Motoring

A few weeks ago Don and I were at Bar Coastal (his east side sports bar; he has a separate west side bar he visits as well and never the twain shall meet) watching a baseball game (Red Sox, duh) and Tom Petty's "American Girl," came on the stereo (iPod? Satellite radio? Internet jukebox?). I cannot hear that song without thinking of two things: 1) my college sorority WOO! days in which friends and I would paint our toenails baby blue and listen to music and claim OMG THIS IS TOTALLY MY SONG, during which I may or may not have WOOed over American Girl, and 2) Silence of the Lambs. I love Brooke Smith and I loved her in Silence of the Lambs and I loved her in Weeds and I loved her in Matilda & Matilda, and if I watched Grey's Anatomy I'm sure I would have loved her in that as well but to me, she is forever and always linked to Buffalo Bill, the lotion in the basket, and American Girl. Silence of the Lambs came out in what? 1990? Nearly twenty years later that song and that scene are inextricably linked in my mind.

I asked Don for some examples of what he thought were the best uses of music in movies, and over the course of the following five innings we circled round the topic, refining the criteria and making mental notes of items to fact check later on IMDB. Without much thought or hesitation, we both immediately mentioned the scene in Boogie Nights with Alfred Molina, the coke deal, and Night Ranger. I threw out Layla playing over Goodfellas and the bus scene in Almost Famous in which everyone sings Tiny Dancer. We both agreed that Martin Scorcese, Quentin Tarantino and Cameron Crowe were probably the directors who best use music; the effing stereo over John Cusack's head is so iconic it's disqualified from my list while Gimme Shelter played over the beginning of The Departed definitely earned a spot. Narrowing down examples of music in Tarantino movies is challanging: Don went with Urge Overkill singing Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon while I was torn between Son of a Preacher Man and Stuck in the Middle With You (from Resevoir Dogs).

There is a giant soft spot in my heart for the movie Beautiful Girls and I love the Afghan Whigs in it; Don nominated the Ghetto Boyz song/scene from Office Space (because what is funnier than Michael Bolton wailing on the printer? Not much.) I love the moment in High Fidelity in which John Cusask says, Want me to sell 10 copies of this album? Watch this, and then plays Dry the Rain by the Beta Band. We had this conversation shortly after John Hughes' death and had a hard time choosing between If You Leave (OMD) and Don't You Forget About Me (Simple Minds) and certainly Twist & Shout gets a nod for Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Eye of the Tiger goes without saying, pretty much...I love Bill Murray singing Roxy Music's More Than This in the karaoke scene of Lost in Translation (warning: recurring theme. I love everything about Lost in Translation.)...I can't remember who brought it up, but The Bangals, Hazy Shade of Winter in Less Than Zero got a mention...Which is all just to say: We're working on our final lists.

Watch this space.

The Wire .......The Greatest Scenes from Television's Greatest Show

So the writers of Tuesday's Paw have just finished a five-month project to watch all 60 episodes of The Wire and both agree that is was the greatest television program of all-time. And because its still so fresh in our mind, today's question is .......what are the ten greatest scenes from television's most perfect program?

Don's List...

Honorable Mention

15) Marlo goes to prison to hook up a connection with the Greeks only to find out that Avon is still a player. Avon’s handling of that meeting is both comical and revealing. It doesn’t matter where he is ......he is still the man. And the Game is the Game. (V)

14) Cutty goes to Avon for cash to furnish his gym ….Avon fills him on the spot, laughing at the paltry amount. (III)

13) Prez mistakenly kills another cop and sees his life upended just after finding his true calling: investigative police work. (III)

12) Michael says goodbye to Bug and Dukie. I still can’t figure out why Dukie’s best option was to live on the streets with a junk man who shoots heroin and owns a broken down horse, but does it matter? This scene just crushes the sole. (V)

11) Michael kills Snoop: Similar in many ways to Marlo killing Prop Joe as there is some poetry involved. She knows she is cooked and spends her last moment checking out her braids in the mirror. When asked about her look, Michael says “you look fine girl” just before he blows her head off. Hard to keep this out of my top-10 but it is a bit redundant with Joe's murder (#4)and it just doesn’t quite make it. (V)

And Top-10

10 ) Cutty exits the game …..with Avon’s blessing …..”he a man today” (III) The show has a few success stories (Carver, Namond), but this is the one that I found most inspiring.

