On Nov. 22, in a story about how directors might reshoot the shower scene from “Psycho” (that was before we saw how Gus Van Sant butchered it in the remake), we asked readers what movie scenes they thought should never be remade.
We received many responses. Here are some of the best.
`PULP FICTION’
CHICAGO–Here’s a scene you can’t top the mix of shear horror and glee: Vincent Vega (John Travolta) administering an adrenaline shot to Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) in “Pulp Fiction.”
What makes the entire scene so amazing is the joyous frenzy evoked by the other actors in the room. The smirk on Rosanna Arquette’s face just prior to entry and Eric Stoltz’s feigned calm take the scene from great to classic. What a wonderful moment. Pound for pound I don’t think you could improve the entire mix of that scene.
— Bill Toelke
`2001′
DEERFIELD–I was happy to see your inclusion of the star-gate scene from “2001: A Space Odyssey” as an untouchable, if only because it provides an opportunity to express my opinion that it should be re-shot. I always felt that it was the only weak part of the film. The special effects then were simply not up to the task. Especially uninteresting and unimaginative was the colorized (and repeated) fly over of some terrestrial terrain. The Jodie Foster movie “Contact” has a similar scene and I was almost awed by it. It is my (now no longer) secret wish that Kubrick will redo the end of the movie in a way which truly does it justice, perhaps in time for 2001.
— Peter Wlodarski
`DIVA’
STREAMWOOD–My “unimprovable” movie scene would be out of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Diva,” where a young postman (Frederic Andrei), while on motor bike, is being chased (I know, I know, another chase scene) by a plain-closed police officer, in his car, through the city lights of Paris.
It starts off on the streets and ends up in a motor bike/foot race through a metro station. The director’s use of high-speed, low camera angles (as well as hand held camera shots through the metro) really gives you a sense of tension and anxiety. It’s a visually stunning scene !!!
— Tom Avallone
`APOCALYPSE NOW’
NAPERVILLE–The meeting scene where Lt. Willard gets his orders to assassinate Col. Kurtz.
A young Martin Sheen playing the troubled, fatalistic Lt. Willard. I remember him suspending that knife over his plate of roast beef and peas, while listening to Marlon Brando’s voice, “slithering along the edge of a straight razor,” as much as the knife in the hand of Norman Bate’s “mother.”
G.D. Spradlin’s magnificent portrayal of the General who uses the words of Lincoln to try to make sense out of the madness of Col. Kurtz.
A very young, pre-Han Solo Harrison Ford as a rather bumbling staff officer who handles the bestowment of the orders with awkward inefficiency.
And finally, the nameless civilian-CIA operative who calmly tells Willard to “terminate with extreme prejudice.” He’s someone who looks like a lot of people you see every day.
With these actors and Brando’s voice, composed in a rather simple scene, Coppola built a powerful metaphor for the insanity of the Vietnam war. As a former Navy radioman who served in Vietnam, often with the staffs of high ranking officers, the nuances of the scenery, sounds, and the people involved, seemed very real.
— John Carlson
`DUCK SOUP,’ ETC.
NORTHBROOK–Try these on for size:
1. The mirror/doorway scene with Groucho and (who? Harpo?) in “Duck Soup.”
2. The shoelace-eating scene in Charlie Chaplin’s “Gold Rush.”
3. The detached hands on the barbed wire in the Lew Ayers version of “All Quiet on the Western Front” or, from the same film, “He won’t be 16.”
4. The “Diablo” bathtub scene. (The 1950s version, that is)
5. Errol Flynn’s double-take in “Dawn Patrol.”
6. The “round up all the usual suspects” scene from “Casablanca.”
Have I given my age away?
Douglas W. Downey
`CITIZEN KANE’
ST. CHARLES–The opening sequence in “Citizen Kane,” where a window of the Kane mansion appears in consecutive shots leading up to the snow globe shot where Kane (Orson Welles) utters his last word, “Rosebud.”
— Jeff Gore
`BULLITT’
CHICAGO–I really enjoyed your article. Here are my unimprovables:
1. Car chase scene in “Bullitt.”
2. The buffalo stampede from “Dances With Wolves.”
3. Prison yard scene from “Shawshank Redemption” when Morgan Freeman played the classical music over the speakers.
4. The chariot scene from “Ben Hur.”
— Jill M. LaVieri
`TRUMAN SHOW’
LADYSMITH, Wis.–I enjoyed reading the “Retaking a Shower” feature about unimprovable film sequences, especially since Gus Van Sant has recently mentioned in an interview in Movieline that he wouldn’t mind re-making “Citizen Kane” if he had the opportunity to do so — here’s my list of unimprovable scenes:
Truman Burbank’s boat literally coming to the end of the earth (as he knows it) in “The Truman Show.”
The scene in “Witness” when Lucas Haas’ Amish boy sees the face of the train station killer, and starts to point at the man’s photo, while John Book (Harrison Ford) gradually notices the boy — the sound drops own to near silence, and the camera work is impeccable.
Hi (Nicolas Cage) dreaming of the Lone Biker of the Apocalypse’s wild ride through the desert, culminating in that deliriously swooping pan up to and into the bedroom of the Arizona quints in “Raising Arizona.”
The “Rosebud” montage early in “Citizen Kane”–Robert Wise’s editing is breathtaking. Come to think of it, the whole film is unimprovable.
Charles Durning’s mad dash across the boardroom table at the beginning of “The Hudsucker Proxy.”
— A.R. Morlan
`CITY LIGHTS’
CHICAGO–The boxing scene in Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights.”
— Derrick Cameron
`REAR WINDOW’
HINSDALE–I am pleased that Christopher Reeve is getting the opportunity to act again after his tragic accident, however to me “Rear Window” is a classic and needs no remake.
My choice for unimprovable scene is the one in which Grace Kelly enters a somewhat darkened room and finds Jimmy Stewart asleep in his chair. She bends down to kiss him and all we see is her profile. It appears the film is slowed down just a tad, not quite slow motion but there is a certain hesitation.
In this scene Grace Kelly is so breathtakingly almost achingly beautiful. Daryl Hannah is a very attractive woman but Grace Kelly was one in a million, irreplaceable and certainly unimprovable!
— Susan Fox McGuire
