Tag Archives: Scenes I Love

Scenes I Love: An Officer and a Gentleman

Posted on by Arleigh

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The latest “Scenes I Love” comes courtesy of An Officer and a Gentleman.

This ending sequence to the film has become an iconic scene when one talks about some of the best romantic scenes in film. The film itself was your modern take on the age-old two people from the wrong-sides of the track falling for each other.

The ending scene made the film memorable in the end. It helped that the song written and composed for the film, “Up Where We Belong,” and sung as a duet by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes became as big of a hit as the film itself.

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You know that a scene has become a cultural mainstay when The Simpsons did a parody of it which ended up being just as memorable as the original.

Up Where We Belong

Who knows what tomorrow brings
in a world few hearts survive
All I know is the way I feel
when it’s real I keep it alive the road is long
There are mountains in our way
but we climb the stairway every day

Love lifts us up where we belong
where the eagles cry on a mountain high
love lifts us up where we belong
far from the world below up where the clear winds blow

Some hang on to used to be
live their lives looking behind
All we have is here and now
all our lives out there to find
The road is long and there are moutains in our way
but we climb the stairway every day

Love lifts us up where we belong
where the eagles cry on a mountain high
love lifts us up where we belong
far from the world we know
where the clear wind blows

Time goes by no time cry
life’s you and I alive

Love lifts us up where we belong
where the eagles cry on a mountain high
love lifts us up where we belong
far from the world we know
where the clear winds blow

Love lifts us up where we belong
far from the world we know
where the clear winds blow

Love lifts us up where we belong
where the eagles cry on a mountain high

Scenes I Love: American Psycho

Posted on by Arleigh

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Last week I put up as one of the entries for the 27 Days of Old School the classic song by Huey Lewis and the News. That song is “Hip to be Square” and I wrote how that song has become famous as not just being part of a great album of the 80’s, but due to the fact that it became the soundtrack to one of the best scenes from Marry Harron’s American Psycho.

Patrick Bateman’s personal take on “Hip to be Square” resonates not just as a description of the song but of the 1980’s as well.

“Do you like Huey Lewis & The News? Their early work was a little too ‘new-wave’ for my taste, but when Sports came out in ’83, I think they really came into their own – both commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He’s been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humour. In ’87, Huey released this, Fore, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is ‘Hip To Be Square’, a song so catchy most people probably don’t listen to the lyrics – but they should! Because it’s not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it’s also a personal statement about the band itself! Hey Paul!”

Horror Scene I Love: Halloween (1978)

Posted on by Arleigh

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[spoiler]

It’s difficult to try and celebrate Halloween without at least remembering the classic John Carpenter film of the same name which help give birth to the slasher horror genre. Halloween has become a staple in my horror watching lists. It joins such other classic horror as the Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Craven’s The Serpent and The Rainbow.

Filmed on a tiny budget of $325,000 and released in 1978, Halloween would introduce to the film world one of it’s most iconic horror figures in the Michale Myers. The film’s opening would become famous in it’s own right as it didn’t just give us a look into Michael Myers backstory, but make the film audience become almost active participant in the murder that introduced us to our killer.

This extended introduction scene let’s the audience see through Michael Myers’ eyes as he stalks through the house towards his sister’s room where he commits his first murder. This point of view through the eye holes of Michael’s mask would be repeated several times throughout the film.

Horror Scenes I Love: The Serpent and The Rainbow

Posted on by Arleigh

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“I want to hear you scream.” — Dargent Peytraud

All I can say about this scene is that I guarantee every guy who watches this will want to cross their legs tight. They may just scream as well just as a reflex action to what happens in the end.

Yet, as one watches this torture scene of the main lead in the film the audience never really sees anything. Everything’s implied and we see signs of what’s about to happen throughout the segment.

The Serpent and The Rainbow continues to be one of my favorite horror films and one of my favorite Wes Craven offerings.

Horror Scenes I Love: Daybreakers

Posted on by Arleigh

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I know some people like and even love the vampire film Daybreakers when it arrived in theaters in early 2010. I’m not one of those who love Daybreakers as my review can attest, but I did like some of the ideas brought up by The Spierig Brothers who wrote and directed the film. One could say that I begrudgingly like the film despite its many flaws.

