Emotional Impact in a Film

[Matt]

What sequences have hit you the hardest, positively or negatively, in a film? I'm talking about the emotional sucker punches that GET YOU in the heart. I don't want just a list of scenes, though...I want to know WHAT in the scene got you.

Was it the writing? Was it the acting? Was it the way the scene was staged? Something else?

I'm curious, as I'm trying to write a couple of scenes in a screenplay that I'm working on, and I'm curious about what GETS YOU in a movie.

An example for me: The ending of 'The Shawshank Redemption'. It's one of those perfect endings - the culmination of the hopes and dreams of the two main characters, and it's pulled off perfectly.

An example that DOESN'T work for me: Most of 'Crash'. I don't hate it with the intensity of many of you, but I do find it to be phony and highly manipulative.

Thoughts?

[Abraham Smashington]

The ending of Man on the Moon kills me every time. Just to see his happy face on the screen singing juxtaposed with the sad lifeless husk laying the coffin. KILLS ME.

[Matt]

The ending of Man on the Moon kills me every time. Just to see his happy face on the screen singing juxtaposed with the sad lifeless husk laying the coffin. KILLS ME.

I remember that. Indeed, it's one of the few moments from that film that really stuck with me as well.

[nerdious dorkus]

The beginning of Up and the end of Wall-E.

[Matt]

The beginning of Up and the end of Wall-E.

Agreed on both, but WHY did they work for you?

[Abraham Smashington]

I remember that. Indeed, it's one of the few moments from that film that really stuck with me as well.

IT also was a small factor in quitting smoking for me as well. Which is weird. But there you go.

[BillyG]

Maybe an odd choice, but the bathroom beatdown in True Romance. It gets me with the "holy shit ouch oh shit holy shit oh fuck." For some reason any time someone just gets fucking manhandled and the film adds the spit and drool into the blood it gets me. So many movies just toss in the syrup and make it look bloody, but if you've ever seen someone take a real beating they always end up drooling on themselves and spitting and it's not just blood. And that wounded eye on Arquette. Yeesh. It also hits me hard I think because when my parents were together and both had drinking problems they got into a lot of fights, so any time a guy raises his hand to a female I get a little itchy.

[Matt]

Maybe an odd choice, but the bathroom beatdown in True Romance. It gets me with the "holy shit ouch oh shit holy shit oh fuck." For some reason any time someone just gets fucking manhandled and the film adds the spit and drool into the blood it gets me. So many movies just toss in the syrup and make it look bloody, but if you've ever seen someone take a real beating they always end up drooling on themselves and spitting and it's not just blood. And that wounded eye on Arquette. Yeesh. It also hits me hard I think because when my parents were together and both had drinking problems they got into a lot of fights, so any time a guy raises his hand to a female I get a little itchy.

An excellent example. For you, it sounds like it was a combination of WHAT was happening (the beating of a female) with the realism of the practical elements (blood and drool, bruises, etc) more than the writing, acting, or direction. Correct?

[Ed Hocken]

The way she fought back and screamed at the end. That was nuts. And some amazing acting in my view.

As for what Matt is saying, it's a combination of many things. The writing can be great but if the actor's delivery sucks. It's a nonstarter. Same if it's the other way around.

[Ben Thomas]

Ok, maybe a little early to be playing the gay card round here, but...

In The Bridges of Madison County, when Meryl Streep is sitting in the car with her husband and through the rain, we see Clint Eastwood hang the necklace on his rear-view mirror. Open the door Meryl. Open the door. But no, he's gone. When Meryl cries, so do I. Like a fucking child.

Its the culmination of the whole film - she made a choice to stay with her family and not follow this man or her dreams, we know this from the present day bookends, and now we're seeing the moment that nearly broke her.

He never got over her and she never pursued him. But she never forgot those four days. Its a beautiful, incredibly romantic, yet tragic moment, filled with pathos and honourable devotion. I'm a sucker and an easy mark for unrequited love and unfulfilled passion. This is a brilliant distillation of that.

So that's one. I'll think of more, I'm sure.

In terms of moments so perfect they make your heart sing, yeah, the Shawshank ending is pretty hard to top. "I hope..." The kicker in that scene is Freeman's hat flying away and he just doesn't care - he's seconds away from the most earned manhug in cinematic history.

ETA: I'm not gay. Honest.

[Abraham Smashington]

When Freddy Kruger says "Welcome to Prime Time Bitch" to Jennifer in NOES3 it gets to me because we all know that it was her dream to be on tv. Just not in it. *wipes tear*

[V]

The scene in 'Soylent Green', when Sol "goes home". It reminds me far too much of when my father died.

I was overseas when his health took a turn for the worst, and I flew from Korea to Hawaii to LA to Atlanta. I made it to the hospital, and for the life of me, I still think he was waiting for me.

We talked for a few minutes. I told him I loved him. Then he died.

To this day, I still cannot watch that scene.

[BillyG]

An excellent example. For you, it sounds like it was a combination of WHAT was happening (the beating of a female) with the realism of the practical elements (blood and drool, bruises, etc) more than the writing, acting, or direction. Correct?

Well I think it was a combination of all those things. The direction (crazy dutch angles and letting the camera linger on some of the bloodier shots) makes you anxious and nervous, and Patricia Arquette does some great work in that scene. I mean, so few people take a beating like that, but she really made you want to run from any possible confrontation. The writing to a lesser extent, what with the pauses in violence and Gandolfini's speech about the UT tower sniper. "That first little bead, it was the bitch of the bunch" is horrifying.

I think what I am getting to, is that scene does a great job of taking a typical film fight and using all elements of film making to create an uncomfortable scene without using tricks like Irreversible (the low frequency hum inserted only to subconsciously make the audience feel ill).

[Ben Thomas]

Lima: Fuck man. Powerful story.

[V]

It was 20 years ago... but it didn't stop me from crying like an idjit when telling all of you about it.