The single greatest SHOT ever...?

[Ben Garvey]

(...continued)

What film are these from? They look vaguely familiar, from a dream I had and/or a film!

 

[Casey Green]

Terry Gilliam's "Brazil".

 

[Leaf Baimbridge]

The greatest monologue in cinema history...

"So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy; a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald — striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one — big hitter, the Lama — long, into a 10,000 foot crevice, right at the base of this glacier. And do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... Gunga, gunga galunga. So we finish the 18th and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know?" And he says, 'Oh, there won't be any money. But when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.' So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

...and the greatest cinema image of all time goes to...

 

[Ben Garvey]

I couldn't get the still for it (anyone?) but the shot that has been permanently burned into my mind's library as one of the best/ most powerful is the timelapse shot for Chungking Express, when the main character is drinking the black coffee, as the people in foreground rush around, like they are in a different reality of time.

 

[DontStopMe]

Love the intro to swordfish.

Crash had a lot of powerful and emotional shots.

The shot that will always stay with me is the cornfield shot from Casino.

and who can forget.

 

[Radoslav Karapetkov]

There's so much beauty in this thread... I feel like I can't take it. :biggrin:

 

[Sami S]

 

[Uli Plank]

Where did you find "Montaña Sagrada" in such quality?

 

[Roberto Lequeux]

Grug, I just watched Lawrence of Arabia last night and I have to agree with you on that particular scene being one of the best. Good choice.

Visually I think maybe this scene where Lawrence walks downstairs in the beginning... that's perhaps one of my favorite shots.

Leaf, hahahha!!!!

 

[Edward Behan]

How did I forget this one?!

I'm new to this forum, searching for Peter Jackson's "Crossing the Line" clips. But this thread caught my eye. That's a great shot from "Empire of the Sun" but my vote from that film is the spot where the three Japanese pilots salute the young boy when he first arrives at the detention labor camp and sees the Zero fighter. That whole sequence, with him singing the Japanese hymn and saluting the aviators. . . it's a true moment.

Thank you.

 

[CaesarC]

I was looking at this thread, and mind you I didnt look at all 42 pages of posts, but the one that is missing from this list is......

Goodfellas steadicam shot when Henry Hill takes Karen out on a date!

Not one cut.....


-caesar

 

[jpp]

Goodfellas steadicam shot when Henry Hill takes Karen out on a date!

And Scorsese almost certainly lifted that shot or at least the idea of it from an almost identical (though much shorter) shot in a 1962 documentary called "Lonely Boy", also in the Copacabana kitchen.

Fans of "Raging Bull" will also note the "inspiration" Scorsese took from "Lonely Boy" in shots in the Copacabana dining room.

Coincidence? Could be.

 

[Charles Papert]

One of the more fascinating elements in a truly legendary shot (the aforementioned Copacabana scene from Goodfellas) is that the diversion into the kitchen is entirely unnecessary from a geographic standpoint--Henry and his date take a left turn into the kitchen, then four right turns and come right back out the same door they went in, continuing on into the dining room. It is a testimony to Steadicam operator Larry McConkey that he created enough diversion within the kitchen to "confuse" the viewer from recognizing that they are simply making a circle. The other amazing aspect of it is that half the shot follows the two characters from behind, which would normally be fairly uninteresting but once again Larry spices it up with bits of business and has Henry interact with various people along the way that forces his look back towards camera.

 

[Kemalettin Sert]

Assassination of Jesse James

Baraka

 

[Larry Gebhardt]

I'll vote for Baraka in the last post...what an amazing sequence.

Larry

 

[Barry Gregg]

Opening of Gladitor. Not a scripted image. Something found as they were shooting.

 

[Emyr R. E. Pugh]

Don McKellar and Sandra Oh in Last Night (1998)

The quality of the image below is poor testimony to the actual beauty and quality of the original. It's also changed forever how I feel when I hear Pete Seeger's Guantanamera.

The beach scene from The Quiet Earth (1985).

The Ballet of the Red Shoes from The Red Shoes (1948) - specifically this one shot.

The celestial court from A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Bubby dressed as his father in Bad Boy Bubby (1993)

Dennis Hopper and his gas mask in Blue Velvet (1986)

 

[CmunozS]

The Return of the King, Gandalf on Shadowfax, holding up his shining staff, racing across the (Pelennor) fields towards the Black Riders who are pursuing Faramir and the remnant of the soldiers from Osgiliath... ofter the light from the staff gos off, the camera pans to the right, in a marvelous way, combined with the music that makes this scene one of my favorites from the trilogy...

 

[Stephen Matthews]

opening of taxi driver

opening of citizen kane as well as the theater scene

the battle scene after math from ran couldn't find a picture that shows the scene I'm looking for.

opening to le samorai (seems I tend to like the openings to movies)

 

[Joe Taylor]

This is a shot from a really magical sequence, Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo." It's not the best looking screen grab, but the sequence, with the Popol Vuh score and lightning flash is so beautiful. I feel euphoric whenever I play it.