Favorite Scenes of All Time: #8-The Interrogation (The Dark Knight)

There's really a lot to like about The Dark Knight. It's easily the best film in the Dark Knight trilogy, and features Heath Ledger in a role that has become legendary despite Jack Nicholson playing it decades earlier. One scene however, is so well shot, so well executed , and so all around perfect, that it rises to the top of all the great scenes featured in this trilogy... the interrogation.

Like Vader's redemption from last week, a lot of the greatness in this scene stems from the villain utterly stealing the show with his delivery of his lines. This is a big boon in itself, but what makes this aspect so important in this film is that in doing so Heath Ledger has also subconsciously let the audience know that the Joker is the one in charge of the situation despite his apparent seat of weakness in the scene. This is important because it subliminally allows the audience to still be threatened and intimidated by a clown in handcuffs, not an easy feat in any sort of film.

Notice how Christopher Nolan took a page from the Francis Ford Coppola and initially has the Joker hidden in the shadows like Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now to convey how they are almost one with the darkness:

But then Nolan expands on this idea and has the light come on with the entrance of Batman, allowing the viewer to realize that Batman represents the light and order as opposed to Joker's darkness and chaos, a yin to his yang, a battle of symbolism if you will.

Next we have the brilliant dialogue between the two juggernauts on screen, and we begin to see how fractured Joker's psyche and sense of morality really is. But what really kicks this scene into high gear is when Batman finally snaps and begins beating him down, and this is the first time (and only time) that we see Batman truly powerless against someone. He has met someone who can beat him one way or another, and despite all his strength and skills we see him unable to save the people who need saving and forced into a choice he swore he would never make.

Finally, we have the score, a slowly building violin score that plays whenever the Joker comes on screen. Nolan has stated that he chose this score because it represented the growing madness inherent in the Joker's character, his growing wishes to simply see the world burn. It's a perfect piece for this character, and when coupled with this scenes' escalation of crisis it really places it over the top to get my number 8 scene of all time.

Favorite Scenes of All Time: #9-Darth Vaders' Redemption (Return of the Jedi)

Return of the Jedi is a bit of a conundrum for me. On one hand, I consider it by far the weakest film in the Star Wars trilogy because of its' strange choices in film making such as replacing Wookies with Ewoks, the entire first act, and more of less neutering the awesomeness that is Han Solo. On the other, it contains most of my favorite scenes in the series, such as the best space battle in the series, any scene with Ian Mcdiarmid, and the final showdown between Luke and Vader. But while I could have probably comprised this entire list of scenes just from Star Wars films (Han Solo saving Luke at the Death Star, the Battle of Hoth, Darth Vader telling Luke he is his father, etc.), my favorite scene in the trilogy revolves around Darth Vader's redemption scene.

This scene is so emotional and there is so much going on in it that it's hard to even put into words how utterly brilliant it is, but I'll try. First of all, we have Ian Mcdiarmid completely stealing the show with every line of dialogue he utters. This scene has more memorable lines in it than most of the rest of the Star Wars trilogy combined, and his delivery is so evil and perfect that his brief appearance in the series has earned him a place as one of the greatest big screen villains of all time.

Next we have the music, and while last week I pointed out that the lack of real music amplified the power of the scene, in this case we have the opposite effect. The score is perfectly set to what is happening on screen, and punctuates every point with an appropriate pitch or tune. Just listen to that crescendo that follows "Now young Skywalker... you will die". For the life of me I seriously can't think of a more perfectly fitting score in the history of film.

Now it's hard to deny that the prequels have completely ruined the concept of the Emperor using lightning against Luke, but the first time I saw this film and saw that lightning shoot out of Palpatines' fingers I was in complete awe. Here I thought Luke and Vader were the epitome of what the force could accomplish, but now we have this new threat who is able to literally command the elements at his whim to torture our hero. I may have been seven at the time, but to this day I still remember that this was the first time I ever felt uncomfortable watching a movie. Lukes' torture went on so long that right before Vader gave the Emperor the old heave ho I just wanted Luke to die so he would be out of his misery. Whether you love or hate the Star Wars film, you can't deny that this scene really created a visceral reaction in the audience.

Finally we have Vader himself, filled with emotional conflict between the choice he is being forced to make: either side with a man who has been his friend and mentor for the last twenty years, or save the son he never knew he had and who represents everything he hated in his former life. Not being able to see his face underneath the mask makes the scene even more powerful, since we can only imagine the emotional struggle occurring on his face. and while the recent addition of a "No... NOOOO!" in recent editions has tarnished this silent moment, it still remains one of the greatest redemption scenes of one of the greatest big screen villains of all time.

I enjoy sending my readers to great movie review sites, so for anyone reading this you should give the Weekend Ronin a shot. They have been kind enough to feature this blog on the show, and their knowledge of film is second to none.

http://weekendronin.com/podcast/podcast.html

And don’t forget to like their Facebook! Thanks to those who already have on my advice.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/reeljunkies/83743065918

Favorite Scenes of All Time: #10-Quint Revisits the Indianapolis (Jaws)

Quints' speech about the USS Indianapolis is (in my mind at least) the greatest monologue ever caught on film, but not for the reasons you may think. Yes, the scene is brilliant in the fact that the simple act of a guy talking manages to be mesmerizing, creepy, and legendary all at the same time, but it's the things you don't really notice about the scene that makes it stand out above all other monologues in film history.

As Quint delves into the ghosts that have haunted him since World War II, we begin to glimpse into the dark obsession that will eventually lead him to his demise, made even more terrifying by the fact that he knows this will likely be the outcome of his hunt. In doing so Spielberg  makes Quints' obsession transform him into a modern day incarnation of Captain Ahab from Moby Dick, so whether you know it or not the film has just made a literary link that can resound quietly and effectively with the audience.

Not only is Shaws' delivery brilliant, but something that should be noted is that this scene is largely improvised. Everyone knows the nightmare that "Bruce" the shark caused the film, and filming this scene was just a way for Spielberg to buy time for the maintenance crew to get her up and running again. The fact that this man could pull this out and create a scene that will go down in history pretty much on a whim is a testament to the acting skills of Robert Shaw. The occasional shots back to Brody and Hooper show them just as transfixed and terrified by this dark story as we the audience are.

They say that a scene is 60% music and 40% what's happening on screen (we will further discuss this in next week's scene recap), but in this film the only music we hear is a soft, haunting classical that doesn't even enter until about halfway through the scene. This delivery is so brilliant, so well shot, and so timeless however, that I believe it would be just as effective and haunting if there had been no music at all!

There may be other, better monologues out there in film, but the combination of Spielberg's direction, Shaws' performance, and the overall tone of this scene places it as my personal favorite in film history.