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Most powerful scenes in movie history.


lzzoso

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In the movie "Glory" with Denzel Washington as a union soldier, what's great is the whole movie builds up to this one moment: the black soldiers, derided and dumped on, show that they are not only worthy, they are heroic, because now they have volunteered to lead the final, suicide-mission. As they start marching pass the silent, humbled, white soldiers, the one guy who had been giving them the hardest time suddenly yells out "GIVE 'EM HELL 49!!" (or whatever the unit number was) and they all start cheering. Great movie moment.

That film always brings tears to my eyes. My favorite scene is where the black volunteers are informed that they will only receive a fraction of the pay that white soldiers will receive from the Union. And Denzel gets mad and tears up his pay slip in protest saying "tear it up! tear it up!." And then the colonel (Mathew Brodrick) declares, "If you men will not take pay then neither shall any of the officers" and he then tears up his pay slip in protest and support of his men.

A really great film.

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Best movie of all time?

Hmm.

Apocalypse Now.

Some of my favourite scenes in movies? I dunno, pretty much every single scene in the movie Barry Lyndon (directed by Stanley Kubrick) is pure gold, because of the camera-work.

It's extremely underrated, please check it out. Stanley isn't just The Shining and A Clockwork Orange, he directed other movies.

Same with pretty much every Akira Kurosawa film, he put a ton of effort into the sets.

Edit: I agree about All Quiet On The Western Front, one of my favourite war films as well.

Del, if you enjoyed Das Boot, I recommend "Der Untergang" (Downfall) it's about Hitler's last days, it was originally in German, and that's how I'd recommend seeing it (with subtitles of course).

"I watched a snail, slithering across a razor blade"..... The great Brando as Colonel Walter Kurtz!! One of his best roles!

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As far as war films go I liked:

Patton

Flags of Our Fathers

The Thin Red Line

Das Boot

Glory

All Quiet On The Western Front

Gettysburg

Battle Of Britain

The Longest Day? :unsure:

A personal tradition I suppose. :beer:

Tora Tora Tora?

Midway???

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Mangani, you and leve are entitled to your own word's but, Star Wars was not a bad movie at all.

Hey, don't get me wrong. I wasn't implying Star Wars was a 'bad movie'.

It was obviously great and relevant for it's audience. It was clearly a fantastic sci fi fantasy movie with a lot of visual action and a good fantasy tale.

I just wouldn't pick Star Wars as a great acting/script movie and I wouldn't pick any of the scenes as amongst the most powerful of all time. It has other merits. The acting/script isn't it's strong points.

I love King Kong 1933. It's one of my favourite movies ever. However, I wouldn't say any scene in that film is one of the most 'powerful' of all time, as much as I love the movie. It's a fantasy adventure film and no more.

Jaw's was well made and even if the fake shark was ... well ... fake looking, I still give it a top rating.

The shark looked fake in some scenes mostly because of the difficulties in filming out in the real ocean on real boats. If it was filmed in a studio the shark might have looked better but the overall look and feel of the movie would have suffered greatly.

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I actually was only talking about the Omaha Beach landing scene. I would not put Saving Private Ryan high on my list favorite films despite my reaction to that one scene.

I hear ya. As much as the first part of the Omaha Beach scene in SPR is great, I still prefer the end battle scene though. :P

Another powerful scene that hasn't been mentioned:

In Zulu (1964) when the Zulu Impi starts singing their war songs and the Redcoats respond with Men Of Harlech. Not particularly historically accurate, but VERY moving and powerful.

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Gloria Swanson in that final scene of Sunset Boulevard. I love this kind of films, especially ones with that old time Hollywood nostagic feel to them, and, to me, this is one of the best there is.

I wonder just how many Norma Desmonds inhabit their dilapidated Hollywood mansions right now?

'Alright, Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.'

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How's it going "lzzoso" as well as our fellow die hard hard core ZEPPELIN fanatics? I hope all is well with all of you. AL PACINO has starred in some of the greatest movies ever made. One is THE GODFATHER and the other is the 1983 legendary "far ahead of its time " breakthrough movie SCARFACE. During and after its release in 1983, SCARFACE was the most violent film ever made! For being released in 1983, SCARFACE can still hold up to the most violent films ever made today in 2009. There was a lot of controversy over SCARFACE even before the film was ever released. And just think, SCARFACE was the very first film in many years that the Motion Pictures of America wanted to give an X Rating due to the extreme and graphic violent scenes that was being shown in SCARFACE. I remember reading that the Director had to delete many scenes in SCARFACE in order to get the movie rating to a very close R Rating. My favorite scene in SCARFACE is the EXPLOSIVE finale in which Tony Montana dares to get into a very violent shootout as well as battle many of his former friend's (Drug Lord) assassins despite being he

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My last post got messed up somehow. What I wanted to say was that I agree that "Scarface" is one of the greatest movies of all-time. Being a huge Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro fan, I have to admit that I have a sort of bias to the works of these two "Godfathers". I am sure alot of you who read this would agree. I have seen and read alot of good choices for very powerfull scenes in your favorite movies. Like I said at the beginning, all opinions are welcome. Please keep em coming about what you feel might make this list (topic). By the way, LONG LIVE THE MIGHTY LED ZEPPELIN!!!!.

