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Ricochet Movie Fight Club: Question 22
Last week, we discussed how certain films depict the true-stories unfolding around us. I M Fine won that fight pretty handily. Across the backdrop of national tragedies large and small looms a contemplation of individual mortality, and may have prompted I M Fine to ask What is the most memorable death scene in a film? (Any film genre is eligible, but the one caveat is the death must occur onscreen.) One big Spoiler Alert at the beginning here should suffice for what is to follow.
The Rules:
- Post your answer as a comment. Make it clear that this is your official answer, one per member.
- Defend your answer in the comments and fight it out with other Ricochet member answers for the rest of the week.
- Whoever gets the most likes on their official answer comment (and only that comment) by Friday night wins the fight.
- The winner gets the honor of posting the next question on Saturday.
- In the case of a tie, the member who posted the question will decide the winner.
Notes:
- Only movies will qualify (no TV shows) however films that air on television (BBC films, a stand-alone mini-series) will qualify.
- Your answer can be as off-the-wall or controversial as you’d like. It will be up to you to defend it and win people to your side.
- Fight it out.
Movie Fight Club Questions by Week:
- What is the best film portrayal of a book character? Winner: Charlotte with 18 likes for Alan Rickman’s portrayal of Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies.
- What is the best motion picture comedy of the 21st century? Winner: split decision. In an exemplary display of genuine sportsmanship, Randy Webster conceded the fight to Marjorie Reynolds’ pick Team America: World Police.
- What film provides the most evocative use of location? Winner: Taras with 21 likes for Lawrence of Arabia. Wasn’t even close.
- What is the best film that utilizes or is inspired by a work of William Shakespeare? Winner: Dr. Bastiat with five likes for The Lion King, a film inspired by Hamlet.
- Which movie has the best surprise ending, or unexpected plot twist? Winner: Repmodad with 18 likes for The Sixth Sense.
- What pre-1970s black-and-white movie would be most enjoyed by a modern 18- to 25-year-old audience? Winner: E J Hill with 9 likes for a Casablanca. (He didn’t exactly designate it his official answer, and most of the likes may have been for the modern Casablanca trailer rather than for it as an answer to the question, but nobody seemed to dispute it on those grounds, so that’s how the cookie crumbles.)
- What movie did you go to based on the trailer, only to have felt cheated? (i.e., the trailer was 10x better than the movie?) Winner: Back to back wins by E J Hill with 9 likes for Something to Talk About.
- Name the worst movie portrayal of your profession (where applicable.) Winner: LC with 8 likes for Denise Richards’ Dr. Christmas Jones in The World is Not Enough.
- What is the worst movie that claims to be based or inspired by a true story? Winner: Tex929rr with 16 likes for the, “…terrible acting, and countless deviations from history,” in Pearl Harbor.
- What is your favorite little known movie? Winner: A last-minute rally for Tremors made the difference as Songwriter took the week 10 win!
- What is the best movie that you never want to watch again? Winner:
HitlerCharlotte with 15 likes for Schindler’s List. Sorry, Richard Oshea but Jesus won the real fight.
Week 11.5 Exhibition Match (as a make-up of sorts, since Songwriter didn’t get the week 11 question submitted in time) Name the best movie theme song ever? No winner declared but I’m pretty sure it was I.M. Fine with “Moon River.” - Name the best animated feature-length movie of all time. Winner: I.M. Fine with 10 likes for Pinocchio, and justice for I.M. Fine prevailed.
- What is the worst acting performance in an otherwise good film? Winner: In one of the most brutal fights we’ve seen yet Repmodad fended off a furious 12th-round onslaught by Gary McVey to give Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves the win with 20 likes.
- What is the quintessential American movie? Winner: Miffed White Male pulled off the comeback with 20 likes for The Right Stuff. There was a two-way tie at 19 for second place as well.
- What’s the most entertaining movie set during WWII? Winner: Arahant clearly won with Casablanca’s walloping 30 likes despite the withering onslaught by Sisyphus on the final day.
- What is the best movie love story? Winner: Songwriter with 20 likes for The Princess Bride with 20 likes. Up managed to make a strong showing and Dr. Bastiat is still conducting recounts trying to “find” some uncounted votes.
- What’s the best’ buddy’ movie? Winner: Brian Watt wins with 12 likes for The Man Who Would be King.
- What is the worst movie (not a made-for-TV movie) ever made? Brian Watt joins E.J. Hill as the only other back-to-back winner with 16 likes for Barbarella. Brian will get another crack at it by choosing the week 19 question. Can he make it three?
- What is the most frightening non-bloody film you’ve ever seen? The winner: J D Fitzpatrick with Wait Until Dark, starring the lovely Audrey Hepburn getting terrorized over a doll, sort of.
- Which movie has the best duel? Winner: Split decision between Philo for The Princess Bride and Songwriter for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The winner as decided by week 19 champion, JD Fitzpatrick, was The Princess Bride.
- Which movie based on a true story is the most accurate depiction of those events? Winner: I M Fine with a runaway victory for Apollo 13 with 27 likes.
Mel Gibson – Braveheart. Final answer.
