dave durbin
02-13-2003, 12:56 PM
Okay, kids -work with me on this one: Premiere magazine just unleashed their choices for the best movie moments of all time and overall, it's not that bad. But of course their are some omissions that baffle me and inclusions that frustrate me (Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, Fargo, Gangs of New York, Wings of Desire) -not because they're bad films but because I don't really feel they have scenes that rank as some of our best (with the exception of Private Ryan's opening battle sequence but it wasn't even included). It's almost a 'man's man' kind of list, sort of dull and disappointing and it feels safe and politically correct -i.e. we all know 'the shower scene' will make the cut and the 'rosebud' whisper and the like because they're ALWAYS on these lists. (Granted they're stunning moments but seeing them selected is like a college announcing Barefoot in the Park and Our Town as part of their theater season lineup.) Here are -more than just a few- moments and images that I feel should have been on there (and some that I just would have loved to have seen selected). Forgive my self-indulgence and just go with it and have fun. In no particular order:
1. Bonnie and Clyde meet their fate one sunny afternoon
2. a pre-feminist Jane Fonda slips into the character of Barbarella and does a zero-gravity strip behind the opening credits
3. the rain of frogs in Magnolia
4. Sam Peckinpah directs the most controversial rape scene of all time in Straw Dogs
5. Regan MacNeil pushes her mother's face under her nightgown and it makes for the most disturbing scene in any movie in the history of motion pictures in The Exorcist
6. the breakfast cereal commercial -or the Miss America one- from Putney Swope
7. a young couple drive up to the country and run into the world's longest, strangest, most hilarious road pile-up in Godard's Weekend
8. Daryl gets medevil on Harrison in Blade Runner
9. a mother tries to ward off aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
10. Lola-Lola sings Falling in Love Again in The Blue Angel
11. Sally Bowles belts out Mein Herr in Cabaret and influences everyone from Gene Simmons to David Bowie to Alice Cooper
12. Esther Blodgett belts out The Man That Got Away in a smoky after-hours club in A Star Is Born and influences dozens of lonely housewifes and drunken homosexuals
13. Suzie Diamond purrs Making Whoppee lying across a piano top in The Fabulous Baker Boys (Fuck you Armond White!)
14. Gilda sashays through Put The Blame On Mame
15. Travolta dances in Saturday Night Fever
16. sexy dancers invite you to 'take off' with them in All That Jazz
17. Lily von Schtuup tells us how tired she is in Blazing Saddles
18. Charloette and Humbert do the cha-cha in Lolita
19. Linnea sits quietly while listening to Tom croon I'm Easy in Nashville
20. Barbara Jean breaks down on stage in Nashville
21. Lois reminiscences about Sam the Lion to Sonny in The Last Picture Show
22. Masha has Jerry Langford over for a nice quiet dinner in The King of Comedy
23. Monica Vitti dares to overcome her fear and show compassion for a man she wants to love by placing her hand on the back of his head as a sign of forgiveness in L'Avventura
24. Rosemary eats the 'mouse' and meets the Devil in Rosemary's Baby
25. Marylee dons a red frock and does a maddening mambo while her father dies of a heart attack in Written on the Wind
26. the football game in MASH
27. a hockey player strips to save his team in Slap Shot
28. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie make love in Don't Look Now
29. Bree Daniels listens to Arlyn's final moments in Klute
30. Comissioner Dreyfus gets a tooth pulled from Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther Strikes Again (?)