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Here's a list of the biggest seller's, look at the 3rd list on this page, it adjusts for money value's over the year's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highe...g_films_by_year

Longest playing in theater's was ET, stayed for over a year. The original Star War's, "A New Hope" was held over for 44 week's.

Back to the Future and Beverly Hills Cop where 3rd and 4th respectively.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/08/12/what-i...tory-of-cinema/

Just a list, and it only mean's one film made more money and/or was in the theater's longer.

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I hear ya. As much as the first part of the Omaha Beach scene in SPR is great, I still prefer the end battle scene though. :P

Another powerful scene that hasn't been mentioned:

In Zulu (1964) when the Zulu Impi starts singing their war songs and the Redcoats respond with Men Of Harlech. Not particularly historically accurate, but VERY moving and powerful.

Yeah that was a good one.

See also The Battle of Brecourt Manor from Band Of Brothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZEcgGq0OMA...feature=related

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* Spoilers

- Tour bus scene in Almost Famous where they start singing Tiny Dancer, end scene where William finally gets to interview Russell Hammond

- Scene in The Professional where Matilda first knocks on Leon's door, the way the light shines on her when the door is finally opened (which probably seems like an eternity to her) is really incredible, great direction there

- The end to Donnie Darko (when Mad World is playing)

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HEY REDMAN!!! How ya been?

A-OK, boss! :D

You and me both brother. I have a freind who keeps teasing me about selling me his grandfather's Garand that he carried with him into France. Keeps telling me that his wife wants it out of the house and would give it up for $1500 bucks at least. I said just tell me when and I will be over with the cash within 10 minutes.

500px-FOOFM1Garand-6.jpg

I hope you can get it. I'll pull targets for you. :D

Oh yeah....The scene in 'DEAD END' when the cops put about 15 rounds into Humphrey Bogart. Talk about lead poisoning!! :lol:

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Yeah that was a good one.

See also The Battle of Brecourt Manor from Band Of Brothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZEcgGq0OMA...feature=related

Oh yeah, got the whole set of BOB DVD's and love it. Day of Days is my favorite episode.

If you like that you'll love this from "Gettyburg" Armisted's speech sends chills down my spine and when he yells "forward march" and the drums begin their cadence, i get tears in my eyes. It's hard to fathom how different things were then. Those were real men fighting for a cause, knowing their chances of survival were awfully slim. Richard Jordan (RIP) was magnificent as was Jeff Daniels as Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, with kudos out to Sam Elliot and Martin Sheen. Fantastic historical film with re-enactors doing a marvelous job. Enjoy.

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It depends on what you mean by powerful and in no particular order, here's mine:

1. John Q: When Denzel Washington's character is talking to his son right before he's about to kill himself so his son can have his heart. That idea of sacrifice for your kid is powerful stuff.

2. Rudy: From around the time the team lays their jerseys on the desk through the end of the movie with Rudy getting a chance to finally play.

3. Grace is Gone: Pretty much the whole damn movie, but esp beach scene. Very powerful, especially when you realize that variations of this have happened to over 4,000 people since 2003.

4. Shawshank Redemption: Two parts for me: when the warden throws something through the poster and they find the tunnel and the ending which I think is maybe the coolest ending of all time.

5. Tombstone and Unforgiven: IMO the two greatest westerns ever, chock-full of powerful moments both morbid/depressing, reflective, and badass.

6. Saving Private Ryan: Much of the start, like people have said, and the very end. Plus the scene where the German they let get away earlier kills the American upstairs while the coward listens.

7. Casablanca: The iconic "Play it, Sam" part, when Rick lets Illsa go, when Renault lets Rick get away with killing the Major.

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How about that scene in "Taxi Driver" when Travis Bickle (De Niro) picks up the passenger (Martin Scorsese) and they both sit in front of the apartment building and the passenger tells Travis that that is his wife in the apartment window and that he (Scorsese) is gonna kill his wife because she is in that apartment with another man (a black man). If you know the scene I am refering too than you know how powerful it is. This is what ultimately drive Travis over the edge. Great acting and directing.

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Moses parting the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments.

The end of "The China Syndrome".

and most definitely the scene in True Romance. One never to be forgotten by me. The guy's on is last breaths. Knowing he's going to die and still has the balls to insult his murderer...instead of giving up the location of his son. How Brilliant!!!

so many more to come.

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See also The Battle of Brecourt Manor from Band Of Brothers

I just watched that and the scene where the captain was having flashbacks on the electric train was pretty powerful.

:mellow:

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