Author
Amuthan M
Amuthan shows great interest towards post-modern story narration and loves analysing and writing about them. He is persistently trying to understand the minds of creators of arts and how they construct the society.
10 Great Scenes in Movies
Great scenes make great movies. There are many deciding factors which constitute a great scene and Mise-en-scene, writing, dialogues, character’s harmony are few of these constituents. In this story, we will go through some of the best scenes from a few brilliant movies ever made. As I always say, there may be many brilliant scenes apart from this, so once again, “These are not the only good ones”.
1. The Usual Suspects (1995) — The Greatest trick
A Picture from the movie “The Usual Suspects”
More often, I really seem to like the kind of scenes, where the entire assumption of the story collapses forcing the audience to change their different perspective. The ending scenes of this movie come under this genre. This movie also houses my most favorite dialogue featuring in a movie, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” which happens to be a rephrasing of the phrase “the finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist” by Charles Baudelaire.
2. Jurassic Park (1993) — T-Rex intro
A Picture from the movie “Jurassic Park”
Our generation can never forget this scene! Jurassic Park is an amazing movie and it features few evergreen and epic scenes. The introduction scene of T-rex is one such and it is brilliant, not just because of the special effects or the sci-fi sequence, instead it incepts the idea in the mind of the audience that they are in for a nail-biting thriller and manages to stay true to this idea till the very end. The movie will never get boring to the audience as they celebrate Steven Spielberg’s brilliance in every moment!
3. There will be Blood (2007) — Baptism scene
A Picture from the movie “There Will Be Blood”
This film features some of the best scenes written and directed by Paul Anderson. We might have come across such scenes in many movies where two completely opposite characters meet and prove themselves indirectly in front of other non-trivial characters. There Will Be Blood features one such scene. There is a character of a local pastor and he is portrayed as an opportunist named Eli Sunday. He gets bullied and pushed around by Plainview (Protagonist) throughout the entire first half of the movie. Playing the role of a Baptizer, Eli sees a golden opportunity to exact revenge. Sunday forces Plainview, by slapping him across the face numerous times in the name of baptizing. The scene is very intense and really funny in the way of showing the ability of the characters.
4. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) — Escaping scene
A Picture from the movie “The Shawshank Redemption”
This scene inspired the audience and taught them the importance of hope in one’s life. Easily, this is one of the most powerful scenes in the history of movies. The meaning conveyed through the cinematography in this scene is very deep and thematic. The shot where the camera tilts up providing a view similar to “god’s eye view” in the moment where Andy stands and feels his freedom runs through our nerves every time we watch it.
5. Goodfellas (1985)- Funny scene
A Picture from the movie “ Goodfellas”
Does this scene give us vibes of Dark Comedy? Slightly Yes. Yet, the scene is completely tensed with powerful dialogue delivery from characters. Only a film maker like Martin Scorsese can write such a masterpiece.
6. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)- Cowboy Standoff
A Picture from the movie “ The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”
If you are a fan of Hollywood, you must have watched at least one movie where two or three cowboys stand in the center of a vast land and face each other in a standoff at gun point. The prototype of such scenes came from this movie. Though this has now become a cliche for all western movies, the scene in this movie looks fresh. All three of the titular men square off with their eyes fixated on one another. Their hands are slowly closing in on their holstered weapons. Which one strikes first? Or will they wait to retaliate to the initiator? The scene gets crazier as the music swells and the cuts get faster.
7. The Prestige (2006)- Prestige of the two great tricks
A Picture from the movie “ The Prestige”
It is really difficult to convince the audience with one big twist but Nolan’s shocking ending to The Prestige managed to do just that. In the final scene, we find out the secrets behind the magicians’ transported man tricks, which had driven the film’s entire plot. The ending worked very well in terms of logical writing. Moreover, it completely satisfied the audience!
8. The Godfather (1972)- Restaurant shootout
A Picture from the movie “The Godfather”
The rising of the character of Michael is executed brilliantly in this scene. The tension, fear, dialogues are perfect and nicely done in terms of writing. The passing trains; the extreme close-ups; the uneasiness on Michael’s face; there is no tension greater than this scene. Michael barges out, and we see the corpses positioned like a painting’s composition. This is brutal, pure cinema. It may very well be the greatest scene of all time.
9. Memento (2000)- Pen searching scene
A Picture from the movie “Memento”
As we know, our protagonist has a short-term memory loss. So, he notes down his important moments all over his body. In a particular scene, which happens to be important to the audience and his character, he desperately searches for a pen so that he can remember that Natalie (female fatal) is manipulating him, and here we see the tension filling every moment, and the fact that Leonard can discover a key piece of information and lose it just as quickly. Once again, Nolan proved himself as a great writer through this scene.
10. Fight Club (2006) — An Era of Consumerism
A Picture from the movie “Fight Club”
Fight Club is the most reviewed and analyzed cult of David Fincher. For a film which is supposed to be an entertainer, this film talks much philosophy including topics such as Consumerism. There is a scene where both the main characters discuss the topic of consumerism and one says, “The Things You Own, end up Owning You.” The film’s entire concept relay on this specific moment.
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