9) Slim Charles, out of the blue, blows Cheese away. There is so much revenge and finality to this scene that it demands inclusion. This killing is for Butchie, who got sold out by Cheese. It’s for Joe, who got sold out for Cheese. And in a way, it’s a “thank you” to Omar who once let Slim off the hook.

8) D’Angelo gets lured to Wee-Bay’s crib and he thinks he is being set up but it turns out that Bay just wants D to take care of his fish. (I) This is just a good scene.

7) Bodie and Poot kill Wallace: Talk about the end of innocence (I) A couple of 15-year olds killing a 14 year-old who is caring for a bunch of eight year-olds.

6) McNulty flips Bodie while they peacefully eat breakfast sandwiches. The kicker for me on this one is where McNulty basically applauds, or at least respects, Bodie for being a loyal soldier, and in doing so, endorses the “game,” as it was played under its previous rules. In a nuthell, this scene explains there is THE game and there is Marlo’s game. One is acceptable and the other is not. (IV)

5) Dukie gives Prez a pen set. (IV)

4) Marlo takes the life of Prop Joe. The poetry that went along with this killing is what gets this scene into my top-10. Here is Marlo, the coldest of cold, comforting Joe as the moment nears. “Just close your eyes Joe ……”

3) “Where’s WALLACE!” ….D’Angelo’s tirade against Stringer is probably the best acted scene in the whole show. I might name my next dog Wallace just so I can yell, "WHERE'S WALLACE?"

2) Randy, seeing his life destroyed, screams at Carver ….”you gonna look after me! You gonna take care of me now ……” Not only is this scene painful at a personal level but it shows just how hopeless the situation is for kids in West Baltimore. The kid is destroyed. Carver is destroyed. That whole damn neighborhood is destroyed.

1) Stringer and Avon, reminiscing about the old times while glancing out over the Inner Harbor, each knowing that they intend to the kill the other in short order. The classic Greek tradgedy set in West Baltimore (III)

Molly's list ...

Honorable Mention

15) Front and Follow (S1)

14) Frank Zbotka walks to his death (S2)

13) Marlo shows some fire in prison: MY NAME IS MY NAME (S5)

12) Dukie gives Prez the desk set (S4)

11) Slim shoots Cheese in the head: That's for Joe (S5)

And Top 10

10) Prop Joe's death. Chilling, which is probably the best way to describe Marlo (who shows heat only twice: in prison, and when he bails on the politician's dinner to mess with the corner boys, just because he can (which reminds me of the line - and I don't know if it's actually said in the show or not, or who says it but I think it might be Omar? - Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Marlo didn't want out of the game so much as he wanted down from the throne.) (S5)

9) Omar in court, with his tie looped around his neck, giving it back to the pay lawyer: I carry the gun, you carry the briefcase but it's all the same (S2)

8) Marlo visits Avon is prison: Avon is not only still in the game, he still loves the game (which is what Marlo lacks - Heavy is the head and all that) and it comes easy to him. Avon knows what he is, and he knows what he's not and he's one of the few characters who seems totally content with his place and his actions. He walks into the room and suddenly we realize how much we missed him. (S5)

7) McNulty in Stringer's apartment: Who the fuck have I been chasing? (S3)

6) The 'fuuccck' crime scene with Bunk and McNulty (S1); never has so much been said with so little, and never are Bunk and McNulty better than with each other

5) McNulty turning Bodie, offering him the breathing space that he was unable to give D'Angelo; Bodie's subsequent death (This is MY corner). (S4)

4) Carver visits Randy in the hospital: You gonna look after me NOW, Sargeant Carver? Huh? (S4)

2) Stringer and Avon on the balcony + Stringer's death; technically two scenes but I can't rank one over the other so I'm letting them do double duty. Brother versus brother is a story that's as old as time but none of that makes Stringer's selling out of Avon any less poignant. To Us, man. And subsequently, Stringer's death ("Get on with it, Motherfu-") brings him right back down to the street he was trying to rise above. (S3)

1) Bodie and Poot shoot Wallace. This is where it all starts for me: the violence, the heartbreak, the chain of command, the orders, the inescapability, the speed, the finality, the loyalty, the lack of dignity, the fear, the game. (S1)

Memorable Scenes: Boogie or Brokeback?

