The Deer Hunter

God sometimes it’s damn hard to pick a single great scene from a movie I really love. The Deer Hunter is one of those films that I’d always include in a top ten favorite movies, it’s just such a wonderfully luscious piece of movie-making. Over its huge running time it feels like you could so easily sink into it, just absorb the atmosphere and the characters. Obviously there are bits you’d rather fall into more than others – I’d definitely take the hunting trip over the rat filled bamboo cage for a weekend away. Overall though it’s difficult to break this film down into scenes, so much of it resonates with what you’ve seen up till that point and on future viewings is filled with expectation and sadness over what will come.

Although it seems episodic in structure the film never really feels that way to me, I think particularly due to the lack of events that don’t relate the characters to each other. Even scenes that start of looking independent – such as the start of the events in Vietnam quickly reveal themselves to be points of contact between the protagonists. It creates a tapestry of personal moments that define a town’s experience of Vietnam – a very real town at that.

You can sometimes see those times a film maker has rushed around trying to create the perfect ‘everyman’ town – a representation of a period by being as normal as possible. The example that always sticks in my mind is for historical dramas, where a set design has seen the film is set in 1798, so every single object comes from exactly that period, every wall has paintings from that time and every item of clothing matching the time. Of course, that isn’t reality; it’s a doll’s house.

With the setting in The Deer Hunter there’s something much more real, a sense of a real layered community presented through real locations. It’s the quirks that make it so real, the accents that are off, the first-generation’s old country style of dress and speech. It comes together to make something that is at the same time unique and representative of towns across the world.
So it’s to represent this feeling of realism that I picked the scene of Michael’s return. I think it’s a tremendously sad moment but one that makes me feel that these are about as close to real people in a real community as I’ve ever seen on film.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mhyrVCjZO_U

Rome

I loved Jason and the Argonauts. I loved Clash of the Titans. I enjoyed Gladiator, though could have done with the last third being removed from the film. I even loved those half-baked badly dubbed Italian swords and sandal epics featuring a variety of mythic heroes involved in mundane plots that made Spaghetti Westerns look sophisticated and fantastical.

So when Rome arrived on TV I was blown away. There were a couple of problems – it was Roman not Greek – so no giant Hydra or Cerebus and lots of fascists. However it did have the advantage of being made by HBO, so if nothing else it was going to feature nudity, swearing and violence. Now I’m not saying that those three things are required by a great TV show – but let’s be honest, Cash in the Attic would definitely be improved by the occasional blow job.

On the swearing front I certainly wasn’t disappointed, though I’ve been spoiled for life by the beautifully foul tongues that make up the Deadwood cast, and the sex was great. A selection of nubile Roman slaves and innocents, milf temptresses and swarthy generals, it had it all. Though sadly the BBC did cut the implied doggy style scene between Octavia and Pompey down – sure leave in the discussion about the strength of Roman borders but cut the nudity – that was a successful day in the editing department… As an aside I met Kenneth Cranham (Pompey) outside of the Sainsbury’s in Islington the day after seeing that episode – which made for a surreal moment.

The one thing missing though was good old fashioned violence. The early battle scenes were over-filmed, using a mish-mash of visual effects and fast cutting. The sense of the battle and the lives of the soldiers were presented well but the battle itself – meh. It seemed like the series was taking the Godfather approach to violence, exploring a stylised reality with moments of brief, hidden violence behind closed political doors. Now I can’t claim this makes me sound sophisticated but I always wanted to see Marlon Brando with a Tommy gun in hand (‘Say hello to my offer you can’t refuse’) as well as the beautifully staged climax.

So I was loving the series but felt like I was never going to get the pay off I wanted. Pullo, the violent bastard at the centre of the story never really exploded the way you wanted him to, the strength of the soldiers was never going to really be expressed. It was going to be series three of Deadwood all over again. I’d never been more wrong…

Suddenly we hit the final episodes of the series and Pullo, through the machinations of Caesar and his confidants has found himself imprisoned and crushed by guilt. Trapped in a stinking cell he calls on the gods and awaits his time in the gladiatorial ring. I was expecting this to be a tragic end or another over-stylised fight – in the end it’s the best fucking blood bath you will ever see in your life.
As his sometimes friend and former commander, Lucius, looks on Pullo is goaded into fighting and systematically makes his way through a small army of gladiators. The blood flies, legs are torn apart, spikes smash through armour. It is, without a doubt, the single best sword fight ever seen. Just watching this would actually kill Errol Flynn.

