Sledgehammer moments in cinema

[Twit 2]

Moments when everything comes together - themes, scores, visuals, whatever - and leaves you going FUUUCK of sobbing or whatever.

- the end of Waltz with Bashir. Won't spoil on the off chance someone's not seen it yet. Sat reeling through the credits in the cinema with that one.

- end of Andrei Rublev. A similar stylistic lurch but more of a spiritual rather than visceral emotional feeling obviously.

- The Tree of Life. Creation of the universe. Again, like all these moments they work best after having seen everything before rather than in isolation, but yeah, just burst into tears when I first saw this.

[bgmnts]

In terms of moments that hit you in the gut it would be end of Chinatown. That's a sledgehammer right there.

[imitationleather]

When Barbara Windsor's bikini top flies off in Carry On Camping.

[lipsink]

The moment where Matthew McConaghy watches video messages of all the years he's missed is phenomenal and heartbreaking. It had me weeping in the cinema. The film is certainly no masterpiece but it does really have its moments.

This thread reminds me of what David Lynch refers to as 'eye of the duck' scenes. It's the scene in the film where all the themes come together in a perfect way. So in Blue Velvet it's Dean Stockwell singing 'In Dreams', in The Dark Knight it's the interrogation scene with the Joker, in Heat it's the coffee shop scene. I think that's what Lynch is referring to, anyway.

[famethrowa]

This ID that used to play in every Australian cinema in the 90s. Total ripoff if you ask me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j2iFVPi2Oo

[thecuriousorange]

In Spectre (I know) it's the bit where it's finally confirmed that the baddy is Blofield just as the white cat appears.

[Better Midlands]

I was in tears at the end of Cinema Paradiso when Salvatore watches the montage of censored kisses.

The end of Tbe Boy In The Striped Pyjamas hit me hard in a more harrowing way, I watched it on TV knowing nothing about it.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Day of the Locust is a relatively obscure film, I think.  Still, I'll nominate the ending of that, for those who've seen it, or have a mind to look up that scene on YouTube.

[bgmnts]

The Mist has a gutwrench ending as well.

[lipsink]

There's at least 2 scenes in Under The Skin that blew me away and made me want to reach into the cinema screen to try to help the characters.

[chveik]

Day of the Locust is a relatively obscure film, I think.  Still, I'll nominate the ending of that, for those who've seen it, or have a mind to look up that scene on YouTube.

seconded.

also the fire scene in Days of Heaven

[greenman]

The Dekalog 5th episode/A Short Film About Killing, the final interview and then the execution/aftermath, impactful enough have a big impact on the end of capital punishment in Poland.

The bridge crossings in Sorcerer, manages to make the environment feel like a truly oppressive antagonist, halfway between thriller and horror.

The breakup and the meeting in the café at the end in Blue is the Warmest Colour, mostly acting I spose but heighted by the focus on closeups.

The ending of Sword of Doom with Nakadai plagued by visions and going crazy, rather comes out of nowhere plot wise but sums the film up perfectly.

"Noodles I slipped" in Once Upon A Time.

[Jim Bob]

[Icehaven]

I've seen it so many times now it's almost - almost - losing it's impact but the ending of Midnight Cowboy is an absolute slayer.

[rasta-spouse]

There's a bit in Assayas' otherwise average Boarding Gate where Asia Argento is on a plane and Eno's Music for Airports is playing. Something nice about it.

Probably something from Wreckmeister Harmonies like the beginning in the bar.

The tracking shot from Goodfellas with The Crystals playing.

And maybe the bit in De Palma's Femme Fatale with Ravel's Bolero.

[H-O-W-L]

I know you're mostly cracking wise but that is a legitimately iconic (and perfect) moment to me.

My avatar will probably give it away but for me probably Laura's Death in Fire Walk With Me. Spoilers for Twin Peaks, warning! The scream of "DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS!" combined with the escalating operatic choir and the flash cuts of every nasty bastard in the Red Room reacting in terror gets me every single fucking time.

That and the 1989 version of the Waynes getting shot, which is so iconic it basically redefined the Waynes' deaths. That shot of the pearls falling into the rain-puddle with Martha's echoing scream will always haunt me. Fantastic stuff.

[BlodwynPig]

"Mama"

...

"Mama"

[Mrs Wogans lemon drizzle]

When Barbara Windsor's bikini top flies off in Carry On Camping.

LOL!

[Mrs Wogans lemon drizzle]

the Bladerunner sequel where they crash into the sea.  The score is incredible.   

[Piggyoioi]

the Bladerunner sequel where they crash into the sea.  The score is incredible.

thats just an low key action scene, there are no lateral narrative elements that give it a 'sledgehammer moment'.

tears in the rain however in the original qualifies.


have you guys seen Lynch discuss the 'Eye of the Duck' theory in regards to the scene in a movie that holds the film together?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2xNPsIm7_Y

[Piggyoioi]

bladerunner 2024 is a boring movie for boring people

[rasta-spouse]

The bit in How To Get Ahead In Advertising when Richard E. Grant collapses in the bathroom is something I've always liked. It's done in slow motion to music and it's deliberately very colourful showing all sorts of things smashing and falling to the floor. In fact, maybe this bit is filmed like a high-quality commerical to make an ironic point.

[Piggyoioi]

The opera scene in Birth, where her mind is in conflict and you can see her gradually allow her prolonged grief push her to the delusion that her husband is alive in a little boy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8lrDiZQJQg

i've never seen anything like it before.

[Noodle Lizard]

I've seen it so many times now it's almost - almost - losing it's impact but the ending of Midnight Cowboy is an absolute slayer.

My sister (14-15 at the time) legitimately thought he was supposed to have died from secondhand smoke. That dampened the impact for me.

[BlodwynPig]

The mama i referenced above could apply to a number of films but just remembered the original Dark Water lift scene.

Booooom. The score is immense too

[bgmnts]

Anytime Travis Bickle looks at something in Taxi Driver, he's so lonely. Hit's hard for me.

[Sin Agog]

There are quite a few, but there's one movie in particular called Moving which parallels my own total inability to process my parents' divorce as a child so much that I always erupt by the end of it, particularly in one dream sequence by a lake involving a stray lantern boat.

God, I'm never showing any fam or friends any heavy movies again, though.  Burnt my fingers too many times.  No matter how well made they are, most people simply do not see pathos or catharsis as useful presences in media at all. I'm with Kafka when he said:

'We need the [art] that affects us like a disaster, that grieves us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide.  [Art] must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.'

[nw83]

The end of Walkabout, with Jenny Agutter's face, the score and the Houseman poem.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

thats just an low key action scene, there are no lateral narrative elements that give it a 'sledgehammer moment'.

That film is full of sledgehammer moments.

... in terms of subtlety!

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Adrian running through the crowd to embrace Rocky at the end of Rocky as Bill Conti's score achieves triumphantly romantic orgasm.

"ADRIAAAAAAAAAN!"

"I love you, I love you!"

It's beautiful, sledgehammer perfection.

Rocky's tearful speech at the end of Rocky II as Bill Conti's score achieves triumphantly romantic orgasm.

Rocky quietly saying goodbye to Adrian at the end of Rocky 6: John Rocky. Subtly romantic score in this case, a triumphant orgasm wouldn't be appropriate.