So today's question ...what are your ten favorite movie scenes in film history?
No rules ........

Molly's List  (It's too hard to list the 10 "best" or even my all time favorite so I guess it's more a list of 10 Movie Scenes Near and Dear to My Heart): 

• Jake Ryan, standing outside his red Porshe, waiting for Molly Ringwald as she looks behind her after leaving the church at the end of Sixteen Candles. "Yeah, you." Sigh. It's hard to overstate the significance of Jake Ryan on impressionable 10 year old girls' minds.  
• I'm a sucker for this movie and while I can admit the dialog here is a little over-written, I will nominate the scene with Willy and Andira, sitting in the ice house, in Beautiful Girls. "Can you think of anything more romantic than making love to an attractive stranger?" "Going back to Chicago, Ice cold martinis. Van Morrison." Note: I'm submitting the ice house scene, but it's hard for me not to include Good Night Sweet Girl.
• I have to include the scene in Almost Famous where everyone starts singing Tiny Dancer. It's the best scene EVER of friends making up: no words, but just through singing that song they all get past being angry at Russell and he gets over feeling embarassed and the tension disappears and the bus keeps driving and no apologies are necessary.
• I'm having a hard time narrowing down the scenes in this movie, but I have to include the karaoke scene from Lost in Translation. I'd have to write a 12 page essay on all the reasons why I love Lost in Translations and all the subtle and sad little moments that grabbed me, but I think the karaoke scene sums up the sadness and sweetness of Bob and Charlotte pretty well. But there are a million tiny moments that deserve mention (the Sauntory commercial, their fight, Bob telling Charlotte about having kids, the very end, Bob talking to his wife on the phone, Charlotte asking him, "Did I scowl at you?")
• "...And then do you know what happens? Six years later you find yourself signing Surrey with a Fringe on Top IN FRONT OF IRA!"
• It's hard for me to single out any one scene from Silence of the Lambs because the whole movie is SO FUCKING GOOD but I'm going to go with the end, when Buffalo Bill shuts out the lights in the basement and Clarice knows he's there, hunting her, and he's just watching her with the night vision goggles and she's all wide-eyed and alert and I can hardly breath when that scene comes on and part of the reason I love it so might be because I've read the book so often that I hear the narrative in my head when I watch it and I know how she hears the almost silent click of his gun and reacts to it and then her ears are ringing and right before he dies he says, "tell me what it's like...to be...beautful" and THAT IS SOME INTENSE AND CREEPY SHIT RIGHT THERE.
• I'm not generally a sucker for the emotional tearjerker type movies but Terms of Endearment is a really good movie with some really funny bits but there is one scene that KILLS ME and makes my heart hurt whenever I watch it: Debra Winger is in the hospital and her two little sons (sweet sweet Teddy and Tommy) come to visit her and say goodbye to their dying mom and they are scared and nervous and she puts on makeup before they walk in to try and cover up her pallor and they walk in and stand there so scared and uncomfortable and she reaches out to the older one who has a shaggy bowl cut and she says, You need a haircut. And when they leave she says to sweet sweet Teddy, "I was so scared. But I think it went pretty well, don't you?" AND THEN I DIE INSIDE.
• Ferris Bueller in the parade, Twist & Shout. Pure joy.
• The opening to Woody Allen's Manhattan: 3 minutes of voice over with Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue playing while we see black and white shots of NYC culminating in fireworks over Central Park. Also in that movie: Isaac's reasons for living.
• Okay, bear with me on this one: Brokeback Mountain packs a wallop from start to finish but two scenes stand out for me, and they are tied together so I am having a hard time separating the two. First, Ennis (Heath Ledger) goes to visit Jack's (Jake Gyllenhaal) parents after he learns of his death (Jack's wife told Ennis it was a car accident; he was actually beaten to death because he was gay) and walks into this stark, spare little prairie house in the middle of NOWHERE (in Wyoming) and meets Jack's parents who are these very grave, serious, devout but ultimately kind people, and before he leaves they ask if he'd like to see Jack's room which turns out to be this spartan space upstairs and he sits there and looks around and then opens the closet and finds his old plaid shirt with dried blood on it (which is from the first summer he and Jack met, 20 years prior; the blood is from a fight they got into) hanging on a hanger with one of Jack's shirts (jack's shirt is on the outside) and he grabs the shirts and breathes in their scent. He takes the shirt and asks Jack's parents if he can have it (Ennis, by the way, can barely speak. Throughout the entire movie he speaks in this very forced mumble; he's so closed off and afraid of who he is that he is physically unable to communicate). Then, in the last scene of the movie, his daughter comes to visit him in this sad little trailer where he's living and tells him that she is engaged, and asks if he can come to the wedding. He mumbles about how it's a busy time for him (rancher, has to drive the sheep) but before she goes, he asks her if her fiance loves her (which might be the only time the word 'love' comes out of his mouth in the entire movie; it took him a lifetime to realize that love is important). After she goes, he stands looking out the back of his sad little trailer and we can see that he has the two shirts he took from Jack's house hanging on a peg with an old postcard from Brokeback Mountain (where he met Jack). Only now, his shirt is wrapped around Jack's. And he stands there and just says, "I swear, Jack..." Brokeback Mountain was probably one of the most powerful movies I have ever seen. Ever. It's basically perfect.

