Sunday Best: 50 Most Beautiful Moments in Cinema - #10-6

      

This is a continuation of this series started here and continued here and here.

You can go there to see numbers 50-11.  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 (unless it is an unbroken shot).  

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 #30-21 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

10.  Schindler's List - "The Schindler Jews Today"

Tied with The Passion of the Christ, I think that this is the greatest movie ever made.  It is immersive and transportive in its hope and horror all mixed into one.  It amazes me that Steven Spielberg did almost no visual prep for this movie and instead decided to film each scene intuitively.  This speaks to his mastery of the art.  

There are so many amazing moments in this film, but this one is the most beautiful, because it breaks out of the movie and becomes real.  It is a wonderful incarnational moment.  While you spent that last three hours watching these characters go through the nightmare of the Holocaust, you still have the distance of watching actors perform characters.  But in that slow dissolve, Spielberg awakens you to the truth: this is not fiction.  When you see the real-life survivors standing in the place of their actor counterparts, in living color, the full weight and reality hits you like a ton of bricks.  And yet in the midst of this heartbreak, there is this amazing beauty.  That is the magic of this movie is that Spielberg crafts beauty out of tragedy in a way I did not think possible.  Seeing the "Schindler Jews" alive and together, joined arm-in-arm, you feel the affirmation of the value in each human life.

9. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story - "Last Shot"

I will admit that part of the reason this movie is so high up on my list is probably because I am huge Bruce Lee fan.  But when I think of how a movie should end, I rarely find a better example than this.  First of all, we need to talk about that score by Randy Edelman, which I think is one of the most underrated scores in film along with his one for The Last of the Mohicans.  It is so good that movie trailers sampled it for years afterwards to get a strong emotional punch.  The visual is stunning, with Bruce standing there outlined by the fiery sun as he shows off his skill.  But what puts it all together is that final voice over.  The movie is about the life of Bruce Lee and it is clear in this moment that we will not see the moment he died.  But rather than this being a disappointment, the movie uses this emotion to sling-shot us in another direction.  The final line is perfect: "All these years later people still wonder about the way he died.  I prefer to remember the way he lived."

8. Titanic - "Jack at the Lifeboat"

Sometimes I think people dismiss the phenomenon of Titanic like some kind of mass, pop culture psychosis.  Everyone was expecting it to be a gigantic bomb and instead it became the most successful film of all time.  And a lot of that is due to the masterful direction by James Cameron.  Known mostly for his action films until this point, Cameron created some of cinemas most romantic shots ever.  And the best on is the one I selected.  It is a scene charged with tragedy so the emotions are already high.  Jack tells Rose to get on the lifeboat and then confirms with her fiancé that he will be left behind.  One of the things that this scene needs to do is give Rose a compelling enough reason to jump off of the lifeboat and back onto the sinking ship.  If Cameron did not get this moment exactly right, then the rest of the movie would not work.  The audience would lose all connection to her and condemn her as a moron who threw away her chance at life.  

So Cameron gives us Rose's POV on Jack.  DiCaprio's performance is perfect here.  He has to play the conflicting emotions in him.  He has to appear strong and encouraging to her as she leaves, but his heart is broken as he looks at her for what he thinks is the last time.  And then we have the use of the flare.  It illumines Rose's face as a moment of emotional epiphany as it comes down and halos Jack's look of love.  In that moment, even if it makes no rational sense, Cameron has set up the powerful emotional logic that moves her to jump on to Titanic.  The moment is so beautiful that we believe why Rose would risk everything to come back.

7. Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi - "Luke vs. Vader"

This moment effected me more deeply than I realized when I was a child.  This was the culmination of the entire saga.  Before this moment, I love the use of light and shadow.  Some might find it a bit on-the-nose, but it works perfectly.  For the final time, Vader is the monster in the dark looking to devour the hero.  And it is not simply a matter of hurting him, Vader is trying to corrupt him.  James Earl Jones' vocal performance is amazing as he goads Luke, especially with the revelation about his sister, knowing that Luke failed to hide this secret.  

The scene builds slowly, but then explodes with Luke shouting, "Never!" with his lightsaber raised in battle.  We then have, what I think, is the most powerful shot in the entire series.  The camera pans along with the pair as they fight.  Because of the popularity of "Duel of the Fates" and "Battle of the Heroes" people forget that this was at one time the only use of choral music in Star Wars.  And because of that uniqueness, it makes it stand out.  It communicates something almost religious in its significance.  

I used to hate the fact that the action was obscured by the broken platform and stairs.   But now I can see the significance.  This battle between the light side and the dark side has left great destruction in its wake.  They are battling through the wastelands they have created.  It is reminding us that the cycle of violence could continue on if Luke chooses violence like he is now.  And at the end, the camera clearly puts Luke in the superior position to Vader.  But then comes the wordless moment of empathy.