31. Thelma Ritter bites the bullet (literally) in Pickup on South Street
32. Steve Buscemi has a nervous breakdown in a dream in Living in Oblivion
33. Beth and Calvin show their love for each other on a country club golf course in Ordinary People
34. Jon Favreau has an entire relationship with an answering machine in Swingers
35. a drunken Julie Christie tells William Castle what she wants to suck in Shampoo
36. a drunken Judy Davis sports a crown of candles and tells Kevin Spacey what to eat in The Ref
37. Selena transforms into Catwoman in Batman Returns
38. a mother and son are reunited in the final moments of The Grifters
39. a nervous stewardess -sorry, flight attendant- asks if anyone knows how to fly a plane in Airplane
40. Frankenstein picks a daisy with a little girl by a pond
41. Ray Liotta shows Lorraine Bracco a good time on their first date in Goodfellas
42. a former brute is hollowed out by the death of the only person who loved him and lies clutching the sand at the end of La Strada
43. Johnathan and Bobbie 'discuss' marriage in Carnal Knowledge
44. Bogart and Malone discover the joys of a book store in The Big Sleep
45. Falconetti's face at any point in The Passion of Joan of Arc
46. George tries to give his daughter her birthday gift in Shoot the Moon
47. Maddie makes her entrance on a hot summer night in Body Heat
48. a devil and an angel vie for the attention of a drunk and horny college youth in Animal House
49. the Derby scenes in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? make the Survivor stunts look like kid's play
50. two brothers meet their fate in a cornfield in Casino -one of the most disturbingly violent scenes in recent memory
51. Mabel has a homecoming party in A Woman Under the Influence
52. the tennis match in Blow Up
53. Monty takes the stand in Judgement at Nuremberg
54. Monty and John Ireland show off their 'guns' in Red River
55. Greta Garbo gets drunk in Ninotchka
56. Meryl Streep does drugs in Adaptation
57. Henry Fonda goes cheek-to-cheek with Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve
58. Violet, Judy, and Doralee discover Maui-wowy in 9 to 5
59. the television audition in Mulholland Drive
60. Henry Fonda quietly reads 'the letter' in The Ox-Bow Incident
61. a skeletal old grandmother sings a song from her youth in Pather Panchali
62. Udo Kier watches from a ship as Emily Watson returns in Breaking the Waves
63. Harold chops his hand off in front of his mother and his 'date' in Harold and Maude
64. Bela Lugosi slugs some whisky before jumping into a cold pond to do battle with a rubber octopus in Ed Wood
65. Thelma and Louise show an army of cops how they feel about men
66. Ned Beatty is forced to 'squeeeeeel' in Deliverance
67. Jennifer Salt becomes a stand-in for Margot Kidder's twin in DePalma's Sisters
68. Maggie Smith is told what someone would do with a dead naked body in Murder by Death
69. Christopher Walken unleashes his dancing ability in Pennies from Heaven
70. Ann-Margret has a messy showdown with a television set in Tommy
71. Elvis and Ann-Margret sing C'mon Everybody in Viva Las Vegas
72. Joe Buck meets a Manhattan housewife walking her dog in Midnight Cowboy
73. Venus tells Olive about the 'horse dourves' in Bullets Over Broadway
74. a giant female breast roams the countryside in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex
75. Jim Broadbent sings Like a Virgin in Moulin Rouge
76. Catherine Tramell goes commando in Basic Instinct
77. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice try to have an orgy
78. a beautiful young woman is discovered in the forest under a stream of sunlight in Rashomon
79. the final image of Shoeshine
80. Joan finds a you-know-what in Christina's closet in Mommie Dearest
81. the raining hallway in Shock Corridor
82. James Bond discovers his conquest coated with gold in Goldfinger
83. John Wayne kisses Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man
84. the father and son heart to heart in Happiness
85. little Karen demonstrates another use for a garden trowel in Night of the Living Dead
86. Jessica Harper meets the head witch in Suspiria
87. the car chase in Bullitt
88. the car/bicycle chase in What's Up, Doc?