 (There are MANY ommissions. The birthday pool party in Rushmore. Anything from Broadcast News or All the President's Men. WHY'D YOU MAKE ME PLAY SECOND BASE in Parenthood, You know how I know you're gay? in 40 Year Old Virgin, Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago. Mia Wallace dancing in Pulp Fuction. All of Forrest Gump. Many ommissions.)

 
Don's  List (A nearly impossible exercise ...but here is my list, in no particular order):

• Boogie Nights: Dirk, John C Reiley and their knucklehead friend go to Alfred Molino’s house and try to rob him of his drugs and money. Many have tried, but no scene in history has ever done drug paranoia like that. Moreover, no one has ever done “bottoming out” better.
• No Country for Old Men: Coin Flipping scene. This scene literally sucked the air out of the theatre. Literally. I mean, there wasn’t enough air left. No really, I actually was chocking.
• I have to have a war scene on my list ….and the competition comes down to the beautifully-staged and adrenaline-packed Helicopter attack scene in Apocolypse, the Opening to SPRyan and the Steve Mcqueen motorcycle chase scene from The Great Escape. I will focus this selection on SPR but just the scene where The Company is on the boat and headed to shore. The uneasiness and weight of the moment on that boat is palpable. I don't need the whole opening 20 minutes. Those two minutes on the landing craft are plenty.
• Final Timeout in Hoosiers ……Gene Hackman maps out a play that is poorly received and then Jimmy chimes in and confidently calls for the ball: ”I can make it coach!!" The most inspiring moment of any sports film and that includes both Kurt Russell's pre-game speech in Miracle and then his pre-third period speech. If you can outdo Coach Herb Brooks screaming: "You can beat these guys!" than you know you know you have watched something special.
• Rocky getting in shape in Rocky I …..maybe the best original score ever in the background as Rocky runs through the streets of Philadelphia. If this scene didn't (doesn't) get you off the couch, perhaps you deserve a sedentary life that ends with diabetes.
• I love a good vengeful jury verdict ……..and my favorite was probably from The Verdict, where Paul Newman is able to get enormous damages off the Church in a malpractice suit. I am a total sucker for these scenes and I always enjoy seeing The Church get burned.
• There are so many great scenes from Raising Arizona and it’s hard to pass over the Opening, which lasts for 20 minutes, but I am picking the scene where Nicholas Cage and Tex Cobb square off in a custody battle over the baby. Chris Kuhner and I spent three weeks in college saying nothing to each other than the lines from this scene. We used to watch reruns of this movie, in different rooms, with the doors open and end up dying when this scene came on.
• Dance scene in Little Miss Sunshine. I can’t imagine laughing harder or feeling better after watching a movie scene.
• Bad News Bears: Scene where Vic Morrow’s son stands up to his dad on the pitching mound and his abusive Dad ends up hitting him while he takes him out of the game. this reminds me of so many things including Southern California in the 70s, youth baseball and the time my Dad tossed me into a rose bush!
• Defending Your Life: Final scene where Albert Brooks has failed his test in Judgment City but then rallies and shows the requisite courage to get Meryl Streep back and “move on.” This is my “pull at the heart” nominee, but it was close over every scene from the last 20 minutes of Field of Dreams and many more.