I love how the blocking of the shot mirrors The Empire Strikes Back.  Vader cut off Luke's hand and hovered over him, pressing his advantage physically and psychologically.  And now the role is reversed, and Luke returns that pain with mercy.  I love how he throws away his lightsaber.  As a kid, I couldn't believe that he would do that.  But that speaks to the power of this moment.  Luke is giving up any hope of survival at this moment.  Even though it was years later that Lucas wrote Obi-Wan's line, "This weapon is your life," it still fits here.  Luke is laying down his life.  And the camera very subtly is just below Luke's eye-line to show us that he stands tall, even in the face of death.

That is heroism.

6. Somewhere in Time - "Last Shot"

I stand by my assertion that this is the most romantic movie ever made.  A box office disappointment, it eventually found a devoted following among people like me.  Like some of the greatest romances, this is heavy in the tragedy.  Richard falls in love with a portrait of Elise from 1912.  He goes back in time and the two find the most blissful romantic happiness, only for it to be snatched away completely.  The last montage of the movie follows Richard walking like a zombie through the ruins of his life now that he has lost her.  In his depression, he stops eating and the hotel staff tries to save him.

The final scene we have Richard's POV as he dies and his spirit hovers over his body.  But then the room fills with heavenly light.  The ending to Titanic borrows heavily from this moment (whether intentional or not) to show that Heaven is a place of love.  Unlike Titanic, director Jeannot Szwarc did not have a big special effects budget for this moment.  Instead, he uses the brightness of the light and the whiteness of the scene to simulate heaven.

The reason that this works is that we have unparalleled musical theme by James Barry as Elise stands in the distance with her hand outstretched.  It is a moment of a love and longing.  It turns this moment of death from a tragedy to a triumph.  He isn't losing his life, he's coming home.  And the shot holds so long with that slow push in to make us feel that longing.  We are there with Richard as we run happily towards Elise, our hearts bursting with love.  And then when he shows up, he is dressed as he was back in 1912.  The shot parallels their first meeting, recapturing that joy of first romance.  And the shot holds as they take each other's hands.  I have seen this movie dozens and dozens of times and it always gets me.

Sunday Best: Summer Box Office Review 2026

I'm fond of beginning this post-summer report by citing Michael Crichton who once said that no one can actually predict a movie's box office, even though studios pay millions of dollars for people to do exactly that.  In the end, there is always an X-Factor that cannot be seen in advance.

And this is especially true for me predicting this past summer's box office.  

In terms of box office success, the numbers were a mixed bag.  Last year, three of the Top Ten made over $300 million dollars.  This year, three movies did that again.  Also, the lowest grossing Top Ten movie made over $6 million less than last year's number 10 (and that gap could still widen).  However, this year's Top Ten made overall $700 million less than last year's.  In fact, the top 3 movies this summer each made more than last year's highest grossing summer movie (Lilo and Stitch).  But especially, the box office was helped by Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is still making money and has the potential to become the highest grossing film at the domestic box office of all time (not adjusted for inflation) and be the first movie to domestically gross $1 billion.  We shall have to see.

Below are my predictions along with the actual box office numbers:

MY PREDICTIONS	ACTUAL BOX OFFICE
Toy Story 5	Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Spider-Man: Brand New Day	The Odyssey
Minions and Monsters	Toy Story 5
The Odyssey	Obsession
Moana	Devil Wears Prada 2
Mandalorian and Grogu	Backrooms
Masters of the Universe	Minions and Monsters
Disclosure Day	Mandalorian and Grogu
Devil Wears Prada 2	Moana
Supergirl	Disclosure Day

So as you can see, I was way off this year.  

-I did not correctly guess the position of any of the Top Ten movies this year

-I predicted 8 out of the Top Ten, as I did last year.  That is slightly better than my average.

So here are my conclusions.

WINNERS

1. Tom Holland and Spider-Man

I predicted that Brand New Day would be a hit, but I drastically underestimated how big of hit it was going to be.  The last 3 MCU movies failed to make more than $275 million each,  Brand New Day has not only surpassed them, but has more than these last three combined!  I think this speaks to two things.  The first is that the general audience has an emotional connection to Tom Holland's Spider-Man.  He has been playing this character for 10 years and seven movies.  Many young people grew up along with his Peter Parker and for that reason they were going to turn out for him.  The second is that "superhero fatigue" is not a thing.  People keep trying to make it a thing, but the fatigue is not with super hero movies per se.  The problem is that they were not giving us a universally loved hero with a crowd-pleasing hero's journey in the same way as the classic MCU.  But Brand New Day shows us that the audience is there.

Holland also is a big winner in general for starring in the top two movies of the summer, solidifying his presence at the box office.  To be clear, it was not the star power of Tom Holland that is the main reason for the success of these films, but his exposure is being more and more associated with box office success.

