Do you have a movie shot that you find simply awesome and unforgettable?

I’d have to say… hmm, difficult, cause I’ve seen so many.

Shit this is hard…

Ummm, I suppose this scene from Ghost In The Shell 2, its absolutely beautiful, and the detail is so complex, I lose myself in it.

@mazingerz88 : Your description of the scene is very well put. Thank you.

If I have a favorite shot, it’s got to be the lips at the beginning of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Any one of the long shots in Children of Men, particularly the one in the car where the camera tracks around in circles facing inward. Freaking awesome shot, had me on the edge of me seat the whole time.

Also, I’m a sucker for long takes. Not sure why, but I like that directing style.

@XOIIO Wow, glad you posted that. Thing is, now I’m wondering whether you saw the original movie. Imo, it’s the only entertaining Ghost In The Shell movie. No sequel came close. Like you, I was mesmerized by that haunting Japanese song. The one in the original had a more beguiling tune. And they played it showing a montage of realistic looking buildings. When you watch alone at night with speakers full blast, it’s hypnotic, almost cathartic even. : )

@heresjohnny Now you got me thinkin on that movie that suppose to have done another long continuous shot but I can’t seem to recall it now. Though I’m sure Brian Di Palma’s “Snake Eyes” has it.

@mazingerz88 I’ve yet to finish watching thevery first, sicne i;ve been to tired tor ead subs, but the more modern two I’ve seen.

Like, theres the one from ninteen something, then this one from 2000 something, but theres a thrid one.

@Hawaii_Jake That movie was terrific. And Salvador Dali even designed and shot the dream sequence. Wow, just wow. Movies were movies back then.

@XOIIO Ghost in the Shell like most anime movies tend to bore. Even that very first one. But being patient has its rewards. After watching that I was so excited by the sequels but the brilliant animation there failed to make up for lack of pacing and got convoluted with so much vocal dissection of details. I don’t know whether the Japanese writers and audiences have that understanding.

Anime movies could be long but not tedious and could be great too, like Wings of Honnemise and Graveyard of the Fireflies. Ghost in the Shell writers are pffft.

I’m also a Hitchcock fan, and the shot that really stuck with me to the point that it inspired me to want to write something was the shot of Norman peering into the peephole.

I’m not a film student, so I can’t tell you why the shot is so significant or what it really implies, but I feel like it perfectly captures Norman’s feeling of curiosity, voyeurism, and isolation. It’s a beautiful shot to me.

The beginning of Up, where it shows the entire lifetime of that couple and how life happens and how you know exactly who this couple is and what life they had without any dialogue? Love it.

@noservice Well, that fascination could make you a film director. Thing is, if you really have the knack, you could shoot short films using handheld videos, edit them amateur style just to have your creativity explored.

@Aethelflaed Yes, I read UP reviews that praised that as the movie’s best scene.

@mazingerz88 Oh, easily. The rest of the movie isn’t bad, but that scene is definitely where it shines.

I’m a visual person and there are many scenes in cinema that please my soul so it’s difficult to narrow it down to only a few. Sorry for writing such a long post. I could go on and on because film is one of my favourite subjects.

One from my favourite film is the moment in Sherlock Jr. when Buster Keaton steps through the projection screen into the movie playing at the theater (here is a rough aid, but it’s not quite as mindboggling as when you see it in motion.) There are dozens of stunts that are jaw-dropping, but the creativity behind this moment is what made me admire Keaton the most.

I have posted about this scene elsewhere on Fluther but I find it worth mentioning again: the scene in EVerything is Illuminated when Alex walks through the field of sunflowers. The film is set in Ukraine and the colour scheme was drab, sad, and gray. So it was a visual shock to see such emphasis in colour during that scene. The director in general has a very good eye for it.

I’m also very fond of this classic Gene Kelly moment. It makes me smile every time.

Oh god, and the final shot of Selma in Dancer in the Dark breaks my heart every fucking time. I don’t want to give away what happens, but I was absolutely speechless.

@muppetish Gotta check this films out. : )

If I’m not mistaken the director was the actor, Liv Schreiber in Everything.

One of the most memorable scenes in the movies I remember was the fist three minute of Star Wars: A New Hope. It was my junior year in high school and I went with my buddy. He told me I would be blown away, that if I thought 2001 A Space Odyssey was good, that I would love Star Wars. The 1st three minutes after the credits, I was hooked. To see it on a 80mm screen with surround sound, there was nothing like it back then.

It was a shitty movie but Snake Eyes had a pretty incredible first scene from a technical point of view. It was like ten minutes and all from the same camera without a break. It was a action movie too. People were getting shot and blown up and the same camera recorded it all without a break.

@muppetish Thanks for listing Sherlock Jr. That is an amazing sequence!

@Hypocrisy_Central Absolutely! That was terrific!

I will add that moment in JAWS when Roy Schieder is sitting on the beach, and he sees the shark attack. His image doesn’t move in the frame, but everything around him moves. It’s an intense little camera trick played well by Speilberg. Here is the scene, and the moment is at 3:48.

The scene in Lawrence of Arabia when Lawrence and his guide are at the well, and Ali slowly appears riding through the mirage as they watch. This is a piece of it, but I wish they hadn’t cut the beginning.

@dappled_leaves Indeed. They shot that scene in real time I think, from what merely looked like a speck at first to a well garbed Arab man. What pulled it off for that scene was its exotic nature.

For someone whose never been in the desert, all you can think of at the beginning was, What the devil is that? Lol.

@filmfann Nothing like that thum thum dum thum… sound

@dappled_leaves Make note to self, watch where you drink outside the cantina.

I denno if it counts, but I have a scene from Day of the Dead.

The part where Dr.Logan gets killed by Captain Rhodes, and then Bub, the zombie, finds his corpse.
Logan was trying to tame zombies, and got in a good way with Bub. They were friends, even. So, Bub finds his mentor’s corpse, and shows it the shackles at his hands, as if to say; I’m here. Come chain me up and tame me again. After a bit, Bub realizes, somehow, that his mentor is dead. He lets out a mournful cry, and bangs his shackles against the walls in sorrow. I’ve never seen a sad zombie before.

This scene always touches me lol, and I’m totally serious. It may not be the best scene I ever saw, many think it’s stupid, but I choose this one, because even just thinking about it makes me kinda sad.

Romero broke his own zombie mythos by including the whole Bub business, but it also greatly beef it up, despite some of what I don’t quite like in modern zombie flicks. But it was a great idea, and a pivotal one for the zombie genre, in my opinion. I mean, you never expect zombies to be emotionally moving, but there you go.

That scene also rocks because while common zombie scenarios are great, you do have to add a little more if you want the story to have a bit of a different taste. (no pun intended, lawl)
It’s a tricky thing, but Bub pulled it off. Romero took a risk, but I’ve seen much worse.

Unfortunately, I can’t find this specific scene on YouTube. :(

’‘beats shackles against the walls’’

There, there my zombie paduan. I’m Zombie Wan Kenobi and I know and feel how you feel about that scene. It was the next logical step to Romero’s zombie evolution, a possibly self-reflecting, self-flagellating, submissive and even loving rotting undead. Bub’s brain maybe have had remnants of his human memories or there was none, merely the raw survival instinct of a food dependent mindless organism. A pet. But I prefer to think it’s the former so yes, it was quite the poignant scene. : )

Here’s Bub.