89. Lola screams in Run Lola Run
90. a drunken Shirley Maclaine screams that her skirt did NOT twirl up in Postcards from the Edge
91. Amber Waves brings home Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights
92. DeNiro takes a slow motion left hook in Raging Bull
93. two brothers are reunited at the end of The Straight Story
94. two women are 'reunited' on a couch in Mulholland Drive
95. Jon Voight makes Jane Fonda see God in Coming Home
96. Winona Ryder writes a suicide note for two football players in Heathers
97. Holly Body tells Jake Scully what she will NOT do in porno films in Body Double
98. Mahalia Jackson lets loose with Troubles of the World in Imitation of Life
99. Divine eats dog shit in Pink Flamingos
100. A woman asks a man if he minds if she smokes while he's 'eating' in Deep Throat
101. Cleo observes a man and his frogs in Cleo from 5 to 7
102. Katherine Helmond gets a 'plastic' makeover in Brazil
103. Amanda Plummer talks about her feelings for Robin Williams in The Fisher King
104. A cow shoots over the top of a castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
105. DeNiro shoots Bridget Fonda in Jackie Brown
106. DePalma pays homage to Karen Black in Family Plot and Catherine Denuve in Belle du Jour by dressing his transvestite killer in a blonde wig and shades and having him/her slaughter Angie Dickinson in Dressed to Kill
107. Roberto Benigni shares a soul mate dance with the Italian woman in Down by Law
108. Rock Hudson's payback at the end of Seconds
Honorable mention goes to Julie Andrews for showing her breasts in SOB and Gene Hackman for his striptease in Scarecrow
Thank you for reading, again forgive the self-indulgence, and please submit more if you get a chance
1. Bonnie and Clyde meet their fate one sunny afternoon
2. a pre-feminist Jane Fonda slips into the character of Barbarella and does a zero-gravity strip behind the opening credits
3. the rain of frogs in Magnolia
4. Sam Peckinpah directs the most controversial rape scene of all time in Straw Dogs
5. Regan MacNeil pushes her mother's face under her nightgown and it makes for the most disturbing scene in any movie in the history of motion pictures in The Exorcist
6. the breakfast cereal commercial -or the Miss America one- from Putney Swope
7. a young couple drive up to the country and run into the world's longest, strangest, most hilarious road pile-up in Godard's Weekend
8. Daryl gets medevil on Harrison in Blade Runner
9. a mother tries to ward off aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
10. Lola-Lola sings Falling in Love Again in The Blue Angel
11. Sally Bowles belts out Mein Herr in Cabaret and influences everyone from Gene Simmons to David Bowie to Alice Cooper
12. Esther Blodgett belts out The Man That Got Away in a smoky after-hours club in A Star Is Born and influences dozens of lonely housewifes and drunken homosexuals
13. Suzie Diamond purrs Making Whoppee lying across a piano top in The Fabulous Baker Boys (Fuck you Armond White!)
14. Gilda sashays through Put The Blame On Mame
15. Travolta dances in Saturday Night Fever
16. sexy dancers invite you to 'take off' with them in All That Jazz
17. Lily von Schtuup tells us how tired she is in Blazing Saddles
18. Charloette and Humbert do the cha-cha in Lolita
19. Linnea sits quietly while listening to Tom croon I'm Easy in Nashville
20. Barbara Jean breaks down on stage in Nashville
21. Lois reminiscences about Sam the Lion to Sonny in The Last Picture Show
22. Masha has Jerry Langford over for a nice quiet dinner in The King of Comedy
23. Monica Vitti dares to overcome her fear and show compassion for a man she wants to love by placing her hand on the back of his head as a sign of forgiveness in L'Avventura
24. Rosemary eats the 'mouse' and meets the Devil in Rosemary's Baby
25. Marylee dons a red frock and does a maddening mambo while her father dies of a heart attack in Written on the Wind
26. the football game in MASH
27. a hockey player strips to save his team in Slap Shot
28. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie make love in Don't Look Now
29. Bree Daniels listens to Arlyn's final moments in Klute
30. Comissioner Dreyfus gets a tooth pulled from Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther Strikes Again (?)
31. Thelma Ritter bites the bullet (literally) in Pickup on South Street
32. Steve Buscemi has a nervous breakdown in a dream in Living in Oblivion
33. Beth and Calvin show their love for each other on a country club golf course in Ordinary People
34. Jon Favreau has an entire relationship with an answering machine in Swingers
35. a drunken Julie Christie tells William Castle what she wants to suck in Shampoo
36. a drunken Judy Davis sports a crown of candles and tells Kevin Spacey what to eat in The Ref
37. Selena transforms into Catwoman in Batman Returns
38. a mother and son are reunited in the final moments of The Grifters
39. a nervous stewardess -sorry, flight attendant- asks if anyone knows how to fly a plane in Airplane
40. Frankenstein picks a daisy with a little girl by a pond