The Princess Bride: “I want my father back, you son of a bitch.” Final answer.
Official answer: King Kong (1933)
Lt. Michael Murphy, Lone Survivor.
Sacrifices himself to get to a position where he can make a satellite phone call for help. It tears me up every time.
Private Mellish – Saving Private Ryan
As the Germans try to take back the town containing a critical bridge, Mellish is working a machine gun with a paratropper. The paratrooper gets shot in the neck and lays dying as Mellish ends up in hand-to-hand combat with the German whom the captain had let go earlier. While they are fighting, the translator Upham cowers on the stairs. It is an intimate, gritty scene that can be hard to watch.
Final Answer.
Tim
P.S. There are so many good ones that I may think of a better one later. But, it’s important to get your nominee in early; otherwise it gets lost in the comments.
P.P.S. Forgot the video link.
Richard,
Hell, let’s go with Major Strasser from Casablanca while we’re at it.
Tim
Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.”
“I have been and always shall be your friend.”
It was hard-hitting because we had known Spock for many years, and you don’t expect the main characters to die. But he made the logical choice to save the ship and its crew.
Official answer.
The death of Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two. Final answer.
Yes. This is the first one I thought of. Brutal. Effective. I never want to see it again.
May have to make a new rule barring The Princess Bride and Casablanca one of these days. They’re like the establishment Senators that keep getting voted back into office year after year.
Blade Runner. Tears in Rain. (UPDATE: Just to be clear, Final Answer.)
UPDATE: Roy has no reason at all to save Deckard, who has been trying to kill him the entire movie. Finally given the chance to watch the pursuer die, Roy saves him instead. After fighting so hard for life the entire movie—and killing person after person who disappoints him in his quest—he realizes at the end that the best he can do in his remaining minutes is to give life to someone else. And then he dies.
The ending of Breaker Morant. Official answer. Video embedded in the tweet (couldn’t find any other decent clip).
Lieutenants Morant and Handcock, after a sham court-martial for shooting Boer prisoners, are sentenced to death. Their stoic acceptance of their fate makes this memorable.
From what I’ve been able to find out, this scene is pretty much as it actually happened. Morant and Handcock did join hands as they walked to the chairs. Morant did shout “Shoot straight, you bastards!” just before the firing squad let loose their volley.
FWIW, the debate on whether Morant, Handcock, and Witten were justly convicted goes on. The fact that the British War Office lost all copies of the court martial transcripts doesn’t help matters.
“Shoot straight, you bastards!”
Official answer: Topaz, “The Purple Dress Scene”:
I’m going with L’Homme du Train.
Final answer.
Most memorable? The chest-burst death in Alien.
Kane (John Hurt) goes into spasms while eating a peaceful dinner with crew mates, then has an alien monster burst from his chest. No one who has seen this will ever forget it. I dare say no one who reads this nomination and has seen Alien is trying to recall which scene I mean.
That’s not true of some of the other scenes, which are great but not as memorable. We’re not voting on the most profound death or the best acted or the most dramatic or the best. This one sticks with viewers guaranteed
Alien. Official answer.
Vito Corleone’s death in The Godfather. A violent man gets a reprieve and dies of natural causes in his garden playing with his grandson. For all his previous claims that nothing matters more than family, the failed attempt on his life results in the death of his oldest son—a violent death that Sonny deserved—and the descent of his youngest into murder and madness. But the old Don gets a clean death he doesn’t deserve. A reminder of Matthew 5:45 “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Official entry.
The Passion of the Christ would be too easy…so I will go for the dog lovers vote:
Marley and Me:
Marley’s Death
Official answer.
Not Old Yeller?
This was my other option.
By the way – this is a great category/question. There are so very many great answers.
Was that one actually on screen, or do you just hear the gunshot?
I’m melting!!
Final answer.
The Boer War was straight up ugly.
A great read on that conflict is The Defense of Duffer’s Drift, in which young Lieutenant Backsight Forethought has a series of dreams of his platoon’s defense of Duffer’s Drift. Every dream him and his boys get schwacked, but he learns his lesson and employs his next lessons learned in the next dream, until he finally has a viable defense. Well, worth reading.
Also, Winston Churchill played a role in the Boer war. He was a lieutenant (subaltern? Something junior) but had a side hustle as a war correspondent. Because his journalistic comments on the high command were, ahem, less than politic, he was given the choice of either serving as a junior officer or being a war correspondent, but he couldn’t do both. He thought that he could have more positive impact as a journalist (and it was more lucrative). He was captured and made a daring escape. BTW, I’m pretty convinced that he had significant assistance evading Praetorian authorities after his escape. But that’s just me.
Damn. The best ones were taken before I got here. So…
Every time I see that clip, I can’t help but think, “Learning a little ground fighting never hurts.”
Is that a death scene or a birth scene? :)
IIRC, Churchill was giving a talk on the Boer War and his escape. He referred to a map, took a good look, pointed to a dot, and said “That’s me!”
It definitely wins Most Unintentionally Funny Death Scene. I’d love to see the outtakes! (Probably depends on how old you were when you first saw it.)