The 50 Greatest Movie Moments (of All-Time) by TV
Guide
Part 1
TV
Guide Magazine (March 24-30, 2001 issue) offered their
list of cinematic greatness - ranked in REVERSE ORDER. They
are the greatest movie moments "that make you drop the
remote." The authors (Hilary De
Vries, David Hiltbrand, Damian Holbrook, Michael Scheinfeld
and Ray Stackhouse) apologized in advance for neglecting foreign-films,
but summarized:
"De Niro's menace. Hitchcock's malice. Meg's
rapture. Maybe a line of dialogue you love or an image you
can't shake...The scenes might run just a few seconds or stretch
well beyond...Some are from the classiest of classics, some
are from popcorn movies."
For purposes of comparison, the TV Guide list includes
almost all of the greatest movie moments published earlier on
the
"Greatest Films" website, at Greatest
Moments and Scenes, and at the 100
Greatest Film Scenes (in 10 parts).
TV GUIDE's 50 GREATEST MOVIE MOMENTS
50.
Goldfinger (1964) - LASER SURGERY
The quintessential James Bond movie, director Guy Hamilton's
Goldfinger has it all: a great theme song, the best gadgets, the
most memorable villains and, of course, Sean Connery at his coolest and
nastiest.
Goldfinger can also claim the most famous scene in all
of Bond-age, wherein Agent 007 is strapped down in a spread eagle with
an industrial laser veering straight for his manhood. The bons mots fly:
"You've made your point, Goldfinger," Bond says, dry as vermouth.
Then later, "Do you expect me to talk?" to which Goldfinger
so memorably responds, "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die."
49.
Heat (1995) - TWO GODFATHERS
About halfway through this highly charged crime-caper
opus, Lt. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) pulls over a car driven by master
criminal Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and offers to buy him a cup of
coffee. For the next six minutes, viewers are treated to a long-awaited
clash of acting titans. Pacino and De Niro, arguably the premier actors
of their generation, had never appeared together on-screen (though they
both starred in
The Godfather, Part II). The pairing was worth the wait. The coffee
talk simmers with foreboding, all but guaranteeing that these two characters
will meet again under less pleasant circumstances. No shouting, no scene
stealing. Just two pros at the top of their game.
48.
The Matrix (1999) - FREEZE FRAME
The Wachowski Brothers' tale of cyber-messiah Neo (Keanu
Reeves) and his head trip down the alternate-reality rabbit hole introduced
cutting-edge technology that sent ancient martial arts (and movie effects)
into the 21st century. Reeves trained for four months with choreographer
Yuen Wo Ping, and the
mano-a-mano finale between Reeves and Hugo
Weaving set the standard by which all action scenes will be judged for
years. Effects such as the midair freezes and rotating camera angles have
inspired
Mission: Impossible 2 ,
Charlie's Angels, and even
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. As Keanu would say, "Whoa."
47.
When
Harry Met Sally... (1989) - FAKING IT
Meg Ryan's afternoon delight in a crowded New York
deli personified man's deepest fear: that it (yes,
it) can be oh-so-convincingly
faked by the opposite sex. Lovable goofiness gave way to an untapped sexual
oomph as Ryan wryly dimmed her good-girl aura for an ecstatic impromptu
performance over one hell of a sandwich. Realizing his prowess is no match
for a woman waxing orgasmic, Billy Crystal has a look of mortified excitement
that says it all. But Estelle Reiner, mother of director Rob Reiner, gave
the scene its real climax: As a customer placing an order at the next
table, she deadpanned, "I'll have what she's having."
46.
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love the Bomb (1963) - NUCLEAR RODEO
Gliding from savage satire to faux-documentary realism,
Stanley Kubrick's devastating black comedy about nuclear annihilation
remains the ultimate Cold War time capsule. While an inspired Peter Sellers
gets the spotlight in three showy roles, the most memorable moment belongs
to character actor Slim Pickens. As Air Force Major T.J. "King"
Kong, Pickens rides a nuclear missile like a bucking bronco, smacking
it with his cowboy hat until it explodes into a massive mushroom cloud.
Yahoo.
45. Big (1988) - PIANO MEN
Why does everyone love Tom Hanks? Because he knows
how to hit just the right notes, of course, as he displayed with giddy
abandon in Big. In his tender, goofy turn as a 12 year-old trapped
in a grown-up's body, Hanks (along with his boss, played by Robert Loggia)
performs a crowd-rousing rendition of Heart and Soul on a floor-size
piano keyboard in a toy store. Today (which seems a lifetime later), the
scene holds up as a sweet salute to boys and their toys, no matter how
big.
44.