2. Horror Movies

Two of the Top Ten movies were horror films.  Every year this is my blind spot because I do not enjoy horror films.  But I always underestimate their popularity.  Although, I don't think anyone could have predicted the phenomenon of Obsession.  It presented as just another generic horror film, and yet it went on to make $263 million on a budget of less than $1 million.  That and Backrooms significantly over-performed.

3.  Christopher Nolan

I've said before that Christopher Nolan is the only director who can still draw a huge audience on the use of his name alone.  The Odyssey is not only Nolan's highest grossing film, but it outgrossed last year's top summer film.  And even though the movie had a lot of controversy before it premiered, Nolan has built up enough good will with audiences that they will trust him to give them a great cinematic experience.  And I don't see that changing any time soon.

LOSERS

1.  DCU

Supergirl was a gigantic flop.  That is not a good thing for only the second film in James Gunn's new DCU.  Supergirl made about half of the box office as the MCU's second film, The Incredible Hulk.  And that is NOT adjusted for inflation.  For those who read my review, I quite enjoyed the movie.  But I agree with the analysts who said that the movie was completely wrong in its marketing and focus.    Supergirl was promoted towards women, but it was not feminine the way the Barbie Movie or The Devil Wears Prada 2 were.  The promotional material also presented Kara as full of cynicism, which usually does not bode for an enjoyable movie experience.  Contrast Tom Holland's Spider-Man with all of his utter sincerity and nobility to how Supergirl was advertised as a brash and drunk.  Or you could even contrast Supergirl with how Wonder Woman was portrayed and promoted for her own first movie with all of the traditionally heroic tropes.

2.  1980's Nostalgia

He-Man was so big in the 80's, but he could not get a box office draw today (although I hear that Masters of the Universe is a big streaming hit).  Star Wars had its first feature film in theaters in years and it is the lowest grossing live-action Star Wars film.  While I also liked this movie quite a bit, I think we have to admit that Disney has damaged the Star Wars brand, seeing as there is an $800 million gap between The Force Awakens and this movie.  And The End of Oak Street tried to capture the aesthetic and feel of the early 80's but could not find an audience either.

3. Comedies

No live-action comedy made it into the top ten, including The Breadwinner, Scary Movie, One Night Only, and Spa Weekend.  Laughing together with an audience is one of the best theatrical experiences, but nothing seems to be pulling us all together in the realm of comedy.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day	$874,814,928
The Odyssey	$553,261,605
Toy Story 5	$478,468,859
Obsession	$263,451,715
Devil Wears Prada 2	$220,556,651
Backrooms	$197,523,513
Minions and Monsters	$182,520,010
Mandalorian and Grogu	$177,730,060
Moana	$125,931,370
Disclosure Day	$116,636,645

----

Last year, I noted that audience sales were less than the year before.  Because of Spider-Man and The Odyssey, this year's box office is significantly higher.  This speaks to my point last year that the audience wants to come to the movies and have the theatrical experience IF Hollywood gives them a product they want to see.

Thoughts?

Sunday Best: Fall/Winter Movie Season 2026

    Now that the Summer movie season has ended, it is time to look ahead to Fall and Winter.

The big blockbusters have mostly finished for the year.  Now we start getting into the time when either we have lower-budget fare or a place to dump movies that studios have low confidence in.  This is also the time when we start to see the movies that studios will push hard for awards.

Here is a list, with a few brief thoughts of my own, including on a scale of 1-5 stars my likelihood of seeing it in theaters (1 being “Not at all” 5 being “Cannot wait!”).

SEPTEMBER

September 4th

By Any Means

This seems kind of interesting, like a more action-oriented Mississippi Burning.  I really like the cast and this could be good.  (***)

Onslaught

This looks like a much darker version of Universal Soldier, but I might wait for streaming. (**)

September 11th

Runner

It's very interesting that Angel Studios is branching into different genres like action.  This one has my curiosity at the very least (***)

The Uprising

I like Andrew Garfield and they are playing this up like a new Braveheart, but my instict tells men that this movie is going to be more depressing than inspiring.  (**)

Practical Magic 2

I didn't see the first one. (*)

September 18th

Resident Evil

While the movie looks well-made, I am just not into horror movies. (*)

The Weight

An intersting premise, but not enough to catch my interest  (**)

September 25th

Heart of the Beast

This could be an exciting and touching man's best friend story that might be worth it on the big screen.    (***)

Forgotten Island

The trailers just aren't grabbing me.  It's like it's trying to hard to be quirky and cool.   (*)

OCTOBER

October 2nd

Verity

This has the makings of an interesting psychological thriller, but I would need to see more before taking an interest.  I'm worried that it is going devolve into utter pretension.  (**)

Digger

I love Tom Cruise, but this movie looks truly awful.  It wants to be the new Dr. Strangelove. but it just looks horribly dark and mean-spirited.  But Cruise is trying to break form so he can finally win an Oscar. (*)

October 9th

Other Mommy

I will admit that this trailer gave me a good jump scare.  I wish it well, but I don't see horror movies in the theater  (*)

