Thursday 13: Magical Movie Moments
Welcome to my special Oscar edition of the Thursday 13!
The 85th Academy Awards airs on ABC this Sunday, February 24th. In honour of this momentous event, I have compiled a list of thirteen of my favourite movie moments. I've done my best to avoid spoiling anything, but read (and view!) at your own risk...
13. A Few Good Men – Jessep: I felt that his life might be in danger once word of the letter got out. Kaffee: Grave danger? Jessep: Is there another kind?
12. Bram Stoker’s Dracula – Mina says, “Take me away from all this death!” and drinks Dracula’s blood to join him in eternal life.
11. Gladiator – “Are you not entertained!”
10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail – The argument about the velocity of unladen European vs. African swallows.
9. Casablanca - Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! [a croupier hands Renault a pile of money] Croupier: Your winnings, sir. Captain Renault: Oh, thank you very much.
8. Pulp Fiction – After Vincent brings an OD-ing Mia to Lance’s house, Lance is searching for a little black medical book with the instructions on how to use the adrenaline shot. Tarantino has nothing but the doorway in the frame as Lance and his wife scream at each other. ("What are you looking for?!?!”)
7. Moulin Rouge – Smells Like Teen Spirit
6. The Usual Suspects - U.S. Customs Agent Dave Kujan drops his coffee cup.
5. The Tourist – When Alexander Pearce opens the safe.
4. The Neverending Story – The Childlike Empress says, “He doesn't realize that he's already a part of the Neverending Story. Just as he is sharing all your adventures, other's are sharing his. They were with him when he hid from the boys in the bookstore. They were with him when he took the book with the Auryn symbol on the cover, in which he's reading his own story… right… now.”
3. The Sixth Sense - Malcom Crowe realizes he’s not wearing his wedding ring.
2. Notorious – Devlin pulls Alicia into an embrace so her husband will think they are lovers instead of spies, but she can tell he loves her.
1. The Sound of Music – Maria and the Captain dance, their eyes meet, and they know.
The 85th Academy Awards airs on ABC this Sunday, February 24th. In honour of this momentous event, I have compiled a list of thirteen of my favourite movie moments. I've done my best to avoid spoiling anything, but read (and view!) at your own risk...
13. A Few Good Men – Jessep: I felt that his life might be in danger once word of the letter got out. Kaffee: Grave danger? Jessep: Is there another kind?
12. Bram Stoker’s Dracula – Mina says, “Take me away from all this death!” and drinks Dracula’s blood to join him in eternal life.
11. Gladiator – “Are you not entertained!”
10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail – The argument about the velocity of unladen European vs. African swallows.
9. Casablanca - Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! [a croupier hands Renault a pile of money] Croupier: Your winnings, sir. Captain Renault: Oh, thank you very much.
8. Pulp Fiction – After Vincent brings an OD-ing Mia to Lance’s house, Lance is searching for a little black medical book with the instructions on how to use the adrenaline shot. Tarantino has nothing but the doorway in the frame as Lance and his wife scream at each other. ("What are you looking for?!?!”)
7. Moulin Rouge – Smells Like Teen Spirit
6. The Usual Suspects - U.S. Customs Agent Dave Kujan drops his coffee cup.
5. The Tourist – When Alexander Pearce opens the safe.
4. The Neverending Story – The Childlike Empress says, “He doesn't realize that he's already a part of the Neverending Story. Just as he is sharing all your adventures, other's are sharing his. They were with him when he hid from the boys in the bookstore. They were with him when he took the book with the Auryn symbol on the cover, in which he's reading his own story… right… now.”
3. The Sixth Sense - Malcom Crowe realizes he’s not wearing his wedding ring.
2. Notorious – Devlin pulls Alicia into an embrace so her husband will think they are lovers instead of spies, but she can tell he loves her.
1. The Sound of Music – Maria and the Captain dance, their eyes meet, and they know.
Do you have any special movie moments you love to watch again and again?
Well, those were all certainly great!
ReplyDeleteI would honestly have to say my favorite scenes come from the Lord of the Ring movies. There is some great wisdom from Gandalf and Sam in these movies. Wisdom that could apply to our everyday life.
Sam to Frodo: "I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something." ...
"That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for."
Gandalf to Frodo:
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us"
also...
“Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not least.”
I think I love that Gandalf still has hope for Gollum.
It is great how most people think Frodo is the hero when in actuality if Sam were not with him he would have never accomplished the goal.
Trez...I so agree. Sam was the true hero in the end. The Return of the King was my favorite in the trilogy, and a superb performance by Sean Astin as Samwise. I think he should've gotten the Supporting Actor Oscar for that year, he was so good.
DeleteMagical Moments: John Wayne edition
ReplyDeleteThey Were Expendable (1945) – The final scene: Wayne’s LTJG Ryan and Robert Montgomery’s LT Brickley have been recalled to the US to train others in the use of PT Boats. They are forced to leave their men behind, who face sure defeat at the hands of the invading Japanese. The last plane out flies over their crews as they march off to battle.
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) – Capt. Brittles’ to his second-in-command after interrupting his fistfight with his romantic rival over the post commander’s niece.
Brittles: Mr. Cohill, it is a bitter thing, indeed, to learn that an officer who has had nine years experience in the cavalry — the officer to whom I am surrendering command of this troop in two more days — should have so little grasp of leadership as to allow himself to be chivvied into a go at fisticuffs while 'Taps' still sounds over a brave man's grave! God help this troop when I'm gone.
The Quiet Man (1952) – Sean Thornton finally realizes that while his bride (Maureen O’Hara’s Mary Kate) may love him, she can’t respect him until his challenges her brute of a brother, and so he takes her off the train and walks her all the way back to her family’s home, the entire village following behind.
The Longest Day (1962) – (Wayne’s not in this scene) German Major Werner Pluskat (Hans Christian Blech) is at OMAHA Beach, looking out over the water at sunrise. Suddenly, the mist rises and the Allied invasion fleet is there offshore. He mutters in German, “My God!” He calls HQ.
Lt. Col. Ocker: [Pluskat, inside a bunker, has just realized the Normandy invasion has begun and is warning Ocker, who is skeptical] And just where, my dear Pluskat, are those ships going?
Pluskat: Straight for me!
Pluskat’s position comes under artillery barrage]
Pluskat: [on the phone again] You know those five thousand ships you say the Allies haven't got? Well, they've got them!
Magical Moments: Others
ReplyDeleteThe Maltese Falcon (1941) - Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) to his lover, Brigid O'Shaughnessy (Mary Astor):
Spade: You killed Miles and you're going over for it. (…) I hope they don't hang you, precious, by that sweet neck. Yes, angel, I'm gonna send you over. The chances are you'll get off with life. That means if you're a good girl, you'll be out in twenty years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you.
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) – The Broadway Melody ballet.
Ben-Hur (1959) - Judah Ben-Hur, finding his revenge against the Roman Messala unsatisfying, decides to join the rebellion. His lover, Ester, tries to talk him out of it. She tells him of a rabbi from Nazareth who preaches to “love your enemies.” He rejects what she says.
Judah: So all who are born in this land hereafter can suffer as we have done!
Esther: As you make us do now! Are we to bear nothing together? Even love?
Judah: I can hardly draw breath without feeling you in my heart. Yet I know that everything I do from this moment will be as great a pain to you as you have ever suffered. It is better not to love me!
Esther: It was Judah Ben-Hur I loved. What has become of him? You seem to be now the very thing you set out to destroy, giving evil for evil! Hatred is turning you to stone. It is as though you had become Messala!
The Producers (1968) – Springtime for Hitler.