My nominee is L. A. Confidential (1997). Lots of longer, high-explosive endings, but I have to put LAC on the short-list. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll remember a scene where Russell Crowe’s character is in a bar, talking to some tough guy, when he (Crowe) reaches down and grabs the guy by the family jewels. I couldn’t help but wonder if the scene wasn’t inspired by Mississippi Burning (1988). Gene Hackman got a similar grip on Michael Rooker. For 100 Bonus Points, can you name other movies where somebody grabs somebody (else) in this sensitive area?
Category Archives: Best Scenes
Movie Quote: The Bourne Supremacy
“You’re in a big puddle of shit, Pamela, and you don’t have the shoes for it.” –
– Brian Cox to Joan Allen, The Bourne Supremacy.
Flair
“People can get a cheeseburger anywhere, ok? They come to Chotchkie’s for the atmosphere and the attitude. That’s what the flair’s about. It’s about fun.”
— Office Space
Ferris Bueller: “You’re not dying”
As Ferris Bueller so bluntly put it, “You’re not dying, you just can’t think of anything good to do.”
Three Days of the Condor – Final Scene
I think the best answer can be found at the end of Sydney Pollack’s 1975 spy flick, Three Days of the Condor. Robert Redford’s character (Joe Turner) is talking to CIA agent Higgins (played by Cliff Robertson) about the no-longer-secret plan to invade the Middle East for oil.
Higgins: The fact is, it wasn’t a bad plan. It could’ve worked.
Turner: Jesus — What is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same as telling the truth.
Higgins: It’s simple economics, Turner… There’s no argument. Oil now, 10 or 15 years it’ll be food, or plutonium. Maybe sooner than that. What do you think the people will want us to do then?
Turner: Ask them!
Higgins: Now? (shakes head) Huh-uh. Ask them when they’re running out. When it’s cold at home and the engines stop and people who aren’t used to hunger… go hungry! They won’t want us to ask… (quiet savagery:) They’ll want us to GET it for them.