Five minutes of classic brilliance

[Raigmore]

If you had to choose about 5 minutes in any classic film that you thought was a piece of total cinematographic brilliance (irrespective of whether you liked the film as a whole), please let us know in this thread.

[Livius]

Hard to know where to start here, but here's a few that worked for me :

-The watch presentation from She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
-The final duel in Once Upon A Time In The West
-Bogart's testimony during the court martial from The Caine Mutiny .

Any scene that sucks me entirely into the movie satisfies my personal definition of brilliance - those listed above do it for me every time.

[Guest 20765]

the rendezvous/cropduster scene in North by Northwest

[charlie angel]

The stand off at the end of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.

[John Hodson]

Jill's arrival in Once Upon a Time in The West
'The Ecstasy of Gold' from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The opening credit sequence and raid from The Wild Bunch...
...the walk from The Wild Bunch
Gene Kelly Singin' in The Rain
Quint - 'So, eleven hundred men went into the water. Three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb' - Jaws
Astaire (so many...) dancing on walls and ceilings in Royal Wedding
Bogart, Bergman and Claude Rains - the climax of Casablanca
The final five minutes of The Searchers (well, any five minutes...)

Damn; there are 1000s aren't there?

[cliff homewood]

I'd go for Hauers final moments from Blade Runner.

[Guest 20794]

Peter Lorres defense speach during the "trial" in M.

[Guest 53667]

The Amberson's last ball from The Magnificent Ambersons
Norma Desmond's visit to DeMille's set in Sunset Boulevard
Astaire and Eleanor Powell dancing to "Begin the Beguine" in Broadway Melody of 1940
Any of the homecoming sequences in "The Best Years of Our Lives"
And many, many more

[Raigmore]

My, that's quite an interesting collection already! I only know some of the quoted sequences so far and they're really great....particularly Rutger Hauer's dying scene in Blade Runner.

But my own personal favourite short sequence in any film is the superb barn scene from Charles Laughton's 1955 classic "Night of the Hunter". The kids are hiding out in the barn when the sadistic Robert Mitchum character approaches through the night silhouetted against the full moon and singing that hypnotic song.

[SimonI]

Originally Posted by cliff homewood

I'd go for Hauers final moments from Blade Runner.

Good call - I'd also plump for the steam halo in the train compartment near the end of A Canterbury Tale.

[Guest 29]

- The love scene in "Don't Look Now"
- The telephone call to Leon in "Dog Day Afternoon"
- The scene in the wine cellar in "Notorious"
- The murder of Kate Miller in "Dressed To Kill"
- Decoding the tapes in "The Conversation"
- The opening of "Halloween"
- The final five minutes of "Death In Venice"
- The aforementioned walk in "The Wild Bunch"
- The final run in "The 400 Blows"
- The moments before the wedding and the reunion scene in "Big Wednesday"
- The death of Keith Carradine in "McCabe and Mrs Miller"

Also, slightly out of our remit, Chuck Yeager's first flight in "The Right Stuff" and the ending of "Videodrome".

[Guest 13065]

I would go for Henry Fonda's entrance in Once Upon A Time in the West

[Guest 54103]

... the 5 minutes across the cut in "2001" from the apes to the spaceship ... incredibly imaginative ... daring ... a time dramatically showing Kubrick's original genius in storytelling ....

[bosque]

The final five minutes of Malle's "Au Revoir Les Enfants". Although, saying that, I've had the new Criterion release since it came out and haven't been brave enough to watch it yet...

...oh, and that scene from Taxi Driver.

[Raigmore]

I have read (but not actually seen) that the croos-cut 5 minute Odessa Steps massacre sequence in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent Russian classic "Battleship Potmekin" is something to behold. Anyone seen this?

[Guest 980]

Minutes 38-43 of Weekend at Bernies 2.

[John Hodson]

Originally Posted by Raigmore

I have read (but not actually seen) that the croos-cut 5 minute Odessa Steps massacre sequence in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent Russian classic "Battleship Potmekin" is something to behold. Anyone seen this?

Yes, and it's a terrific piece of editing; De Palma's version is every bit as good.

[Raigmore]

Originally Posted by John Hodson

Yes, and it's a terrific piece of editing; De Palma's version is every bit as good.

Yes, the train station sequence in "The Untouchables" was brilliant. I don't recall if de Palma actually acknowledged the Potemkin inspiration in the credits or elsewhere.

[tizza]

Jack Nicholsons speech in A few good men.

[R-T-C]

Personally, I thought that dePalma's reference was rather strained and oversold. Although that scene was rather good.

My favourite five minutes of cinema have to be the opening murder in Suspiria (1977). Pure genius.

The log cabin scene in Mel Brooke's Young Frankenstein (1974) is probably the best parody sequence ever.

Some other top scenes:
The music-only air combat scene in Battle of Britain (1966)
The atmospheric openings of Herzog films Aguire (1972) and Nosferatu (1979)
The Conquistador zombies rising from the ground in Zombi 2 (1979)