Top 5 Scenes in "Modern" American Film (Movies) According to Me

#5 "Euro Trip"- Rules of Attraction

I was having trouble finding a 5th scene, so I chose this one because it's the first that came to my mind. This is only the second feature film that Roger Avery made, and it's not all that great, but worth the watch. He is the guy that wrote Pulp Fiction with Tarantino. He is also the guy that had come up with most of Pulp Fiction, but Tarantino screwed him over and took all the writing credit for it, go figure. Oh wait, Tarantino was nice enough to give him the "Stories by..." credit. 

But first time I saw this scene I couldn't stop grinning. The pace of this scene encompasses everything we now see on television, these quick cuts without a moments breath in narration. MTV generation filmmaking to the fullest extent. I have still not watched a scene in a movie quit like this one, and if I have, I'm willing to bet this one was first. Either way, it's funny, innovative and has probably influenced a lot of commercials, but I can't think of any as of right now.

#4- "You're Part Eggplant"- True Romance

Dear Tony Scott,

 You haven't made any really good movies, but somehow you made one kick-ass scene. Congratulations.

Sincerely,

Tim

Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken. That's pretty much all you need to know. Just watch and love.

#3- "Winkie's Dream"- Mulholland Drive

I am not a fan of David Lynch for the most part, but I did enjoy Mulholland Drive even if it still doesn't make total sense to me yet. But this scene was great, and managed to scare the feces out of me. I've only seen this movie 3, maybe 4, times and I still don't get what this scene has to do with anything, but who cares?

First of all I've always noticed that in the classic two-shot dialogue sequence that the camera is literally "floating". It's effective because it gives a dreamlike quality to the scene where a dream is being described. I guess maybe the importance of this scene is that is sticks with the idea that this entire movie is a dream (as cliche as it sounds) and this is about a dream actualizing itself. I digress... As I've said the camera is "floating" in this scene, the ENTIRE scene, there is not one static shot in the whole 5 minutes. 

The way that Patrick Fischler describes this dream is very well acted, you can tell he has this anxiety of telling someone about this dream, but it seems as if he has to. You can tell he is nervous as hell, and the camera makes us start to feel nervous about where this scene is heading....

The final walk to the back of the restaurant takes an entire minute, which is what it would probably take to actually walk to this location, but in the world of film it seems quite a long time. It is also mostly a POV shot with a steadicam and the tension escalates until we finally see this man in back of Winkie's. I don't know if you'll agree, but it really did make me jump upon first viewing.

#2- "This is a Harvard bar, huh?"- Good Will Hunting

Welp, Gus Van Sant's most (or second most) "conventional" films, yet every time I see this scene, I get an intellectual erection. And I hate to say it, but the writing in this scene, and even the entire movie, is great; But I'm still skeptical if Ben Affleck had anything to do with the writing or just slapped his name on the credits. Matt Damon went to Harvard and studied english, but never graduated. On the other hand, Ben Affleck went to Occidental College (where?) to study Middle Eastern studies, but dropped out after a year. Either way, this scene and movie is great.

We've all met people like this didactic, Harvard prick. And Will Hunting does such a good job summing this guy up that it makes me wish I was as pedantic as this guy just so I could have Will Hunting give me the same lecture just so I could hear it in person. 

#1- "Drug deal gone wrong" - Boogie Nights

(sorry for the quality of this video)

Now I know what you're thinking, Paul Thomas Anderson sucks. Well actually you're not thinking that, and if you are, you should be shipped off to a third world country and work in a sweat shop. 

Everyone knows the story of Boogie Nights, the classic rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-bitches kind of movie. Dirk Diggler has a huge weiner, and this scene shows the exact opposite of that. If you're reading this, then you probably know the situation: Dirk's career is waning and he is doing more lines of cocaine than you can find on college-ruled notebook paper, so him and his "friends" go to sell Rahad Jackson (this movie has some of the best character names of all time) some coke that is cut with baking powder [?] and the following scene ensues. 

There are so many things going on in this scene, we as an audience are on sensory overload. You have blue lights subtly placed all over the apartment, the arrangement of the furniture is no wear near "organized" and you have Cosmo (he's asian) lighting off firecrackers and some classic 80's music you wouldn't expect to hear in a scene like this. This is genius on PTA's part. Now it seems absurd to have this little asian kid lighting off firecrackers, but in the context of this scene it just makes sense. Your in this coke-dealer's house, with a slight ubiquitous haze of smoke and Sister Christian blasting on the stereo. From the beginning of the scene, with the gate entrance, you know this isn't your ordinary "home". 

This scene is about 9 minutes long and never once do you get a chance to relax, PTA keeps you constantly on edge. The camera is nearly always moving, even if it is a very slight movement (which PTA loves to do) and he constantly cuts back to the wide shot of these 3 bone-heads sitting on the couch, with plenty of space on either side of the frame. These guys are little shits in a world completely unknown to them, and at any moment anything can happen and come from anywhere. We are reminded by this every time Cosmo lights off a firecracker and they jump in their seats. And when Rahad Jackson starts playing russian roulette with his gun, at first you don't know if the guns goes off or if it's a firecracker. I wonder if Rahad Jackson has Cosmo purposely lighting off firecrackers to let these guys know that if they do get shot for trying to screw him over, nobody is going to hear it because they'll think it's just another firecracker; Or it's just for the convenience of the scene to keep the audience on edge. Either way, its great stuff.

Now the shot where the camera holds the close-up of Dirk for a good 50 seconds, we see one of the biggest, yet simply done, character transitions. First Dirk kind of does this grin which is basically saying "eh, what the hell do I have to lose?", and then a few seconds later he just goes stone cold in the face. Without saying a word, we all know that Dirk is thinking "what the fuck am I doing here? How did it come to this?". I'm sure I've seen shots similar to this in films before, but never has one stuck with me for so long. I don't know if it's the context of the film or Mark Wahlberg's (surprisingly) good acting, but this shot is the best part of the scene. 

Thanks PTA for giving us all a lesson on how to masterfully construct a scene.