The Social Reckoning

While The Social Network was interesting, I get the feeling that this movie is going to be horrible preachy and have none of the insights of the first movie. (*)

October 16th

Street Fighter

Honestly, I have to credit One Piece for opening me up to this movie.  The cartoonish, over-the-top style would usually be a big turn-off.  But One Piece showed me that if you have a big enough heart, this can absolutely work.  I am hopeful.  (***)

Whalefall

An interesting premise, but not enough for a feature, but more of a Twilight Zone episode    (**)

Poetic License

Maude Apatow is moving into directing like her father Judd.  I am curious, but this might be a streaming watch.  .  (*)

Sense and Sensibility

If this is anything like the 1999 Pride and Prejudice, I might want to see this.  (***)

October 23rd

Wicker

This movie looks gross and awful.  How did this get made? (*)

Clayface

When Fox decided to turn New Mutants into a horror movie, I thought it was a terrible idea.  I mostly feel the same way about Clayface.  I don's see how this builds the brand.  (**)

Klara and the Sun

I like the sci-fi prmise, very Pinochio-esque.  But I have the feeling is more about disillusionment than enlightenment.

NOVEMBER

November 6th

The Cat in the Hat

I get the humor, but it isn't grabbing me (except the joke about Ron).  (**)

November 13th

Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol

I could be wrong about this, but it looks like Johnny Depp is having fun with this role.  Adaptation of this story are a dime-a-dozen, but I might want to check this out. (***)

How to Rob a Bank

Everything about this movie looks awful.  I find the characters and the premise noxious to the point where I am repelled every time I see the trailer.  (*)

November 20th

I Play Rocky

If they do this right, it could be the feel-good movie of the season.  This might be the closest thing to seeing Rocky again for the first time.  (****)

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

I haven't seen the previous two movies in this franchise, so I'm less likely to see this, especially since we know how it is going to play out.  But maybe if the trailers grab me, I'll check it out (**)

November 25th

Focker In-Law

I missed most of the movies in this franchise, but the trailer made me laugh so I might check it out.  (***)

Hexed

Something about this seems boring and unoriginal.  I'm probably not going to see this.  (*)

The Adventures of Cliff Booth

Netflix is releasing this into theaters probably so it can be an Oscar contestant.  Normally, I would just wait for Netflix, but I love Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, so I might just get the theatrical experience (****)

DECEMBER

December 4th

Violent Night 2

Didn't see the first. But I'm curious now that Kristen Bell is in it.  However, the trailer looks like a parody traile and not a real movie.(*)

December 11th

Zero AD: The Birth of Christ

I know that there are many movies about the Christmas story, but this one has an incredibly interesting cast that I'm willing to check out (even though it was supposed to come out last year).  (***)

The Debut

This looks like it is going to devolve into utter pretension.  (*)

December 18th

Avengers: Doomsday

There is no way that I am missing out on this on opening night.  While I have some reservations, I am hopeful for how they are going to portray Doom and create some real stakes in the MCU again   (*****)

Dune: Part Three

Unlike the first one, this feels like the final act of a Three Act Tragedy.  I will see it, but I'm not looking forward to it as much as the first two.  (****)

December 25th

Jumanji: Open World

While none of these movies have been great, I've enjoyed them enough to want to see this through to the end (***)

Werwulf

Looks like Nosferatu, but again, I don't dig on horror (*)

Thoughts?

TV Review: Lanterns Episode 1

 

I love Hal Jordan.

While he is not my favorite Green Lantern, what Geoff John’s was able to do with him during his legendary run was amazing and some of my favorite comic stories of all time.

So when I heard they were doing a TV show about him and John Stewart, I was excited.  But then I saw that Tom King was going to be involved.  After witnessing what he has done to some of the greatest heroes of the DC Universe, I became very wary.  In fact, I was so wary that I at first decided not to watch the show at all.  I am so sick and tired of stories that try to tear down he classic heroes that I love.

But I kept hearing so many conflicting things about that first episode from people saying that it was a travesty that ruined the characters to saying that it was a modern day classic.

Finally, curiosity got the better of me and I bit the bullet.  And now I understand why people love it and why they hate it.

And it all comes down to how much you trust the producers of this show.

The story takes primarily the point-of-view of John Stewart (Aaron Pierre).  He is the trainee for the older, reckless Green Lantern veteran Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler).  To say that the two do not get along is an understatement.  Stewart views Hal as an arrogant, bullish, problem to the Green Lantern Corps.  Hal treats John like he is a child, often calling him "Junior," and constantly criticizing his lack of experience and street smarts.  But things turn when a message tells them to go to a small town in Nebraska where there has just been a mass shooting at a high school football game.  Hal suspects aliens are involved and as a member of the Green Lantern Corps, he investigates with John in tow.  They work in a semi-antagonistic way with Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald), who is married to Billy (Jason Ritter).  But Billy's father Will (Garret Dillahunt) runs a militia ranch where he tells Hal and John that he is interested in taking out any alien threat.

That is as far as I will get without spoiling anything.  There will be spoilers later on in this review, but I will hold off for now.

There were a lot of things about this show that I enjoyed.  The directing was excellent, very atmospheric.  People have been comparing this to True Detective, but I would say it had a stronger kinship to No Country for Old Men.  There was a strong sense of isolation and alienation.  The ring effects are used sparingly, but when they are, they look great.  I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed the dialogue.  Both Hal and John come off as smart while at the same time having completely differing and polarizing voices.  There is a great scene where Hal is interrogating someone he thinks is an alien and the dialogue is deceptively clever.

But my favorite thing about the show so far are the performances.  Pierre and Chandler spark off of each other completely.  John is a military man, used to taking abuse from superior officers, so he holds discipline while seething inside.  Jordan is weary from decades on the job.  He resents John as an upstart that he thinks could replace him.  Watching them have to work together while dealing with these complicated issues was fascinating.

Having said that, the show has problems, some of which I will address in the spoiler section.  One of the issues is a stylistic choice.  This is a very HBO-y show: it has a lot of gratuitous language, sex, and it promises some graphic violence.  I always find this to be a bit off-putting, especially in this context.  The darker tone works for things like Watchmen or Logan.  But this is not what I would want in a Green Lantern series.  As a teacher, I've noticed how some teens revel in using vulgarity because it is an immature way to feel mature.  I get that same vibe from this show.

And while the dialogue is fairly sharp, I'm not sure that it's themes are.  It is still early, but Will seems like a thinly veiled knock on people who identify as MAGA.  I'm not against stories having a political bent, but I find that when they fall into political allegory, the writing gets very lazy.

The other big problem is that they don't get Hal Jordan right.  I'm one of the few people who really like the 2011 Green Lantern movie.  It wasn't perfect, but they got a lot right about a young Hal Jordan.  And while there is precedent for a more cynical Hal in the comics, this goes against the work that DC has put into the character over the last 15 years.  It would be like making a movie with Thanos and having him be a Spider-Man villain who rides in his Thanos Helicopter (see Spidey Super Stories #39).  It seems wasteful to tear down a character that they've spent so long building up.

But are they actually tearing Hal down?  

This is where the trust factor comes in.

SPOILERS FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

The episode ends in a flash forward 10 years from the main story where Kerry shows John that Hal has been murdered.  IF this actually is Hal, then I have no faith that this story will honor him in any way.  I am incredibly dubious that they will right the ship because one of the main people involved in this show is Tom King.

King is famous for taking established DC characters and wiping his nose with them.  He wants to write about depression so he makes Mr. Miracle hopelessly depressed.  He wants to write about war crimes so he decides to make Adam Strange a war criminal.  He wants to write about PTSD so he writes the absolute worst comic every written about Wally West.  I think that the evidence is clear that King does not care about the characters as persons but as vehicles for his themes.

And this is not a small thing when you are dealing with characters with whom readers have had a relationship for decades.  If you don't trust the producers to care about Hal, then you will assume the worst.

Now, there is a way that all of this can be made right.  However, the problem with mystery shows like this is that the fan theories tend to be much better than the actual resolutions.  Just look at the response people had to the finale of Stranger Things.  But there is a way that this could all turn out great in the end.

Throughout the show, Hal keeps telling John "My gut is never wrong."  It is an arrogant statement, but it is one that fits Hal's intuitive nature.  In the previews for the upcoming episodes, we are told that the Manhunters will be a major part of the story.  It is said of them that they can shapeshift to look human.  One of the ways that the show could be redeemed is if the dead "Hal" is really just a Manhunter and Hal has gone into hiding.  But that is not the twist that would make this story great.

At the beginning of the show we see that as a child, John and his military father had some kind of obsession with Hal.  John's father tried to make him fearless.  One of the ways he does this is by shooting apples off of John's head to see if John flinches.  As an adult John calls his father to complain about Hal, but his father talks about how they trained for this time.  Here is the my theory that would make the show work:

John's father is a Manhunter.

If John's father is a Manhunter, then we see that he has trained his son to be fearless so that he could infiltrate the Green Lantern Corps.  And all the outward evidence points to John being the ideal Green Lantern, Hal's gut tells him something is wrong.  This would validate Hal's seeming paranoia.  And you would not need to make John a villain.  This could be thematically strong where he has to stand up to his tyrant father and take possession of the ring not for his father but for himself.

Will they do this?  

My guess is that they will not.  Like I wrote earlier, it comes down to faith in the producers.  And with Tom King on their staff, I have no reason to believe that they will honor Hal.  And it is a shame if they think that they need to denigrate Hal to lift up John.  John Stewart is a great character all on his own.  I don't know why modern movie and TV writers think that in order to build up their own heroes that they have to tear down the ones who came before (e.g. Luke Skywalker).

I am curious enough to still follow this series to the end.

But I'm afraid that this could be a headlong journey into Blackest Night.

Sunday Best: 50 Most Beautiful Moments in Cinema - #20-#11

    

This is a continuation of this series started here and continued here and here.

You can go there to see numbers 50-31.  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 (unless it is an unbroken shot).  

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 #30-21 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

20. Gladiator - "Opening shot"

This one shot sets up the entire character arc of Maximus.  It holds for such a long time because it gives you a tactile sense of the moment.  You don't see Maximus's face, but instead you feel what he feels: peace and safety in the pastoral paradise.  And this golden moment is contrasted with the cold devastation that follows.  But in this one moment, it touches on something primal: the masculine need to protect that which is precious.  Contrast this moment with the opening of The Sound of Music, where Maria revels in the ecstatic joy of nature.  Here, Maximus holds this nature as a fragile memory: something to hold on to in order to fight through the hell of war.  It holds the key idea that men will fight and die to preserve a home they will never see again.

(On a side note, a friend of mine honeymooned in Italy recently and found this exact field and had his wife take his picture in the Maximus pose.  What was funny was that he said there were about a dozen other men who were having their women take their picture there as well)

19. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Concerning Hobbits

Like the shot in Gladiator, this accomplishes a similar effect: it gives our heroes a home worth fighting for.  What separates this one from the previous example is that this one is free from the melencholy: it is simple joy in a simple life.  Particularly, the shot of the children running through the rolling hills is something that has stayed with me since I first saw the film.  The Shire theme swells and fills your heart with a longing for this wonderfully innocent life.  You feel this especially in Gandalf and you experience his joy and the fireworks and fun of it all.  Again, as beautiful as the moment is, the music does so much of the heavy lifting.  I remember hearing this score before seeing the movie and I could swear I could see Hobbiton in my minds eye simply from that beautiful tune.

18.  Superman - "In the Fields"

This is the greatest superhero movie of all time, hands down.  One of the reasons why is because director Richard Donner wanted to create something epic and mythic.  This shot of Clark in the fields with his mother is so perfectly composed it is like something out of a pastoral painting.  The sea of wheat feels like it could swallow them up, but it also feels warm and safe.  Because of this, you feel the heartache Clark feels at leaving this perfectly nurturing environment to head out into the cold world.  And the emotion of the scene is perfect where the son must leave the mother and the mother must give up the son.  It is a true moment in that relationship.  And I will say whenever I hear the lyric "amber waves of grain," I always think of this moment.

17. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles - "Walking Together"

People remember John Hughes primarily for his writing.  But I think that this does a disservice to his skill as a director.  And this one shot hits you like a punch to the heart.  The entire movie has been this outrageous and silly quest to get home for Thanksgiving.  That's all Steve Martin's Neal cares about.  And he is saddled with John Candy's Del who lugs around his comically large steamer trunk.  But just when Neal is on his final leg, something doesn't sit right and he returns to Del, where he learns the truth: Del doesn't have a home because his wife died several years ago.  It is a touching scene with gentle music.  But then Hughes hits you with a hard cut and a musical sting that shocks you into attention.  And then you see this perfectly executed shot.  Neal and Del walking side-by-side, each carrying the steamer trunk as they make the final leg home.  So much is going on this these few seconds.  The symmetry of the composition is perfect.  They are perfectly framed by the street and trees.  They are walking towards the audience, coming in from the cold and entering into our memory.  And it has this amazing image of friendship: Neal is helping carry Del's burden so that he can come to his new home.  All of this is in this one simple shot as the music pushes you to one of the most cathartic endings in movie history.

16.  Much Ado About Nothing - "Final Shot"

Like his other movie on this list, Henry V, director Kenneth Branagh composes a single shot that is completely gorgeous.  In fact, this is one of my favorite films in terms of cinematography.  I love the opening credits image of the men arriving at the villa or the scene where Benedick falls for the lie about Beatrice.  But this final shot goes on so long in order to hold onto this wild and joyous ecstasy that we call romantic love.  It captures what it feels like to be in that moment where you feel like your own "happily ever after" is about to begin.  And by holding it in a single shot, he holds onto that unbroken emotion, culminating in that crane shot looking down on all the revelers lost in the joys of love.

15.  Saving Private Ryan - "Silhouette"

This movie is a masterpiece and there are so many shots to choose from.  I almost chose the last shot of Ryan and his family, because Spielberg does so much emotional work with how he moves his camera.  But instead, it is this simple shot that touches me the most.  Tom Hanks' Capt. Miller has just given his speech about how far away from home he feels.  And as they bury the body of the soldier who got killed, Spielberg gives us this backlit silhouette.  There is Miller, enmeshed in the barbwire entanglement of war, looking longingly, to the peaceful world represented by the tree.  He is so close and yet so far.  Home is almost within reach, but the sting of violence still ensnares him.  All he can do is look with love and longing.

