1. Jaws: Quint's monologue about delivering the "bomb" and then talking about his crew being killed by sharks. A scene that sets the mood for the frightening climax.
2. The General: In a perfectly executed scene, Buster Keaton avoids being hit by canon fire by a turn in the tracks, making the canon ball to hit the train ahead of him.
3. Swing Time: "Never Gonna Dance", perhaps the most poignant number Astaire and Rogers ever did.
4. Late Spring: A father and a daughter share a final night together on their final trip before she is to be married. As the father falls asleep, the daughter drifts over to an empty jug with a gentle sublime look, it's one of Ozu's finest hours.
5. 400 Blows: The freeze frame image at the end of the greatest coming of age film ever. The character reaches the ocean as he looks back once more at a past he ran away from.
6. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: The first appearance of Indy. Say what you want about the rest of the film, the fact is, Indy always knew how to make a dramatic entrance. Audiences were waiting 19 years to see their hero again and Spielberg did not disappoint.
7. Saving Private Ryan: Captain Miller refuses to talk about his wife and her rose bushes. In a calm before the storm scene between Tom Hanks' Captain Miller, and Matt Damon's Private Ryan, Ryan tells a funny story about the last time him and his brothers were together, and when he asks the often guarded Miller about his home life he tells him "that one I keep just for me". We never know the story, but we understand how special it must be.
8. Munich: An Israeli assassin refuses to cover up a naked woman he has just killed. In Spielberg's most controversial film, we see how revenge can lead to the dehumanization of decent people. Spielberg has always been about the strength of goodness in people, when it begins to slip away from us, that's when we start acting like animals.
9. The Terminal: The janitor sacrifices his freedom for his friend. Speaking of humanity! In what could have been a silly sequence, becomes the most heartfelt scene in the film. An Indian janitor at the airport decides to go out to the runway and delay a plane in order for the film's hero (Tom Hanks) to set foot in New York. Cornball? Yes. Effective? Yes.
10. Schindler's List: Schindler's silent decision. At some point in the film, it is never said but German entrepreneur Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) decides to save 10,000 Jews. Schindler is the perfect Spielberg subject, an ordinary man with the means to change the world, does so, his motives are never explained, probably because they never have to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment