confronts the loathsome aristocrat Rick Von Slonecker (Will Kempe). Upper class fisticuffs follow. Chris Eigeman is about as perfectly cast as any actor ever has been in the role of Nick.
Scenes That I Love: Jack Sings True Love’s Flame From David Lynch’s What Did Jack Do?
It’s David Lynch’s birthday. Celebrate accordingly.
In honor of this day, here’s a scene that I love from 2017’s What Did Jack Do? As Lynch listens, Jack sings about True Love’s Flame.
Scenes That I Love: The Viola Lee Blues Montage from Richard Lester’s Petulia
Who, you may be asking yourself, could have brought George C. Scott, Julie Christie, and the Grateful Dead all together in one movie?
The answer to that question is Richard Lester, who today celebrates his 91st birthday! Though Lester is best-known for his work with the Beatles and with the Superman films, I think his best film was undoubtedly 1968’s Petulia. A sharp social satire, Petulia took a look at what happened when the counter culture and the establishment collided in San Francisco. And there’s perhaps no better symbol of that collision than George C. Scott, wearing a turtleneck and smoking cigarette while attending a Grateful Dead show.
While the band plays Viola Lee Blues, Scott wanders through 1960s San Francisco.
Scenes That I Love: The Opening of John Boorman’s Zardoz
Zardoz (1974, dir by John Boorman, DP: Geoffrey Unsworth)
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 90th birthday to the great British filmmaker, John Boorman! Here is a scene that we love, the opening of Boorman’s 1974 film, Zardoz! Fresh from directing and receiving an Oscar nomination for Deliverance, Boorman turned down a chance to direct the original Exorcist so he could bring Zardoz to cinematic life.
(Of course, Boorman would direct the first sequel to The Exorcist.)
Directed by John Boorman and featuring Sean Connery, here is the opening of Zardoz!
Scenes I Love: Snake Plisskin Shuts Down The World In Escape From L.A.
What is the deal with Presidents who don’t understand how important it is to stay on Snake Plisskin’s good side?
At the end of Escape From New York, The President (Donald Pleasence) made the mistake of not showing proper respect to all the people who died while Snake was rescuing him. So, Snake destroyed the tape that was apparently key to keeping the world from descending into war. Now, to be honest, the President was pretty shook up at the time and it’s possible that Snake was being a bit too judgmental. After everything the President had been through, it was totally possible that he wasn’t even sure where he was. Still, the tape was destroyed and America presumably never elected another British president.
Then, in Escape from L.A., the next President (Cliff Robertson) again makes the mistake of getting on Snake’s nerves. So, Snake basically robs the world of electricity. (Kurt Russell has said that all of this could have been avoided if they had just left Snake have a cigarette but the President had passed a bunch of anti-smoking laws.) Hopefully, the next President was capable of not annoying Snake Plisskin.
With all that in mind and in honor of John Carpenter’s birthday, here’s a scene that I love from 1996’s Escape From L.A.
Through the Shattered Lens 