Star Wars (1977) - THE CANTINA
While the lightsaber duels, blaster battles and dogfights
drew the oohs and aahs, a visit to a bizarro-world cantina packed with
a menagerie of grotesque and hilarious aliens - or "a wretched hive
of scum and villainy," as Obi-Wan Kenobi described it - immediately
became everyone's favorite scene. A space-age homage to the barroom brawls
of vintage Westerns, the bit was spoofed on TV shows and commercials,
while the phrase "This looks like something out of the
Star Wars
bar scene" remains an apt description for all places freaky and geeky.
The once dazzling special effects now seem quaint (director George Lucas
found it necessary to provide a digital makeover for the 1997 rerelease),
but cafe society has rarely been such fun.
43. There's Something About
Mary (1998) - HAIR GEL
"Is that hair gel?" Those four simple words
had a nation howling in giddy horror. And while it may be hard to find
the highest (or is that the lowest?) point of the Farrelly brothers' gross-out
comedy smash (though Matt Dillon electrocuting that poor pooch is right
up there), there's no doubt that this hair-raising moment forever redefined
the gag in sight gag. The sticky situation, handled with
angel-faced purity by Cameron Diaz as the titular marvel, comes together
when we finally witness the awesome holding power of Ben Stiller's, um,
handiwork. Truly a seminal moment in film history.
42.
Dirty
Harry (1971) - THE QUESTION
Clint Eastwood's Detective Harry Callahan - he of the
Elvis hair and cobra stare - has had a busy morning infuriating his superiors
and mouthing off to the mayor. So when a bank robber interrupts his hot-dog
lunch, Harry's in a dirty mood. He strolls up to the lone survivor of
a bloody shoot-out, whose hand is reaching for a shotgun. Says Harry,
"I know what you're thinking: 'Did he fire six shots or only five?'
To tell the truth, in all the excitement, I kind of lost track myself.
But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world,
and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question:
'Do I feel lucky?' Well,
do you, punk?" There, then, is our
introduction to the best of all action-film characters.
41.
Alien
(1979) - THE GUT BUSTER
We knew something was coming, we just didn't know what.
That face-hugging alien critter on John Hurt's mug couldn't have just
vanished, but who expected it to reenter the movie in such a heart-shattering
way? Filmed in one take and mostly ad-libbed, the messy mess-hall sequence
from Ridley Scott's deep-space scarefest shattered the claustrophobic
tension among the Nostromo crew (including Sigourney Weaver in her first
lead role) and introduced us to the grisliest parasite ever. When you
see this scene again, keep an eye on Ian Holm's character as Hurt starts
hurting: His subtle expression suggests that he isn't surprised by the
uninvited dinner guest.
40.
High Noon (1952) - THE SHOOT-OUT
Just about every great Western features a confrontation
between the white hats and the black hats on a deserted, dusty street,
but none did it better than
High Noon. Conceived as a political
parable by writer Carl Foreman (later blacklisted), this morality play
turns the Western genre's conventions inside out. With stark black-and-white
photography (by Floyd Crosby, father of rocker David Crosby), virtually
no action until the finale and the ending more bitter than sweet. Fred
Zinnemann's taut classic builds suspense until the moment when Marshal
Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is forced to stand alone against four desperadoes.
In his Oscar-winning performance, Cooper makes pained expressions betraying
his fear until everything explodes in the showdown of all showdowns.
39.
Saturday
Night Fever (1977) - THE SOLO
Who knew that shaking his groove thang would turn Vinnie
Barbarino into the king of Hollywood? Fuhgeddabout the hair, the gold
chains, the Brooooooklyn accent - John Travolta's Oscar-nominated hustle
made him a superstar, and he shines brightest in his sexy solo to the
Bee Gee's
You Should Be Dancing. Travolta's Tony Manero parted
the disco crowd the way Moses did the Red Sea, sending a new musical style
into the mainstream. Decades after disco, the image of this patron saint
of polyester is staying alive.
38.
The
Deer Hunter (1978) -
RUSSIAN ROULETTE
Two scenes of Russian roulette are played out in Michael
Cimino's acclaimed Vietnam War epic, but it's the first one that caught
(and still catches) us off guard. A trio of American POWs (Robert De Niro,
Christopher Walken, John Savage), old friends from the same Pennsylvania
steel-mill town, are forced by their captors to engage in the hideously
sadistic game, and the audience suffers right along with them. The film
was criticized for the depiction - no incidents of that particular torture
were ever verified - but nothing can detract from the scene's nerve-shredding
tension. The gunplay remains a powerful allegory for the cruelty and senseless
suffering in Southeast Asia.