This is a continuation of this series started here.
You can go there to see numbers 50-41. You can also check it out to remember the ground rules and criteria for choosing. A brief recap:
1. A moment can be only about 2 minutes.
2. Only one moment per movie.
3. All the context matters.
4. The subjective element of beauty is real.
5. Beauty only.
So, with those in mind, I will now share #40-31 of the most beautiful moments in cinema.
I will provide Youtube links to the videos rather than embed them here. I would imagine that because this is critical commentary it qualifies for fair use, but I'd rather not take that chance.
You can click any of the links below to see the clips (most of them should be timestamped to begin at the moment referred.
SPOILERS FOR ALL THE MOVIES BELOW
There are so many amazing moments and amazing shots in this movie, which is part of the reason it is in my top 10 movies of all time. But in terms of beauty, there is something special about this shot. It is maybe the last time that Quint carries with him an aura of some kind of omniscience. Throughout the the movie he has been the one who really knows things. Everyone else is wrong but him. We see this especially in the scene where the shark first bites the line. And now after Hooper has screwed up, He stands there at the end of the bow and just stares at him with a knowing smile. The light behind him gives him an ethereal glow like Zeus in Clash of the Titans. But as the sun sets, he is backlit and shrouded in darkness. The sun is setting on him. This is his last sunset. From this point on, he will not be the one in control. Even when he gives his amazing USS Indianapolis speech, he does so in a drunken stupor. He must decrease so that Brody can increase.
39. Die Hard "Jump from the roof"
This might be the only shot from a purely "action movie" that is on my list. But it really is a beautiful shot. The action has been violent and frantic up until this point. The music carries with it a frenzy of activity. Emotionally, John (who is terrified of heights) is yelling at himself in incredulity of what he is about to do, but he has no choice. Willis' performance is undervalued here. Listen to his prayer when he says "Please, God, don't let me die!" The scene cuts between him, the FBI helicopter, and the terrorists.
And then comes the jump. Everything gets whisper quiet and moves in slow motion. The first flare goes up as John jumps almost like a strange angel as the explosion billows up behind him. This is one of the most iconic shots in movies for a reason. It is pure cinema.
38. Quo Vadis - "The Crucifixion of Peter"
One of the things that grabs me about this is how much it looks like a Renaissance painting. The use of the colors and the framing are gorgeous. The slow tilt up from the misty waters to the horrible sight of the crucifixion is oddly beautiful. Captured in that is all the holiness of St. Peter, dying in humility, the same and different as our Lord. The cross there is not just a place of death. It takes place at Vatican Hill. The cross is Peter putting a permanent stake in the world for Mother Church. All of this is communicated in just a few small seconds.
(I could only find this shot in a montage on Youtube)
I love this movie. It makes me want to one day walk the Camino. But this conclusion always gets me. Director Emelio Estevez captures how a cathedral draws us up to heaven. He makes our Catholic rituals feel the way they should: richly symbolic of the world to come. Watching the giant thurible fill the church with incense as the main character's dead son aids in the blessing is beautiful. It feels like a foretaste of what we will do in heaven.
36. Batman (1989) - "Final Shot"
You can call me a fool if you like for choosing this shot from a comic book film over so many others, but I maintain that this is an absolutely fantastic shot. There is a principle in film making that says you want to end with an exclamation point. You want to give your audience a powerful moment to take with them right before the credits roll. And this moment is that.
There is a sadness a the separation between Bruce and Vicki because he literally has a higher calling. Director Tim Burton pulls us up higher and higher above the heights as the music swells. And notice that it is not an unbroken shot. He cross disolves to the final moment so that you get the feeling that Batman is higher above us than you can imagine. He stands staring at the Bat-Signal. He stands like a statue to show his constant vigil from this point forward. It is a moment of triumph but one that implies not finality but perpetuity. And notice that the signal is above him. The call is bigger than the man. That shows his real heroism. He is not above looking down on us. He is looking up at our call because he is serving us.
35. Spirited Away - "Through the flowers"
(I could only find this shot in a montage on Youtube)
There are so many amazing moments in Miyazaki's movie. But this moment, which is only a few seconds, always takes my breath away. I think partly its because it is unlike almost any other shot in the movie. I have not done any research on it, but it feels like it uses elements of computer graphics while at the same time never breaking out of its hand-drawn style. And the colors are so vivid and beautiful. It fits into this world that our main character is entering, full of beauty and wonder and danger.
This is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. There are so many moments that we could unpack. But the final shot of the house on the falls is the one that really takes the cake. It symbolizes Carl's hopes and dreams. There is something so thematically beautiful about it. Pope John Paul II said that the human person is the one who finds himself when he gives himself away. That is summed up in this shot. Carl was obsessed with getting the house to the falls. But he ends up sacrificing this dream in order to save Russel. But in giving up that dream, he achieves it. In the end, love fulfills us in every way. The shot is so beautiful, capturing the color and grandeur of Ellie's dream. And it is also tinged with sadness that Carl will never know that he did it.
33. Life is Beautiful- "Final Shot"
The entire movie hinges on Guido trying to shield his son from the horrors of the holocaust. Guido wasn't just trying to save his life, but preserve his innocence for as long as possible. And he did everything he could in the end ot save his wife. This final shot shows his ultimate triumph. Joshua's final words, "We won!" resonate that his father has the victory because he achieved what he set out to do. As his mother raises him in her arms under that tree, there is something almost Edenic in that shot: a return to the original innocence lost in the horrors of war. And as the music swells, the tears flow.
32. Field of Dreams - "Final Scene"
Very few movies capture the complex relationship between fathers and sons like Field of Dreams. And it is a mystical and mysterious movie that never explains the magic. But the movie is so good that we never want to know how it all works. We just want to believe that it does. So the final shot has a return of father and son, a restoring of that relationship. While it is a return to childhood simplicity, it is not a regression. They finally see each other as men, as equals. And as this happens, the cars come pouring in. I remember seeing this final moment in the theater and it taking my breath away. The scope pulls out from the intimate to the universal. That is a such a good metaphor for the power of stories.
31. West Side Story (1961) - "Tony and Maria meet"
We saw something slightly similar and more subtle with Lars and the Real Girl. But here it is bigger and bolder. And for this scene I am only referring to the moments before the dialogue begins. Everything is communicated visually and with the music. It is definitely more artificial than in most movies. The lighting and music change, the dream like dance sequence occurs like something that you would see on stage rather than in a movie. But this film doesn't try to hide from its theater roots, but embraces them. It creates a haze of fantasy that captures what that love-at-first-sight feeling is. When Tony and Maria later sings "I saw you and the world went away," you feel it more intensely because you saw it with your own eyes. The visuals help you enter into their hearts.
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