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Thu 20 May, 2004 11:19 am
In the gore stakes, Janet Leigh's shower scene in "Psycho" is the "best movie death" of all time, according to a critics' poll published Thursday.
The 44-year-old Hitchcock thriller beat other iconic movies such as "The Godfather" (22nd) and Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" (23rd) in the poll by Total Film magazine.
Stanley Kubrick's "Dr Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb" (1964) came second, with the surreal ending when Slim Pickens rides an atomic bomb.
Other highly rated movie deaths were the fatal plunge to earth of the ape in the 1933 Fay Wray movie "King Kong," in third place, and the demise of Bambi's mother (6th) in the 1942 Disney movie of the same name.
Alan Rickman's fall from a 30-storey building in "Die Hard" (1988) comes fourth, followed by the killing of the title characters in "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967).
"Some of the deaths in the poll, like The Wicked Witch melting in 'The Wizard Of Oz' (13th), are iconic but laughable, but nearly 45 years on, 'Psycho's' shower scene is still distressing," said Total Film deputy editor Simon Crook.
"It's the sheer violence of the edit rather than any explicit gore 70 different angles, over 90 cuts and those shrieking violins. It's a masterclass in montage and audience manipulation."
Crook added: "Knowing that the blood is Bosco's chocolate syrup and that a pulped casaba melon stood in for the stabbing noises does nothing to reduce the impact."
End of article
I would like to find the link to this poll (this is from my RoadRunner home page) 'cause one of my favorite death scenes is Kevin Spacey in "LA Confidential). How do you react to this above selections and do you have any to add?
By the time I saw Janet's demise I was too old and jaded for it to bother me much.
Massallah, Ben Hur's rival in the chariot race, died with more rage than my young mind could process at the time.
John Hurt's character in the first 'Alien' died a bit too violently for my consumption (I was in college and thought I had seen it all. My girlfriend at the time forced us to leave the movie, and worse yet, was too upset to fool around afterward).
Sonny on the Causeway.
That's my top three.
Marlon Brando in "The Godfather." Poignant yet chilling. Yet in "Apocalypse Now," it was supernatural and rather silly.
Heh! heh!. Well, Mr. Wizard, you know my first choice. Kevin Spacey in L.A.Confidential.
I like the theatrics of Cyrano de Bergerac, an acadamy award winning film.
In Virgin Spring, the girl's father killing her three killers.
If the death is gore, these are my picks:
1. Jean Paul Belmondo in Godard's "Pierrot Le Fou"
2. Jeff Goldblum in Cronenberg's "The Fly"
3. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in Penn's "Bonnie & Clyde".
But if you ask what death scenes have had the most impact on me:
1. Several agonizing patients in Kurosawa's "Red Beard" (Akahige)
2. The dying nun in a Belgian film: "Death of a Nun" (Dood van en non)
3. Diane Keaton in an otherwise lousy film: "Looking for Mr. Goodbar".
Speaking of Kurosawa, how "Throne of Blood"? Knocked me out...
D'artagnan wrote:Speaking of Kurosawa, how "Throne of Blood"? Knocked me out...
I think I recently turned Letty on to that film. Absolutely amazing, and Ran as well. I don't know if we are restricted to simply talking about individuals here, but I thought that the battle of Agincourt scene in Branagh's Henry V was an absolutely brilliant display of death on the battlefield.
Kurosawa sure knew how to direct death scenes and has been paid homage to many times.
Spacey's death scene was paid homage to in "Minority Report" with Colin Farrell's sudden dimise. And the death scene of the perceived child molester was shocking and mind-numbing.
Then there is Quint's death being eaten alive by the shark in "Jaws."
Paul Reubens (aka. Pee Wee Herman) had the greatest death scene ever in that paragon of cinematic genius ... Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
A great choice for a comedic death scene and there are others. "Life of Brian" for one.
I seem to recall a good one from "Duel in the Sun." Quite an old film, though.
"Robocop" possesses an internal injunction preventing him from acting against any officer of the corporation that constructed him. The villain of the movie is an officer of the corportation, played by Miguel Ferrer. At the climax of the movie, which takes place in a corporate meeting room near the top of a skyscraper, when the kindly old president of the corporation finally becomes aware of the crimes that Ferrer's character has committed throughout the film, he says, "You're fired," and Robocop says, "Thank you," and blasts the guy through the window.
I agree with Roger. The death scene in Duel in the Sun, definitely. Old, but not forgotten, like Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar and James Cagney in White Heat.
The "Duel in the Sun" scene was indeed gripping, I don't believe I've seen it since its original release, but I can see the sweaty bodies on the desert wasteland with one or both of them (one might have already been dead) inching along to have one last touch of the other.
The falling out of a window death scene doesn't exactly give the actor much to work with so it has to be what precedes. Charles Durning's suicide in "The Hudsucker Proxy" as he suddenly mounts the conferance table and does his amusing jaunt across the surface in front of the board members, leaping through the glass and falling to his death is satirical genius.
Definitely James Cagney in "White Heat" as the epitome of blackout (well kind of a whiteout) type of climactic death scene.
Hey, Brandon, thanks for your forgiving soul and joining the discussion. Made my day.
The death of the Albert Finney character in "Orphans," which is like a trip to the therapist.
The death of Arthur in "Excalibur."
Who can forget the classic death scene of the coyote in the Roadrunner cartoon.
The coyote sits at the base of a cliff, studying an Acme box. The sun beats down on the quiet desert, even the cacti seem to wilt from the oppresive heat. Nearby, a small lizard darts to the welcoming shade of a small rock.
The heat means nothing to the coyote. He is obsessed with the new "Roadrunner Catapult" and is reading the instructions carefully.
Meanwhile, a thousand feet above him, the roadrunner strains as he pushes an anvil closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. And then, he pushes the anvil over the edge.
Time seems to freeze as the anvil begins its downward journey.
And then.... hyperspeed!
A crisp shadow of the anvil is projected on the desert floor. The coyote sees it, his eyes bulge, and he quickly looks up.
But the anvil is already there.
Splat! The coyote is driven three feet into the ground. The anvil comes to rest at an awkward angle and the only visible part of the coyote is a section of wavering tail.
Abrupty, the tail ceases to move.... the coyote is dead.
Pure cinematic genius.
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