14.  The Shawshank Redemption - "Andy's Free"

I think that when most people replay this movie in their heads, this is the shot that they hold onto.  One of the things that makes this movie work so well is that it gives you happy endings that are earned.  Andy goes through hell, but because his spirit is unbroken, he comes out on top.  We see this in the dankness of his crawl to freedom.  We feel the horrid, noxious claustrophobia of his journey and we breath deeply when he gets out.  And as he gets out, the rain like a divine baptism washes away the evil of the past as he strips away his old life.  The high angle shot of him is such an interesting one, because usually a high angle diminishes a subject, which is something you wouldn't think to do in a triumphant scene.  But it works here because with Andy's arms raised high, he fills up the screen, standing out against the darkness.  I was once given the acting note: "Freedom looks up," and you can feel that in Andy's body language as he opens his arms to freedom (and the audience) to share in his joy.

13. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers -  "Gandalf and the Rohirrim

Again, with any moment from Peter Jackson's trilogy, it is hard to find only a single moment.  But in The Two Towers, this one stands out.  The entire battle of Helm's Deep has felt like a slow, but heroic, defeat.  Our heroes ride out for "death and glory."  But then we get that striking figure of Gandalf against the sky.  And then Eomer shouts, "To the king!"  It was either GK Chesterton or CS Lewis who said that there is a natural inclination in human beings to kneel to something greater.  This is why monarchy has been so common in history.  Ultimately, this refelcts a natural impulse to kneel before God.  But in Eomer's shouting, you can feel the power of noble fidelity to a king.  But then the shot of them riding down into the darkness, bringing with them to light of day as they break the ranks and give hope just as the musical score stings your heart like the sunlight stings the eyes of the enemy.  Truly beautiful

12. Braveheart - "Last Shot"

This film is in my to ten movies of all time.  It is hard to believe that this was only Mel Gibson's second feature film he directed.  Not only are the epic battles something that has been copied over and over again in cinema, but his quiet and intimate moments are powerful as well.  And perhaps I should have seen it coming, but when Wallace shouts "Freedom," it hit me like a splash of ice water to the face.  But the most beautiful moment is that last shot.  That single sword waving in the wind, planted on the battlefield.  It stands not only a testament to the warriors but as the Christian cross of sacrifice, a reminder of what Wallace did for the people.  The slow disolve from the brave Scots and the voice over hit just the right note.  So when Gibson delivers that last line with that final note of the bagpipes, that single image leaves a haunting impression that stays with you.

11. ET - "Moonshot"

This is the fourth moment from Steven Spielberg on this list.  It might be his most iconic moment, so much so that it is the logo for his film company.  Not every iconic moment is the most beautiful, but this one is.  ET only works because Spielberg is able to see the entire story from that of an innocent child and is able to communicate the entire movie from that perspective.  He captures the wild days of suburban childhood when you would go out into the woods and explore the world on the your bike.  And as a child you felt that maybe, just maybe, there would be some magic out there for you to discover.  This moment from ET captures all of that.  There is the terror of new heights followed by the thrill of the magical.  That shot where he crosses over the moon shows us how Spielberg takes the most homely and innocent of images (a child on a bicycle) and marries it to the cosmic grandeur of the silvery moon.  It's no accident that these are also the main elements of the logo for his studio, DreamWorks.  In this single shot, he promised all of us that even in the ordinary there exists the possibility of the extraordinary.

Film Flash: The End of Oak Street

 

15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)

Jurassic Park in a Poltergeist setting that is only half as good as either film.

Sunday Best: Ranking the Spider-Man Movies (updated 2026)

  

With Spider-Man: Brand New Day in theaters now, I thought it would be good to look back at the previous outings of this iconic character and see where they rank.  Looking back at a few of them, I was actually fairly surprised at how my thoughts and opinions have evolved over time.

So of the 10  Spider-Man movies that have already been theatrically released, here are my rankings:

11.  The Amazing Spider-Man 2

What is so frustrating about this movie is that there are moments of actual greatness here.  We finally get to see that wonderfully horrible moment from the comic that defines Peter's tragedy as an adult Spider-Man.  The problem is that the main antagonists are absolutely awful and it is surrounded by an overblown conspiracy that doesn't really go anywhere.

10.  Spider-Man 3

A lot of people blame the villains here, and there is much to be said about how poorly they were handled.  But the main problem is with Peter himself.  It's okay to see him tempted by the dark side.  That isn't the problem.  People are okay with heroes fall a bit from the light.  They do have a problem with their hero acting like an... a word I can't say on this blog (but begins with "a" and ends with "e".). This isn't even the problem that occurs with the Venom suit.  Peter already becomes a self-centered $*^$#&@ before any of that.  It makes for a very unpleasant watch

9.  The Amazing Spider-Man

I liked this movie a lot more when it first came out, but the sequel spoiled a lot of it.  It removed a lot of the cheesy elements from the Raimi trilogy, but it lost a lot of heart in translation.

8. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

This is a worthy follow-up to Into the Spider-Verse, but feels too much like an incomplete film.  Obviously as this is meant to be the middle film in a trilogy, it should look both forwards and backwards.  But it doesn't have quite the same magic of the original.  

7. Spider-Man: Far From Home

What I like about these MCU movies is that they really explore Peter's life and struggles as a metaphor for the high school experience and growing up the way a show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer did.  This movie isn't great, but it is fun and very re-watchable.

6. Spider-Man: Homecoming

See my note above.  I love how Tom Holland brings a youthful energy to the character that we never quite got with the other two.  I love watching his relationship with Tony.  And Keaton is great in his role as one of the most sympathetic villains in the MCU, I almost rooted for him.

5. Spider-Man: Brand New Day

This movie has the advantage of building on 10-year goodwill of Tom Holland's Spider-Man and being a wonderful mixture of disparate MCU elements and characters.  Having seen this twice now, I was entertained the entire time and it defintely deserves to be in the upper half of Spider-Man movies.  And it left me wanting more of this Spider-Man

4. Spider-Man 2

As I've written previously: What the movie captures so well so early on is how much of burden it is for Peter to be Spider-Man.  Unlike Batman or Iron Man, Spider-Man does not have unlimited resources.  Heck, even Clark Kent does better than him in the same field of journalism.  But Peter's life is on the rocks.  Director Sam Raimi captures in such nice visual touches Peter's poverty.  It is such a nice carryover from the first film to see how Peter refuses to make money off of his power.  That path led to the death of his Uncle Ben.

And these early scenes set up the main struggle of the film: is being Spider-Man worth it?  Being the hero leads to an overall decrease in his quality of life.  He barely makes rent, he cannot help his Aunt May, he cannot be with the woman he loves... and he still tends to be hated.  This is a crucial step in the hero's journey, reminiscent of the events of Superman II.

3. Spider-Man

I recently rewatched this one and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  A few years ago, this movie did not even make my top 25 Best Super Hero Movies of All Time.  The reason why is that there is a cheesiness in the films that I found to be a real turn-off, particularly most scenes with the Green Goblin.  I think they handled him poorly.

But upon rewatch, the tone came off less like cheesiness but innocence.  There is something incredibly wide-eyed and wondrous about watching Peter discover his powers.  I love how Raimi handles the scene where Peter lets the robber go.  If you don't know the story, you completely feel his nasty vindication and so can follow along with his horrible guilt.  The performances are mostly excellent.  Even Norman Osborne, when he isn't the Goblin, is actually fairly nuanced.  But the best is JK Simmons as Jameson.  He hit the nail on the head exactly with broad comedic character without going completely into caricature.  And I love the fact that they got his character right when he refused to give up Peter's identity in order to save his own life.

If you haven't seen this one since it came out nearly 20 years ago, you should give it another look.  It has aged very well.

2. Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse

Everything about this move works.  As I wrote:

This is the best Spider-Man movie that has been made.

I don't say that lightly or in the mode of a fanboy who is pre-set to love anything comic book related.  I have several times noted my dislike of Miles Morales (the main Spider-Man character in this movie) from the comic books.  He was made up out of thin air by Brian Michael Bendis and inserted into the Spider-Man mythos with no connection other than his powers were similar.  He had no connection to Peter Parker or any of the larger Spider-Man family.  He was also incredibly boring as a character, not given any real flaws or even universal appeal.  He was as bland and as uninteresting as you could make a character.

Thank goodness for Into the Spider-Verse.  It is the best thing to happen to Miles Morales.

...

1.  Spider-Man: No Way Home

As I've written before on this blog:

Going into the theater, I thought Spider-Man: No Way Home would be a fun Marvel adventure.  On that front, I was not disappointed.  But the movie was much better than I had anticipated.

Martin Scorsese criticized super hero movies as something closer to theme park rides than cinema.  I understand what he is saying, but I think his point misses out on the magic of the ride.  When you are on a thrill-ride, you lose yourself for the briefest of moments and become engrossed in an overwhelming emotion.  This is not an easy thing to accomplish in a movie, but No Way Home did that.  There were times, even upon multiple viewings, that I was filled with a sense of excitement and happiness.

...

Usually at this point, most creators would take the heroic figure and try to deconstruct him (as they did with Luke Skywalker in the Sequel Trilogy).  But instead, the makers of No Way Home decided to multiply the heroism and push him even further.  While young in the MCU, the story shows that Peter is the hero among heroes.  There is a reason that Spider-Man is the THE flagship Marvel character.  This movie shows you why.

All of these themes are explored while engaging in a finely plotted film.  This is a coming of age story for the MCU.  The trappings of childhood from the earlier part of the trilogy are left behind as Peter grows into a man.