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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.
John Wayne in The Cowboys.
I’ve read that while they were rigging him up with the squibs, Wayne told Bruce Dern that he was about to become the most hated man in America. And Dern has said that the film [that scene] hurt his career.
Final answer, the shadow death scene in Akira Kurosawa’s Red Beard.
Boromir’s demise in The Fellowship of the Ring. Official answer.
For Gondor
Major Kong From Dr.Strangelove:
Slim Pickens, a character actor mainly known for comic relief and sidekicks, turns in the best performance in this film, outshining Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn and a very young James Earl Jones. His death scene is the most iconic of this iconic movie, and arguably the most iconic of any of the films mentioned here.
Commando – official answer
There is clearly only one answer to this question. The greatest death in all movie history is clearly Bambi’s mom.
Richard, I agree with this choice. Great scene – memorable. I can’t vote for it though. As much as I love The Princess Bride, Movie Fight Club needs to marry outside of its gene pool to stay healthy.
That’s a great scene. I don’t think the death happens onscreen though.
I thought about this, but eliminated it since it’s offscreen. It’s monumental, of course.
No contest…Quint (Robert Shaw) getting eaten alive in Jaws.
Final answer
And, in one of the great movie understatements of all time:
Matt Hooper: “Quint?”
Martin Brody: (Shaking his head) “No”.
And, in a strong second place: The death of Old Yeller
I still remember Kirk’s last words:
https://youtu.be/y8_oqgPwHfI?t=72
NOT official answer.
First place, since it has already been mentioned: Spock’s death in The Wrath of Khan. At 14, having grown up with the character and even been influenced by the character (I admit it readily), it was a shock. The scene still moved me after I’d seen the film 18 more times. Official answer.
Second place: John Book’s death in The Shootist. The impact of this one actually increased as I got older, for the reason that Wayne’s cowboy characters had reminded me of my father and as he grew older and eventually contracted cancer, well, watching that scene became harder. I imagine for those who grew up with the Duke and lived chronologically closer to him, it was even more memorable.
Third place: The death of Gus McCrae in Lonesome Dove. It was a rare case of an aging hero not dying a heroic death in the course of fulfilling his last mission, making it tough to watch and hard to forget.
Not a death scene, but a very memorable news-of-death scene:
Any movie where the Duke’s character dies is tough to take, Sands of Iwo Jima, The Fighting Seabees, Wake of the Red Witch, etc.
I would agree that John Books’ death in The Shootist was especially touching, in light of John Wayne’s cancer diagnosis.
George Gipp:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e7rmpjBSR8
Not official answer.
I’ll cheat with a two-fer on The Champ:
https://youtu.be/XOiCjhq9RUc?t=68
https://youtu.be/b5qwTeCj4jc?t=16
Official answer.
Edit: There’s only so much that can be done by the actor playing the decedent. But the death scene continues after the death. Others are clearly better death portrayals. But the death scene!
I’m so happy to have another Kurosawa nerd on these movie posts.
What people often miss—it happens quickly—is that Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) saves Rick Deckard’s life only after Deckard (Harrison Ford) literally spits in the face of death.
Roy Batty smiles savagely, as if to say “Now you get it!”, and lifts Deckard to the roof with more than human strength.
He will spend his last moments with a fellow warrior.
I’ve already given my final answer but the wife made a decent suggestion:
Sonny Corleone in The Godfather.
I suppose you could also add, along the same lines, Bonnie and Clyde.
I’ve voted for several, but my heart is with @repmodad and the Alien scene, for the same reason as his. It’s not the saddest, or the most affecting, or even the most realistic. But, Lord, it was memorable. (I’m old enough that I watched it for the first time on the big screen, just after the movie was released in 1979, years before theaters moved to the tiny screen “intimate” multiplex experience. It was, and remains, the scariest movie I’ve ever seen.)
Billy in Predator. Disqualified as an off-screen death:
Boss,
Agree, but that’s one of the things I like about it. It’s just two guys, not very skilled, going at it as hard as they can.
Tim
Ok, Agreed. Bambi’s mom is offscreen…
If it has not already been picked … Return of the Jedi. Darth Vader.
“Made It ma! Top of the world!”
Gladiator, the death of Maximus. Final answer.
I worried that someone might argue that the death of Spock didn’t count because, as we know from subsequent movies, he wasn’t all dead, he was just mostly dead.
Socialist “everyone gets a trophy” thinking. This is America, dammit. Let merit rule!
Maybe we could have “most emotionally moving response to a death” as a category for a future Fight Club. Bambi would qualify for that.