Favorite movie scene

Nice call on the "It's Not Your Fault" scene from Good Will Hunting. Powerful stuff.

 

Again, so many. But I'll go with this one from "The Outlaw Josey Wales"

Bounty Hunter: "I'm looking for Josey Wales."
JW: "That'd be me."
BH: "You're wanted, Wales."
JW: "Reckon I'm right popular. You a bounty hunter?"
BH: "A man's got to do something for a living these days."
JW: "Dying ain't much of a living, boy."

 

Crash and Annie arguing at the ironing board.

 

Others:

* The end of "A Few Good Men"
* The mini-mart scene in "Fast Times At Ridgemont High"
* The scene with Alan Stanwyk's parents in "Fletch"

 

Some of the ones already mentioned here are great. I'll add some of my other favorites.

The ending to Gladiator, when they're carrying him and you see the wheat fields while that sweat ass music is playing.

The speech in Independence Day by Bill Paxton/Pullman (Never can separate the two). When he says "Today ... we celebrate ... our Independence Day" gives me chills.

And, in the same movie, the reaction to the first spaceship being destroyed floors me too. "He did it! The son of a bitch did it!"

Also love the uber-gay scene in Rocky III where Apollo and Rocky are training on the beach and break out into a full-fledged man hug in the water. Everytime I see that, I laugh hysterically simply because it's like a pound and a half of 80's cheese.

As for comedies, I love the Shannon Elizabeth/Jason Biggs scene in "American Pie". Just love the awkward look on his face when he realizes she's masturbating in his room. It goes from "Wow, this is cool" to "Holy crap. I need to get over there NOW!". Perfectly captures teenage sexual confusion, IMO.

I've got tons more but these are the ones I can think of now.

 

-- The moment in Chapter 4 of Inglourious Basterds when Col. Hellstrom realizes Lt. Hickox is a spy and the killer conversation that leads into the carnage.

-- The moment Amanda Whurlitzer gets teary in the dugout, her right elbow in a bucket of cold beers, after Buttermaker yells to forget about having a father-daughter-like relationship again. And, when the Yanks' coach slaps Joey in the face on the mound during the championship and he realizes what he's done and slowly walks off the field. Good movie-making there.

-- As Dooley noted, the rainy scene in Bridges of Madison County, although, the moment Streep decides not to open the door is more devastating.

-- The end of The Notebook, when Garner and Rowlands are locked arm-in-arm. Every person walked out of that theater with wet eyes, sniffling.

-- In Risky Business, when Lana comes over for the first time, blustery night, winds blowing the doors open, Joel lifts up her dress and they begin their tryst and then the camera pans slowly across the living room mantle showing pictures of Joel from kid to young adult, ending with them banging on the stairwell and then in a chair with the post-programming American flag flapping in the wind on the TV in the background. Little Joel Goodson came of age that night, boy. (The "have-you-ever-made-love-on-a-real-train" scene was sharp, too.)

-- In Reality Bites, when Ben Stiller, waiting for Winona Ryder for their date, absolutely rips the guts out of Ethan Hawke:

Hawke: You don't know what she needs.
Stiller: I think I know what she needs in a way that you never will.

Stiller delivered that line as good as good any line I've ever heard: hard and to the marrow of the bone. It's the moment he became a movie star.



There are so many others.

 

The final gunfight scene in Once Upon A Time In The West where Charles Bronson's motivation for wanting to kill Henry Fonda is revealed. All done in that Sergio Leone style with the extreme close-ups and the quick-cuts.

Once the flashback ends ... boom ... shots from the gunfight. Very jarring the first time you see it.

Also from that movie, when Fonda massacres the McBain farm, the tracking shot of the lone surviving kid running out of the ranch to see his family dead. He stops ... super close-up, cue the Morricone fuzzed out guitar for the awesomely bad-ass theme music for Fonda's character, Frank. A theme that has become quite popular in recent years in commercials.

Frank's gang slowly emerges from the scrub brush in their dusters and the camera pans around to show Fonda last ... an intentional choice by Leone to shock the audience because Fonda had never played a bad guy in a movie before.

In the middle of yet another super close-up of an evil Fonda, who is staring down this kid, one of his henchmen says, "What do we do with this one, Frank?"

Fonda's shit-eating grin turns to a frown. He looks at his henchman with disdain and says, "Well ... now that you've said my name."

There's alternate close-ups of the kid, who is already fearing his fate, and Frank, who once again has the shit-eating grin as if to say, "sorry kid."

Close-up of Frank's gun. Blast from the barrel! The blast is used as a jump cut to a different scene.

It just doesn't get any better than that.

 

After all this "Rocky" talk, it just happened to be on TNT late last night. Of course I stayed up until 3 a.m. to watch it. So many great scenes in that one that have already been mentioned, but the banter between Micky and Rocky during the prefight introductions cracks me up every time...

Mick: What's with the get-up? I trained you to be a fighter, not a billboard!
Rocky: I'm doing it for a friend.
Mick: What do you get out of it?
Rocky: Paulie gets three grand. I get the robe.
Mick: Shreeewd.

And later on, a little jab at DeNiro...
Creed: (Pointing at Rocky) I want you! I want you! I want the Stallion!
Rocky: Is he talking to me? Is he talking to me!?
Mick: (Laughing) I think he's talking to you.

 

The Mexican Bike Joust scene in "Quick Change" is a great one. Be careful watching it, though. It's bad luck just seein' something like that.

 

The last 20 minutes of "Unforgiven". I'll go to my grave insisting it's the finest ending in movie history. Little Bill, rounding the troops to go looking for William Munny. Everyone excited, ready to rock, and then out of the corner of the screen, a shotgun emerges. *click* Everyone turns around, and ... silence.

The "Layla" piano segment in "GoodFellas" is awesome too.

Brad Hamilton going off on the dissatisfied customer in "Fast Times" rules.

"It says '100 percent guaranteed, YOU MORON!"

"Mister, if you don't shut up, I'm gonna kick 100 percent of your ass!"