So if you’ve ever read about gladiators or enjoyed a good sword fight in a movie then this is the scene for you. It’s brutal, it’s simple and it delivered what the series had been promising all along. Welcome to Rome, welcome to barbarism.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1V5CWj0NjYc

The Getaway

Pure fun this scene, a great moment of tension that recalls much of the dead straight talking of No Country for Old Men. The scenes of buying a gun in that movie certainly seem to pay homage to McQueen’s doc in this masterpiece from Peckinpah, easily one of my favourite directors (if I could just pick a single scene from Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia then it’d be up here in a second…

The scene itself is as simple as could be, Doc (Steve McQueen) and Carol (Ali McGraw) are on the run following their betrayal after a bank robbery. As the tension between them mounts they turn into a small town to pick up a radio. Doc see’s his face on the TV and then the fun really begins.
There’s something special here in the details. Doc turning off one TV then seeing his face on many more, realising how foolish he’s been to come into town. The police car being destroyed by shotgun fire, splitting into pieces as it’s really hit by the shot. His calm ordering of the shotgun in the gun shot. Finally there’s the wonderful fall at the end of the clip, as Doc is taken by surprise and crashes to the floor.

It really feels like the tension between McGraw and McQueen plays out here with Doc and Carol, and unlike many films that try to introduce ‘real’ moments here we see a man falling over who looks pissed off about it for real. I’ve never bothered to check but I like to think that this was a real moment luckily captured on film.

All in all, it’s a great moment in a film I’d highly recommend. Doc and Carol make a wonderful couple throughout the film – perhaps it’s only problem is the easy and abusive sexism of Al Lettieri as Rudy Butler. There’s something horribly casual about his cuckolding of a Vet’s wife and her easy acceptance of a violent man’s interest. It could have been played with a lot less sexism – but then again Peckinpah isn’t exactly well known for his understanding viewpoints.

Regardless of this though (the issues certainly don’t feature in this scene) it’s a movie well worth tracking down. Enjoy the clip.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vVxGesu8EGU

My Left Foot

Here’s one I came to late. I’d always heard that the performance of DDL in My Left Foot was superb and I’d been told the ‘mother’ scene was superb, although it didn’t feature him. I happened to download the movie as a chance to catch up on his career ahead of There Will Be Blood and found the scene incredible.

Unlike so many moments where heroism in films tends to be unreal or contrived here they was a scene of a very real person dealing with a terrible imprisonment. The sense of him being trapped is developed throughout the childhood scenes in the film, especially focusing on him saving his mother but being ignored, or previous attempts to show his intelligence being dismissed. Here though is the moment where he finally shows he isn’t the burden or the unintelligent creature he’s been seen as.

That isn’t to imply that he’s been treated particularly abusively – the life of Christie Brown is a long way from a story of neglect – but he was never seen as the real person he was. In one word, at least in the film, he is able to break through the walls that have been placed around him and destroy the misconceptions of his family, his community and everyone he has previously met.

The acting in the scene is remarkable. The sense of building tension as he scrawls on the floor is hard to express – it is so overpowering. Previous to this scene we’d already seen moments where attempts to draw and write and been scribbled out, so watching this for the first time there is a tension in how Christie’s efforts will be received. There’s also the palpable sense of guilt, of almost shocked horror. This isn’t just a child writing their first word – it’s a family changing their whole world. The building tears, the force raging for expression inside Christie, the tension amongst the family members, the scrawling chalk. This is heroism and bravery and courage on the very greatest scale.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wKD2Q3hqpiI

Miller’s Crossing

When I was turning 21 I got the chance to get a really big present. I couldn’t really figure out what I wanted until I came across a laserdisc player. Now commentaries, jumping to scenes, high quality visuals may seem pretty normal in a post-DVD world but at the time this just sounded incredible. So I had the player on the way and needed to pick out some films to buy. I’d seen bits about Miller’s Crossing in the past and I think this was around the time of Fargo – so the Coen’s were almost as hot as they are today. It just seemed like a perfect choice.

First time watching it I was absolutely blown away, I still think it stands up as one of my favorite gangster flicks of all time. When I started putting together the idea of a Moviedrome inspired ‘Great Scenes’ selection for Youtube there wasn’t any doubt in my mind which scene to use first. Albert Finney fucking up a bunch of no-good gangsters with a Thompson gun with an unending ammunition supply.

It’s a great moment made all the better for the music playing over the top. If you’ve never seen it then you’re in for one hell of treat and I’m still impressed from the Youtube comments that this is being used in film classes. Much as I love Pandora’s Box I know which movie I’d rather sit through…

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z-wd4nH3-CA