41. Ray Liotta shows Lorraine Bracco a good time on their first date in Goodfellas
42. a former brute is hollowed out by the death of the only person who loved him and lies clutching the sand at the end of La Strada
43. Johnathan and Bobbie 'discuss' marriage in Carnal Knowledge
44. Bogart and Malone discover the joys of a book store in The Big Sleep
45. Falconetti's face at any point in The Passion of Joan of Arc
46. George tries to give his daughter her birthday gift in Shoot the Moon
47. Maddie makes her entrance on a hot summer night in Body Heat
48. a devil and an angel vie for the attention of a drunk and horny college youth in Animal House
49. the Derby scenes in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? make the Survivor stunts look like kid's play
50. two brothers meet their fate in a cornfield in Casino -one of the most disturbingly violent scenes in recent memory
51. Mabel has a homecoming party in A Woman Under the Influence
52. the tennis match in Blow Up
53. Monty takes the stand in Judgement at Nuremberg
54. Monty and John Ireland show off their 'guns' in Red River
55. Greta Garbo gets drunk in Ninotchka
56. Meryl Streep does drugs in Adaptation
57. Henry Fonda goes cheek-to-cheek with Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve
58. Violet, Judy, and Doralee discover Maui-wowy in 9 to 5
59. the television audition in Mulholland Drive
60. Henry Fonda quietly reads 'the letter' in The Ox-Bow Incident
61. a skeletal old grandmother sings a song from her youth in Pather Panchali
62. Udo Kier watches from a ship as Emily Watson returns in Breaking the Waves
63. Harold chops his hand off in front of his mother and his 'date' in Harold and Maude
64. Bela Lugosi slugs some whisky before jumping into a cold pond to do battle with a rubber octopus in Ed Wood
65. Thelma and Louise show an army of cops how they feel about men
66. Ned Beatty is forced to 'squeeeeeel' in Deliverance
67. Jennifer Salt becomes a stand-in for Margot Kidder's twin in DePalma's Sisters
68. Maggie Smith is told what someone would do with a dead naked body in Murder by Death
69. Christopher Walken unleashes his dancing ability in Pennies from Heaven
70. Ann-Margret has a messy showdown with a television set in Tommy
71. Elvis and Ann-Margret sing C'mon Everybody in Viva Las Vegas
72. Joe Buck meets a Manhattan housewife walking her dog in Midnight Cowboy
73. Venus tells Olive about the 'horse dourves' in Bullets Over Broadway
74. a giant female breast roams the countryside in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex
75. Jim Broadbent sings Like a Virgin in Moulin Rouge
76. Catherine Tramell goes commando in Basic Instinct
77. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice try to have an orgy
78. a beautiful young woman is discovered in the forest under a stream of sunlight in Rashomon
79. the final image of Shoeshine
80. Joan finds a you-know-what in Christina's closet in Mommie Dearest
81. the raining hallway in Shock Corridor
82. James Bond discovers his conquest coated with gold in Goldfinger
83. John Wayne kisses Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man
84. the father and son heart to heart in Happiness
85. little Karen demonstrates another use for a garden trowel in Night of the Living Dead
86. Jessica Harper meets the head witch in Suspiria
87. the car chase in Bullitt
88. the car/bicycle chase in What's Up, Doc?
89. Lola screams in Run Lola Run
90. a drunken Shirley Maclaine screams that her skirt did NOT twirl up in Postcards from the Edge
91. Amber Waves brings home Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights
92. DeNiro takes a slow motion left hook in Raging Bull
93. two brothers are reunited at the end of The Straight Story
94. two women are 'reunited' on a couch in Mulholland Drive
95. Jon Voight makes Jane Fonda see God in Coming Home
96. Winona Ryder writes a suicide note for two football players in Heathers
97. Holly Body tells Jake Scully what she will NOT do in porno films in Body Double
98. Mahalia Jackson lets loose with Troubles of the World in Imitation of Life
99. Divine eats dog shit in Pink Flamingos
100. A woman asks a man if he minds if she smokes while he's 'eating' in Deep Throat
101. Cleo observes a man and his frogs in Cleo from 5 to 7
102. Katherine Helmond gets a 'plastic' makeover in Brazil
103. Amanda Plummer talks about her feelings for Robin Williams in The Fisher King
104. A cow shoots over the top of a castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
105. DeNiro shoots Bridget Fonda in Jackie Brown
106. DePalma pays homage to Karen Black in Family Plot and Catherine Denuve in Belle du Jour by dressing his transvestite killer in a blonde wig and shades and having him/her slaughter Angie Dickinson in Dressed to Kill
107. Roberto Benigni shares a soul mate dance with the Italian woman in Down by Law
108. Rock Hudson's payback at the end of Seconds
Honorable mention goes to Julie Andrews for showing her breasts in SOB and Gene Hackman for his striptease in Scarecrow
Thank you for reading, again forgive the self-indulgence, and please submit more if you get a chance