One of the things I did like about this film was how unabashed it was in keeping the whole affair a rated-R affair. Unlike most vampire films which have come out the last decade or so this one doesn’t shy from the grue that others have. Daybreakers was definitely not of the Twilight branch of the vampiric subgenre.

My favorite scene in the film happens pretty much around the end of it. It saved the film from becoming a total dull, boring affair into one worthy of being talked about if just for this one scene. One could come into the film just at this scene alone and forget that they’re watching a vampire film but a zombie one instead. The gore was just so over-the-top and it’s staging so well-done that I couldn’t stop from having a silly grin of enjoyment from escaping.

Horror Scenes I Love: Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Posted on by Arleigh

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Anyone who have gotten to know me throughout the years (decades even) know one indisputable fact and that’s one of my favorite films of all-time is George A. Romero’s classic horror masterpiece, Dawn of the Dead.

This film is not just a great horror film, but just a great film. Sure, some have said that it hasn’t aged well, but those detractors only see the era it was filmed in. If one looks part that then they can see that Dawn of the Dead works just as well now as it did when it premiered in 1978.

One of my favorite scenes in the film is actually the beginning of the film. It’s rare that a film can fully capture and explain an overriding theme in the film’s narrative right from the beginning, but Romero did it and did it well.

The scene I’m talking about is the film’s intro that’s set in a chaotic Pittsburgh TV station. It’s a scene of chaos because the zombie apocalypse is already in full swing and people have begun to lose their trust in the fourth estate. In times of crisis the people depend on the news to bring to them answers or, at the very least, the correct information to survive said crisis. In Dawn of the Dead, the fourth estate has failed as in that they’ve become just as unreliable as the rest of the mechanisms which make civilization operate.

Even when the right information was being relayed by the the guest scientist in the scene, the audience reaction (the tv station crew themselves) was one of exasperation and disbelief. This scene would influence future zombie apocalypse stories both in film, tv and print in that the people would lose faith and trust in the very institution who were supposed to be trusted to be objective and informative.

This is just one of several scenes from Dawn of the Dead which I consider a favorite, but then the entire film I would consider a favorite scene as a whole in a story that hasn’t ended.

Scenes I Love: Guardians of the Galaxy (Spoiler)

Posted on by Arleigh

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(image by aktheneroth)

I just had to make sure I posted this scene the moment Marvel Studios released it for all to see and enjoy. For those who have already seen the film knows of what scene I speak of. It’s the one scene that cemented for many who have fallen in love with Guardians of the Galaxy why they love it so.

I know that my co-founder Lisa Marie just adores and loves this scene. I would describe the scene itself, but I think there’s still a few people out there who hasn’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy. So, with “spoiler tag” in the title I’ll just let the video speak for itself.

WE. ARE. GROOT.

Scenes I Love: Dead Poets Society (dir. by Peter Weir) R.I.P. Robin Williams

Posted on by Arleigh

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With each passing year I get older and part of that process means many of the people I grew up admiring and looking to for inspiration has passed. They’ve all left an indelible mark on me and continue to push and prod me in making my own mark on the world before my own time comes to pass.

So, it was with a sad heart when I found out that Robin Williams passed away today. As to the manner of his passing I won’t dwell on it, but instead on how he has made an impact on my life and on the world. He might have just been a comedian and an actor known to have entertained several generations of people, but he would always be John Keating to me, first and foremost.

I was already a fan of Williams from watching his hit show Mork & Mindy. I’ve even been a fan of his films, but I truly began to admire the man after his performance as English teach John Keating in 1989’s Dead Poets Society. He was able to take his rapid-fire gift for gab but meld it with such a poignant and emotional performance as a teacher in a tradition-bound prep school who really cared about the kids in his charge.

I would say that his performance and this film was instrumental in opening up the world of literature and the joys of the written word to my teenage self. This film and his work in it showed me that literature shouldn’t be something to be endured, but instead something that should nurture and inspire me.

To say that Robin Williams has been an inspiration to me would be an understatement.

Rest in peace, my captain and you’ve certainly left your verse on this world.